1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



553 



Place the box on a table, with the saw- 

 cuts down, as in Fig. 1, and lay in five to 

 twenty sheets with the ends even. Then 

 put on the cleated board and turn the box 

 ■over so it rests on the cleats as shown in 

 Fig. 2. A circular knife, free to turn easily 

 on a handle, is the best for cutting; but a 

 keen butcher-knife will do about as well. 

 It need not be hot if it is well lubricated 

 with soapy water. Hold the knife at an 

 angle, as shown, and move it rapidly but 

 lightly back and forth, cutting only on the 

 stroke toward you. 



The illustration shows the box adapted 

 for full sheets; but by putting the saw-cuts 

 •closer together, starters of any width can be 

 cut. They could also be arranged for tri- 

 angular or odd- shaped starters. With one 

 -of these boxes 150 full sheets may be easily 

 cut in one minute; or, if starters are want- 

 ed, as many as two or three hundred. The 

 work requires no care, and a mistake can 

 not be made. —Ed.] 



dROCER MENTIONED IN FEB. IST GLEANINGS 



NOT IGNORANT OF THE FACTS ; SIMPLY 



WROTE TO SECURE PROOF TO USE 



IN CONVINCING CUSTOMERS. 



Regarding my letter to Mr. Pouder, on 

 •which you comment in Feb. 1st Glean- 

 ings, I will say that I had no misapprehen- 

 sion whatever on the subject of manufac- 

 tured honey when I wrote that letter, which 

 was only one of several letters written to 

 other parties at the same time, one of them 

 being published with a column answer in 

 The Modern Grocer, of Chicago, of Nov. 19, 

 1904. I wrote in the way I did to secure 

 proof of the genuineness of comb honey for 

 the benefit of all my customers, particular- 

 ly the family of Dr. C. N. Brown, of this 

 city, who claimed to know positively that 

 comb honey is manufactured, and nothing I 

 could say would convince them. My method 

 of writing secured fuller and more numer- 

 ous replies than could have been obtained in 

 any other way, and no one has read them 

 without being convinced absolutely. How- 

 ever, the opinion is all but universal that 

 comb honey is manufactured, and nothing 

 less than a special presidential message on 

 the subject will enlighten the majority of 

 people for a generation at least. 



Fairmount, Ind, Apr. 1. C. A. CooK. 



[You are exactly right. The opinion is 

 all but universal that comb honey is manu- 

 factured, and it is high time that bee-keep- 

 ers were helping to disabuse the public of 

 that erroneous notion. At present the new 

 Honey-producers' League offers the best so- 

 lution of the difficulty. — Ed.] 



bees IN THE cellar WITH CHICKEN-INCU- 

 BATORS. 



I am a subscriber for Gleanings, and 

 have been much interested in the different 

 discussions in regard to wintering bees in a 

 cellar. I put five colonies in my cellar about 

 Dec. 1, and, having two incubators in the 



cellar, I was very anxious to know the out- 

 come of the combination.- The cellar was a 

 moderately cold one, as some potatoes froze 

 in one corner behind the bees and under one 

 of the ventilators. My bees seemed not to 

 notice the incubators until the warm weath- 

 er in March, at that time 1 gave them their 

 first flight; but they did not quiet down when 

 I put them back. The continued warm 

 weather and the incubators kept them in an 

 uproar so they came out for good two w* eks 

 later. Walter DeGraw. 



Springfield, 0., April 16. 



[Bees and chicken-incubators in the cpllar 

 would make a bad combination. The incu- 

 bators would be doing their heaviest work 

 just at the time the bees would be getting 

 uneasy, and when it would be difficult to 

 keep the cellar cool. In this case you had 

 better have left the bees out without put- 

 ting them back. — Ed.] 



SCATTERED EGGS. 



In one of my hives I found, when opening 

 it, two and three eggs in a cell. These eggs 

 were scattered all over the comb. What is 

 the cause of it, and would it do to keep the 

 queen? M. D. Whitcher. 



Los Olivos, Cal. , March 22. 



[Scattered eggs might be either the work 

 of laying workers or of a drone-layer. Or 

 they might be the work of a queen just re- 

 ceived from the mails, and which had not 

 begun to lay regularly. The cases of a fer- 

 tile queen scattering eggs in this way, how- 

 ever, are very rare; and when we find this 

 condition we may look for either a drone- 

 layer or laying workers. — Ed.] 



MORE MODIFICATIONS ON THE SIBBALD NON- 

 SWARMING PLAN. 



I thought, as I am getting somewhat in- 

 terested in your literature, I should give 

 you my experience in regard to divided 

 swarms in preference to " shook " swarms, 

 and have tried it two ways— first, to place 

 hive No. 2 in place of No. 1, then remove 

 one card of brood, together with queen, to 

 hive No. 2; then remove No. 1 some dis- 

 tance away in the apiary; and as the field 

 bees return they will come back to the old 

 stand, or hive No. 2, and by night one will 

 have a nice large swarm in No. 2. Some- 

 times it drains No. 1 too heavily, and in this 

 case place a super from No. 1 on No. 2. 



Second, remove No. 1 from its stand and 

 place No. 2, then remove one (or two cards 

 of brood is better) with queen-cell. Be sure 

 not to get the queen, and place in No. 2; 

 then remove No. 1 some distance away. It 

 works well to remove the super also. This 

 latter plan has in all cases proved the most 

 successful, in my estimation at least. 



I have one colony of this latter kind treat- 

 ed in this way already, this spring. I had 

 one colony die out, all but the queen and 

 about 50 bees. I put this queen and her 

 bees in a cage and placed her in a hive with 

 comb and honey, then took one comb of 



