!87^' 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



13 



at the top. They are force<l in iK)int (irst, % in. 

 .Tom outside edge of each of the hard wood 

 pieces, until they project only 1-4 ofau iuch ; 

 when the glass is dropped between these, and 

 5)etweeu the uprights, we have only to bend 

 the tins over on to it with the thumb nail, to 

 make it a fixture. As tliese tins will lx;nd a 

 great many times without breaking wc can re- 

 •aiove an^' glass in a twinkling ; and now 

 <;omes the Ix-autiful foatnre of the Doolittle 

 box, or as he insists on our calling it, the 

 Betsinger box, for it really is the invention of 

 ■our excellent friend Mr. N. N. Betsinger, Mar- 

 ■eellus, N. Y. Mr. Betsinger we "doff our hat" 

 —by the way will not all our readers do the 

 >ame while we thank friend B. for tiic service 

 lie has done us in inventing such a very in- 

 genious box, and for so very liberally tender- 

 ■Jiig it as a free gift to his fellow bee-keepers. 

 Now for the beautiful feature; the box is 

 made, the tins put in, but not the glass, and 

 as the tios would be in the way in placing 

 them on the hive, they are to be bent down 

 lilat, as fast as they are inserted. Now if 

 iwo boxes *re placed side by side on the 

 hive we shall have a space for the bees to go 

 in, just twice the thickness of a light of 

 .'jrlass, which is found to be all that is needed; 

 and we telieve so small that the queen aev- 

 •:'r gets into them, and yet when the glass is in- 

 serted after they are filled, everything is closed 

 up and we have no occasion to fuss with 

 pasting something over the holes where the 

 bees went in, as with most glass boxes. Of 



■ tourse these boxes can be sold without being 

 glassed, if one chooses ; and for a home mark- 

 et, this will doubtless be the way, but for a 



■ "ity trad'e (and Mr. D. says he can get more 

 ior his crop by the ton, than his neighboi-s 

 would pay him at retail,) without doubt it 

 should be glassed, and to have the honey 

 ':'uilt true enough to glass without trouble, 

 we must use the tin separators. 



Before describing the manner in which the 

 ••■ieparators and the cases that hold the boxes 

 are used, we will mention that we were some- 

 what inclined to cjuarrel with our friend be- 

 cause he does not utilize all the space inside 

 of his hive. For instance, his hive inside is 

 just 1 foot, but two boxes placed side by side 

 are only 10}.i' inches. The depth of his hive is 

 also 1 foot, and the height of two boxes one 

 above the other, is cases and all, 14 inches; 

 the top ijoxes, rise 10 inches above the bottom 

 ?»oard, giving us an unoccupied space of 5 in- 

 ches above the side boxes on both sides of the 

 hive. As friend D. says this is exactly as he 

 wants it, perhaps we had better describe it as 

 it is and keep still. A case is made to con- 

 tain just two boxes, but they can l)e made to 

 hold 3 with the Langstrotti hive. The case is 

 used to hold the separator, to keep the bees 



■ rom soiling the outside of the boxes with pro- 

 polis and to close the top opening that no 

 >(uilt or strips need be used. It is made of 

 basswood, tops and Vjottoms are both exactly 

 of the width of uprights of the boxes, but are 

 "-1(5 thick. Top bar is 12'.; inches long and 

 bottom 11 ^^' long; this leaves a projection on 

 the top bar of a little more than }^ of an inch, 

 that allows it to be suspended like a frame, 

 when used to hold side storing boxes. The 

 bottom strips are cut down in the centre to 



the width of the bottom of the sections, to al- 

 low the bees to pass in. The ends of these 

 cases arc of the same width as top and lx)ttom, 

 and are made ^^ i"*^^ c the length is such that 

 the i)oxes just slip in closely. The .tin ."iepar- 

 ators are tacked to these uprigfits, and are 5 

 inches wide; these are put on so as to leave 

 just equal spaces above and below the tin, and 

 it were well to remember that in all arrange- 

 ments wit!i separators, the bets are liable to 

 make bulges in the comb, where a space 

 of much more than ^ inch is left. Wheu 

 a separator is tacked to one side of each case, 

 and the cases are placed side by side, close up, 

 we have each comb built between two tins, 

 and necessarily straight. Next month we 

 will tell you how thej'^ are placed in and on 

 the hi.ves. 



DROITEIS AND DRONE COMIB ; HOW TO 

 GET AN ABUNDANCE OF. 



E havo been having a great storm of wind and 

 snow ; the mercury went below zero last Fri- 

 day niglit, and it lias been nearly as cold ever 

 sinc'3. It tb now S o'clock In the evening, and I have 

 just been out looking at a swarm of bees packed in 

 chaff, and found them all right. They came up and 

 took a look at the light, but did not try to fly. 1 am 

 trying five, 2 without packing and three with,— but 

 they all have thick pillows of chaff over them. They 

 have plenty of snow around the hive ; I have wintered 

 bees under the snow several winters ; they get along 

 well enough till' into Feb., and generally get through, 

 but towards spring, as the snow begins to thaw and 

 frecKC, making ice (a good conductor of heat), it keeps 

 a steady chili on them which is worse than a short 

 cold snap. I have been looking at an essay written 

 by Dr. Rush on wintering bees. He tells us about ar- 

 artificial swarming, and says In substance, when your 

 queens are hatched, take frames of mature brood from 

 each of 5 different hives, put them in a hive and give 

 them a queen, and in place ',o( the frames taken out 

 put empty comb if you have it ; if not, put in empty 

 frames. Now we want to tell a little of our experience 

 in that line. Some 8 or 9 years ago we were lying 

 awake nights studying on the bee business, and with 

 the rest we got the idea into our head (this was in 

 early spring) that there could be a big thing done in 

 artificial swarming. We had it (in theory) surely ; it 

 would work without a doubt. We built some very ex- 

 feensive castles on it, between that and swarming time, 

 and when the time came round all right and the bees 

 were strong and had lots of brood just right, we went 

 round to a number of swarms and took a Irame of 

 brood from each, put them all together in a hive, and 

 gave them a queen cell ; we also put empty frames in- 

 to the old hives from which we took the brood. The 

 young swarms (for we made a number) came on in 

 time and did well ; but the old ones, what did they do ? 

 They built the empty frames, every one full of drone 

 comb, and filled it with drones. Our theory was 

 smashed, and our castles fell, never to rise again on 

 that subject, and we hi*ve never been able to get 

 strong swarms to build worker comb in any of the 

 middle frames before swarming time; not even the 

 blacks, as good comb builders as they are. Now I 

 have seen this advice given through the bee papers by 

 a number of extensive bee-keepers (said to be), and 

 Mrs. Tuppcr I think gave the same. 



I should like to have you ask the bee-keepers of the. 

 country what their erperience (not their theories) is in 

 reference to the matter. If there is a kind of bee that 

 will build worker comb every time we lausthuut them 

 up. B. Stanhope, Pentwater, Mich., Dec. 11, '7t». 



