1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1355 



of the section in the regular way. It will 

 work equally well on any size of sheet from 

 1 ^ in. to full' sheet. I3r. M. A. Aulick. 



Bradford, Ky., June 26. 1906 



[Mr. F. W. Hall described a plan very 

 much like this in Gleanings for last year, 

 page 552, although instead of raising the hot 

 plate he lowers the support for the section. 

 In either plan, the larger piece of founda- 

 tion is cut off by the hot plate, leaving only 

 a narrow stub remaining. The idea, in our 

 opinion, is a good one. — Ed.] 



RUNNING AN APIARY FOR WAX ; HOW TO 

 DISPOSE OF THE SURPLUS HONEY. 



This region is one dense forest, and the 

 bees have been making surplus since about 

 Nov. 1. October is the only month. I think, 

 in which they make no surplus. On the oth- 

 er hand, honey sells at 20 cts. a gallon, from 

 which freight expenses have to be deducted: 

 consequently I am running for wax, which 

 sells at 26 cents at present, and feed back as 

 much honey as possible. The trouble is. 

 how to use up the surplus honey to advan- 

 tage. Instead of making it into wax I find 

 they fill the brood-combs almost chock full 

 of honey. 



It would be greatly appreciated by bee- 

 keepers in the tropics, I feel very sure, if 

 you could pulilish some instructions from ex- 

 perienced l)ee-keepers. who are themselves 

 actually running for wax, as to their meth- 

 ods. I got an idea from Gleanings, which 

 is worth a great many dollars to me. It was, 

 use four stakes for a hive-stand. We have a 

 practically indestructil)le wood here which 

 splits easily and straight, called '•hickey. " 

 and I am setting out all my 70 colonies on 

 four hickey stakes, 3 ft. long, driven 18 inch- 

 es into the ground. F. McCann. 



La Gloria, Cuba, Jan. 6, 1906. 



SWARMING; HOW TO PREVENT; A PL.\N SOME- 

 WHAT SIMILAR TO THE CHAMBERS BEE- 

 ESCAPES FOR CONTROLLING 

 SWARMING. 



The article by J. E. Chambers, page 582, 

 interests me, as I tried something similar on 

 several hives three yeai's ago. and it was a 

 success. The old queens were caught with 

 Alley traps as the swarms came out. A new 

 hive was set by the old one; surplus boxes 

 from the old hive were set on the new hive; 

 the old queen was let run in the new hive, 

 and a bee-escape was placed on the old hive. 

 The old hives were not opened. The same 

 arrangement was tried on colonies quite 

 ready to swarm, and with a queen-cell in- 

 stead of the old queen, but it did not work 

 in any case. The bees must have swarmed 

 or were just ready to swarm. 



I believe there is a way to prevent swarm- 

 ing with the bee-escape, although I have not 

 tried it very thoroughly. Place an escape on 

 the hive when they appear to be getting 

 ready to swarm, leaving it on at least a few 

 hours. Bees, on coming home, will be with- 

 out a home for awhile at least, and will for- 



get all al)out the swarming business. A lost 

 bee will not swarm. An entrance should be 

 made iu the back of the hive, or some place, 

 while the escape is on, so they will eventual- 

 ly find it. I use the wire-cloth coyer for 

 bee-escapes, three or four in each escape. 

 Clinton. 111. Henry Willson. 



BEE-BRUSHES MADE OF BURLAP. 



The inclosed drawing illustrates my bee- 

 brush which I have used several years, which 

 is the cheapest, simplest, and best brush that 

 I ever used. It is made of burlap. The one 



I send you is a narrow one, the one I made 

 first. I now use a wider one. You can 

 make them the whole width of the frame if 

 you wish. 



We are having a fine rain to-day — an unu- 

 sual thiug. Bees, we are told, are doing 

 finely in the hills; not doing much in the 

 valley, but as well as usual. 



Leinore, Cal., May 25. J. F. Flory. 



[We believe that these brushes would 1)e 

 very satisfactory, especially as the burlap 

 would not be as irritating to the bees as the 

 stiff bristles in an ordinary brush. — Ed.] 



is honey RIPE THAT HAS BEEN LEFT ON THE 



HIVE A LONG TIME, THOUGH STILL 



UNSEALED? WINTERING TWO 



QUEENS IN A HIVE. 



I should like to ask a question or two. 

 Will honey not all sealed, left on until late, 

 or a long time after it has been stored, be all 

 right to extract, or will it get thin? 



After reading the Ferris system I had a 

 surplus of queen-cells. I put a tin division- 

 board in the middle of the brood-nest, mak- 

 ing five frames on each side. They mateil 

 all right, and are all laying. I put a divi- 

 sion at the entrance. I put on the frames a 

 queen-excluder, and one of them filled a su- 

 per. What I should like to know is. will 

 these five frames be enough stores for win- 

 tering each side? My idea is, if I can winter 

 two queens in one hive this would be a good 



