1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



637 



seeing both surfaces of one brood-frame from 

 the center of the hive. With the thick-top-bar 

 sort of Hoffman self-sp;!cing, it is a simple mat- 

 ter to get at the one frame. In the height of 

 the honey season, when we used to use slat 

 honey-boards, the outside indications, we will 

 say, showed that the hive was not panning out 

 as well as it might. In the old way I always 

 had to rip off the super, tear away the honey 

 with its burr and brace combs, and then crowd 

 this way and that, one frame at a time, until I 

 got room enough to pull out one all smeared 

 with honey, to see whether the queen was lay- 

 ing regularly or laying at all. Now, when a 

 frame is easily "getatable," as in the case of 

 the self-spacers, the intelligent bee-keeper will 

 judge almost unerringly the exact condition of 

 the hive clear through the brood-nest, by see- 

 ing that one frame. For instance, if it is well 

 filled with brood on both sides, and honey along 

 the top-bar, it is pretty certain that every oth- 

 er frame, with perhaps the exception of the two 

 outside ones, is equally well filled with brood. 

 But if, on the other hand, the frame examined 

 is sparingly filled, and no eggs, the indications 

 are that there is very little brood in any of the 

 frames, and that the queen is a poor one. 



In conclusion, Mr. Hutchinson says that, in 

 the use of non-burr-comb self-spacers, "we have 

 destroyed that most convenient function of al- 

 lowing frames a lateral movement." I just 

 can't agree, anyhow. We get lateral movement 

 in its perfection with self-spacers. Instead of 

 fingering over each frame, four or five of the 

 non-spacing sort, to get room to remove the 

 one, we pry down in the center of the brood - 

 nest, in the case of the self-spacers, and split it 

 into horizontal halves, making a space of 3^ in. 

 extra. Now it is easy to remove any one frame, 

 because there will be no bulged combs; and the 

 whole set of frames of either half may be han- 

 dled en masse; two, three, or four frames may 

 be shoved back and forth atone operation. That 

 is why it seems to me that lateral movement 

 can 'be secured in its perfection, only by the 

 self-spacing plan; but I grant there is no satis- 

 factory lateral movement with the standing 

 self-spacer; and what I have said implies the 

 lianglng kind. Now, if Bro. Hutchinson could 

 work with us a couple of seasons — not that he 

 lacks practical knowledge of the subject of bee- 

 keeping — he would not depend on what "oth- 

 ers say " on this question, but would conclude 

 that the burr-comb nuisance, with self-spacing 

 Hoffman frames, is nil. and that the very rare 

 instances where they are built, and the very 

 scarcity of them even then, is not worth consid- 

 ering at all. Say: can't you stop off from To- 

 ronto and let us show you several thousand 

 Hoffman top-bars that have been in constant 

 use four and five years, that do not show a trace 

 of burr-combs, past or present? What you can 

 see with your own eyes will be worth far more 

 than what " others say '" on this point. 



A VISIT FROM THE EDITOR OF THE "AMERICAN 

 BEE .lOURNAL." 



We all of us, big and little Roots, have had a 

 most enjoyable visit from Mr. George W. York. 

 From the very first a pleasant, and, I might say, 

 a sort of kinship feeling, sprang up between us. 

 I was attracted by his out-and-out spokenness, 

 and gentle and Christianlike bearing; and the 

 more I have come to know him, the more I es- 

 teem him— not as a rival, but as a co-worker. 

 (Mutual-admiration society? Well, call it what 

 you like, if I admire my friends and am not 

 afraid to say so.) 



Mr. York could stop but a very short time, so 

 we endeavored to make the most of him while 

 he was here. After showing him over the 

 Home of the Honey-bees he made a remark 

 something like this: 



"Why, it seems to be ten times bigger in reali- 

 ty when I come to go through it than it appears 

 on paper." 



The point that pleased me was not the big- 

 ness of our establishment, but that we evident- 

 ly had not tried to make the outside world 

 think it is so much larger than it is in reality. 

 Bro. Hutchinson, you remember, very kindly 

 said of it, when here, that it was a good deal 

 larger inside than outside. 



Mr. York has had a good honey year, and one 

 of his colonies has secured something over 100 

 lbs. of comb honey, a sample of which he 

 brought. I believe it is about as fine-flavored 

 honey as I ever tasted, alfalfa not excepted, 

 and I thought so at the time I tasted it at his 

 home last fall. It reminds one of a slight flavor 

 of vanilla, and leaves a decidedly pleasant 

 after-taste. In color it is a little darker than 

 clover or basswood, and is somewhat of a green- 

 ish cast. He has asked me to name the source 

 of it; but I never tasted any thing like it. Other 

 bee-keepers, I am told, have been asked their 

 opinion, and it seems they have been unable to 

 tell what it is. 



I suggest that the editor of ihe American Bee 

 Journal take a ramble across the country, and 

 follow those bees up. Let us have a name for 

 that new honey. I might explain that his 

 home where his bees are, is at Ravenswood, a 

 suburb of Chicago, and his bees have access to 

 the open country along the outskirts of the 

 town. 



Along in the afternoon we took a run through 

 our apiary, went over the Hoft'man frames, and 

 manipulated that one Heddon hive; tried the 

 shake-out function,* peered into queen-rearing 

 nuclei ; in fact, we were so busily engaged 

 among those pets that we actually forgot our 

 supper, and Mrs. Root had to send Huber over 

 after us. 



The next morning Mr. York was to take the 

 train at Sterling, twelve miles south of Medina. 



*It worked as it has always done for me — bees got 

 all over the ground, up ruy pants legs; queeu could 

 not be found — m fact, it didn't work at all. I'd 

 rather find queens in the good old way. 



