550 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



side, and bee-spaced about i^g inch from the 

 frames beneath. 



To prevent swarming we would respect- 

 fully recommend the shake or brushed plan, 

 the Sibbald plan, as recently given in these 

 columns, or the one recommended by Mr. E. 

 W. Alexander on p. 425. Without knowing 

 more of the conditions we could not advise 

 you as to which one would suit you best. 



A damp climate can have no effect on the 

 combs or foundation. It is bad economy to 

 melt up good combs and put foundation in 

 their place every four or five years. 



By "full sheets" is meant those that fill 

 out the frame from end- bar to end-bar, and 

 from top-bar to within i inch of the bottom- 

 bar. By "starters " we mean narrow strips 

 of foundation reaching the inside length of 

 the top-bar on the under side, and anywhere 

 from J to 2 or 3 in. wide. — Ed.] 



SOME IDEAS FOR SIMPLIFYING TRANSFERRING 

 A TRANSFERRING-BOARD. 



I send you a model of my transferring- 

 board. When the cross-cuts, one inch apart, 

 are filled with wires or strings the board is 

 loaded for business. The frame is placed on 

 the board with spacers in the insets and the 

 pin at each upper corner comes just under 

 the projection of the top-bar. A small cleat 

 would do just as well to prevent the frame 

 from sliding to you when pulling up the 

 string or wire. I fasten these strings to 

 tacks placed on top of the top-bar in the up- 

 per corner of the same, handy to put in and 

 also to take out when the comb has been 

 made fast by the bees. Cut the combs to 

 fit the frames as suits you best. Apply the 

 wire or string that lies just where you want 

 it; fill up where you have used them out, 

 and continue. There is no dropping-out of 

 combs or pieces, no sliding of strings or 



wires under frames, and scraping off inno- 

 cent heads— no scraping off fat honey-caps. 

 If caps are too fat they should be shaved 

 down or the chunk of honey not framed, but 

 fed in some other way if needed. If wires 

 are used, and they seem kinky, just put a 

 small nail at each end of each cut, and snub 

 the wires lightly so they will stay until they 

 are wanted. 



This idea may not be new to all, but is to 

 me, and is my own notion, and helps out 

 greatly. It can also be turned over and 

 fixed for wiring foundation into frames. 



Why not make some shallow trays to re- 

 ceive combs and wiring-board in transfer- 



ring, and line them with paroid or some- 

 thing similar, and have one larger and heav- 

 ier to contain the box hive while you are 

 abusing it? These would favor a complete 

 and speedy clean-up, and perhaps less rob- 

 bing. Honey sometimes flows freely in op- 

 erating, with us, and these trays could easi- 

 ly be washed, or licked up by the bees as 

 might seem best. I hope these ideas may 

 be of use to you and my fellow bee-keepers. 

 Richard Simmons. 

 Sylvania, Pa., April 4, 1905. 



[Generally speaking it is not advisable to 

 transfer small pieces of comb unless they 

 contain brood. The line of union results 

 afterward in more or less drone-cells, irreg- 

 ular cells, and the comb will always have 

 a patchy appearance. While looks count 

 for nothing, yet the comb capacity is liable 

 to be affected for the reason that there will 

 probably be holes and irregular margins 

 where the two pieces of comb are united. 

 Unless there is brood in the combs I would 

 transfer into standard frames none that 

 were not large enough to fill the entire 

 frame, or large enough to fill half of one so 

 that only two pieces would be required. If 

 these were fitted snug, no strings, wires, or 

 strips of wood would be needed. Even where 

 small pieces of brood have to be used, the 

 combs containing them should be cut out aft- 

 er the brood is hatched, and a sheet of 

 foundation inserted in its stead. It is a bad 

 practice to use any thing in a yard but per- 

 fect all-worker combs. 



The device above shown for inserting 

 wires or strings where such must be used is 

 very good. I think something similar has 

 been suggested before. 



Shallow transferring-trays, especially if 

 there is very much honey in the combs, are 

 almost a matter of necessity. — Ed.] 



THE INVESTIGATION OF THE STATE OF BEES 

 WHEN FROZEN. 



I am pleased to note that you intend to 

 investigate further the matter of freezing, 

 page 354. There are two important points 

 which I think of, yet to be determined. 



1. How long can bees remain in a frozen 

 condition without noticeable injury ? 



2. How much cold can they stand ? for I 

 suppose the limit would be found some- 

 where, and we ought to know whether such 

 limit is at all in reach of climatic conditions. 

 This point might be ascertained by using 

 liquid air instead of ice for experiments. 



Referring to pages 303 and 353, let me 

 say that I do not know whether Mr. Abbott 

 and I are of the same opinion or not. His 

 statements as quoted in Gleanings are not 

 explicit enough for me to be sure that I 

 understand him. We may notice that both 

 the editor and Dr. Miller qualify their state- 

 ments in regard to his theory in much the 

 same way. One difficulty is that he starts 

 with the hypothesis that the bees in ques- 

 tion are dead. Now, if he is talking about 

 dead bees it does not matter much whether 



