1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



21 



from their flying or loaving their combs so bm 

 that they will run bacl^ on to them again. If 

 the bees are in box hives, all you can do is to 

 guess at their condition; and if you guess they 

 are short of stores, then turn the hives bottom 

 side up, and pour some of the blood warm 

 syrup on the combs and bees. But if I had 

 bees thus in box iiives 1 would as soon risk 

 them as to their starving as 10 risk ttieir dying 

 from the disturbance nccessiry to this way of 

 fteding. The days of box hives are past; and 

 if our questioner has hees in such liives, I trust 

 that ihey will not thus be after next June. 



IVEW subscriptions, as well as renewals, are 

 fairly pouring in upon us now. Thanks. 



Do not fail to read the very important article 

 by Prof. Cook, in this issue, on how bee keep- 

 ers may prevent low prices on honey, and pay- 

 ing exorbitant freight rates. 



I EXPECT to be present at the Chicago con- 

 vention, Jan. 9, 10. The place of meeting is to 

 be the New Briggs Hotel, Chicago. I shall be 

 glad to meet any of the friends whom I have 

 disappointed at other conventions which I 

 could not attend, owing to ill health. Tickets 

 will be sold on the certificate plan, 1>« fare, 

 round trip. Purchase tickets of your local 

 agent and call for a certificate. 



"A NUMBERof complaints have been received 

 at this office recently against C. R. Horrie & 

 Co., a commission firm at 324 South Water St., 

 Chicago," says the editor of the American Bee 

 Journal. Complaints have also come in to us, 

 and. for the present at least, we must caution 

 bee-keepers against sending them honey. Some 

 time ago they sent us their advertisement: but 

 we refused to insert it because their commercial 

 rating was hardly satisfactory. It seems some 

 of the journals did acci pt their " ad," and one 

 publisher furnished them his list of bee-keepers' 

 names. At all events, they received a large 

 number of consignments, and by reports, it ap- 

 pears, that some bee-keepepes at least, are 

 getting any thing but satisfactory returns. 



I STATED, in our last issue, and. as I thought, 

 at the request of the publisher, that the Bee- 

 keepers' Quarterly had been discontinued; but 

 Mr. Heddon, it seems, changed his mind after 

 he wrote us to that effect. At all events, our 

 first intimation of the matter was a postal read- 

 ing thus: "Please make no mention of the 

 suspension of the Quarterly until you hear 

 from me again." Well, a day or two after. 



along came a letter from Mr. Heddon, stating 

 that his paprr was discontinued, and giving his 

 reasons in full. Naturally enough I supposed 

 this was the letter that wa> to come. 1 did not 

 notice at the time that both postal and letter 

 bore th(^ same datf. It i-ennis, then, iliat the 

 postal which Mr. H. intended should counter- 

 mand tht^ letter got hove first ihrough some 

 bungling in the mails. Notice that the postal 

 does not say that Mr. H. had changed his mind, 

 or that the paper was not to be discontinued, 

 but simply left me to infer that a letter was to 

 come giving particulars, and this letter asked 

 me to make the notice which I did. While I 

 can't see that I was at fault, I regret the mis- 

 take. As I understand it, Mr. Heddon's health 

 has improved so that the Quarterly will be con- 

 tinued as usual. 



HONEY-BOARDS OR NONBURR-COMB TOP BARS. 



In the American Bee Journal, Query 999, 

 this question is asked: '"To prevent burr- 

 combs, is any thing as good as the Heddon 

 slatted honey-board? If so, what?" Of the 

 24 who answer, 4 give it as their opinion that 

 there is nothing as good; 17 think there is 

 something just as good, and better. Of this 

 number some lay stress upon exact bee-space, 

 and generally ^4 inch, and not over that, and 

 others on thick and wide top-bars in connection 

 with exact bee-spaces. Only three of the entire 

 number — that is, out of the 34 — express them- 

 selves as not being competent to speak on the 

 subject. 



When this question was propounded a few 

 years ago in the same journal, and in the same 

 department, a great majority expressed them- 

 selves as being in favor of the slatted honey- 

 board. The tables now seem to be pretty 

 nearly turned in favor of top-bars and bee- 

 spaces as against the slatted boards; but I 

 notice that none of the respondents strike upon 

 this point— that the honey-board does away 

 with only one set of burr-combs between the 

 slatted board and the super. Between it and 

 the brood-frames below, if the old-fashioned 

 spacing is used, and narrow top-bars, there is 

 the usual set of burr-combs. By the use of 

 thicker and wider top-bars, and a bee-space of 

 14 inch, we do away with practically all the 

 burr-combs. It seems to me there is no com- 

 parison between one system and the other. 

 The slatted honey-board only half does the 

 work, and the other system does it all, or prac- 

 tically so. 



RAMBLER ARTICLES AGAIN. 



In our last issue I stated that the Rambler ar- 

 ticles were to be discontinued with that num- 

 ber, unless there was a substantial request from 

 our subscribers to the contrary. Later, since 

 that time, postals have been pouring in at a 

 good rate, saying something like this : " Keep 

 up those Rambler articles; or, at least, give us 



