186 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



March 2i, 



Iff arks-Hoffman Metal-Spaced Frames— A plate of metal 

 let into a saw-kerf in the end-bar as a space — having been 

 commended In Gleanings, F. Boomhower, after having tried 

 them, says they are death-traps, not to be compared with 

 staples as spacers. 



Golden Italians are generally supposed to be of compara- 

 tively recent origin, yet in a letter written by Baron Berlepsch 

 in 1854, and lately publisht in Gerstung's Bienenzucht, he 

 says: "I have a queen which looks exactly as if chiseled out 

 of ducat gold. Her progeny excel all others." 



The See-Saw Section-Cleaner has been in editor Root's 

 head for some time, and now he has got it so far out of the 

 whirl and bustle of that busy location as to get it on paper. 

 Works a little like an old-fashioned turning-lathe, having a 

 foot-treadle, and a coil-spring above, so it can be whirled back 

 and forth. 



"Covers are Apt to Shrink," "says the Australian Bee- 

 Bulletin "thus becoming narrower than the top of the hive, 

 their efficacy in resisting heat and damp is to that extent im- 

 paired. Covers should be made at least an inch wider than 

 the top of the hive." But why not shrink that inch before 

 the covers are made ? 



Management of Swarms.— Here's the plan of Thos. W. 

 Odle, as related in Gleanings, by which he says he gets good 

 crops of honey: When a colony swarms he kills the queen, 

 reserving extra-good ones In nuclei, then at the proper time 

 removes all queen-cells but one, and in about 20 days has a 

 young laying queen that he thinks worth two old ones. 



Tall Sections of Light Weight Sold Best.— Thos. V. B. 

 Neece sold sections running 15 to 1(3 ounces each at 16 cents 

 a pound, 15 to 16 cents a section. A competitor sold at the 

 same price, per pound, plain and tall sections 1 14 or lag-Inch 

 thick, but this made them 10 and 12 cents each. The tall, 

 thin sections went off rapidly and the others dragged. Now 

 Neece wants to adopt tall, thin sections weighing 10 to 12 

 ounces. 



The Crane Fence.— Besides the Root and the Asplnwall 

 fence, there is now the Crane. Gleanings describes it as con- 

 sisting of four pieces with no cleats only at the two ends. 

 This makes a rather weak fence, but has the advantage of 

 freer communication. Where the three inside cleats usuajly 

 are, wooden pegs about 1 V-inch thick, >4-inch wide and 5-12 

 long are driven through the four slats, so as to abut against 

 the uprights of the sections. 



The New No-Bee-Way Section in England.— Some- 

 what strangely, when a new thing comes up in either England 

 or America, interest in It does not usually cross the water. 

 Plain sections and cleated separators seem to be an exception. 

 The British Bee Journal says that already two forms of sep- 

 arator are patented, and a third just ready. It thinks, how- 

 ever, that the bee-way section is not in immediate danger of 

 being forever swept out of sight. 



To Separate Swarms Clustered Together.— Have ready 

 a very large tub. Take it where the united swarms are, and 

 sprinkle it lightly insidn. Arrange several branches of trees 

 in the tub so they shall not touch each other. Dump in the 

 swarms in a single cluster, cover the tub with boards, leaving 

 free entrance for bees still in the air. Eich queen will take 

 a separate branch, and in half an hour the separate swarms 

 can be hived. It Is well to sprinkle the branches with sweet- 

 ened water. — Apicultcur. 



Identifying Laying- Workers.— D. W. Heise, who from 

 starting out in Canadian Bee Journal as a " picker up of un- 

 considered trifles," has developt into a full-fledged boiler him- 

 self, is desirous of a chance to crack the knuckles of this 

 boiler. Well, if it is a matter of necessity that the knuckles 

 must be crackt, there is probably no one who will administer 

 the cracking in a more judicious manner, or with fuller con- 

 sideration for the benefit of the crackee than the same man 

 Heise. So here's the chance, D. W.: Quoting from American 



Bee Journal, page 806, you aid and abet the promulgation of 

 the idea that a laying-worker can be " seen and told by her 

 looks." Now you may get from W. W. McNeal full instruc- 

 tions for the identification of laying-workers, said instructions 

 duly certified before the proper officer of the law, and neither 

 you nor any other bee-keeper on that side the line can pick out 

 for sure a laying-worker, even if one-fourth the workers are 

 engaged In that interesting occupation, unless you surprise 

 them in the act. This assertion failing to prove true, you are 

 at liberty to administer such knuckle-cracking as the merits 

 of the case and your sympathy for the culprit may dictate. 



Not Safe to Trust to a Single Queen-Cell. — A. Mau- 

 jean asks In Le Rucher Beige whether you are sure you will 

 have a good queen when you have, to all appearance, the very 

 best queen-cell. Sometimes queens are dead in cells, even 

 dying after they are sealed. In his experience he has had a 

 cell perfectly formed and sealed, but with no queen whatever 

 in it ; the cell containing only a little royal jelly, the larva 

 having probably died when very small and shrunk to nothing, 

 leaving no trace. 



Deep Hive-Entrances. — Deep entrances prevented en- 

 tirely lying-out the past summer for James L. Montgomery 

 (Gleanings), but Mr. Doollttle says It Is about the same 

 whether bees lie out in idle clusters, or in idle clusters in room 

 made for them by deep entrances under the hive. But Mr. 

 Montgomery scores a point for deep entrances when he says 

 that colonies in 8-frame hives with deep entrances swarmed 

 very little, "while those without the deep entrance have all 

 swarmed, some of them twice." 



How Field-Bees Unload. — Doollttle says in Progressive 

 Bee-Keeper that after having watcht hour after hour he be- 

 lieves that not one bee In a thousand returning with a load of 

 honey ever enters the sections till It has given up its load to a 

 young bee an inch to six inches from the entrance. The field- 

 bee rests a few moments to half an hour, then goes fieldward 

 again. The young bee evaporates the nectar, and if the yield 

 of nectar is too big to be evaporated by the young bees they 

 deposit some of the nectar In the cells, and at night all hands 

 turn to evaporate. 



Scale Colonies. — The practice of having a colony on 

 scales to note daily gain or loss is commended by R. C. Alkln, 

 in Gleanings. But he thinks it unwise to depend on,a single 

 colony as an Index of what all are doing, for it may be that 

 such colony may be working in a different quarter from most 

 others, and this is one of the ways perhaps in which may be 

 explained the difference In results of two colonies apparently 

 alike in all respects getltng such different yields In the same 

 apiary. To get satisfactory results, he thinks there should be 

 two or more colonies noted. 



Simmins' Direct Introduction of Queens. — In Bee-Chat, 



the new English quarterly bee-paper, edited by S. Simmins, 

 he gives the following rules to be observed in his plan of direct 

 introduction of queens. 1. Keep the queen quite alone for not 

 less than 30 minutes, without food, but warm. 2. Insert 

 after dark, under quilt, first driving the bees back with smoke. 

 3. No further examination is to be made until after 48 hours 

 has expired, -i. Make no division of, or nucleus from, the 

 hive within three days pilar to insertion, unless the original 

 queen Is then left on her own stand. 



Points in Using Plain Sections. — L. A. Asplnwall is 

 one of the men who have successfully used plain sections, and 

 he gives a valuable article in Review, especially valuable as it 

 points out some of the troubles to be avoided. Accurate 

 measurements must be used, and the space above and at the 

 sides, where vertical passages are used, must not be more 

 than '-1 inch, and at bottom 0/I6. Even then there will be 

 bulging if bees are crowded for room, and burr-combs will be 

 built throughout the hive, so supers must bs promptly re- 

 moved when filled. Parenthetically he remarks that bees will 

 put burr-combs in '4 -inch spaces between and above top-bars 

 if there is a scarcity of room. Greater care is required lii 

 handling and crating, putting not more than one or two sec- 

 tions with bulged edges in a crate If there are such sections. 

 He thinks no-drip cases are not needed with plain sections, 

 for even with veneers the plain sections come together so close 

 that drip will not get through. He uses tin separators of 

 peculiar construction, and scores a point In favor of tin by 

 saying; "To scrape propolis from a thousand separators is 

 no small task. But with a large kettle of boiling water, a 

 thousand or more^made of tin may _be cleaned in 15 or 2<> 

 minutes." 



