1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



827 



THE ALEXANDER PLAN FOR BUILDING UP 

 WEAK COLONIES; USING BURLAP AT FIRST 

 INSTEAD OF EXCLUDING ZINC TO PRE- 

 VENT FIGHTING. 



I have read Mr. A. A. Glark's article, p. 

 658, concerning his failure with Mr. Alex- 

 ander's plan for weak colonies. My bees 

 are a mixed lot, some of them a clear black. 

 I tried four colonies, putting a piece of new 

 burlap on top of the strong colonies, closing 

 up the entrance of the weak ones, then set- 

 ting them on the burlap. Part I left closed 

 in 24 hours, and the others 48 hours. As I 

 had been sick all winter, and not very strong, 

 I was about a week doing the work, and 

 did not commence it until they had been out 

 of the cellar two weeks. After 24 and 48 

 hours I removed the burlap and put in its 

 place the queen- excluder. I couldn't see 

 that the bees fought, and I think it is a big 

 success. One of the weak colonies is nearly 

 full of brood now. Another full colony had 

 no queen. I found one colony with less than 

 a teacupful of bees, with a good-looking 

 young queen. I put the burlap on the queen- 

 less colony, with the hive containing the 

 few bees and queen on top of the burlap, the 

 bees being shut in the top hive. In 48 hours 

 I took away the burlap and let them go to- 

 gether without queen-excluder. In two days 

 they were carrying in pollen in fine shape. 



Mt. Pleasant, Mich. H. S. Wheeler. 



VERTICAL vs. HORIZONTAL WIRING. 



I have just read Dr. Miller's Straws, p. 

 412, regarding horizontal vs. vertical wiring 

 of brood-frames. In looking over the bees 

 of a friend a few days ago I noticed that the 

 frames they were on (L. frames with § top- 

 bars) were wired vertically, and it soon oc- 

 curred to me that these combs had not sag- 

 ged the least along the top-bars, as many of 

 my horizontally wired combs in Hoffman 

 frames did; neither have I found any combs 

 in those twelve ten- frame hives in which the 

 foundation had bugled while it was being 

 drawn out by the bees. 



My horizontally wired combs do not near- 

 ly, in average, come up to those combs, for 

 which I can only blame my style of wiring. 

 After reading Mr. E. F. Atwater's article in 

 the Review and Dr. Miller's comment in the 

 before mentioned Straw, together with what 

 Dr. Miller has to say bearing on this matter 

 in his "Forty Years Among the Bees," I 

 have decided to give vertical wiring a trial 

 this season and then compare results. 



J. G. Baumgaertner. 



New Memphis, 111. 



another plan FOR GETTING BEES OUT OF 

 the wall of a BUILDING. 



The article on page 433 reminds me of my 

 first bees which I got two years ago the 

 same way. I have since learned a better 

 way, however. Often one does not wish to 

 damage a building, and it is a sticky job, 

 even if you do not get stung. My way is to 

 stop all holes but one. Over this put a Por- 



ter bee- escape. This should be done on a 

 bright warm day. In about an hour there 

 will be a lot of loaded bees trying to get in. 

 Have a hive ready the same as catching a 

 swarm with a brood-frame with brood and 

 eggs in. Set the hive as close to the escape 

 as possible. Now drive in the bees with 

 your smoker. It is very little trouble. They 

 will take possession, and start a queen. The 

 bees will go in as fast as they come out, and 

 inside of a month all will be out. Then you 

 can take off the escape and they will bring 

 out the honey and store it in the hive. It 

 takes very little time, and does not damage 

 the building. You don't get stung, and you 

 have a good queen. Albert I. Mills. 

 Ignacio, Colo. ' 



A question CONCERNING REASON AND IN- 

 STINCT. 



Allen Latham, in American Bee-keeper, 

 tells of a small colony of bees that waxed 

 up their entrance all but a small passage, 

 and asks if it was reason or instinct that 

 prompted them to do this. I will relate 

 some of my experience along this line. I 

 found a bee-tree about four years ago in the 

 month of June. They had not been there 

 more than one month. They had their en- 

 trance waxed up all but just room enough for 

 one bee to enter at a time. Again, I found 

 two bee- trees last June. Owing to my being 

 very busy I did not cut them. They are 

 standing yet. One of the trees has an en- 

 trance on the south side some six feet up 

 from the ground. They have no more wax 

 around the entrance than is usual in this lo- 

 cality. The other has an entrance some 15 

 feet from the ground. The entrance on the 

 north side of the tree is large enough to get 

 my fist in. The bees have closed this en- 

 trance all but a small passage. Was it rea- 

 son or instinct that prompted them to do 

 this? I am bound to say, as probably Dr. 

 Miller would. "I don't know." 



Furlington, Texas. W. M. Jones. 



HONEY IN BROOD- combs. 



Is honey extracted from combs in which 

 brood has been hatched unfit for human 

 food? A prominent bee-man tells me that 

 it is not; but from what I have read in 

 Gleanings, I believe that a large number 

 of bee-keepers practice this method. It is 

 more convenient, many times, to do this 

 than always to extract from white combs in 

 which a queen has never laid. L. A. H. 



[Honey from combs in which brood has 

 been reared is always a little darker than 

 honey from fresh combs, so they should be 

 used only in cases of necessity. If such 

 combs have not been used very long for 

 brood rearing, however, the honey may not 

 be enough darker to make any material dif- 

 ference in the selling price. As you say, it 

 is not always possible to use combs which 

 have never been used in the least for brood- 

 rearing — Ed ] 



