1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1447 



for any eight or ten frame hives. A bee- 

 keeper who has two queens in a hive and is 

 not satisfied with his queens had better kill 

 them and get a new strain of bees. 



Mrs. Wm. R. Miller. 

 Cambridge, Mass., Sept. 8. 



[The two-queen system with the perforat- 

 ed zinc, as suggested in your letter, is now a 

 practical working success - at least we have 

 had so many reports showing that two moth- 

 ers can be kept in hive successfully when 

 separated by a perlorated zinc, during the 

 important breeding season at least, that we 

 may conclude the thing is no longer a theory 

 or a possibility but an actuality. There may 

 be times when a double zinc will have to be 

 used; for we have had one report, possibly 

 two, where the two queens would fight 

 through the perforations, with the result that 

 one was killed. 



It is not yet proven that the two-queen sys- 

 tem in connection with perforated zinc will 

 work in the off season of the year - that is, 

 when brood-rearing naturally ceases, and 

 there is a tendency on the part of the bees 

 to rob. Some reports have seemed to show 

 that one of the queens will be missing. — Ed.] 



THE TWO QUEEN SYSTEM; DISTANCE THAT 

 BEES CAN FLY; CAUCASIANS SHORT- 

 LIVED. 



I have been experimenting some with two 

 queens to the hive this season, and I like it, 

 as I can keep my colonies so strong; but I 

 use two bodies with excluders between them. 

 I now expect to use very wide bodies, with 

 a queen on each side separated by a queen- 

 excluding division- board. 



I have also been experimenting as to what 

 distance bees will carry nectar. 1 live in the 

 city, and it is one and a half miles to the 

 cotton-fields, and 1 am harvesting a fine crop 

 of pure cotton honey. We have had the 

 poorest season here up to four weeks ago 

 that I ever saw; but I shall get an average of 

 from 75 to 100 lbs. per colony from cotton, 

 although but very few bee-keepers around 

 here will get any thing, as they have only 

 black bees, and they are not able to get any 

 honey from cotton at all. 



1 bought several Caucasian queens last fall, 

 and not one of them is alive now. They did 

 not seem to be able to stand their hand with 

 the Italians this poor season; and what puz- 

 zles me is that every one of the queens I 

 bought has been superseded. I like the gen- 

 tle part of them; but if they live only six 

 months I don't want to bother with them. 



Spartanburg, S. C. W. M. Bailey. 



BEES ROB FOUL-BROODY HONEY IN GROCER- 

 IES AND GET THE DISEASE. 



I shall have to give up my bees here, as 

 foul-brood comb honey is bought by the gro- 

 cers, and exposed at their front doors. My 

 bees sip it and get the disease. This occur- 

 red four years ago this last spring with a lot 

 of Cuban honey, and I have had trouble ever 

 since. I have destroyed in that time prob- 



ably $150 worth of hives and fixtures, and it 

 is in my yard now, with possibly not over 

 three or four colonies free from it, and they 

 will likely take it before the honey season is 

 over. I used the McEvoy system and also 

 izal in trying to cure it, but shall have to 

 drop bee-keeping for the present. 

 Blairsville, Pa. W. D. Keyes. 



FKAME-STAl'LES INSTEAD OF RABBET TINS. 



Being troubled with propolis in the rabbet 

 I was forced to tr jr for a remedy. The result 

 is shown by the mclosed sketch. So far as 

 one season on one hive can prove, it is a suc- 

 cess. It seems to me the tins are no longer 

 a necessity. I wonder they were not discard- 

 ed years ago by means of something simple. 



You will see by the sketch there is only 

 one staple as before; but it does away with 

 the necessity of the tins, and allows more 

 room for the fingers; also relieves the strain 



on ends of the top-bar; gives free bee-space 

 all round and under the ends, and the end- 

 spacer also, keeping every thing absolutely 

 clean. John Bell. 



Greenhithe, Auckland, N. Z. 



[The same general arrangement has been 

 before illustrated in these columns. There 

 are some good features about this form of 

 staple, but it has one or two defects. First, 

 if it be used with a non-spacing frame — that 

 is, a frame without any side projections — the 

 staple will act as a pivot and the frame will 

 swing like a pendulum. If the staples are 

 not exactly placed, the frames will hang 

 against each other and leave spaces too wide 

 at the bottom. Practically, such a staple 

 would have to be limited to the use of self- 

 spacing frames; and unless it were used with 

 a tin rabbet, lateral movement would be very 

 much impeded because the staple would 

 crowd propolis before it on the wood rabbet 

 in a way that would make frame-handling 

 very unpleasant as well as difficult. 



1 ou say so far, one season, the device is a 

 success. Probably propolis will not be ac- 

 cumulated in one year's time to cause any 

 trouble with the arrangement; it is only aft- 

 er several years that you would begin t ) no- 

 tice trouble; and if propolis is deposited so 

 badly that the tin rabbet is filled up, your 

 arrangement would make confusion worse 

 confounded the second or third season. — Ed.] 



