322 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



Bwarm on its stand, the frames slipped over to one 

 side and the bees fastened them all together with a 

 mass of new combs.^he spaces all the rest of his 

 frames, for a year or two, with tacks. Then he 

 finds that, when he lifts a comb, the tacks scrape 

 the combs and catch on the top-bar; and when he 

 tries to return the comb they scrape and catch 

 again, andjthe^rame refuses to go to its place with- 

 out lots of .{coaxing. He then concludes thoy are 

 more in the way than a wheelbarrow on a dark 

 night, so he pulls them out and throws them away. 

 The tack stage rarely lasts beyond the second or 

 third year ofj experience. 



THICK TOP-BARS AND HONEY-BOARDS. 



I have been an interested spectator of the Glean- 

 ings symposium on the thick top-bar and the hon- 

 ey-board. Tt may be that thick top-bars closely 

 spaced will prevent brace-combs above the frames; 

 but even if that be true, I think it safe to predict 

 that the honey-board will be retained by a large 

 majority^of bee-keepers. Those who produce ex- 

 tracted honey, and believe in confining the queen 

 to the lower story, will keep it; and the comb-hon- 

 ey men who believe in contraction (and their name 

 is legion) can not get along without it. The shal- 

 low frame in some form is the coming frame, and 

 that necessitates the use of the excluder. The bee- 

 keeper with a shallow fixed frame cares but little 

 for the burr-combs under the excluder, for he can 

 make nearly all the necessary observations by 

 standing the brood-chamber on end, and investigat- 

 ing without removing the honey-board. In comb- 

 honey production contraction is the key to success, 

 and the excluder alone makes contraction possible. 



Audubon, la , Mar. 13. Z. T. Hawk. 



If excluding queens from the supers is 

 all the use we would have for a honey-board, 

 why not dispense with the slats, and use in- 

 stead a plain sheet of zinc large enough to 

 cover the hive V This would be very much 

 cheaper. We sell thousands of sheets like 

 this to large honey-producers, who desire 

 to keep the queen below, but who never 

 used a slatted honey-board. 



CALIFORNIA. 



THE LAST THREE YEARS OF FAILURE OF THE 

 HONEY CROP. 



The remarkable failure of the honey crop in 

 California for the last three years has get the best 

 minds in the business to thinking whether it is 

 worth while to keep their means invested in a call- 

 ing so uncertain and precarious. In seven years 

 we have had only two seasons in which bees paid. 

 It is true, that in both those years, 1884 and 1886, 

 they paid as nothing else could pay, as no other 

 legitimate business is likely to pay. They increas- 

 ed 400 per cent, and produced honey which brought 

 400 per cent on the capital invested. In other 

 words, the owner's capital was multiplied four 

 times, and his apiary four times as large. In 1888 

 and '89 there was plenty of rain— an abundance of 

 It. But it was all heaped up like a hill— all in a 

 pile. To make a good honey season here we must 

 not only have plenty of rain through our winter 

 season, but it must rain several times after the 

 black sage comes into bloom— that is, throughout 

 March and most of April. We are just now at the 

 turning-point (latter part of March) where the rain 



may cease and make a poor season, or continue for 

 a month and make a first-rate crop of honey. Who 

 can tell? 



FRAMES AT FIXED DISTANCES. 



In March 1st Gleanings you ask, "Which is the 

 greater evil— burr-combs or fixed distances ?" I 

 would answer, fixed distances— yes, a thousand 

 times greater. Why, it destroys at one fell blow 

 the most vital principle of the Langstroth movable 

 frame! Why not go back to the Harbison hive? 

 It had this principle of frames set on nails, forty 

 years ago, together with other machinery to make 

 frames as difficult to get out as possible. Staples 

 or nails, it is the same thing. Drive a headless nail 

 through the frame, and then let the bees fill it all 

 over and under with bee-glue, and you would have 

 to have a crowbar, a pick-ax, and ia wild " Ingin " to 

 handle that hive. No, no! Let the brace-combs 

 come. If their absence is to be bought at such 

 a price, let the burr-combs roll in— but spare, oh 

 spare the movable frame ! Don't think that I love 

 these burr-combs — no, no! I do not yearn for 

 them, I do not pet them in the daytime, nor howl 

 after them in my sleep at night. I could part with 

 them without a sigh, a tear, or a groan ; but, part 

 with them at such a cost as this? Never, never. 



The bees are just preparing to swarm. All na- 

 ture has put on its most bewitching harness. The 

 black sage is coming out in its holiday attire— has 

 thrown its banner to the breeze as the unrivaled 

 honey-plant of California, and rivaled only in the 

 world by the white clover. Many bee-keepers are 

 sure of a big season. They are already figuring 

 out the way they will invest their money. Don't 

 you think we had better wait until we see if we 

 get three or four more good rains? J. P. Isr.^el. 



Olivenhain, San Diego Co., Cal., Mar. 30. 



The old Harbison fixed frame is some- 

 thing that none of the Eastern bee-keepers 

 would tolerate. Of all fixed frames this is 

 the worst to handle, I should say, from 

 what I have seen of cuts and description ; 

 and if the riddance of burr-combs meant 

 the use of such a frame, I would heartily 

 agree with you. But all fixed frames are 

 not equally difficult of manipulation. If I 

 am any judge, the Van Deusen fixed stand- 

 ing frames are about as easily handled as 

 any suspended frame. Propolis can not 

 gum them together, and, of course, a screw- 

 driver and cold-chisel are not needed to 

 pick them apart ; and they are always ready 

 for moving to out-apiaries or ehipping. The 

 Heddon closed-end frame, with the thumb- 

 screw, is not so difficult to manipulate as 

 many might imagine. I scarcely ever find 

 beginners who space their frames properly, 

 and then they want to know why the bees 

 build their combs so crookedly. Fixed 

 guides would remedy this. After all, fixed 

 or standing frames may not receive a very 

 hearty recognition at the hands of practical 

 bee-keepers ; but a wonderful amount of in- 

 terest from those who use suspended frames 

 is being manifested. In regard to burr- 

 combs and fixed distances, you are laboring 

 under a slight misapprehension. Fixed dis- 

 tances are not a necessity for the riddance 

 of burr-combs, but only assist toward that 

 end. J. B. Hall, who has no burr-combs, 

 uses, if I am correct, suspended Quinby 

 frames without fixed distance-spacers. 



