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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



should rest on the other cleat so that the 

 bottom edge of the super and upper edge of 

 the cover cleat cross in the form of a letter 

 X. The actual point of contact will then be 

 only at the intersection of the X. This 

 leaves the whole under side of the super and 

 pretty nearly all the edges at both ends and 

 sides with a clear bee-space, for the cleats 

 project I inch beyond the under surface of 

 the cover now upside down; and even if a 

 part of the super and t p of the cover were 

 olack with bees, no harm will be done. Over 

 and over again I have seen bee-keepers set 

 their supers flat on the ground, often un- 

 even. The result is a lot of killed and 

 mangled bees. This is made the worse if 

 there is no bee- space on the under side of 

 the super or hive. As most modern hives 

 have the bee-space on the top and not on 

 the bottom it follows that the practice kills 

 many bees. 



Now we will proceed to open the brood- 

 nest. A puff or two of smoke over the top 

 of the frames will drive down any "insur- 

 gents ' ' that may be disposed to offer at- 

 tack. As the hive is one of the closed- end 

 type it will kill bees if any thing will, so I 

 take one of this sort. 



We will select the frame we desire to re- 

 move, and with the screwdriver gently break 

 loose the propolis connections of the frames 

 on either side. We will now pull aside the 

 frames en masse next to us, and push the 

 other set en masse away from us. With 

 the space thus made on each side of the 



frame, we lift it out and examine the char- 

 acter of the brood; and if we find eggs we 

 conclude the queen is present; but if no ej/gs 

 are found on either side of the frame we pick 

 out the set of frames next to us en masse. 

 As we have not broken the propohs connec- 

 tions they will all hang together in one solid 

 block, as shown in the illustration Fig. 2 

 We examine the two brood surfaces and set 

 it back in the hive If we are not entirely 

 satisfied then as to what the queen is doing, 

 we look over the two exposed surfaces of 

 the other set of frames. Usually one such 

 examination is sufficient to give us all the 

 information we desire. As a rule, one 

 frame picked from the center of the brood- 

 nest will tell me all that I wish to know as 

 to what the queen is doing, the amount of 

 honey gathered, etc. 



The operator, you will note by the above 

 photos, puts the single frame removed on 

 the ground, leaning it against one leg. In 

 doing this he is careful to see that he kills 

 no bees. As the other nine frames— four in 

 one bunch and five in the other— were han- 

 dled without separating them, no bees were 

 mashed, because no frames were spread and 

 put back together again. 



The act of lifting up the two sets of frames 

 will give a practic »1 man an idea of the 

 amount of honey there is in them; and if he 

 now holds them up to the light, looking be- 

 tween the frames, first at the top side and 

 at the bottom, he can give a pretty fair 

 estimate as to the amount of brood, and 



FIG. 2.— HOW TO HANDLE CLOSED-END FRAMES WITHOUT KILLING BEES. 



