390 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



June, 1922 



HEAPS "OPnGRMNl l ygl a r^ FIELDS 



To Prevent Foundation 

 Stretching When 

 Hiving Swarms. 



Here is a "kink" 

 which I have not 

 seen in print and 

 which is of value. 

 In hiving swarms on full sheets of founda- 

 tion the weight of the bees sometimes causes 

 the foundation to become stretched. To 

 prevent sagging, place an empty hive-body 

 (no frames) underneath. The cluster will 

 attach itself to the bottom-bars of the 

 frames above, thus relieving the foundation 

 of the weight of the bees. The empty hive 

 may be removed in a few days after the 

 bees have begun work. E. S. Miller. 



Valparaiso, Ind. 



[In addition to preventing too much 

 weight on the foundation, the empty hive- 

 body is also of great value if the newly 

 hived swarms are inclined to swarm out. In 

 most cases it will prevent swarming out. 

 For this purpose, it should be left in place 

 three or four days. — Editor.] 



DO^CBT 



West Virginia as At one time West Vir- 

 a Honey State. ginia produced consider- 

 able honey. One region in 

 particular was especially rich in nectar re- 

 sources. I refer to the famous Canaine Val- 

 ley, a scope of country 10 by 20 miles in ex- 

 tent, lying on the head waters of Black Fork 

 of Cheat Kiver. This valley was once an 

 inland lake 3,500 feet above sea level. In 

 early days great quantities of wild honey 

 were obtained from trees, sometimes 100 

 pounds froni a single tree, a tubful from an- 

 other, and a barrel in rare instances. This 

 was all in bygone daj^s when the limestone 

 region which extends north and south 

 through the west-central part of the state 

 was being cleared and seeded down to grass. 

 The hills would show literally gray with 

 white clover. Almost every farmer had his 

 log bee-gums and produced abundance of 

 honey and had a well-filled larder by killing 

 off the heavy ones. The light ones were 

 saved for next year. W. C. Boon. 



Shinnston, W. Va. 



How to Transfer On July 16, 1920, I cap- 

 Bees and Secure turcd a small stray swarm 

 Good Crop. and for want of a hive put 



til em in an empty nail 

 keg, and to my surprise they secured stores 

 enough to winter. I liad therefore tins 

 year one keg of bees, spring count. I in- 

 tended to transfer and divide them on April 

 15, but a cold snap caught a queen in transit 

 and she arrived dead. So I placed a hive 

 above the keg with an excluder between, the 

 entrance being through the hive. Another 

 queen arrived on the 25th when I moved the 

 keg to a new location and introduced the 

 queen without any difficulty. T placed an- 

 other hive over the keg without an ex- 



cluder; but the queen did not come up until 

 June when I put the excluder on to keep 

 her up until all brood was out. Then I put 

 on an escape, did away with the keg and 

 introduced another queen on July 8. I ex- 

 tracted from both colonies the last week in 

 July and again in October, with the follow- 

 ing total results: 41 combs fully drawn, 238 

 pounds of extracted honey, 97 sections (com- 

 pleted), 20 incomplete which were fed back, 

 five pounds of wax and two strong colonies 

 with about 40 pounds each for winter stores. 

 All extracted honey was sealed before ex- 

 tracted, and the sections weighed about one 

 pound each. I have given away some of the 

 honey, have all we want for our own use 

 and have sold to the amount of $52.80. 

 Eoyal Oak, Mich. A. W. Stone. 



3Q^C«= 



I 



A Swarm-Control The following ex- 



Plan That Never Fails, tract from a letter of 

 a beekeeper in New 

 York, together Avith my reply, may be in- 

 teresting for publication: 



I expect to use your swarm-prevention plan as 

 given in Gleanings in June, 1921, but will use the 

 Demaree plan or a modification of it in addition, 

 as I do not think your plan would prevent swarm- 

 ing in every case. 



Our ])lau of swarm prevention, if you may 

 call it a plan, never fails. Sometimes n'c 

 fail, but the plan if properly carried out 

 never does. If it comes to a show-down, just 

 take out the queen long enough so they have 

 no brood young enough to start more cells, 

 destroy all the cells they have started and 

 introduce a young laying queen. As a mat- 

 ter of fact, I object to our system being 

 called a "plan," as one would speak of the 

 Demaree plan. What I am asking for is in- 

 telligent care of the colonies through this 

 critical time, just as a farmer would care 

 for his animals through critical periods in 

 their lives. I think you realize that it is 

 time for beekeepers to get past the waste- 

 ful wholesale methods of care, which might 

 l)e compared to old-time cattle ranching 

 Avhere thousands sometimes perished for 

 lack of individual care. 



Georgetown, Ont. Morley Pettit. 



Easy Way to I take three frames of strong 

 Hive Swarms, empty combs and fasten a 

 ^-A-inch narrow board across 

 the uii<ldlc of the top-bars, leaving a good 

 space between combs, using %-inch screws 

 to fasten the board to the frames. I then 

 fasten a wire to the center of the board to 

 hook in a loop on the end of a, pole about 

 six to eight feet long. When a swarm has 

 settled I go to them with a ladder and with 

 my knife cut away any small twigs that 

 may interfere with the combs and put them 

 up against the cluster when they will at 



