292 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



up to something like $175 a ton, and the bees 

 have to wear themselves out in generating 

 this heat, we are surely indulging in an ex- 

 travagant economy, and nothing more need 

 be said. But this is only half the loss. By 

 the escape of heat through cover, crack, etc. , 

 the power of the bees to cover brood is 

 much reduced— a very serious item during 

 the building-up time. On every hand we 

 see this wasteful process. A cover is but 

 little protection against heat or cold— how 

 long will it be before there will be enough 

 demand for something better to make it 

 worth while for the supply- dealer to catalog 

 it? The cover in the illustration is a tray 

 with I lining in the bottom, J-inch rim, and 

 felt paper to the depth of the half- inch fills 

 the tray. Over this is slipped a galvanized 

 pan which telescopes over the hive or super 

 about half an inch. I have used painted 

 cotton. I had 275 such covers. Prepared 

 paper in this, the rain is likely to drive in 

 at the ends of these. I had 200, and at a 

 good deal of expense I have made changes, 

 and favor the galvanized-iron tray. Let it 

 be well galvanized, and it should last 25 years. 



MY QUEEN-CELL DETECTOR. 



Now for the queen- cell detector. If we 

 take a comb near the center of the brood- 

 chamber, and cut about the center a long 

 hole, say half an inch, more or less, deep, 

 and maintain that place when the bees want 

 to build queen-cells, they will, in ninety-nine 

 c ases out of a hundred, utilize this. This has 

 been taken advantage of in queen-rearing 

 and other ways. It is simply providing the 

 bees with a convenient spot in a favorable 

 location for cells. This is taken advantage 

 of in my cell-detector. K is an opening in 

 the back of the hive. L is a block with at- 

 tached frame-piece which slips into an open- 

 i ng in the frame opposite. The opening in 

 the comb is bound by a piece of strong tin 

 J inch wide, thus securing a bee space be- 

 tween the comb and the block and piece L. 

 With a built-out comb, which is better if not 

 too new, the end- piece of the end- bar of the 

 frame can be cut away entirely. If the bees 

 have the swarming impluse, in nearly every 

 case cells are found here if any are in the 

 hive. The colony can be examined by with- 

 drawing L, if any are found here, then the 

 entire brood-chamber must be examined. 

 Since my patent has been issued which covers 

 this method of examination of queen- cells in 

 whatever way, and also a small feeder in 

 the place of the block for stimulative pur- 

 poses, which can be refilled through the open- 

 ing K, I have made the block sloping down, 

 finding it better for the convenience of the 

 queen; but this does not affect the patent. 

 Such a device is of great help to the timid 

 novice, the amateur who has not much time, 

 the man who makes bee- keeping a side issue, 

 and the extensive expert bee-keeper; but 

 such a device becomes largely of no effect to 

 the man who has holes in every direction in 

 his combs which are so made that they will 

 not be filled again with comb. Mr. W. Z 

 Hutchinson indorses this idea; in fact, he 



knows it is a success. Mr. Frank Coverdall, 

 Maquoketa, Iowa, strongly indorsed it at 

 Chicago, as did others. 



THE BETSINGER SEPARATOR. 



As to comb-honey supers, I have 100 Bet- 

 singer supers. They have a capacity of 3000 

 sections. The separator is made of tin- bound 

 wire cloth, with a mesh large enough so the 

 bees can pass through anywhere. With this 

 the comb honey is capped just as evenly as 

 with a solid board separator; and the latter, 

 unlike wood, can be cleaned and made as 

 good as new every season, so they are cheap 

 in the end. 



I have a specially designed straining- de- 

 vice and an uncapping- machine, which I may 

 be able to describe at some future time. 



Brantford, Ont. 



WORK IN THE APIARY. 



The Work that Can be Done Profitably During 

 the Cold Weather; How Far Can Bees Fly? 



BY W. R. GILBERT. 



What is there to do now? would be asked 

 only by the man who is accustomed to make 

 preparations when there is little time for 

 the purpose. There is more honey lost, I 

 firmly believe, through lack of supers, either 

 not procured at all or not ready when want- 

 ed, than from any other cause, in apiaries 

 that are supposed to be managed. 



I have seen hives in our garden with su- 

 pers two or three stories high, and all full, 

 while near by other bee-keepers have plenty 

 of hives, but some of them supered. What 

 folly ! A swarm put into a box or skep will 

 consume honey sufficient to pay more than 

 half, if not the whole, of a modern outfit, 

 in elaborating wax and building combs as 

 well as in feeding thousands of larvae. This 

 should not be lost sight of. Suppose a strong 

 colony sends out a good swarm, and two 

 casts in due course, there will be in each 

 hive at least 2000 hungry larvas daily, to sat- 

 isfy with food composed of honey and pollen. 

 By proper management the three lots of 

 bees might have been kept working in su- 

 pers over their original home, while below 

 only one lot of brood would be consuming 

 honey. It is a well-known fact that one 

 good stock will store more surplus than two 

 or three small ones. Hence it is most desir- 

 able to plan work in the apiary beforehand, 

 with the object of limiting the number of 

 hives instead of increasing by immoderate 

 swarming. 



A well known bee-keeper once wrote, "I 

 have 75 lbs. of honey to the colony- 25 lbs. 

 of comb honey here, and 50 lbs. at the out- 

 apiary, while neighbors have little or noth- 

 ing. A poor year shows that proper manip- 

 ulation of bees counts, while in a good year 

 even the novice may succeed." It is also 

 interesting to learn that the same authority 

 says his own annual average for nearly 20 

 years up to the time he went largely in for 

 queen- rearing was 80 lbs., ranging from 30 



