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Vol. XXXIIL 



OCT. J 5, J 905. 



No. 20 



W. S. M. ASKS whether the bees of two 

 colonies will work in the same super, the 

 two colonies being in a double hive with only 

 a screen division between them, the super to 

 cover only half of each hive. Sure. But 

 perhaps it might be better to increase the 

 size of your super. 



Mr. Editor, when I asked, page 1005, 

 whether you "really make a practice of 

 shaking all the bees off the combs" in a 

 shallow brood- chamber or super, I was not 

 quibbling on the word "all," as you seem to 

 think, but merely trying to learn if you 

 make a practice of shaking out bees without 

 taking out combs. The second picture, page 

 1022, seems to answer in the affirmative. 



A NEW KINK is that way of getting big 

 cakes of wax without cracks— pouring from 

 one tub to another, p. 1013. With smaller 

 cakes it may be done this way: Have a big 

 lot of water under the wax, and cover up 

 the whole so warm that it will be a long 

 time cooling off. Or, put the melted wax 

 in the oven of a cook-stove before the fire is 

 out at night, and close the oven door, leav- 

 ing it all night to cool. 



Some of the variations of the shaken- 

 swarm plans are bringing us around to the 

 plan given some years ago by G. W. Dema- 

 ree — a plan well worth trying by producers 

 of extracted honey. Raise the brood to a 

 second story, leaving in the lower story the 

 queen with frames of foundation, an exclud- 

 er between the stories. Result, no swarm- 

 ing. A few, however, reported swarming. 

 It's easier than shaking swarms where it 

 works. 



F. C. Hochstein's article, page 1014, re- 

 minds me of a plan for getting bees off combs 

 in practice here. Take hold of one end of 



the top-bar, and strike the other end of the 

 top-bar on the ground in front of the hive. 

 But don't strike the end of the bottom-bar 

 on the ground unless you want the comb 

 smashed. [It strikes me that this would be 

 a severe strain on the frame. A good hard 

 blow would have a tendency to make the 

 frame a little out of square, would it not?— 

 Ed.] 



If you have used a string in transferring 

 combs, don't lift out a brood- frame, cut the 

 string, and then unwind, as advised on page 

 1030, but without taking out the frame make 

 a single cut the whole length of the top-bar 

 with a pocket-knife, and the thing is done. 

 But I suspect rubber bands are very much 

 better. What size, Mr. Editor? [The rub- 

 ber bands I had in mind were the ordinary 

 small ones used in the office, rubber links 

 about 1 J inches across the long way. I nev- 

 er tried them, but can see no reason why 

 they would not be just the thing. — Ed.] 



Generally, if a man should say to me 

 that, to prevent the absconding of a newly 

 hived swarm, there should be no large open- 

 ing above, I'd be likely to think, "My dear 

 fellow, you're standing on your head." But 

 when one in whose word I have so much con- 

 fidence as I have in that of S. E. Miller says 

 it, p. 1015, I'm ready to move a reconsidera- 

 tion of the question. Can it be possible that 

 I've always been wrong in advising to move 

 back the cover for the first day or two after 

 hiving? I may say, Bro. Miller, that, al- 

 though my bees do lots of gluing, they don't 

 generally glue up a crack of J inch on top. 

 That alone, however, doesn't prove me right. 



An objection to piling hives in cellar in 

 the way illustrated on p. 1014 may be worth 

 mentioning. Bees in cellar have spells of 

 stirring up and roaring, and the stirring-up 

 of one colony is communicated to others in 

 that sort of piling, so the bees will have 

 spells of stirring up of tener than if detached. 

 [You are correct ; but if room is limited, 

 what are you going- to do? To put the hives 

 on shelving, each hive where it can be moved 

 without disturbing the others, would be ex- 

 pensive, and wasteful of room. Would not 

 the cost of the shelving pay for an occa- 



