594 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



MayI 



desertion of the brood in the upper hive. 

 The young bees to a great extent would re- 

 main above, but all the older ones would go 

 below. The loss of this body heat from the 

 older bees and the loss of the body beat 

 from some of the younger bees going down 

 might prove to be disastrous to the brood 

 left above, especially if any of it were left 

 unsealed. Your better way is to set the 

 parent hive to one side (entrance pointing 

 same way) and allow sufficient time to 

 elapse until all or a large part of the brood 

 is hatched out; then shake all the bees in 

 front of the hive with the swarm, removing 

 the parent hive. You will secure the same 

 effect precisely without the loss of brood, 

 and without the danger of soiling the combs 

 of the sections from the old brood- combs 

 above. This plan has been used to quite an 

 extent, and I would urge it instead of the 

 one you propose. But it would be advisa- 

 ble, before shaking, to put perforated zinc 

 in front of the entrance of the swarm to 

 catch any virgins that may have hatched. 

 If the queen of the swarm is not valuable, 

 let the virgins run in with the rest. They 

 will fight it out on the principle of the sur- 

 vival of the fittest.— Ed.] 



THE DANGER OF A MONGREL AMERICAN BEE. 



I don't think I've seen any thing published 

 against the possibilities of a mongrel Amer- 

 ican bee. As long as the Italian was, pa7- 

 excellence, the standard, we had a high and 

 reliable type. What will be the result of a 

 general mixture of Italians, Cyprians, Cau- 

 casians, Carniolans, German, etc.? While 

 they can be kept "pure blood" or properly 

 crossed, the benefits of any one race or cross 

 are apparent; but is there not great danger 

 that the high value of each, which is due to 

 its distinctiveness of certain characters, may 

 be lost by careless or unpreventable cross- 

 breedmg and mixing? 



With intelligent crossing, certain undesir- 

 able features maybe eUminated — i. e., the 

 temper of the Cyprians; but we must be 

 constantly alert to prevent a slump in quali- 

 ty; and I fear that, the greater the number 

 of races of bees in any one community, the 

 greater will be the chances and dangers of 

 such deterioration. H. A. Surface. 



Harrisburg, Pa. 



[I do not believe ic is advisable to intro- 

 duce into one locality too many different 

 strains of bees, just for the reason pointed 

 out by Prof. Surface. It is well enough, 

 however, to bring in these new strains, but 

 let each strain have a locality of its own. — 

 Ed.] 



the cells in the twjn mating- box combs 

 slant the wrong way. 

 The twin mating-box which you described 

 in the Jan. 1st issue is almost perfection; 

 but from the description given, the small 

 frames are put in the large frames length- 

 wise; and when taken out to put into the 

 mating-box the cells, instead of slanting up- 

 ward, are slanting sidewise. Will the queen 



lay with the cells in that position? and will 

 the bees be satisfied? W. M. Parrish. 

 Lawrence, Kan., Jan. 6. 



[You will find no trouble by turning the 

 cells around at right angles to their former 

 position. As a matter of fact combs can be 

 turned upside down, and young brood will 

 be reared just the same. Years ago, when 

 reversing had grown to be quite a fad, the 

 combs in all reversible hives or frames were 

 turned bottom upward once and sometimes 

 twice in a season. No difficulty was ever 

 experienced to the effect that the queen re- 

 fused to lay nor that the bees refused to 

 rear brood in them. For years the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, under 

 the direction of Mr. Benton, has been using 

 just such combs in little mating-hives. 

 Three of them just fill out the inside of a 

 standard frame. When taken out and put 

 into a mating-box they are turned at right 

 angles.— Ed.] 



THE WOODWARD SELF-SPACING FRAME; A 

 CORRECTION. 



Mr. Root:— Yon do not seem to have got- 

 ten my form of frame. I do not see how 

 any one could have obtained a patent on 

 such a frame as you described on page 1249. 

 In fact, I would not take such a frame as a 

 gift. In the first place, my frame has 

 spacers one inch from the top- bar, the same 

 as at the bottom, and no spacer whatever on 

 the rabbet. Why I placed the space one 

 inch from the top of the frame is because 

 the bees do not glue frames very badly one 

 inch below the top-bar. It is always the 

 top of the frames that gets the glue. 



Matanzas, Cuba. C. E. Woodward. 



[Thanks for the correction; but even us- 

 ing spacers as you now describe, one inch 

 from the top-bar, do you not find that, when 

 you crowd over three or four frames by 

 pressing on one top-bar of the frame, this 

 frame will be tipped, smashing bees both at 

 top and bottom? We tried spacers one inch 

 down as you describe, but abandoned them 

 almost as soon as we saw how they worked. 

 -Ed.] 



bent wires for holding transferred 



COMB. 



Here is a diagram of bent baling wire 

 used by me for many years to hold trans- l 

 f erred combs in the frames until fastened ' 

 by the bees. I can use them and put all 

 sizes of combs in the frames, and make 

 almost perfect sheets of comb of them. I 

 think the wires are better, and quicker 

 put on or taken off, than strings or sticks ' 

 or tin. The wires can be taken off the 

 frames without taking the frames out of 

 the hive; and when once made they are 

 good for years. The wires hook over the 

 top and bottom bar. They have probably 

 been in use by bee keepers for many years; 

 but I do not remember having seen them 

 mentioned anywhere, ■ and do not know of 

 any bee- men using them before I introduced 

 them here. F. P. White. 



Lemon Grove, Cal., Dec. 14. 



