1012 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



and the bee-keeper. Different conditions 

 make it necessary to give different advice 

 to different people. 



It may be well, perhaps, to state that the 

 Hoffman frame does not, as our correspond- 

 ent seems to infer, require the use of a di- 

 vision-board. If we were to start anew, 

 making the eight-frame hive, we would not 

 make it wide enough to take in such a board. 

 Personally (and that seems to be the expe- 

 rience of most of our correspondents) I can 

 handle the Hoffman frame easier than a di- 

 vision-board. Since the eight-fr«me hive 

 was made half an inch wider to accommo- 

 date this article, nothing remains but to con- 

 tinue making it so. When we began mak- 

 ing the ten-frame hive we did not make it 

 half an inch wider, believing it to be better 

 to dispense with the division-board in that 

 hive. 



While the editor still beheves in having 

 the spacers on the frame, and that it would 

 be a mistake to put them elsewhere, he is 

 very gad to have so able a correspondent, 

 who ho.ds the opposite view, explain the ad- 

 vantages of the rabbet spacer. — Ed.] 



COMBS THAT HAVE BEEN IN USE 20 YEARS. 



A matter that was up in Gleanings a few 

 years ago was, who had a set of combs 

 twenty years old? I have combs that were 

 built in the spring of 1885, and they have 

 been in use continuously ever since. They 

 now occupy the bottom story of a three- story 

 hive which I run for extracted honey. I 

 have had combs built every year since that 

 date, as that is when I commenced keeping 

 bees. W. W. Grant. 



Marion, 111. 



^ [I might explain for the benefit of our 

 newer readers that the statement was made 

 some time ago, that, when a comb got to be 

 six or seven years old, it should be discard- 

 ed because the accumulation of cocoons in 

 the cells would reduce the size of the cells 

 to such an extent that the bees hatching out 

 after the sixth or seventh year, at least, 

 would be smaller than those first reared in 

 the same cells. The editor and some others 

 took the ground that there was no truth in 

 this— that when there was an accumulation 

 of cocoons the excess would be removed by 

 the bees, and that, therefore, the last rear- 

 ed bees would be as large as the first ones. 

 Since that time we have had numerous re- 

 ports of comb=? anywhere from 25 to 30 years 

 old that are doing gottd service; and the beea 

 reared from them have apparently the same 



size as those reared in combs right next to 

 them, from combs just built off from founda- 

 tion. 



Among others who gave substantial testi- 

 mony to this was the veteran R. Wilkin, of 

 Ventura, Cal., one of the most extensive 

 bee-keepers the country has ever known. 

 Just before he died this contention was up, 

 and through his daughter he sent me word 

 that he had combs 30 years old that were 

 then doing excellent service. It would be 

 very nice for us foundation-makers to give 

 out the statement that all combs should be 

 renewed every seven years. If that were 

 true, every bee-keeper would have to buy 

 large quantities of foundation; but, fortu- 

 nately for the consumer, if not for the man- 

 ufacturer, the facts do not bear out the con- 

 tention.— Ed.] 



SHOULD queen-excluding ZINC BE SEPARAT- 

 ED BY A BEE-SPACE FROM 

 THE TOP-BAB S? 



Would you kindly tell me how to use the 

 queen-excluder? Should there be a space 

 between the zinc and the top of the frames? 

 If so, how much? I notice the English ex- 

 cluders have the perforations running at 

 right angles with the frames. They are 

 placed flat on the top-bars. 



R. J. Melville. 



Cambridge West, New Zealand. 



[While it is not absolutely essential, it is 

 better to have a bee- space between the per- 

 forated zinc and the brood- frames, above 

 and below. The wood- bound boards are so 

 made as to provide for this space, providing 

 they are put on the hive right side up, and not 

 wrong side. The unbound zinc boards will 

 probably sag on the brood- frames below. 

 This will do no particular harm, except that 

 the bees wax them down, making it more 

 difficult to remove. 



The English excluders have the perfora- 

 tions going crosswise of the frames, proba- 

 bly not because there is any advantage in 

 that arrangement, but because the size of 

 the English hives makes the zinc cut to bet- 

 ter advantage when the perforations are so 

 placed. Many of the excluders for English 

 hives are 16 inches square. In that event 

 the perforations might run either way. — 

 Ed.] 



comb built over wires without even 

 starters of foundation. 



In Stray Straws, page 343, I see the fol- 

 lowing: "'Natural comb built below the 

 starter will be built over the wires,' p. 301. 

 Yes, but the wire will not be in the septum. ' ' 



I have a piece of comb built on a wired 

 Hoffman frame, without even a starter. 

 The bees had to start on the side of the 

 groove in the top-bar. They did not exact- 

 ly disprove the words of Dr. Miller, because 

 they had no starter to commence with. It 

 happened in this way: 



I made a mistake last summer while ex- 

 tracting, in putting on a super of empty 

 wired frames (I had supers with wired 



