THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



13 



between the tier? of sections. No brace 

 combs were built between the top and bot- 

 tom bars of the sections, but many were the 

 little mounds of propolis that, as a result, 

 were plastered upon them. .5-10 is the bee 

 space. Bro. Hill, of the Guide, also says 

 that bees are much less inclined to build 

 brace combs in new hives, and with new 

 frames, and friend Hilton sufjyests the same 

 thing in this issue, and we, too, have noticed 

 the same thing; therefore, let no one shout 

 "Eureka!" the first season with new hives 

 and frames. It is also evident that depth of 

 top bar has a bearing upon the question. 

 With thin top bars, the building of brace 

 combs or the putting in of hard plugs of 

 wax is greatly increased. From reading the 

 reports in this issue, we should be led to 

 believe that with top bars 7-8 deep, accu- 

 rately spaced .5-1(5 apai-t, and the same dis- 

 tance from the section above, there ivould be 

 freedotn from brace combs. 



If honey boards, used for the purpose of 

 excluding brace combs, can be dispensed 

 with, and it eventually proves profitable and 

 advisable to no longer use them for this 

 purpose, in what shape shall our queen 

 excluders be used? If plain sheets of zinc, 

 bound with wood or turned up at the edges 

 to secure the bee space, can be used without 

 any bulging or sagging and the accompany- 

 ing destruction of the bee space, well and 

 good. If the building of brace combs is 

 prevented, perhaps plain sheets of zinc can 

 be kept sufficiently straight; if not, then let 

 V shaped pieces of tin be soldered to them 

 a hi Heddon. It does not seem as though it 

 were worth while to discuss whether queen 

 excluders are needed. In hiving swarms 

 upon starters only, or upon sheets of foun- 

 dation, and transferiug the supers from the 

 old to the new hives, queen excluders have 

 proven a necessity with us, and with many 

 others. In raising extracted honey, it is 

 well-nigh impossible to keep the queen out 

 of the extracting combs, unless a queen ex- 

 cluder is used. By its use, queen cells may 

 be secured at any time in a colony having a 

 laying queen. At the last meeting of the 

 Mich, State Bee Keepers' Association, Mr. 

 Taylor told how it could be employed in 

 finding queens. When there is a super or an 

 upper story upon the hive, blow a little 

 smoke in at the entrance, drum a little upon 

 the side of the hive, take off the super and 

 set it aside, then remove the queen excluder 

 and turn it upside down in front of the hive, 



when the queen will be found upon what ivas 

 the under side of the excluder. The theory 

 is this: The smoke and drumming alarm the 

 bees and queen and start them into the super. 

 The queen endeavors to pass the excluder, 

 but is unable, and is still "endeavoring" 

 when the excluder is removed. Mr, Taylor 

 said he found twenty-five queens in this 

 manner last fall, without a single failure, 

 and did the work as fast as he could handle 

 supers and remove excluders. New uses for 

 the excluder are being frequently discovered. 

 Much has been said about a queen excluder 

 with eight rows of perforations not furnish- 

 ing sufficient passage-way for the bees. We 

 have just counted the openings in such an 

 excluder and find there are 200 of them, and 

 their combined capacity is equal to a space 

 IV inches high by 14 inches long. Let the 

 doubters compare an opening of this size 

 with the entrance of the hive. 



The Prevention of Brace Combs. 



LEANINGS for January 1 comes very 

 near being a "special number," de- 

 voted to the above subject. Several 

 writers give their experience with thick top 

 bars, and we have exti-acted the gist of what 

 some of them have to say, and give it below; 

 I have in use a sort of modified Bingham 

 frame, about six inches deep, end bars 1% 

 inches wide, with Alley top-bars, which, as I 

 make them, are 1 inch wide and % inch 

 thick. During the past year, in my locality, 

 so far as brace-combs are concerned they 

 have proven to be entirely satisfactory, there 

 being no trouble of brace combs between 

 the top of the brood nest and queen exclud- 

 ing honey board than there is in the bee- 

 space between two supers on the hive. I 

 also have some frames about the depth of 

 the regular Langstroth, which, so far as I 

 can see, worked equally well. My brother, 

 who uses a shallow frame like the one I use, 

 makes his top bars 1 inch wide by "'^ thick, 

 and will have no other. He rips them out of 

 common "•■^ inch boards. For frames deeper 

 than the Bingham, my preference is the 

 thicker, or V bar. 



Here it is proper to mention an interesting 

 fact. In hiving new swarms I used queen 

 excluders; but my brother hived all his new 

 swarms into these empty frames, without 

 excluders, after having placed the supers 

 from the parent colony upon them, yet in 

 not a single instance was there any brood 

 reared in the supers. Whether this was 

 caused by the form of the frames or of the 

 super, I am unable to say. It is important 

 that the width of the top bars be in propor- 

 tion to the distance that the frames are 



