flOO 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



man frames. Believing that these shallow 

 hives shDiild have the frames secured, we have 

 adopted the very simple arrangement shown in 

 the cut. It consists of two notched sticks that 

 slip into place in the rabbets in each end of the 

 hive. The slicks are of such a width, and the 

 notches are of such a depth, that they lill np 

 entirely the space between the ends of the top- 

 bars. The ends of the frames and the rabbet 

 itself are thus entirely protected from propolis; 

 and while the notched sticks can be secured by 

 a couple of wire nails, buttons, or similar de- 

 vices, there will usually be propolis enough to 

 hold them in place: because, when the cover is 

 set down on the hive, the sticks will be held 



THE DOVETAILED SHALLOW EXTRACTING- 

 SUPER. 



firmly in place. As the bodies are just half the 

 depth of the regular eight-frame Dovetailed 

 bodies, the frames are only 4}{ inches deep, out- 

 side measure. Such shallow frames require no 

 spacing-strips at the bottom to secure the 

 frames, like ordinary full -depth frames. 



As these small frames are secured, the ex- 

 tract! ng-supers can be shaken violently to get 

 the bees out without disturbing the frames. 

 The supers are intended to be handled without 

 disturbing the frames until they arrive at the 

 extracting-room. The spacing-sticks are then 

 removed at each end, and the whole set of 

 frames are loose, because propolis has no chance 

 to make them stick. Being shallow they are 

 easily uncapped, and two of them are put into 

 the ordinary comb-pockets of an extractor at 

 once. Thus an ordinary two-frame extractor 

 will extract four of these at a time. These 

 frames are then put back in the supers; notched 

 sticks are replaced, and the whole set of frames, 

 including the supers, are put on the hive at 

 once. The point of economy in these shallow 

 frames for extracting seems to be in handling 

 whole supers at a time, leaving the question of 

 individual frames largely out of account. But 

 tiieir advantage lies chiefly in the fact that 

 half an ordinary extracting-super can be given 

 at a time, on the principle that it is better in 

 the production of comb honey to give only one 

 tier of sections at a time than two. Then these 

 shallow extracting-supers may be tiered up 

 precisely like comb-honey supers, and manipu- 

 lated largely in the same way. For instance, 

 when the bees have got nicely started in one 

 extracting-super it is raised up and another 

 empty one is placed between it and the brood- 

 nest. 



The super-shells are precisely like the supers 

 for comb honey, and can be used interchange- 

 ably for one or the other. 



In setting forth the advantages of the shallow 

 extracting-supers, please do not understand 



that we are saying any thing about their use 

 as brood -chambers, although they may be used 

 on exactly the same plan outlined by our cor- 

 respondent at the head of this department. 



The question may come up, whether, if such 

 use is made of them, a royalty should not be 

 paid to our Dowagiac bee-keeper. If we under- 

 statid the matter, Mr. Heddon does not claim 

 the imuiner of using brood-chambers as speci- 

 fied by our correspondent. All he claims is the 

 peculiar construction of the brood-chamber as 

 he makes them, with close-titting closed-end 

 frames and shallow brood-chambers. 



Another question may be asked as to how 

 generally these shallow extracting-frames are 

 selected in the orders. Although we supply 

 our customers with both the shallow extract- 

 ing-supers and the full-depth extracting-supers^ 

 one pair of the frames at the price of one of the 

 latter, very few, comparatively, have selected 

 this sort of arrangement, although the number 

 is now increasing somewhat. 



The Son of man came not to be niinkstered unto, but to min- 

 ister, and to give liis life a ransom for many. — Matt. 20: 28. 



Prof. Cook is now on his way to California, 

 where he expecos to make his permanent home. 

 Further particulars will be lound in another 

 column. 



Mr. Doolittle, in his article in this number, 

 says old foundation is as good as new. If he is 

 correct, and we hope he is, it will save some 

 bee-keepers from melting up and making new. 

 How is this, friends? 



We have in hand some pretty convincing 

 evidence convicting a prominent Western bee- 

 keeper of adulterating honey. Manager New- 

 man, of the Bee-keepers' Union, has the matter 

 in hand, and will shortly make the matter pub- 

 lic, probably. 



A prominent, interesting, and valuable fea- 

 ture of the last convention was the rising votes. 

 While objection has been made to this way of 

 getting an expression, it is, nevertheless, valu- 

 able because the reports can be taken from the 

 whole convention without taking more than a 

 minute's time. We are heartily in favor of the 

 rising vote at conventions when properly man- 

 aged by a good president. 



It is just announced that Vermont is to have 

 an Apicultural Experiment Station. The State 

 Bee keepers' Association has been laboring 

 for several years for the establishment of such 

 a station, and has now attained success. No 

 apiarist has been appointed yet, and there 

 seems to be a little uncertainty as to who will 

 be the best man. What is the matter with J. 

 H. Larrabee? He is eminently qualified by ex- 

 perience in this very line. 



Mr. H. R. Boardman, from the report which 

 appears in another column, made quite an in- 

 teresting statement, to the effect that a new 

 swarm would gather twice as much honey as 

 the new swarm and parent colony combined 

 before swarming takes place. Mr. Boardman 

 is a very careful bee-keeper, and the question 

 may arise whether we are not indeed wasting 

 too much time in discussing prevention when 

 we ought to be discussing controlling swarms. 



