1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



723 



siderably broadened, perhaps, on this self- 

 spacing question if he were to take a trip 

 among bee-keepers that would aggregate 

 anywhere from 2000 to 5000 miles, taking in 

 all kinds of localities in all parts of the 

 country. I have made several such trips, 

 and am not prepai'ed to recommend the 

 Hoffman frame to everybody, nor the clos- 

 ed-end, nor even the unspaced Langstroth. 

 -Ed.] 



■ ■ • .»«»««« 



GETTING THE BEES INTO THE DANZEN- 

 BAKER SUPER. 



An Excellent Plan for Curing Bees that Sulk. 



BY JAY SMITH. 



I was much interested in reading the ar- 

 ticle by Mr. Townsend, page 594, in regard 

 to using extrac ting-combs in the outside 

 frames in the supers. I have been experi- 

 menting along similar lines, and have solved 

 the problem of getting the bees into the su- 

 per, to my own satisfaction at least. 



In the spring, as soon as apples are in 

 bloom, I give a second hive with drawn 

 combs under the first. Later, or just before 

 the raspberries bloom, I shift the bottom 

 hive to the top, thereby giving the queen 

 plenty of room to lay. I leave things alone 

 till the clover flow is on in earnest, or till 

 the bees have been gathering for about a 

 week. Then I select ten frames containing 

 the most capped brood, and place them in 

 the bottom hive. The super with full sheets 

 of foundation is now put on, a queen-ex- 

 cluder on top of this; and the other hive- 

 body, containing some brood, pollen, and 

 honey is set on top of all. In about two 

 days the foundation is whitened and partly 

 drawn. Then the top hive is removed to a 

 weaker colony after first shaking or brush- 

 ing off all the bees. In using this method I 

 never had one single colony loaf or sulk 

 when adding the super or when taking off 

 the top hive-body. I never had any pollen 

 in the sections, and every one was as white 

 as snow. I do not have half the swarms I 

 used to have when using but one hive. The 

 objection I have to using a super full of ex- 

 tracting- combs is that I can not get the bot- 

 tom hive completely filled with brood as I 

 can by using two and then removing the 

 outside combs and putting in frames of 

 brood from the top hive. 



Now, to dispose of the partly filled left- 

 over sections I place them in the outside 

 rows, when the entire super is finished at 

 the same time. But I dislike left-over sec- 

 tions on general principles, and had decided 

 to nail on a top-bar and use the two outside 

 frames in super for extracted honey; but I 

 see Mr. Townsend has "beat me to it." 



I use these bait combs for bait in another 

 way. I take them to the grocer whose cus- 

 tomers complain that "that white stuff was 

 never made by bees." After getting the 

 customer started on this dirty honey, and 

 after he knows where it comes from, I can 

 then get him to work on A No. 1 white hon- 



ey; whereas if I had tried to start him in on 

 white honey he would have sulked. 



I use the Danzenbaker hive, and with this 

 management it gives the best of results. 



Vincennes, Ind. 



[Our correspondent is working along the 

 right line. The method of management he 

 describes is especially applicable to a shal- 

 low or double brood chamber hive like the 

 Danzenbaker. — Ed, ] 



■e)^ 





SWARMS BUILDING DRONE COMB. 



" Say, Doolittle, how long does it take you 

 to get to questions sent in to you for your 

 department in Gleanings?" 



"Well, Mr. Snowberger, that depends on 

 how crowded I am with questions. I am gen- 

 erally from one month to a year and a half 

 behind; though I try as far as possible to an- 

 swer the questions that are suitable for a 

 certain portion of the year, so that the an- 

 swers in the conversations will be as near 

 applicable to that particular part of the year 

 in which they can be put into practice to the 

 best advantage as may be." 



" I read your conversation in the Febru- 

 ary 15th Gleanings for 1904 on making su- 

 gar syrup for feeding bees, and noted it in 

 my memorandum for future reference." 



" That is a good way; and with the person 

 who does this, it matters very little whether 

 an article is suited to the portion of the year 

 in which it appears in print or not, for with 

 such memorandum before any person he can 

 turn to any or all articles appropriate to the 

 time when they can be used to the best ad- 

 vantage at just the time they are needed. 

 But the great majority of readers do not 

 keep such memorandum, and so it is better 

 for any matter useful only at one particu- 

 lar time of the year to appear in print just 

 at the time when it can be put into practice, 

 or a little before that time might be better 

 still, as then it would give a Httle time for a 

 preparation to try the plan." 



"I much enjoy your conversations, and 

 get much valuable information from them 

 as published in Gleanings. For this rea- 

 son I have come over from Indiana (by let- 

 ter) to talk with you for a few minutes. ' ' 



' ' I am glad if any thing I have written 

 has been helpful to you in any way, and I 

 thank you for your words of encouragement. 

 What shall we talk about to-day? " 



' ' The point I want information on is how 

 to prevent swarms from building drone comb 

 when hived on starters." 



' ' To answer you best, or so we can under- 

 stand each other, allow me to ask what 



