568 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



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the bees will not have to check brood-rear- 

 ing for fear of running short of honey. But 

 if stores are scanty they will, just as sure as 

 fate, cut down the amount of brood that will 

 be reared, and this is very expensive at this 

 time of the year. 



WHERE SHOULD THE ENTRANCE BE FOR 

 COLONIES WINTERED OUTDOORS? 



A VERY strange thing occurred in our api- 

 ary. We had some colonies in outdoor win- 

 ter cases. For convenience the entrance 

 was placed clear over to one side, and not in 

 the center as usual. Instead of using two 

 sticks and leaving a space of two or three 

 inches between them we used one long one, 

 or two inches in length less than the inside 

 width of the hive. The entrances of all of 

 these colonies were i inch deep, so that the 

 contracted entrances were from 1 to 2 inch- 

 es by i. Quite to our surprise we found 

 that a large percentage of these side-en- 

 trance colonies were dead; combs were wet 

 and moldy; bees dead, and signs of dysen- 

 tery. But colonies that had the entrances 

 in the center were in good condition. 



When Mr. Vernon Burt was here I called 

 his attention to this. He stated that he too 

 had found by dear experience that colonies 

 with side entrances were liable to die before 

 spring, while those with openings in the cen- 

 ter would come out all right. 



If any one can give any philosophical rea- 

 son why this should be so, I should like to 

 have him explain. Heretofore we have al- 

 ways wintered with center entrances; conse- 

 quently this is our first experience with side 

 entrances, and, I may say, it will be our 

 last. 



CLOSED-END FRAME COLONIES AND HOW THEY 

 HAVE BUILT UP IN THE SPRING. 



It is a very noticeable fact, says our Mr. 

 Pritchard, that the colonies in closed-end 

 frames, even though in single-walled hives, 

 are building up faster and more satisfactori- 

 ly than those in open-end frames in double- 

 walled chaff hives. This statement is made 

 in the face of the fact that he has been prej- 

 udiced against the Danzenbaker hive (in 

 which this frame is used). He has several 

 times begged to be excused from having 

 any thing to do with closed ends; but now 

 unreservedly he gives this testimony in their 

 favor as to their "springing" qualities. A 

 comb -honey producer might well afford to put 

 up with some degree of inconvenience if he 

 can thereby get more brood at the right time 

 of the year. 



Father Quinby, the pioneer in closed-end 

 frames in this country, and nearly all the 

 original users of such frames, have made this 

 same claim in favor of their brooding value; 

 and, what is more, those same people seldom 

 or never see fit to chatige to the open-end 

 style. Some of these adherents claim that 

 they can handle just as many bees on the 

 closed ends as on any other style of frame- 

 that it is largely a matter of "know how" 

 and the elimination of old prejudice. 



We have had some very flattering reports 

 regarding the building-up qualities of closed- 

 end frames in the spring; but somehow I 

 have been slow to believe that they had any 

 superiority. Our old friend Danzenbaker 

 can well testify to my unbelief; but when 

 the proof of the pudding is seen in our own 

 apiary I may have to give up. 



SWARM CONTROL IN THE PRODUCTION OF 

 COMB HONEY AT OUTYARDS. 



During the twenty years I have been edi- 

 tor of this journal I .io not remember the 

 time when there seemed to be so much good 

 matter on the subject of swarm control in 

 the production of comb honey as now. We 

 have already published several articles, and 

 more are to follow. 



It has been no great trick to control swarm- 

 in the production of extracted honey, for 

 practically all that was needed was to give 

 the bees unlimited room in a large hive, or 

 a series of them, one on top of the other. 

 But to control swarming at outyards when 

 running for comb honey, aye— that is where 

 we have halted and failed. "Shook swarm- 

 ing," by some of its different methods, has 

 afforded considerable relief, but it has not 

 been altogether satisfactory in some locali- 

 ties and with some bee-keepers. The plan 

 proposed by Mr. G. M. Doolittle, in the series 

 of articles now running, will prove very 

 helpful, I hope, to bee-keepers situated in 

 localities where store combs of honey have 

 been laid aside the summer previous after 

 the main flow. 



A unique PLAN OF SHOOK SWARMING WITH- 

 OUT THE "SHOCKING." 



The plan proposed by Mr. J. E. Chambers, 

 in this issue, looks as if it might work. It 

 combines the features of shook swarming 

 without the disagreeableness and loss of 

 "shocking" (Dr. Miller will please pardon 

 the expression) . Besides that, as Mr. Cham- 

 ber says, it secures the features of requeen- 

 ing and of swarming automatically into a 

 new brood-nest. 



When Mr. Chambers first described this 

 last fall, I really did not catch on to the 

 scheme. In fact, he did not really make it 

 plain as I now look at it; but in the mean 

 time I went back over quite a voluminous 

 private correspondence, gathered up the 

 "missing links " which I did not get hold of 

 in the published article, and welded them 

 all together in the introductory note at the 

 beginning of his article in this issue, p. 582. 



I should be glad to have our correspond- 

 ents test this and report, as there will be 

 time to put it into application, and the ex- 

 pense of applying it will be comparatively 

 light. 



A little later on we hope to present some 

 original ideas on swarm control for the pro- 

 duction of comb honey at outyards, ivherehy 

 as much comb honey as extracted can be se- 

 cured. I have seen the manuscript, and 

 am now negotiating with the writer for its 

 use in Gleanings. 



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