1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



721 



I have had good success in introducing 

 young queens about the time fall apples are 

 picked. These young queens will till the 

 hives with eggs where an old queen would 

 hardly lay at all. These eggs are the bees 

 that are in the hive April 15. 



I manage to have a frame of nice white 

 clover honey in the fall for every colony. 

 Then about three or four weeks before win- 

 ter sets in I go to my hives and take out the 

 lightest frame that has no brood and place 

 that frame of clover honey right in the 

 center of the brood-nest. 1 find that the 

 bees will move the honey out of the center 

 of the frame; and as fast as they do, the 

 queen will fill those cells with eggs. If you 

 winter in the cellar, that frame of honey is 

 about as much as they will consume during 

 the confinement, and they will come out in 

 better condition in the spring than they 

 would if they had late fall honey to winter 

 on. In the spring, when the maples are in 

 bloom, I look the bees over. If they want 

 more honey I give them some of the heavi- 

 est frames I took out in the fall, and in 

 that way I don't have much if any thing 

 left but empty combs. 



Spencerport, N, Y. , March 23. 



SHALLOW FRAMES SAME DEPTH AS SEC- 

 TION-HOLDERS. 



Putting Brood-frames in the Super to Induce 

 Bees to Work in the Sections. 



BY E. p. CHURCHILL. 



About fifteen years ago I had a shallow- 

 frame idea, the same length as the L., and 

 4J inside, with top and bottom bar § thick by 

 i wide, and wide (section) frame the same 

 thickness of required box width, so as to 

 take four sections. On each corner of the 

 brood-frame I glued and nailed wedges i 

 long with about half its length left as a 

 bearing. They were , g thick so as to space 

 as near a natural bee-space as could be han- 

 dily, and it all proved better than I expect- 

 ed. Why, I often have a whole set of 

 combs (9 frames) , all brood, save some pol- 

 len - yes, not a bit of honey in the nest. 

 I use reversible iron on section-frames and 

 quite a lot of brood-frames. Nothing is 

 handier than to have four sections reversi- 

 ble at one turn, or something which can be 

 exchanged from inside to outside of case 

 quickly. There are slatted separators nail- 

 ed to one side. 



Now you see I can put a frame of brood 

 up among the sections, which hurries the 

 bees into them (I know). I always find bees 

 in the sections sooner on shallow frames, 

 and get most honey there; and as all are the 

 same length I change cases to regular L. 

 hives. Wedges being up and down they 

 work perfectly; and one advantage is, open 

 •ends afford a beeway, and but little room 

 for gum; and as they run with square ends 

 out there is no chance to catch, and they 

 are superior, even on L. frames, second one 

 in place of end of whole spacer. 



Of course, I have scraping to do on even 

 so small a bearing (and we have got to 

 scrape or make a bungling job), to say noth- 

 ing of inducing bees to stay down by frames 

 being pressed too far apart by propolis. 



It seems to me a big mistake, those inch- 

 wide top-bars, as it rather prevents egg- 

 laying, as the I thickness is natural. I 1 ave 

 noticed where I made closest spacing 1 get 

 section work sooner and heavier. 



With my shallow frames I have to use ex- 

 cluders. I use only one set of brood-frames 

 to a colony ; and when they get too full I use 

 some in other hives among sections; and to 

 help weaker ones, if so needed, and thus 

 keep swarming down by replacing empty 

 combs or foundation-frames I haven't a 

 thing that hits the nail more fairly than the 

 above arrangement. 



My hives (all chaff) have regulating en- 

 trances from to |X6 inches, or I can re- 

 move it and give 1x14. The small one is all 

 connected, and can be trusted against wind 

 and storm and robber bees. Hives ought to 

 have regulating and yet permanent slide- 

 entrance regulators as much as a house— 

 why not? 



I see in Gleanings suggestions for short- 

 er spacers. Don't hold to that as an im- 

 provement. Why, there would be still more 

 sway and variation, especially without thor- 

 ough scraping and hard and sure pressing 

 together. 



AH need a pry to move followers— two 

 pieces of half-inch or more, a foot or more 

 long, fastened in a square from one to three 

 inches wide, one five with ends, ends wedged 

 an inch or so. That is one of my most use- 

 ful tools. We need a hand pry for followers 

 to hold much. 



My bees are all raised from the bottom- 

 board, and never had such warm packing as 

 last winter, and never were so still and so 

 indifferent to noise. 



Hallowell, Me. 



[Our friend Churchill is one of the oldest 

 users of shallow frames, but very few find 

 it practicable to use frames quite so shallow. 



Regarding top-bars, they can be narrower 

 in the case of shallow than deep frames. 

 -Ed.] 



«»»««»» • . . 



ITALIANIZING AS A CURE FOR PICKLED 

 BROOD. 



An Interesting Experiment. 

 BY G. A. BOSTWICK. 



After reading what Mr. C. F. Bender and 

 A. J. Halter say in Dec. 1st Gleanings I 

 beg to say nearly all they have said I have 

 verified in my own experience. 



Two years ago I purchased ten colonies of 

 bees in boxes of all shapes and sizes. Pre- 

 vious to this all my bees were healthy. In 

 transferring my new bees to movable-frame 

 hives there were leaks from broken combs, 

 and drippings here and there. About three 

 weeks after, I discovered sunken cappings, 

 and careful inspection failed to show a 



