1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



353 



glan, can come just in the right stage in the 

 oney-flow, they will do great things in sec- 

 tion honey." 



"I should judge so. I intended to try the 

 plan last summer, but my hives all have 

 tight bottoms." 



' ' I hardly think you can make it pay to 

 use hives with tight bottoms." 

 "Why?" 



" Because much can be obtained with hives 

 all of the same size, without either bottoms 

 or tops nailed fast to them, by way of tier- 

 ing up for honey, doubling up of colonies, 

 brood, etc., that can not be obtained in any 

 other way. You would hardly tolerate a 

 hive whose cover was nailed fast, would 

 you?" 



"No. Who ever thought of such a 

 thing?" 



"Well, no progressive bee-keeper of to- 

 day, surely. But I never saw a hive, when 

 I was a boy, that did not have the top nailed 

 as fast to it as are the bottoms of yours." 

 "Can that be possible? " 

 "Certainly. And as the progressive bee- 

 keepers of forty or fifty years ago knocked 

 the tops all off those old hives, putting on 

 movable tops, so the progressive bee keep- 

 ers of the twentieth century are all knocking 

 the tight bottoms off and using movable 

 bottom - boards. Why? just the trick of 

 turning the bottom board over in the spring, 

 so that all the winter dirt and filth of a win- 

 ter's accumulation from the bees, can at 

 once be disposed of. This leaving • every 

 thing sweet and clean, for the immediate 

 prosperity of the colony, alone pays for 

 knocking the bottoms off every hive you 

 have got." 



"But if I have them loose, how am I to 

 handle my hives in carrying to the cellar, 

 etc., without having the bottom-board fall 

 off?" 



"Easiest thing in the world. Drive in a 

 crate-staple, one on each side of the hive, 

 having one point go into the hive, the other 

 into the bottom board. You can get enough 

 for 100 colonies for less than 20 cents." 



"I had not thought of that. But let us 

 return to the swarming matter at out- apia- 

 ries again." 



' ' Very well. What next? ' ' 

 "My best results last summer, from colo- 

 nies which got the swarming fever, were 

 from those which were shaken on starters, 

 and the bees from the old hive shaken in 

 with the swarm every six or eight days, un- 

 til all were hatched. But this plan makes a 

 great deal of work when all one's bees are 

 in outyards." 



"Yes, that is right. But this work can 

 be dispensed with by using a queen- excluder 

 over the hive of starters and putting a sheet 

 of enameled cloth over the sections to keep 

 them clean, the same having a hole in it at 

 a certain place to let the bees pass down 

 from the old hive to be set on top of all, as 

 the emerging bees grow old enough to do so. ' ' 

 "Is that what is meant by ' chuting ' bees 

 down into the shook swarm, or runn'ng the 

 hatching baes dosvn below through a chute?" 



"It is something on that plan; only where 

 a chute is used it is generally by means of a 

 hollow space going from the old hive down 

 near the entrance of the swarm, on the out- 

 side. In this way the bees, as they come 

 from the brood in the old hive, for their first 

 Hight, or play- spell, mark the end of this 

 chute as the doorway to their home, and on 

 returning fail to find the hole in the chute 

 from which they came, so they run in at the 

 entrance with the swarm. In this way all 

 the brood, when it is turned into bees, is 

 ' chuted ' into the swarm, as you express it. " 

 " Well, why is that not a better way than 

 the one you propose, by means of the enam- 

 eled cloth? " 



' ' With me, when using the chute plan, 

 very much of the brood perishes, from the 

 lack of nurse bees and heat. But with the 

 enameled-cloth plan there is a little commu- 

 nication between this brood and the swarm 

 below, or enough so that the brood is prop- 

 erly nursed, warmed, and fed. This matter 

 can be regulated by the size of the hole 

 made in the enameled cloth." 



"But won't the bees enlarge the hole you 

 make by gnawing at it? " 



"Yes, if no precaution is taken. Cut a 

 hole in a piece of tin, the size you wish, and 

 lay this piece of tin over the hole in the 

 enameled cloth, and you have that part of 

 the matter proof against the mandibles of 

 the bees." 



' ' Well, that is certainly much better than 

 the work of moving hives or shaking the 

 bees off every few days." 



"But there is a part about this matter 

 wherein the chute is better. That is the 

 drone part. The chute will run the drones 

 down through it as well as the workers, 

 while the queen- excluder will not 'chute' 

 out the drones. ' ' 



"Why is it necessary to use the queen- 

 excluder? " 



"To keep the queen down on those start- 

 ers of foundation you shake the swarm on. 

 Were it not for this she would go right up 

 through the sections, and through the little 

 hole you have left for the bees to pass up 

 ard down through; for where there is brood 

 above starters in frames the queen will 

 make a great effort to reach it, though not 

 so strong a one where sections and a sheet 

 of enameled cloth are between. " 



"Well, how do you provide for those 

 drones?" 



" I have worked in two ways: Enlarge one 

 of the holes in the queen excluder, near the 

 front of the hive, or immediately above the 

 entrance, putting a West queen-cell protec- 

 tor under this hole, point eid down. As the 

 drones come down on the queen- excluc'er 

 and run toward the entrance, they find this 

 hole, run out through the point of the cell- 

 protector, and so are out of the way. The 

 queen runs along the under side of the ex- 

 cluder, trying to get up; bunts her head 

 against the cell- protector, and turns away, 

 trying to squeeze through the holf s about 

 there, never knowing that there is a hole in 

 the cel'-protf ctor and an inch or two below." 



