798 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



and stood il up by another tree, allowing it 

 to remain lliere until the colony swarmed, 

 which it did two weeks later, on May 1. 

 Soon after this T transferred the combs and 

 bees from this hollow log into an eight- 

 frame hive, filling five frames with brood 

 and three frames with combs nearly full of 

 honey. 



The bees in all three of the trees describ- 

 ed were healthy and prospering. No. 1 and 

 No. 2 had large openings at the top," but 

 none at the bottom, but No. 3, having a 

 large oiDening at the bottom and one at the 

 top — entire top of hive off winter and sum- 

 mer — makes me wonder how a colony of 

 bees could prosper in such a place, for it 

 rains, snows, sleets, and freezes in that lo- 

 cality. 1 have seen it as cold as fifteen de- 

 grees below zero there, and often as cold as 

 ten degrees above. 



I have sometimes seen bees winter well in 

 hives with long cracks near the cluster, and 

 come out booming strong colonies in tlic 

 spring. 



So T am forced to conclude that bees have 

 a far greater capacity for adjusting them- 

 selves to their environments than we usually 

 tliink. 



Last August a fine swarm clustered on a 

 limb of a cottonwood-tree, twenty feet from, 

 the ground; and the scouts, failing to find 

 a place that suited them better, at least fail- 

 ing to convince the swarm of the fact, they 



agreed to make that limb their permanent 

 abode. "Let come what may, we will do the 

 best we can," they said, and so they did. 

 When I took them down, Sept. 15, they had 

 three combs of brood, GxlO inclies wide, and 

 other small pieces besides. The wind had 

 blown upon them, and some rain had fallen 

 while they were there, and robbers had pass- 

 ed tliat way; but tliey had conquered them 

 all, and were hastily preparing to'make a 

 stand against the attacks of the approach- 

 ing winter when I took them down. They 

 seemed glad and thankful when I put them 

 in a hive and gave them combs rf brood 

 and honey, besides what they had, fixing 

 them up snugly for the cold winlry days 

 drawing closer all the time. 



Not a bee otfered to sting me during all 

 the manipulations in locating them in their 

 new home; and I was equally kind to them, 

 not killing more than a dozen, perhaps, in 

 the whole transaction. They were well- 

 marked three-banded Italians; and by the 

 way they acted I am compelled to believe 

 thev are a colony of very intelligent little 

 folks. 



Ijest my purpose in writing this article 

 should be wrongly interpreted by some, I 

 will add that I perfectly agree with the edi- 

 tor of Gleanings in his views as set forth 

 in the statement quoted at the beginning of 

 this paper. 



Koswell, N. M. 



TWO-POUND SECTIONS INSIDE STANDARD FRAMES 



BY W. E. COX 



I am enclosing a sketch of an experiment 

 1 made this year with standard Hoffman 

 frames and special sections of such a size 

 tliat four will just fit inside. 1 find that 

 my bees like them much better than the 

 regular sections. As is well known, bees 

 much prefer working in the frames to that 

 of sections, and will store a much greater 

 amount of honey. I think il is largely due 

 to the fact that they like to work in large 

 units. 



The advantages of this plan are partly 

 due to the deejDer section and partly to the 

 wire-screen separators thru which they 

 pass. The screens also permit them to 

 cluster closely when cool days come. 



One can use these frames of sections for 

 feeding very nicely, and there is no real 

 objection that I can see to using them for 

 brood-frames in a pinch. The avei'age 

 person cares but little whether hisr section 

 is Que or two pound. 



Danville, Va. 



[The (wo-pound section is not new. In 

 fact, the first sections that could properly 

 be called sections were about two pounds in 

 weight when filled. They were rather thick- 

 er in proportion than yours, however, and 

 of course the details of construction were 

 different. We do not know that we have 

 ever seen exactly the same idea. The near- 

 est to it is the sm.all mating-hive frame, 

 three of which fit into a Hoffman frame 

 for the purpose of getting the combs drawn 

 out and filled with brood. No effort was 

 made, of course, in this idea to secure comb 

 Iioney. 



Tliere is one feature that we should be 

 a little afraid of, and that is the greater 

 fragility of such combs. It seems to us that 

 they would require such careful handling 

 tljat shipping them any great distance, or 

 possibly even a short distance, would be 

 almost out of the question. We know that 

 it is very difficult indeed to ship full-size 

 combs of honey — so difficult that if is al- 



