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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1 



them. I used to get a large proportion of 

 them killed in this way by their trying to go 

 into other hives, or else I had to let them go 

 back, until I learned how to keep them from 

 going back where enough strange bees got 

 into a swarm to cause the swarm to ball the 

 queen." 



" Please tell me how you could keep them. 

 Such bees are the most determined of any I 

 ever tried to do any thing with, unless, per- 

 chance, it is persistent I'obbing." 



' ' I hunted out the queen by smoking the 

 hall of bees until they released her, when 

 she was caged and the cage hung down in 

 the middle of the hive. In about half of 

 these cases this satisfied them, while at other 

 times they would ball the cage, so it did no 

 good. Thinking on the matter one day I 

 made a large flat cage that would reach 

 clear across the frames. Into this I put the 

 queen and lay it on top of the frames, when 

 the bees can get at her through the wire 

 cloth between every frame in the hive, 

 which prevents shutting her off from all but 

 a few, as was the case when she was not 

 caged, or with the small cage used at first." 



"I see. But how long must she be kept 

 caged?" 



"The next morning I let her loose, when 

 all goes well." 



" Thank you for this also. Now one more 

 thing. I suppose yoii noticed in Gleanings 

 for September 1st that Dr. Miller no longer 

 reverses bottom-boards, but, instead, uses a 

 rack to fill the two-inch space needed for 

 winter, during the season of the year when 

 the bees would be liable to fill the two-inch 

 space with comb." 



"Yes, I noticed this matter, and that the 

 editor indorsed it." 



"Well, should we not adopt this way of 

 using the Miller bottom-board?" 



" I can well see whex'e Dr. Miller's plan 

 would be a little easier as well as save some 

 time; but the objections to it more than 

 overcome all of this, to my way of think- 

 ing." 



" What are the objections? I see none." 



"Well, the first, but the least, comes in 

 the fall. You know it is customary to weigh 

 each colony, or take out each frame and look 

 it over so as to know that all colonies have 

 a sufficient amount of stores for winter, do 

 you not? Otherwise many colonies may 

 starve before spring." 



" Yes, I know that many of our best apia- 

 rists do this." 



' ' Certainly they do this, and that is what 

 makes them our best apiarists. Well, by 

 this reversing of bottom-boards all this weigh- 

 ing or looking-over of combs is avoided, for 

 with a little practice the hives which have 

 not honey enough to carry them over the 

 winter are easily detected and marked as we 

 go along. So I ask which is easier — the 

 weighing of the hives, the handling of the 

 combs, the slipshod way of hoping all have 

 enough, or the work required in reversing 

 bottom-boai'ds, by which we know which re- 

 quire feeding, if any do?" 



"This is something I had not thought of. 



Come to think it over, the reversing is cer- 

 tainly the quickest, the easiest, and the sur- 

 est as a whole." 



"That is the way I see it, and for that 

 reason I continue to reverse. Then when it 

 comes spring, with Dr. Miller's rack plan 

 there is a whole lot of dirt, dead bees, and 

 often mold and filth, necessarily accumulat- 

 ed during the winter's inactivity with the 

 bees, covering the winter side of these bot- 

 tom-boards, where it must stay till the bees 

 become strong enough, and the weather 

 warm enough for the bees to remove, during 

 which time this accumulation is an injury to 

 the best success at brood-rearing. But with 

 the reversing plan this filth and the dead 

 bees are removed at once, and the clean, 

 sweet summer side of the board placed right 

 up next to the bees for a floor, so that there 

 is no work needed at house-cleaning, by the 

 bees, while this sweet summer side stimu- 

 lates them to brood-rearing at the earliest 

 possible minute. It also tells the keeper if 

 any colonies have consumed an undue quan- 

 tity of their stores, so as to need immediate 

 feeding, without the opening of a single 

 hive. No, don't let the thought ot a little 

 ease hinder you from reversing the bottom- 

 lioards, when so much can be gained by so 

 doing." 



In conducting the "Canadian Department" 

 in Gleanings it is my desire to get in touch 

 with all Canadian l)ee-keepers from the At- 

 lantic to the Pacific. Sample copies will be 

 sent to any bee-keeper whose address the 

 reader will be kind enough to forward. If 

 you have an apiarian device which will save 

 work or improve the method of work in the 

 apiary, or if you know of some one who 

 could' add to apicultural information, write 

 to me. The same as to apicultural manage- 

 ment or news of general interest. Not eve- 

 ry idea may be put in; but due credit will 

 be given the author whenever inserted in 

 this department. Gleanings has at pi-es- 

 ent prol)ably more Canadian siil)scribers than 

 any other bee- journal; and when we add to 

 that an immense subscription-list in the 

 United States and other lands. Gleanings 

 becomes a desiral^le medium through which 

 to give these ideas. Let us show the apicul- 

 tural world £hat Canada is not behind in 

 apicultural matters. 



There will be an international exhibition 

 at Christchurch, New Zealand. The exhibi- 

 tion opens Nov. 1, 1906, and closes in April. 

 The Canadian government will make an ex- 



