July 21, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



503 



as many finished sections from these colonies as I did from 

 those which were allowed to remain as they were. 



Ag-ain, very often after basswood bloom has failed there 

 comes on very hot weather, when not a bit of nectar can be 

 obtained, and the result is that the fronts of the hives are 

 black with bees. According to the advice of " never allow 

 your bees to lay out," or " whenever you see the bees lay- 

 ing out, more room should be given," the sections should 

 be hustled on at once, till there is room enough for all the 

 bees inside, before the bee-keeper could rest in this matter ; 

 and some have gone so far as to tell us at such times as this 

 (at least no qualification was made in the matter as to time, 

 regarding the j-ield of honey, etc.), we should smoke the 

 bees in, after having given the room, continuing this smok- 

 ing until they would stay in the hives. 



Any one can see at a glance that such unqualified talk 

 and advice as this would do only harm, and be of no use, 

 for at such times the bees are doing just as much for the 

 benefit of the apiarist by hanging on the outside of the hive 

 as to be elsewhere. Yea, more, for if they were out vainly 

 searching for honey, when there was none, they would be 

 wearing out their vitality so that they would be gone before 

 the next nectar-secreting flowers came into bloom, as well 

 as to consume an amount of honey from the hive equal to 

 what was needed extra to give them strength for this vain 

 foraging. 



My plan of securing nearly all completed combs of 

 honey in the sections is as follows : 



When the bees show, by building little bits of comb 

 here and there about the hive, that they are ready for the 

 sections, I put on only the amount of room that I think they 

 will reasonably fill in a very poor year, and leave them thus 

 till the bees are well at work, when I give about the same 

 amount more, if this is during the forepart of the honey 

 harvest, and when this room is fully occupied I give the 

 same amount again, if we have not passed the middle of 

 what is our usual honey-flow. By the time the bees fully 

 occupy the last room given, that first put on will be ready 

 to come ofi', and when this is taken, if more room is needed 

 it is put above the sections the bees are already at work in, 

 so that they may not be forced into these last sections until 

 they are lacking in room to work below. 



If the yield continues, I keep taking oft" the filled sec- 

 tions next the hive and putting the empty on top of those 

 the bees are already at work in, until the season begins to 

 draw to a close, when, as fast as the full are taken, the 

 others are lowered down till the space is contracted to the 

 original capacity that was first put on. In this way the 

 bees are given all the space they really need, while the 

 chance for many unfinished sections in the fall is quite 

 small. Such items as these are well worth looking after 

 and studying upon ; for they who understand the most 

 about all these little kinks of practical bee-keeping are the 

 ones who will make the greatest success in the apicultural 

 world. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



A Method of Wiring Frames. 



BV LOUIS K. WAHL. 



I ENCLOSE here a drawing showing my metlodcf wiring 

 frames, or one more kink to keep kinks out of wire while 

 wiring frames. 



I learned the value of wired frames and foundation in 

 my earliest bee-keeping, but putting wire in frames had 

 been a tangling and kinking up job with me until last sum- 



mer, when I got an old table and laid a frame on the center, 

 stood a spool of wire on its end and drove a spike through 

 the spool in the table, about 3 inches from the end-bar to 



the right. I then took three empty spools and drove spikes 

 through them in the table at the center of the pierced holes 

 where the wire bends around the end-bar — two on the left 

 end and one on the right. I then nailed a block 1x1x6 at 

 the right-hand corner of the bottom-bar, and tacked a 

 block on the inside of the frame thin enough to slip under 

 the wires against the left-hand end-bar to hold the frame 

 square. 



To proceed to wiring, have two tacks started in the top 

 edge of the end-bar to the right over the pierced holes, as 

 shown in the cut. Now thread the wire, whirling it around 

 empty spools until you get to the last hole, where you whirl 

 the end of the wire around the track, and then drive the 

 tack in tight. Now take the wire off of the spools and 

 catch the wire No. 3 with the left thumb, holding your four 

 fingers over the top-bar, then wind up slack with the right 

 hand ; then catch wire No. 2 in the same way, and whirl 

 the wire around the tack and drive the tack home ; cut off^ 

 the wire and whirl the end half way around the empty spool 

 to the right, to keep the wire from raveling until you start 

 the next frame. 



If a board the proper length and breadth were made, 

 and bolts with round heads without any square shoulder 

 were used to go through the spools instead of spikes, and 

 the top edge of the spools were clipped off, I think the wire 

 would slip off the spools more easily, and there would not 

 be so much slack to wind up. Mr. W. L. Coggshall uses 

 only two wires in the frame, and cuts the wire the proper 

 length before wiring, therefore no spools would be required ; 

 but where more than two wires are used the spools are 

 desirable. 



By the way, I worked for Mr. Coggshall during the 

 buckwheat flow in September, 1900, and graduated in the 

 bee-business. I was not there long enough to be called " a 

 lightning operator," but I thought I moved like lightning 

 some of the time. On one occasion when I was uncapping, 

 and " W. L." was extracting and filling kegs, a bee began 

 crawling into my ear. I dropped my knife to take her out, 

 when I heard "W. L." laugh, and saying, "Let her go; 

 let her go ; she is looking for wax." 



I never enjoyed a happier time in my life, and any 

 young man that has the chance shouldn't miss it. 



Monroe Co., N. Y. 



Honey in Sections vs. Chunk-Honey. 



BY G. C. GREINKR. 



THE recently-sprung-up chunk-honey business, with all 

 its enthusiastic advocates, is another great surprise to 

 to me. Are we drifting back to the days of our fore- 

 fathers ? Have the efforts of our most prominent bee-ex- 

 perts — to bring about the perfection of a convenient, up-to- 

 date comb-honey package in the shape of the world- 

 renowned one-pound section — all been in vain ? Are the 

 almost wonderful inventions in the line of expensive sec- 

 tion-machinery doomed to be thrown aside to make room 

 for the manufacture of chunk-honey tubs, pails, cans, etc.? 

 Are we bee-keepers going to lay temptation at our neigh- 

 bor's door by offering the very best opportunity for adulter- 

 ation, instead of casting our influence in the opposite direc- 

 tion ? Are we willing to sacrifice our well-merited reputa- 

 tion of Yankee ingenuity, and neat and tasty workmanship, 

 for an insignificant, perhaps imaginary, financial gain ? 

 These are some of the thoughts that engage my mental fac- 

 ulties whenever I am reminded of the chunk-honey business. 



As a prelude to the few remarks on the foregoing 

 points, which I wish to make, let me say that I may be a 

 little cranky in my views. I do not ask or expect any per- 

 son to fall in with me, or take any stock in my arguments, 

 unless so inclined. I simply express my views as they ap- 

 pear to me, the result of past experience and observation. 



In my earlier days — some 50 years ago — when still liv- 

 ing on the other side of the big waters, I had frequent op- 

 portunities to witness the operations of what we considered 

 at that time expert bee-keepers. Bees were then generally 

 kept in the old-fashioned straw-skeps, and the only way to 

 obtain surplus honey was to take it from the brood-cham- 

 ber. The hive was tipped up, or laid on its side, and with a 

 long, hooked-shaped knife some of the combs that appeared 

 to contain mostly honey and little or no brood (generally 

 side combs) were detached and taken out. The honey so 

 gathered was stored in crocks and pails, or other available 

 dishes, and kept to supply the home trade. When custom- 

 ers called for honey they always brought their own dishes, 

 and the number of pounds they wished to buy had to be 



