108 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15 



the hive first and fill out with combs after- 

 ward. It happened while doing this, two 

 years ago, that two colonies side by side, 

 equally strong in bees, and apparently alike 

 in every other respect, had excluders of dif- 

 ferent makes, one having perforations of the 

 customary -^\%"tj, and the other, as nearly as 

 I can tell, -^W^j^ to ^W^^ inch. When remov- 

 ing the honey-board a few minutes later to 

 insert the combs I noticed that the excluder, 

 which had the large openings, was black with 

 bees, completely covering it, while the other 

 had only a few scattering bees above it. The 

 difference was so marked that I was greatly 

 sui'prised, and induced to investigate a little 

 closer. In looking down I noticed that oc- 

 casionally a bee would wiggle and twist, try- 

 ing to get through, and then give up in de- 

 spair, and retreat. At other places a bee 

 would put forth the same effort and succeed, 

 working its way up in a seemingly exhausted 

 condition. Again, I would see here and there 

 a bee pass up without making any noticeable 

 effort. I could not help wondering at this 

 difference, and tried to explain to myself the 

 cause of these conditions. At first I imagined 

 that the size of the bees had something to do 

 with the case, but found out later that the 

 troul)le was all in the excluder. On exam- 

 ining .the same I found that the perforations 

 varied from about iVo^o to i\%% — a sufficient 

 variation to account for the different actions 

 of the bees. 



During all my extracting experiences I al- 

 ways noticed that my colonies with those 

 large excluders, of which I have (piite a num- 

 ber, purchased many years ago; greatly out- 

 did all others. I do not claim that this was 

 entirely on account of the excluders, for I 

 usually use these larger ones first, and start- 

 ing in with my better colonies too; but could 

 they (the excluders) not be accountable for 

 the better showing in some degree? 



Why do all the manufacturers make the 

 perfoi'ations of their excluding zinc so very 

 small — just large enough so that bees have 

 to make an extra effort to pass through? It 

 always seems to me like going upstairs and 

 crawling through a hole the size of our body 

 at the head of the stairs. Is it because they 

 are afraid queens might cause trouble in our 

 extracting-supers? There is little to fear in 

 this direction with considerably larger open- 

 ings. Why do queens so seldom start brood 

 in our section-cases, although a case well 

 supplied with bait-combs offers a tempting 

 inducement? In my opinion, one reason 

 may ])e assigned to the fact that section-cases 

 of all pattei-ns are practically queen-excluders, 

 although the bee-passages range anywhere 

 from I- to i\ of an inch. The ^\'^% excluders 

 which I have used for many years had in all 

 this time only once or twice, to my recollec- 

 tion, brood alcove them, and then only in 

 single instances. But suppose a queen did 

 occasionally stray away from her brood-nest 

 below, and start a few little patches of brood 

 above. Is that such a texTible aff'air that, to 

 prevent it, we have to compel our bees to 

 crowd themselves through these sharp-edged 

 strainei's, called excluders, thereby wearing 



themselves out prematui'ely? It can not be 

 otherwise;, but what is our honey-yield en- 

 hanced in consequence thereof? 



If a queen is found above, or f indications 

 by way of started brood would lead us to 

 suspect her there, it is the easiest thing in 

 the world to readjust matters to normal or 

 desired conditions. She is very apt to be on 

 one of the combs containing lu'ood; and if 

 these are shaken off" in front of the hive she 

 will follow the bees as soon as they begin to 

 travel toward the entrance, and enter her 

 deserted home, and, in all probability, will 

 remain there. 



The reason why a queen will leave the 

 brood-chamber may be on account of a some- 

 what crowded condition below. She may be 

 looking for a better chance to gi-atify her 

 maternal desires. But in most cases I think 

 her departure is more accidental. In pass- 

 ing over the coml)s from one side to the other 

 her passage may be so clogged with l^ees, or 

 possibly brace or burr combs may be in her 

 way, that an excluder-opening right above 

 her may seem to her the easiest and nearest 

 way of i-eaching her destination. Once above 

 the excluder, and among the bees there, she 

 would be just as liable to look among the 

 extracting-combs for a chance to free herself 

 from her overloaded condition as to hunt her 

 way laack through the excluder; and if she 

 should find any combs adapted for ])rood- 

 rearing it would be only natural for her to 

 use them for that purpose. 



I do not expect that all bee-keepers see 

 things as I have here stated; but I should be 

 greatly pleased if others would investigate 

 this matter a little, and express themselves 

 according to their findings. 



La Salle, N. Y. 



[The standard zinc of this country put out 

 by most of the dealers in supplies is approx- 

 imately I'/g^cr of an inch wide. The first zinc 

 that was sold in the early 80's was j\j*'(,°o wide, 

 but we received a good many reports that 

 queens went through it. We reduced it down 

 to iJilJ, and still there were complaints about 

 queens passing the metal. We finally re- 

 duced it to ^^ij), and found that, with this 

 size, only an occasional virgin would get 

 through it. While this has generally given 

 satisfaction, it is possible that producers have 

 made too much of an occasional queen pass- 

 ing the metal, and not attached enough im- 

 portance to freedom of passage for the work- 

 ers. I am half inclined to think you are 

 right. The manufacturers can just as easily 

 make a wider perforation as one narrower. 

 If j\j'5g% is too narrow, the dies, after the tem- 

 per is drawn, could be tiled a little wider to 

 make up the requisite size. 



My own experiments made some 15 years 

 ago showed that iVo^j let too many queens 

 through; but this possibly may have been be- 

 cause of the strain of bees that we then had. 

 I have made no experiments lately, and it is 

 possible that the size of ^\%% to j\%% is too 

 small. 



Strains of bees vai-y somewhat. Carnio- 

 lans would probably be a little larger than 



