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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



one said he thought it was because hives did 

 not stand exactly on the level. 



Mrs. Orville Buck. 

 Farmington, Wash. 



[This building of combs to separators is 

 somewhat dependent on locality, but more 

 on the strain of bees. By introducing a new 

 queen into the hive that shows this tendency 

 you may remove the comb- building propen- 

 sity sjmewhat. Of course, if hives are not 

 plumb the foundation will lean toward the 

 separators in a way that will invite attach- 

 ment when combs are being built out. — Ed.] 



CLIPPING queens; is it advisable to cut 



OUT QUEEN- cells AFTER THE PRIME 

 SWARM HAS ISSUED? 



I wish to ask for information concerning 

 bees. First, is it proper to clip the queen's 

 wings before swarming in the spring, so as 

 not to have the swarm leave the apiary? I 

 have read a few articles on this subject, and 

 have found but one where they recommend- 

 ed this, and that is in an article the G. B. 

 Lewis people put out two years ago this 

 spring. I tried this plan; and as I was not 

 there every time when they swarmed, the 

 queen would get in the grass, and I would 

 lose her, probably stepping on her, or some- 

 thing that way, and 1 met with bad success, 

 losing half my colonies, as they would be 

 robbed by other bees. Probably I do not 

 fully undersland this system; and so in order 

 to know the right way I write to learn it, as 

 I consider Gleanings one of the best author- 

 ities I have. 



Another thing I should be glad to know is, 

 after the old swarm has left the hive do jrou 

 think it advisable to go through the old hive 

 and cut out all the queen-cells so there will 

 be no more swarming? I believe one swarm 

 is enough to take from one hive. If you 

 take more than that you generally have 

 weak swarms, and they make but little hon- 

 ey, I took my 34 colonies from the cellar 

 April 7, and lost 3 out of the 34. All died 

 of different things. 



Waldron, Mich. Frederick M. Boyd. 



[The majority of bee-keepers probably 

 practice the plan of clipping all queens. But 

 if you can not be present when the swarm 

 issues you had better force a swarm arti- 

 ficially. In this connection read up the 

 shaken-swarm plan as discussed in these col- 

 umns about two years ago. A still better 

 plan, perhaps, is to follow the Alexander 

 method of making increase as described on 

 page 423. If a colony persists in swarming 

 with a clipped or confined queen, the bees 

 are liable to kill her; hence the necessity 

 of following one of these latter methods. 



One swarm is generally enough from any 

 one colony. You can, to a certain extent, 

 prevent after-swarms by cutting out all 

 queen-cells after the first swarm has issued, 

 but there are several other things to take 

 into consideration; and it would pay you, 

 therefore, to look up this whole subject in 

 the A B C of Bee Culture. -Ed.] 



THE ALEXANDER METHODS; HOW CAN THEY 

 BE USED WITH CHAFF HIVES? SUPER- 

 COVERS MADE FROM PAPER. 



The queries I may ask may be like many 

 others that you receive. If so, please ans- 

 wer in Gleanings. Mr. Alexander says no 

 bee-keeper should have hives without mov- 

 able bottoms. Why are not chaff hives made 

 so it is possible to use his feeder and to 

 build up weak colonies on his plan, which I 

 believe is a good one. As I have chaff 

 hives I can not try it? It looks as though 

 super-covers could be made very cheap from 

 paper, or like chair-bottoms, as 20 or over 

 are sold for 10 cts. a piece. In theory and 

 practice it has been the plea to make hives 

 as simple as possible; but Mr. Aspinwall has 

 taken a big jump the other way m his hive 

 shown in Gleanings of April 1 ; but if it will 

 do as is claimed I should like to try them, 

 provided the price is not too high, and if 

 bees can be wintered out of doors in this lat- 

 itude. J. S. Dean. 



Castleton, Vt. 



[The regular chaff hives are made with 

 the packing below the frames as well as 

 around the sides. By a little changing, the 

 hive could be so designed as to leave off the 

 packing beneath, so that a movable bottom 

 could be substituted. But this would prob- 

 ably mean that it would be more expensive 

 on account of the extra number of small 

 parts; and, besides, it would not be as warm 

 in winter. With the chaff hive, therefore, 

 some other feeder had better be used. 



When using the Alexander plan for build- 

 ing up weak colonies it would not be neces- 

 sary that the upper colony be in a chaff hive. 

 The combs of bees could simply be transfer- 

 red to a single-walled hive which could be 

 placed above the excluder over the strong 

 colony in the chaff hive in the regular way. 

 -Ed.] 



do queen-bees take a cleansing flight 

 the same as the workers? 



Last spring we had a protracted cold spell 

 with a very heavy snowfall for 14 days; and 

 the bees, which had been unusually active 

 prior to this, were kept in constantly until 

 March 25. While looking at them I noticed 

 a queen lying on a board in front of one of 

 my strongest hives. I took her to the house 

 and laid her on a window-stool in the kitchen. 

 In the afternoon I went to show her to some 

 company, but I found she was missing. Aft- 

 er a short search I found her aUve, well, 

 and fixing up her toilet ready to take a fly. 

 I took her back to the hive, opened it above, 

 and noticed the workers received her in the 

 cordial way so peculiar to their instinct. I 

 have kej)t a few colonies of bees for thirty 

 consecutive years, both for pleasure and prof- 

 it; but this is the first incident of this kind 

 that has ever come to my notice. 



Muncie, Ind. B. T. Boyd. 



[Cheshire, in "Bees and Bee-keeping," 

 Vol. I., page 148, shows that the workers 

 are structurally compelled to take a flight in 

 order to cleanse themselves. He then goes 



