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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



comb, shaking and brushing the bees back 

 into the hive. Don't let the bees boil over 

 the top of the hive, or you may lose the 

 queen. Don't shake them out into the grass 

 in front of the hive— that's unnecessary; 

 but keep the queen in the hive where she 

 belongs. Be sure that the bees fill them- 

 selves before you remove the brood, and be 

 sure to remove all the brood from the old 

 hive and all the bees from the brood. This 

 is important. 



After the exchange of frames is made, 

 replace the super, and then, with the brood, 

 build up the nuclei which you have previ- 

 ously started, giving each nucleus only as 

 much brood as the bees can care for. Time 

 of operation, fifteen minutes. Results, the 

 swarming fever is effectually broken up for 

 the season. No second shaking, puttering 

 around, no after-examination to see if they 

 are going to swarm. The job is done. The 

 old colony is strong ; it has all the bees and 

 a laying queen. The new colony can be 

 built up to any desired strength without 

 danger of swarming if plenty of room is 

 given. After the nucleus is built up to ten 

 frames, put on a queen-excluder and add 

 another ten frames of brood. If you have 

 not any nuclei started," then use Alexander's 

 plan, page 425, which, by the way, is worthy 

 of more consideration than it has received. 



Will the bees abscond ? No, not if the 

 conditions within the hive are all right. It 

 is these conditions, not the manner of get- 

 ting them into the hive, that determine 

 whether or not the bees will be contented. 

 Remember these things: The bees must be 

 filled with honey before the brood is re- 

 moved. Bees don't like to see daylight 

 through the top of the hive. Make it tight, 

 Dr. Miller notwithstanding, page 523. Bees 

 don't like to be tampered with after being 

 once settled in their new quarters. Leave 

 them alone for at least three days, or leave 

 the zinc over the entrance. 



In respect to Alexander's idea, page 425, 

 I will say that I believe it will prove exceed- 

 ingly valuable. I am testing it this summer 

 with 125 colonies. I wouM, however, mod- 

 ify Mr. Alexander's method in one particu- 

 lar; and that is, instead of putting the new 

 hive below, I would remove frames as in 

 shaking, and put the new hive with brood 

 above for the following reasons: 



1. It requires less work; 2. It obviates 

 the necessity for hunting the queen, which 

 is no easy or pleasant task with a hive full 

 of bees. I have found that sometimes, even 

 with strong colonies, violent robbing takes 

 place before the bees have had time to ad- 

 just themselves to their new surroundings. 



Valparaiso, Ind. 



[There are several modifications of the 

 shake-swarm plan. I believe the one you 

 recommend is feasible and practicable. I 

 have seen Coggshall and his men during 

 extracting time shake the combs right in 

 the hives. I had supposed the bees would 

 pile up enough in the bottom of the hive to 

 interfere with shaking; but I noticed they 

 did not— Ed.] 



WAX-PRODUCTION IN CUBA. 



Frames Spaced Far Apart so as to Give More 

 Wax with the Cappings. 



BY LESLIE BURR. 



Wax is just as important ajproduct to the 

 Cuban bee-keeper as honey; and with the 

 idea in view of producing just as much v/ax 

 as possible I will take you through a season 

 of Cuban bee-keeping. J. ::^ 



The principal honey-flowers begin about 

 November 1, and last till along in February. 

 Through this flow I practice just as wide 

 spacing as the strength of the colony will 

 permit. The strongest can be spaced seven 

 combs to a ten-frame super. With this 

 V; ide spacing the bees will build comb clear 

 up over the top-bar. 



In uncapping, remember you are after 

 wax, so have the lower edge of the knife 

 dull to cut the wax from the top-bar with, 

 and cut the comb down even with the top 

 and bottom bars. I may also add that 

 strong frames are wanted, and that, after 

 you run across one frame with metal spac- 

 ers under half an inch of wax, you do not 

 want any more. In March, April, and May 

 is the spring flow. The bees begin to breed, 

 and, if nothing is done, swarming begins. 



Now put on the queen- excluders; cut out 

 half or two-thirds of the combs above, and 

 replace the empty frames. At this time of 

 the year the bees are anxious to rear drones; 

 and as they have none, about all of the comb 

 built will be drone; and as they are expect- 

 ing the queen to lay in it, it is left open. 

 Now make the rounds every week or ten 

 days, and knock out the drone comb and 

 replace the frames in the strong colonies 

 whex'e there will be danger of swarming. 

 Keep taking combs of brood from the brood- 

 nest and put them above the excluder, 

 replacing them with starters. Sometimes 

 the bees will be kind enough to build full 

 frames of worker combs. In such cases let 

 them stay and keep putting the old combs 

 above to hatch. 



When the spring flow is over you have 

 probably half a set of combs to the colony, 

 so when the fall flow comes in August and 

 September the bees have something to do 

 besides swarming. 



In having your combs built at this time of 

 year, always use full sheets of foundation 

 in the brood-nest, as you are now wanting 

 nothing but worker comb below. 



For the super, use starters. It makes 

 little difference what the combs are above; 

 but take care during the early part of the 

 honey season to put the drone combs by 

 themselves over colonies with excluders, 

 taking the excluder off later when there is 

 no danger of the queen going above, as a 

 colony will plug a brood-nest far worse 

 where there is an excluder between them 

 and the super. 



Now a word about starters and full sheets 

 of foundation. When it is necessary to use 

 a full sheet, do so; but when you use start- 



