1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



671 



been used for some time, and much propolis 

 has accumulated, and is stiff and hard, the 

 fastenings will give way before the propolis, 

 leaving the tins loose and inaccurate. Then 

 I would have to go clear back to town for 

 some newsboy to swear for me. 



Again, you can never push the propolis 

 out of the bearings by applying pressure as 

 you can with the V-shaped all- wood bear- 

 ings of the regular Hoffman when the propo- 

 lis is warm. 



I don't believe they will ever crowd the 

 all-wood Hoffman frames off the market, 

 which goes to show again that new ideas 

 and radical changes are getting very scarce. 



M. A. Gill. 



Longmont, Colo., Jan. 4. 



[Your points may all be well taken. Only 

 the experience of the season will prove their 

 correctness. We have not as yet cataloged 

 the metal- spaced Hoffman, although we have 

 had an opportunity to do so, as the idea was 

 brought out in our establishment before our 

 catalog for this j ear went to press. We 

 deemed it best to advertise them in the bee- 

 journals, and test them thoroughly in our 

 own yards. 



The majority of bee-keepers, I think, do 

 not scrape top- bars as you describe, although 

 perhaps they ought to do so. But this is a 

 matter also that hinges on locality and the 

 strain of bees so far as their tendency to 

 build burr-combs and deposit propolis is con- 

 cerned. —Ed.] 



A REPORT ON THE PLAN OF HIVING SWARMS 

 WITH A MIRROR. 



Mr. Root:— You ask, p. 1143, 1905, to hear 

 from subscribers who have tried a mirror 

 for hiving bees. I used a mirror success- 

 fully about 25 years ago in the manner de- 

 scribed by Mr. Suppe. I have tried to hive 

 bees about a hundred times on different oc- 

 casions since with a mirror, and failed to 

 make it work. On reading Mr. Suppe's 

 way carefully it seems to me now that the 

 cause of failure was due to the smallness of 

 the glass. I used one 8X10, while the one 

 I succeeded with 25 years ago was 18 inches 

 square, or about four times as large. The 

 success, then, seems to depend upon the 

 amount of reflecting surface. A glass 3 ft. 

 square, having 9 square feet of surface, 

 would have 9 times the effect on a swarm of 

 bees that one a foot square would. 



Wm. Belshaw. 



Lowell, Wash., Nov. 16, 1905. 



[It may be that I am unduly skeptical, but 

 I do not see how flashing the sunlight with 

 a mirror in front of a swarm in the air can 

 have any appreciable effect; but I do know 

 that a spray of water can be used to drive 

 it in any direction. In fact, I have repeat- 

 edly made the bees alight pretty nearly 

 where I wanted. I would drive them to 

 some particular low-down bush, then douse 

 them with water until they began to settle. 

 Wet bees will not fly very long. It is too 

 hard work —Ed.] 



INTRODUCING QUEENS BY THE SIMMINS PLAN. 



On page 69 the editor speaks of the Sim- 

 mins "starvation method" of introducing 

 queens. Last summer I used the method as 

 described by Arthur C. Miller in Gleanings 

 early in 1905. I ran my queens in just be- 

 fore dark. I had but one failure during the 

 season. I consider it the safest way to in- 

 troduce queens I have ever tried, and I have 

 tried many. It is the quickest. Take a 

 queen out any time during the day. Wait 

 until the field bees are back in the hive at 

 night, and you have just about a sure thing 

 in introducing that way. E. D. Howell. 



New Hampton, N. Y., Jan. 26. 



a hive-tool made from a saw-blade. 



It is made out of a saw-blade 12 inches 

 long, knife edge at A, tack-puller at B, screw- 

 driver at C, hammer at D, saw at edge E, 

 and chisel or gouge at F. 

 D 



What are the objections to a brood-frame 

 hanging in the hive crosswise? 



A bottom-board having an adjustable 



ENTRANCE ATTACHMENT. 



Please say what you think of this bottom- 

 board with the reversible alighting-board. 

 This gives a deep entrance in summer; and 

 by reversing you have a small entrance and 

 a deep space under the frames. The bottom- 



board proper slopes from | to i inch. This 

 alighting- board slips off when moving, and 

 a screen slide, made to fit, takes its place. 

 Lewistown, Mo. H. Mansperger. 



[The arrangement of your bottom-board 

 is very similar to the one that was adver- 

 tised in the Root Co. 's catalog, except the 

 detail of construction, which is a little differ- 

 ent. I can scarcely see that it is any better 

 or worse, so far as handling is concerned, 

 but it would be more expensive to make. 



Frames should always be at right angles 

 to the entrance of the hive, so that, when 

 the hive is tipped to let water run out at the 

 entrance, the frames and foundation in sec- 

 tions will hang plumb.— Ed.] 



