68 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



and 5 compartments around the broodnest, holding 

 3 frames each. It will be seen that we have 27 

 frames all ylike in the body of hive, or cases may be 

 used as shown in cat. When the 5 side compart- 

 ments have the cases in and the crate is on top the 

 brood-frame, the colony has room to store just ICO 

 lbs. of comb honey. When we work colonies for 

 comb honey on top the brood-frames, and extract 

 from those side chambers, we get an immense yield 

 of each; for by that method our colonies never 

 Bwarm. 



When we prepare colonies for winter, as soon as 

 they are done gathering honey in the fall, or a little 

 before, we place the division board in the back 

 groove, see cut. 



INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT OF FRIEND BOOP'S HIVE. 



By the way, the side-boards to the brood-nest have 

 ?8-inch grooves cut the same depth that the side- 

 boards are rabbited, to receive the brood-frames— 

 thus not only contracting the space bee-tight but 

 air-tight, by the use of the division board. Remove 

 all surplus frames and boxes from the side and rear 

 compartments; shake the bees in front, and they 

 will crowd themselves on to the 8 frames left, which 

 should contain at least 25 lbs. of good sealed stores. 

 Place the chaff cushion on top the frames, and fill 

 all outer compartments with dry sawdust packed 

 tight; leave them on the summer stand. If j'ou find 

 any weak in the spring, which Is seldom the case, 

 crowd them on to two combs with the division 

 board, and see if they do not outstrip three times 

 their number on two standard L. frames. Two 

 combs of brood and bees may be taken from this 

 bive every 10 days throughout the entire honey sea- 



son, without perceptibly affecting the working force 

 of the hive. A two-frame, nuclei on two of these 

 frames is in better shape to defend themselves than 

 on two L. frames, and will do us a better job of 

 queen-rearing than twice their number could do on 

 two standard L. frames. To increase bees with this 

 hive, close all the entrances to the side compart- 

 ments by means of tin or wooden slips; drop the di- 

 vision board in the forward groove, and set up one 

 strong two-comb nuclei in each of the 6 compart- 

 ments. After each of the queens have been laying 

 about one week, sell 5 of them, always reserving the 

 one in the main brood-nest forward of the division 

 board. Open all passages and allow the bees to 

 communicate with each other overnight; then place 

 all together in the main brood department, and you 

 have a strong colony ready for the sections. It will 

 be seen, by opening 10 hives, that we can examine 

 the condition ol 60 nuclei, and a safer way of rearing 

 queens and having them fertilized, we have been 

 unable to find. The above is our system for suc- 

 cessfully wintering bees, and will answer many 

 questions. It is not patented, but cost us a great 

 deal of hard study. Hiram Roop. 



Carson City, Mich. 



^ ■( > ■ ^ 



DOOLITTL.E'S REVIE^V AND COMMENTS 

 ON THE ABC BOOK. 



Continued from last month. 



COMB HOyEY. 

 moth worms in comb honey. 

 I think you miss it in not saying something just 

 here in regard to moth-worms that always infest 

 comb honey to a greater or less extent. If they 

 don't bother your honey they do mine; and if a man 

 down in Pennsylvania adopts this stylo of sending 

 off Lis honey, and the worms injure it, he won't feel 

 good, even after you tell him they don't bother 

 yours. 



TAKING sections OFF THE HIVES, BEFORE THE 

 CELLS ARE ALL CAPPED. 



Quinby said, and with much truth, too, that all 

 boxes two-thirds full of white honey should be taken 

 off before buckwheat honey was stored in them at 

 the beginning of that yield, as partly filled boxes of 

 white honey would bring more than when finished 

 out with dark honey. If j'ou will adopt the plan of 

 storing it in a warm room for a month, all your ad- 

 vice will not be needed, as in that case unsealed 

 honey will not heat or run in the least. 

 DANDELION. 



This blossoms just with fruit with us, and so is of 

 little account, except the little they get before and 

 after, at beginning and ending. 



Dandelion honey, after it is a year or two 

 old, is just splendid. 



DISEASES OF BEES. 



Can't you manage to tell us why bees did not 

 spring-dwindle prior tc ISVO? When I first com- 

 menced to keep bees, there were 100 swarms around 

 me, kept by four or five parties that had kept bees 

 for 30 and 40 years; and, although they kept on 

 using box hives, still not one of them has a bee to- 

 day. Tell us what did it. I confess I can't see 

 through it at all. 



To come right down to the point, I can't 

 either, friend D., even after all the learned 

 and exhaustive articles we have had on the 

 subject. Once they lived almost without 

 care, and now they don't. 



