July, l!tl3. 



239 



American Hee Joornal j 



in diameter, 16 inches high, with 3 legs 

 12 inches long. The gasoline tank is 

 fastened to the wall, and the pipe can 

 go as far as necessary to reach the bot- 

 tom of the melter with a burner at- 

 tached. W. H. Cr.wvford. 

 Roswell, New Mexico. 



I have not tried any of the difTerent 

 capping melters, although I have kept 

 'c't-rv close watch on what has been 

 dorie. I feel reasonably sure that 

 the cappings cannot be melted without 

 injury to the honey. Our best Ontario 

 honey is very light in color, and would 

 readily show any discoloration. I drain 

 the cappings, and then run what is left 

 through the solar, getting something 

 of value for the honey thus obtained. 

 So far as I can judge I have no use for 

 a system by means of which I have to 

 heat a lot of honey which could be 

 strained from the cappings in a few 



hours. R- F. HoLTERMANN. 



Brantford, Ont. 



I have no capping melter, but in my 

 travels I have seen several (5) kinds in 

 use. Almost every one has, to me, its 

 objections, so that I prefer to stir or 

 break up the cappings, and drain over 

 tinned wire-cloth '4 -inch mesh. That 

 honey is ready to go with the rest, but 

 all melters but one that I know of 

 darken the honey in melting the cap- 

 pings. Again, our extracting is done 

 during warm weather, and to stand by 

 an uncapping melter would be uncom- 

 fortable. We use a one-wick-oil-stove 

 for the steam uncapping knife; but the 

 stove is just outside the bee-house in a 

 box; the rubber tube through the wall 

 connects to the knife. 



I have tried several uncapping ma- 

 chines, and the steam knife is far the 

 best for us. We have two. 



Platteville, Wis. N. E. France. 



^ Single-Story Hives 



BY !■■. GREINER. 



AMONG the questions that have 

 been asked me by different bee- 

 keeping friends during the re- 

 cent season, there are a few that 

 I believe are of interest to others 

 as well as to the questioners, and, 

 without repeating the questions, I will 

 proceed to answer. 



THE LONG IDEAL HIVE AND THE WIDE 

 DOUBLE-TIER FRAME. 



If I were to engage in the produc- 

 tion of comb honey, I would not want 

 to use the "long hive" single story, but 

 if I /la,/ to use this style, I know of 

 nothing better than the wide double- 

 tier frame holding 8 sections of the 

 regular 4 '^ size as a fixture for the 

 production of section honey. During 

 the earlier period of our bee-keeping 

 we often noticed, in roomy hives, solid 

 slabs of honey at the sides of the 

 brood-nest; this even quite early in 

 the season when that honey should 

 have gone into the sections. It was 

 very natural to use wide frames with 

 sections, to be placed close to the 



brood-nest in place of this apparently 

 superfluous comb. 



Thus I tested this side-storing prin- 

 ciple. I found the bees disinclined to 

 finish the combs built. Particularly 

 the lower tiers of sections were shame- 

 fully neglected. We had not thought 

 of making reversible frames at this 

 time, and so in order to have the 

 sections finished at all, 1 had to take 

 them out of their frames and place them 

 above, which is too fussy. 



Not using full sheets of comb foun- 

 dation, it was next to impossible to get 

 the combs of the lower tier fastened 

 to the bottoms of the sections without 

 reversing. The eight sections next to 

 the brood were often badly stained, 

 and contained pollen. Then the re- 

 moval of the honey was laborious. I 

 was very much annoyed by the bees 

 staying behind the separators when 

 trying to remove the frames with filled 

 sections, and before I could hinder it, 

 biting holes into the sealed faces. This 

 proved a great trial to me as long as I 

 continued the side-storing principle. 

 I could not drive the bees away with 

 smoke, nor handle the single sections 

 quickly enough to prevent the bees in- 

 juring the honey. This, in connection 

 with the other disadvantages, caused 

 me to abandon the plan. 



For the production of extracted 

 honey, the long hive would work all 

 right. Great crops have been pro- 

 duced with them; but whether used 

 for comb honey or extracted, I should 

 want the entrance to the hive not at 

 the ends of the combs, as in the regular 

 hives, but at the side; brood-chamber 

 next to entrance, honey-chamber back 

 of brood-chamber. Reasons for this 

 arrangement are obvious. 



A minor drawback to the long hive 

 is its taking up a disproportionately 

 large floor space and requiring a more 

 expensive roof than regular hives do. 

 The good feature of the long hive is 

 that It allows access to either the 

 brood-chamber or the honey-chamber 

 without materially disturbing the other. 



As to the size of sections : I would 

 adopt the 4 '4 size if I were to begin 

 anew. Although I am using the 4x5 

 size, and shall probably continue to do 

 so, it was by a mere chance that I 

 adopted it. The 4^4 section is the 

 unit upon which the Langstroth frame 

 is based; eight of these sections just 

 fill the inside of the frame; and the 

 Langstroth frame is the all popular 

 one. Why use any other.'' I see no 

 reason why we should not use uniform 

 sections, even if we have other frames 

 in use. It would be better if we had 

 only one frame in use, and I believe it 

 is working that way; but it will be 

 some time before this happens. 



I still believe that the wide-frame 

 single-tier super is the best. Properly 

 constructed and properly made it pro- 

 tects the sections perfectly on all four 

 sides, and prevents the bees from soil- 

 ing the outside. I have not yet seen 

 anything handier, more effective, nor 

 better. Many good and extensive bee- 



keepers agree with me on this question. 



Naples, N. Y. 



[We can commend the ideas ex- 

 pressed by friend Greiner, for we had 

 the same e.xperience years ago. The 

 single-tier hive, if made large enough 

 and used for e.xtracting is all right. In 

 fact, it is used largely in Europe. In 

 France, these hives are made to con- 

 tain some 20 frames measuring about 

 12x12 inches, and are called "horizon- 

 tal " hives in distinction from the tier- 

 hives with supers, which are named 

 "vertical." 



When the entrance of the hive is 

 made at the side instead of at the end, the 

 Europeans call it a "warm comb hive," 

 while the other entrance gives it the 

 name of "cold comb hive." Evidently 

 those who made these names popular 

 decided that the entrance located at 

 the end of the frames made the hive 

 colder. We have tried both, and much 

 prefer the " cold combs," because the 

 bees have easier access to all parts of 

 the hive as they come in. With very 

 large crops, and the use of the extrac- 

 tor, even the 20-frame hive is too small 

 without supers. But it is a great con- 

 venience and economy to have only 

 one style of frame in the apiary. — 

 Editor. I 



European Foul Brood, and Why 



It Does Not Disappear 



During Winter 



BY L. I. RAY. 



IN A RECENT issue of the .A.meri- 

 can Bee Journal, the question was 

 asked: " If making a colony queen- 

 less for 3 weeks will cure it of 

 European foul brood, why is not 

 every case cured during the fall and 

 winter, when brood-rearing naturally 

 ceases for several weeks ?" 



This question has frequently been 

 asked, but, so far as I know, it has 

 always remained unanswered. It is 

 well known that colonies alflicted vvith 

 this malady are not usually cured by 

 their annual period of cessation of 

 brood-rearing, and because of this 

 many are skeptical about the efficacy 

 of the Alexander treatment. As I have 

 had abundant opportunity to try the 

 various methods of treatment during 

 the past 3 years, I will give a few 

 points from my e.xperience in the hope 

 of benefiting some others who have to 

 cope with the same disease. 



The whole secret of curing Euro- 

 pean foul brood, without destroying 

 the combs, lies in doing it at a time 

 when nectar is coming in from the 

 fields. The cure is effected by the bees 

 removing the dead larv:u and polishing 

 the cells. This they will make no at- 



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