1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



169 



hive, or even tack it on the outside. The 

 objection to this is that you must go clear 

 across the yard to find ovit in what shape 

 you left a certain colony, or, perhaps, go 

 running all around the place to find an emp- 

 ty hive in which to put a new swarm. 



Suppose you take a smooth board, six 

 inches wide by four feet long. This will 

 easily accommodate 125 colonies for a whole 

 season. It is taken for granted that the 

 hives are numbered. Next number the board; 

 and it is also advisable that the board be 

 ruled to prevent any possibility of mistakes, 

 for they are liable to be costly. Many, no 

 doubt, wonder how the record for a colony 

 of bees is to be kept for a whole season in a 

 space I inch wide by six inches long, and 

 this is, indeed, very important. It is done 

 by a system of shorthand. This must, of 

 course, be varied by each person to meet his 

 own needs. 



Here are a few lines from one of our 

 boards for the year 1904 that will give an 

 idea of how the method is carried out. 

 1. C (-6/13) Q6/31 (B7/21) 0. 

 The first thing in the spring, as soon as we 

 are able to look over the bees, we look up 

 the queens and clip their wings where neces- 

 sary. The first record to go on the board, 

 then, is the age of the queen. Suppose that 

 we find her wings have never been clipped. 

 We then place a C after the number of the 

 hive. If her wings are clipped we look on 

 the board for the season before, and see how 

 old she is. If she was raised in the season of 

 1902 the C would have a line drawn across 

 it. Jf raised the season before that, there 

 would be two lines, and we should know 

 that she was a fit subject for removal. 

 (-6/13) shows that, on the 13th of June, eggs 

 were found in the queen-cells. The paren- 

 thesis is used simply to prevent its becoming 

 mixed with what goes before or after. If a 

 larva had been found instead of an egg there 

 would have been two lines before the 6; and 

 if sealed queen-cells, three lines. When we 

 came to this colony eight days later the con- 

 dition was such as to warrant the removal of 

 the queen. When this is done it is marked 

 with a square, followed by 6/21. As the queen 

 was still good she was evidently removed 

 with a comb or two of brood, and used to 

 start a nucleus; for, further down on the 

 board, we find the following: 

 8. N6/21C1. 



(This shows that this hive was empty, and 

 that on the 21st of June a new colony was 

 started with the queen from No. 1). The 

 next week we cut out all the queen-cells, 

 and simply drew a diagonal line through the 

 square (not shown). When the new queen 

 was introduced we drew a diagonal / the 

 other way. Later we found that, for some 

 reason, the queen was not accepted, so we 

 gave them a comb of brood from some other 

 hive, allowing them to raise a queen to suit 

 themselves. Thiswas marked (B7/21). When 

 we found eggs showing that a young queen 

 was laying we marked it 0. 



Down further we will look at another line. 

 13. C. (F7/7) □ 7/7 (C6/22) (7/7 )X 7/24. 



The interpretation of this is as follows: 



On the 7th of July we shook this swarm 

 on to foundation. In the course of an hour 

 or two we discovered that, in the opei-a- 

 tion, the queen had been lost or killed, so 

 we marked them queenless. Some time 

 during the day we removed a queen (that 

 had been raised earlier in the spring, and 

 was clipped June 22d), from some other 

 hive and introduced her to No. 13. 7/24 

 signifies that, on the 24th, the colony was all 

 right. 



Take another line. 



75. N. V. 6/13 ( □7/7). 



This shows a new swarm with a virgin 

 queen, June 13: queen removed July 7, etc. 



From these few examples a general idea 

 can be obtained of the methods employed 

 in this system, and each person must vary 

 and change the signs to meet the local con- 

 ditions and his own methods of caring for 

 the bees. 



The board is always at your hand; and if 

 a colony clear across the yard is swarming 

 you can see just the condition in which you 

 left it the week before without moving from 

 your work. The. leaves are never getting 

 stuck together with honey or propolis; and, 

 even if it does become sticky, it is an easy 

 matter to wash it. Can any thing be more 

 convenient or simple than this? 



Middle bury, Vt. 



A FEEDER ADAPTED ESPECIALLY 



FOR USE IN THE DANZENBAKER 



BOTTOai BOARDS. 



BY GEO. W. BABCOCK. 



I think I have hit upon an idea in connec- 

 tion with the Danzen baker bottom- board as 

 a feeder, that is unique. 



The Danz. bottom-boards, such as I have 

 are made in three parts, of uniform size and 

 accurate fit. The only nailing of the bot- 

 tom-boards by me is one nail as shown at A. 

 The reason for this is so the shrinkage in the 

 bottom can be taken up by sliding the boards 

 together. Since only one board is nailed the 

 other two can easily be removed, and in 

 their place substitute the feeder in question 

 from the back, as shown. 



I used, in constructing this feeder, ^-inch 

 stuff from orange-crates, which is enough 

 thinner than the regiilar Danz. fioor-board to 

 permit of the top rim of the three-pint basin 

 passing under the end cleat, and an ^-inch- 

 thick cleat tacked on at B closes the slot per- 

 fectly when the feeder is slid in place. 



As shown in sketch, Fig. 1, 1 added a cleat, 

 D, of the same i-inch material, under which 

 the forward part of feeder-board E slides, 

 thus leaving no opening in the bottom-board 

 when the feeder is drawn forth at the rear 

 to be filled, as shown in Fig. 3. I use a heavy 

 enamel basin, costing 20 cts. here, 10 cts. in 

 Rochester. I have eight of these feeders. I 

 use a waxed float made of jig-inch materia) 

 (wood). Fig. 4. 

 On one hive, while using this feeder I had 



