IfG 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JULV 



SPREADIIVCi THE BROOD, HOXEV 

 BOXES, CHAFF, ETC. 



VnTjRlEXD NOVICE :— Gleanings for June is in hand, 

 ]l[i anrl its visit finds me so busy that I scarcely have 

 ' time to turn round. My bees came out with the 

 loss of 3 out of 51. Had queen cells started for swarming 

 on Jlay "^Oth. I don't ajrree with you in relation to in- 

 se rtiir^ emjity combs in the brood chamber ; a new strong 

 swarm with hive full of bees may fill all their combs with- 

 out spreadins, but I think friend Doolittle will tell you 

 that his quart of bees wouldn't amount to much if he 

 didn't spread the combs. 1 inserted the first combs this 

 spring. May Gth, and I know the queen would not have 

 occupied the space in several days. I find it a very good 

 l)lan to mark the date on the top of the frames, then you 

 know just when that comb vrill shell out the young bees. 

 It requires some experience to spread the combs just at 

 the proper time ; the new beginner is liable to overdo and 

 ruin the swarm. Although a strong swarm may fill their 

 b.ive with brood, I find in my ajiiary that the front find 

 rear combs are usually filled with bee bread and hone5', 

 and would not be filled v.'ith brood but for removal and 

 spreading. We have inserted such frames, tilled with bee 

 bread, m the centre, and next day found the bee bread all 

 removed from the centre of the combs and eggs in its jilace. 



You will find a description of tin cornered honey lioxes 

 in King's Bee Journal, Vol. XI, pages 12 and 0(5, for the 

 year 1870; and I used such boxes the same year. Mr. 

 Isham's patent I think covers his method of applying the 

 tins through a mortise, while the old way was to tack the 

 tins to the cover. A very neat box can be easily made by 

 getting out your top and bottom, size required, and setting 

 4 wires, about No. ."JO, and as long as you want the height of 

 the box, ii' inch from each corner ; cut the glass accurate- 

 ly and hold it in place against the wires, by ])itccs o; tin 

 driven into toj) and bottom pieces. The corners can be 

 covered with fancy jjaper. I am usin.r a few of the abo\"e 

 pattern, they are very easily and cheajily made. 



I like section frames better than any other method, and 

 if the honey is put in bulging, I make several sections just 

 large enough to slip over the honey sections, like a cover 

 over a lx)x, with glass on one side. You can slip one on 

 each side of a frame and accommodate the bidge. We 

 can make these very easily of wood just as we make our 

 sections, but I suppose they could be made of pajier just 

 as well. AVe make our sections by grooving the ends, and 

 we think it pays to have yoin- glue-pot on the stove and 

 Avhen you put them together, dip one end of each piece in 

 it; it makes a very solid frame. We have adopted the 

 same plan for our hive frames, and now make them 

 stronger than a nailed frame. 



Friend Bolin has lost a few s'.v'arms of his bees then. 

 We knew he wouldn't sail through this hazardous life of 

 bee-keeping without now and then a little bad luck. But 

 who would have thought that friend Bolin hail the "con- 

 stitutional weakness" of standing with his hands folded, 

 when his Waterloo was perhaps before him. 



Now, Friend Novice, don't go for chafT too strong. IVe 

 fixed a swarm according to Townly. He said take a me- 

 dium swarm and we did. We put a new quilt over the 

 frames and packed chaff all around, not a foot on top, but 

 about inches. They wintered well, but dwindled in the 

 sjH-ing ; perhaps I should have put on bags and more cliaft'. 

 J. H. M.ujTix, Hartford, N. Y., June otli, '7(;. 



YOUNG QUEENS SWARMJNG OUT, AND 

 THE REMEDY. 



^^OU will oblige me ever so .niicJi, by gi\ing me your 



W attention five minutes. I have 5 fine young Italian 



' queens a month old, raised in full colonies of blnck 



bees — no drones exce])t in four or five Italian colonies— 

 and when they come out, the bees (a half bushel) will fol- 

 low, filling the air so full of bees that the queen fails to 

 find drones. They settle as usual for swarms, and are re- 

 turned to the old hive to rejieat the next day. Now, what 

 am I to do ? I have a number of young queens of the 

 same age, that are laying, but not one of the colonies fol- 

 lowed them out. D. B. Teague. 



P. S.— Is it not encouraging for a large yield of honey 

 this season? I have taken from 25 to 40 lbs. each, from 

 several hives, and a splendid article too. 



D. B. T., Bradford, O.. June l-2th, '70. 



The remed)' is to see that unsealed larva- is 

 in the hive at the time the young queens make 

 their excursion. This will give them some- 

 thing to do, and keep them out of mischief. 

 Full colonie.* seldom swarm out in this man- 

 ner, but nuclei very often. Put a comb of 

 eggs in the hive, when the queen is 5 days old, 

 and there will very seldom be any complaint 

 of the kind. AVe infer that in your case, you 

 inserted queen cells, and that they were so 

 long in hatching, the brood was all sealed up. 

 As the young bees had nothing to do, they 

 concluded they might as well go out and see 

 the "vvorld, as to stay at home. With the lami> 

 nursery, we get the young queens fertilized 

 while the hive is yet full of unsealed brood. 



Lamp luirsery and introducing virgin queens proves to 

 be a success with me. Hatched and introduced seven on 

 the 5th. At -1 o'clock this morning found six crawling 

 about in the nursery. Have introduced 13 without a sin- 

 gle loss. Have nine cells in the nurser.v now, which will 

 have to be t.aken care of before night. We are having a 

 splendid yield of clover honey, have extracted 400 lbs. and 

 about 600 more ready to take out. 



A. W. WiNDiroEST, St. Charles, Mo., June 9th, '70. 



Besides the nursery mentioned above, we 

 have sent out a good many this season, and 

 would be verj^ gl^id to receive reports from all 

 of them. Also please give us full reports of 

 tlie working of the foundations, and other im- 

 plements. It is onlj'^ by comparing the exper- 

 iments of many, that real progress is made. 



A SUBSCEIBEE proposes that we .'•hould give diagrams 

 and descriptions of all the iwincipal hives in use, as we 

 have of the frames in use ; but our reply is that we 

 should thereby complicate the subject ten-fold more than 

 it now is, and we are roundly taken to task as it is, for 

 having so much to say about things that none but an ex- 

 ])ert can understand. When the busy season is over, wo 

 will try and give, in a general article, the desirable 

 points of all the hives in use, as well as some that it seems 

 impossible to combine in one and the same hive. 



In one or two cases we have l)een told that rejwrts of 

 large yields of honey were not given honestly. AVe hope 

 our friends will be very careful to make their statements 

 a little less, rather than beyond the actual facts. AVhere- 

 ever we have good evidence that any statement furnished 

 us is really false, we shall show uj) the offender unhesita- 

 tingly : but it should be borne in mind that yields of 

 honey are manj' limes' so vinaecouutable to the unitiated, 

 one should hardly blame them for thinking and saying 

 unkind things. Besides, two persons may give state- 

 ments very unlike, and yet both utter nothing but the 

 truth. Where reports are very extraordinar.v we are 

 generally pretty careful to find out who it is that makes 

 them. 



