248 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



and one of the men phoned up to our 

 ofifice to know what he should do. I 

 telephoned back to restrict the en- 

 trances of all the hives with <j;Teeii 

 g'rass, and stop inside feeding- or open- 

 ing up any more hives, and to prepare 

 immediately two square cans for out- 

 door feeding-. This they did, hanging 

 the cans on the limbs of two near by 

 trees on the out-skirts of the \'ard. It 

 took the robbers a little time to learn 

 where the feed was. As soon as they 

 discovered it, robbing began to let up. 

 The next day one of the boys went back 

 to finish up his work with the colonies. 

 He opened up the hives indiscrimin- 

 ately, without any trouble from the 

 robbers. I am sure we could have 

 done extracting or anything else, be- 

 cause the combs were exposed just as 

 much as if extracting- had been going 

 on. 



A good many county fairs will now 

 be held within the next thirty days. 

 Some bee-yards will be located near 

 some of these fair g-rounds, where 

 watermelons will be cut open, and 

 molasses candy made. If two outside 

 feeders be hung- up two da3's previous 

 to fa.ir time it will effectually stop any 

 robbing on the part of the bees around 

 any of the candy-stands. We demon- 

 strated this conclusively a year ago, 

 arid we now feel that we are master of 

 t!)P situation. 



But ihere may be some canning of 

 fruit; and if your bees are a nuisance, 

 start an out-door feeder and keep it 

 going- until the canning season is over. 

 Perhaps the owner of a cider-mill 

 lodges a complaint. As he will pro- 

 bably run his mill for thirty or ninety 

 days it will not be practicable to run 

 out-door feeding for that length of 

 time, unless the whole apiary needs a 

 general feed. 



The best thing- to do in that case is 

 get mosquito-netting and screen the 

 mill. If, on the other hand, the yard 

 is short of stores and will require the 

 feeding of several barrels of sugar, 

 and if there are n.) other bees in the 

 vicinity, outdoor feeding can be prac- 

 ticed to great advantage. 



So far I have not said anything 

 about the abuse of this method of stop- 

 ping- robbing- by g-iving- tiie bees food. 

 Oi!.- of the abuses is letting the bees 

 gi^ ' the syrup so that they can take 

 50 ■ lOo lbs. within an hour, wear- 

 ing leir live.-, out prematurely. The 

 groo jd-board plan makes this possi- 

 ble; while the square can, with holes 

 punched ii. it and elevated ten feet 



above ground, reduces the wear and 

 tear to a minimum, or not much more 

 thon a natural honey-flow. 



Another abuse would be feeding your 

 neighbors' bees or stray bees in bee- 

 trees. Obviously the only thing to do 

 is to feed in the hives, unless you can 

 arrange with your neighbor to pay his 

 pro rata of expense. 



HOFFMAN FRAMES. 



The Ends of the Top Bars Not Suitable for 

 Use in Shaking off Bees. 



I have recently had several days of 

 experience in shaking- bees off the 

 com.bs for extracting honey, and it has 

 only served to strengthen my dislike 

 for Hoffman frames. As Mr. Chapman 

 says, "they have no handles." It is 

 true there is a projection of the top bar 

 for them to hang- upon, but it is only 

 '4 of an inch thick, while the top bar 

 is about an inch in depth, and these 

 little % inch projections seem to be 

 built on purpose to be split oflF. as I 

 soon fo'ind when I went to using them 

 for handles in shaking combs. My 

 own top bars are of poplar, 7-16 thick, 

 and the same size the whole length, 

 with m jog- or notch to encourage 

 splitting. They neither break, split, 

 nor sag, ami I can pick up a comb and 

 give it ust as hard a jerk as I wish, 

 with the comfortable feeling that I 

 know the comb won't part company, 

 and go tumbling on the g-rass. Of 

 course a man can take hold of the top 

 bar back from the ends — but let me 

 give an extract from an article written 

 by Mr. W. C. Cathright, of California, 

 and published in Gleanings. Mr. 

 Cathright says: — 



I have been very much interested in 

 the discussion of the merits and de- 

 merits of the Hoffman frame. Uefore 

 coming- to California I used and liked 

 the Hoffman frame; but i was a comb 

 honey producer. I have visited many 

 large apiaries here, and am convinced 

 the plain frame is best for large apia- 

 ries run for extracted honey. 



