1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE 



291 



er, as will later be described, is over two- 

 thirds the value of a double- walled sprinpj- 

 packed hive; and when the colony is full 

 strength it needs no more. If not full 

 strength, the outside of the 12 combs can be 

 taken out. and the space filled with a § fol- 

 lower, with felt paper between them and 

 the side of the hive. A hive so prepared, 

 set upon a stand filled with chaff, leaves, 

 etc., skives us every thing double- walled but 

 the back, and yet every thing comes into 

 use later. 



When hot weather comes, the double door 

 can be drawn part of the way out, and be- 

 come a shade-board to the front of the hive. 



A QUICK METHOD OF SCREENING THE BEES IN 

 THE HIVE. 



The wire screen B has now been used for 

 three seasons by me to inclose the bees in 

 the hive with the wide open IJ entrance. I 

 have moved the bees on wagons, shutting 

 them in all night, and longer during July, 

 August, and other months; and with thou- 

 sands of experiences I have to smother my 

 first colony so moved. I have also dropped 

 down the screen when a swarm began to 

 emerge, and confined them to the hive and 

 portico until they returned, and then treat- 

 ed them, thus saving chasing after a swarm. 



Three years ago we ran an apiary in this 

 way, allowing a good deal of swarming, keep- 

 ing the screens here and there in the apiary 

 convenient for instant use. In only one case 

 was a colony smothered. It was in very hot 

 weather, and a student I had from England 

 forgot the colony and left it confined for at 

 least a day. These screens can, during the 

 afternoon previous to moving, be in?erted a 

 third of the way into groove C and easily drop- 



S WARMING -CELL DETECTOR. 



ped and fastened by means of a sack through 

 the mesh and into the light board at the top 

 of the portico. The queen- excluder requires 

 no description. I would not want to run for 

 •extracted honey without it. I want to be 

 master of the queen to the extent of know- 



ing where to find brood and where honey, 

 and I do not want to find the body of the 

 hive deserted, or largely so, and the queen 

 out of place. For comb honey also I use 

 queen- excluders to keep the drones from the 

 sections. In the supers, I for the first time 

 last year used ten combs in the twelve-frame 

 space, and find it very satisfactory. I should 

 not want closer spacing. Of course, when 

 attempting to draw out foundation this spac- 

 ing will not do. 



MY SUPER-VENTILATOR. 



In J we have a ventilator. No extracting- 

 super should be without such. It consists of 

 a groove through the board, § deep by 6 to 9 

 in wide. My ventilators are not as shown 

 in the illustration; but this fall I designed 

 the one as given. It consists of three wide 

 staples, one at each end of the groove and 

 one in the center. Under it slides a galvan- 

 ized iron piece of proper length and width. 

 It turns up slightly at one end; and as it 

 shuts, a small spring rises and prevents it 

 from moving until the spring is pressed 

 down. This is a cheap, effective, and simple 

 design. By this method fresh air can be 

 given to the bees in the super, and their only 

 source of air is not through the crowded 

 brood-chamber, and therefore air already 

 largely exhausted. Many reasons make it 

 advisable not to remove the honey until the 

 close of the different flows of honey; and the 

 bees, as I said in Chicago, must have a brood- 

 chamber a certain proportion to the super 

 room. This should not be less than two of 

 super room to one of brood-chamber. Then 

 comes a heavy duck cloth. Cheap cloths 

 soon have holes; then a soft felt, and then 

 the cover. The object of the soft felt is to 

 secure shelter from heat or cold. The soft 

 material takes up any unevenness in the 

 frames or underneath, so the cover will fit 

 well upon the edges of the hive. 



CHEAP COVERS FALSE ECONOMY. 



As to the cover, if I can say any thing in 

 this article that will lead bee-keepers gen- 

 erally to abandon the low- priced but extrav- 

 agant and expensive i or similar covers I 

 shall have benefited them to the extent of 

 millions. Let us present a parallel to the 

 present hive with shallow entrance, no ven- 

 tilator in super, and i sides and cover. Did 

 you ever, in hot weather, extract honey in 

 a frame building with no ventilation except 

 a strip six inches deep under the door? If 

 you did, you might get some idea of what 

 the bees must suffer in a similar device in 

 hot weather. It must be torture; and no 

 wonder they want to keep from crowding 

 such a hive by swarming. Again, in cold 

 weather we want better protection than this 

 in our homes. With a light white frost, go 

 out in the morning and see none lying on the 

 I hive-covers when the bees are underneath, 

 and realize that heat is continually escaping. 

 Wasted heat, with coal at $5.00 a ton, is bad 

 enough; but more so when we are using up 

 a furnace in producing it. But when we 

 come to honey aS a heat producer at $140 a 

 ton, and, say, 25 per cent water, bringing it 



