February, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



I 



c 



LJ 



HESITATE 



to take issue 



with Dr. Mil- 

 ler; but for a 

 fact I can't see 

 how the use of a 

 dummy, d i v i- 

 siou-board, fol- 

 lower, or what- 

 not, gives any more room to handle the 

 frames, or makes the withdrawal of the 

 first comb any easier. There is just so 

 much room in a hive, and there are just 

 so many combs. As to the time element, 

 something has to be done first — either the 

 combs separated (if a comb is to be with- 

 drawn from the center first), or the dummy 

 itself removed, and I doubt that the latter 

 is much the quicker operation. Then if 

 the first comb to be taken out is in the 

 center, the combs have to be separated any- 

 way, just the same. Personally I usually 

 remove one outer comb first, as there are 

 fewer bees there, and more room — the extra 

 space in the hive being divided between 

 the two sides. When the hive is to be 

 closed after inspection, it takes a single 

 twist of the wrist to force all the combs 

 against one side of the hive, followed by 

 another lesser twist on the other side, to 

 push them half-way back. Then when 

 opened, either outside comb can be remov- 

 ed with comparative ease and with little 

 disturbance of boes; and oh! with much 

 greater ease than I, at least, previously .ex- 

 perienced tugging away at a stand-pat 

 division-board. Quoting the good doctor, 

 ■with only a slight change, " Use dummies if 

 _you want to, but never again for me." 



Another thing in that same paragraph, 

 1013, Nov. 1, that interested and surprised 

 me was the statement that the outside 

 comb " sometimes " has less brood than the 

 others. With us it always has less. And 

 except in the height of the brood-rearing 

 season it has none, and often not then. 

 Our outside combs seem to be dedicated to 

 pollen and honey — except, as I said before, 

 in the height of spring brood-rearing, in 

 strong colonies. 



"What does it mean when bees carry out 

 a good many dead immature bees?" It may 

 mean one of several things. At certain times 

 of the year it may mean chilled brood. If 

 there is no disease, it quite likely means that 

 in the early spring or in the fall, or when- 

 ever a sudden change brings on cold nights. 

 In the late summer, the workers often de- 

 stroy drone brood, tearing the larvae from 

 the cells and dragging them out, dead, to be 

 dumped in front of the hive. We noticed 



THE DIXIE BEE 



1 



Grace Allen 



W^^^^^^^ 



127 



that in August 

 last year. Were 

 your " dead im- 

 mature bees" 

 drones ? If so, it 

 was mei'ely part 

 of tlie general 

 destruction of 

 the drones. 



One night early in January I had frank- 

 ly and forcibly expressed my righteous and 

 housewifely indignation as to the " impu- 

 dence of that big fly to come buzzing around 

 our kitchen light in the middle of "winter," 

 and was preparing to swat it according to 

 the teachings of the times. Then the big 

 impudent fly turned out to be a bee that had 

 evidently varied her frolics in the winter 

 sunshine by a trip into our kitchen, via the 

 open window. The following morning it 

 sounded like spring, the bees were humming 

 so, flying in and out of every hive. This 

 kept up for several days; and one noon as 



1 sat on a hive in the warm sun watching 

 them, and thinking how all this winter fly- 

 ing availed them nothing, I recalled a letter 

 received last spring from Mr. E. G. Carr, 

 just after finishing his work in North 

 Carolina. So I looked it up, and here quote 

 what he said about Dixie bees : 



"Regarding the advisability of winter 

 packing for the South, if one has in mind 

 the need of packing because of low tem- 

 peratures, very few North Carolina bee- 

 keepers are interested; but when we get 

 down to the real object of packing, we 

 find it is to keep the bees quiet. As every 

 one knows. Southern bees spend needlessly 

 great amounts of energy in flying when 

 there is nothing to do. Stop this flying by 

 adequate packing, and this energy "is con- 

 served to be used in a useful way when the 

 blossoms open in spring." 



At present, in the middle of the month, 

 conditions are very different. For two or 

 three nights we have struck as low as 11 to 

 15 degrees above zero, yesterday's tempera- 

 ture averaging 16, or 21 degrees below nor- 

 mal for that day. Altho at one time in 

 December the official mercury lacked only 



2 degrees of hitting zero itself, this present 

 temperature is cold for Dixie Land. I 

 have just come in from the beeyard, where 

 I found several entrances frozen tight with 

 the mixture of rain, snow, and sleet that 

 had beat into them in the early part of the 

 cold wave. Different beekeepers hold dif- 

 fering views as to the harm of these closed 

 entrances ; but, moved by " Safety First " 

 considerations, I brushed the loose snow 

 from the alighting-boards and then chopped 

 out enough of the ice to admit the air. 



