REVERSING. 



375 



ROBBING. 



and can be used just as well one side up as 

 the other. The frames are spaced apart by 

 "• spacing-ears," and these very ears offer 

 some distinctive advantages in the w^ay of 

 handling the frame. This frame was used 



THE VAN DEUSEN REVERSIBLE FRAME. 



very largely by the one-time most extensive 

 bee-keeper in the world, the late Capt. J. E. 

 Hetherington ; also by his brother in Michi- 

 gan. Outside of its reversing feature it 

 offers one very decided advantage; namely, 

 the facility with which it can be handled 

 like the leaves of a book. By taking out one 

 or two frames the rest can be thumbed over 

 without lifting them out of the hive. 



danzenbaker's reversible frame. 



Two other very excellent reversible frames 

 are the Danzenbaker and the Heddon (see 

 Hives; also Frames, Self-spacing, and 

 Frames, to Manipulate), either one of 

 which can be used as well one side up as 

 the other ; in fact, any closed-end standing 

 frame can be used as a reversible frame. 

 Where one can get the advantage of revers- 

 ing without cost it is certainly advisable to 

 reverse the frames at least once in order to 

 get the combs completely filled out. For fur- 

 ther consideration of this subject see book- 

 let, " Facts about Bees," by E. li. Root, pub- 

 lished by The A. I. Root Co. 



ROBBISra. Paul says, "The love of 

 money is the root of all evil." We should be 

 inclined to state it in this way : The disposi- 

 tion to get money without rendering an 

 equivalent is the root of all evil. Well, the 

 root of a great many evils in bee-keeping 

 is the disposition of the bees to gain honey 

 without rendering any equivalent. Some 



one of our ABC class has said that he found 

 bees making visits to over 100 clover-heads 

 before they obtained a load sufficient to car- 

 ry to their hives. We think it very likely that 

 during a great part of the season a bee will 

 be absent a full hour, or, it may be, during 

 unfavorable spells, as much as two hours, in 

 obtaining a single load. Is it at all strange 

 that a bee, after having labored thus hard 

 during the fore part of the day, should, in 

 the afternoon, take a notion to see if it 

 could not make a living in some easier way? 

 Would it be very much worse than many 

 types of humanity? Well, as it passes 

 around to other hives it catches the per- 

 fume of the clover honey they have gathered 

 in a like manner, and, by some sort of an op- 

 eration in its little head, it figures out that, 

 if it could abstract some of this, unper- 

 ceived, and get it safely into its own hive, 

 it would be so much the richer. We presume 

 it has no sort of care whether these other 

 folks die of starvation or not. That is none 

 of its concern. 



With all their wonderful instincts, we 

 have never been able to gather that the bees 

 of one hive ever have any spark of solicitude 

 as to the welfare of their neighbors. If, by 

 loss of a queen, the population of any hive 

 becomes weak, and the bees too old to de- 

 fend their stores, the very moment the fact 

 is discovered by other colonies they rush in 

 and knock down the sentinels, with the most 

 perfect indifference, plunder the ruined home 

 of its last bit of provision, and then rejoice 

 in their own home, it may be but a yard 

 away, while their defrauded neighbors are 

 so weak from starvation as to have fallen to 

 the bottom of the hive, being only just able 

 to attempt feebly to crawl out at the en- 

 trance. Had it been some of their own 

 flock, the case would have been very differ- 

 ent indeed ; for the first bee of a starving col- 

 ony will carry food around to its comrades, 

 as soon as it has imbibed enough of the food 

 furnished to have the strength to stagger to 

 them. 



Well, suppose the bee mentioned above, in 

 prowling around in the afternoon or some 

 other time, should find a colony so weak or 

 so careless that it could slip in unobserved, 

 and get a load from some of the unsealed 

 cells, and get out again. After it has passed 

 the sentinels outside it usually runs little 

 danger from the inmates, for they seem 

 to take it for granted that every bee inside 

 is one of their number. There is danger, 

 thoufjh ; for should it betray too great haste 

 in repairing to the combs of honey they 



