1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



451 



•end to tbe hook around a splint. The handle needs 

 to be ]~ or 1') in. above the top of the basket. T 

 have a string 2 ft. long hanging at the bottom of 

 the basket, to take hold of to shake the bees out. 

 I use a small market-basket 13 in. long, 8 wide, and 

 6 deep. I think they cluster on it better than on 

 peach-biiskets. I also have hooks made of heavy 

 wire, to hook over limbs to hang up baskets with 

 bees in, to wait until I can get time to run them 

 into the hives. The way I manage is this: 



As soon as a swarm has gathered on a tree, I go 

 with my basket and poles, hang pole No. 1 on a 

 limb wtiere I can easily reach it when wanted (see 

 drawing). Pole No. 2 I hold so as to get the basket 

 close up to the bees; let it lean against the limb, 

 when [ hold cord and pole with left hand, then take 

 the small pole in my right hand, and, placing the 

 upper end against the limb the bees are on, give 

 the pole a quick shove up, striking the hook against 

 the limb. I then lower or swing the basket'™ or 3 

 ft., and wait until most of the bees have settled on 

 the basket, after which I let the basket down so I 

 can take hold of the bail, and unhook the snap. 



I now take a look over the apiary, to see if there 

 are any swarms in the air. If there are, I hang the 

 basket of bees in the shade, to wait until conven- 

 ient to care for them. If there are more than one 

 swarm in the air at once, I use the force-pump to 

 keep them separate; and as soon as one clusters 

 on a limb. 1 proceed as before with baskets and 

 poles until all are in the baskets, then run them 

 into the hives. 



I had 2i colonies last year, and three baskets were 

 ;is many as I had in use at any one time. I inclose 

 a drawing of my device, made by Master Frank M. 

 Silverthoru, one of my neighbors, who has taken 

 but s lessoas in the art. of a teacher. He is also 

 somewhat interested in bee-keeping. 



Stephen Luther. 



Fairview, Pa , March 4. 189J. 



DISADVANTAGES OF FIXED FRAMES. 



dr. miller miller discusses the plan pro 

 .AlSd con. 



Shall we ever get any thing settled— settled to 

 stay? No sooner do we get settled down upon any 

 thing than some one stirs it all up again. And now 

 comes Ernest with hia " fixed distances;" and when 

 he starts on a thing he's such an intense chap! 

 He's *o Ernest! But, why doesn't he spell his name 

 one way or the other— either Ernst, in German, or 

 the English translation. Earnest? 



But, about the " fixed distances," Ernest, don't 

 you know that, when you were wearing short pants, 

 it was pretty generally settled that we didn't want 

 the inconvenience of fixed frames? There are still in 

 use, if I mistake not, in that country from which you 

 ^et your name, hives that open at the side, allow- 

 ing the first frame to be pulled out sidewise with a 

 hook, then the next, and so on, obliging you to take 

 out every frame if you want to get the last one. 

 The closed frame, as in the American, was an im- 

 provement on this, for you could get at the frames 

 from the top; and after taking out the first frame 

 you could move the others along to get out any one 

 you wished. But that movable side wasn't liked as 

 well as a solid box, and it was bo much nicer to be 

 able to lift out any frame you wished, simply by 

 moving the others a little to one side. You were 



started on this tack by the need ot something to 

 keep frames fixed when hauling to and from out- 

 apiaries. But I have never felt the need of this. 

 I haul my bees home in the fall, with no other fas- 

 tening than that which the bees have made, and 

 haul them back in the spring the same way. In 

 fact, I expect to haul my bees to the out-apiaries 

 this spring without taking off a cover, from the 

 time they were hauled home last fall. I wondered 

 at your saying, on page 9i», that you had so much 

 trouble hauling, till I remembered that you had 

 li top-bars. Mine are one inch, and I believe 

 there is a great difference in the stability of the 

 two. Yours will swing with a good deal less shake 

 than mine; and if we are to have wide top-bars, 

 perhaps you will not be so anxious for the staples 

 or any other toggery of that kind. But you say I 

 am prejudiced. I suppose I am. I've always had 

 loose frames, and never handled any others except 

 once, and then I didn't like them. But your ear- 

 nestness in the matter, and your lugging around 

 those spacing arrangements with you at the Ohio 

 convention, have made me do some thinking, and 

 I'll try to talk fairly about 



SOME ADVANTAGES OF FIXED FRAMES. 



I must admit, that it is a nice thing to have frames 

 so fixed that there is no kind of danger that they 

 will get out of place in hauling or handling, that 

 you can pick up an empty hive and carelessly set it 

 down where you want to hive a swarm without 

 having to stop and arrange all the spacing. Then, 

 too, if you could have it without the attendant dis- 

 advantages, and without too much trouble and ex- 

 pense, it would be nice to have your frames so that 

 you can instantly and certainly space them just at 

 the distance you want them. It takes time to space 

 with the fingers. After you have put in all your 

 frames, spacing them as you go, you find you have 

 a quarter or half an inch more in the last space 

 than you want, and then all must be readjusted. 

 And then if we are to do without honey-boards, 

 and depend upon spacing a certain distance, say /e, 

 I suppose that f^, must be exact. If you spend 15 

 minutes in spacing loose frames with your fingers, 

 I don't know that you can get i'^ exact— certainly 

 not so exact as you can by instantly pushing them 

 up against some spacing arrangement which allows 

 them to go just so far and no further. With such 

 an arrangement there is not the same chance for 

 mistake or carelessness. More than once I have 

 found two frames spaced apart twice as far as they 

 should be, or pinched up together till almost touch- 

 ing. Such things could not be when frames are 

 forced to be just right if got into the hive at all. 



All these things considered, especially if we must 

 have exact spacing, it may be well enough to re-try 

 some spacing-device— I don't mean settle positively 

 upon it, but give it a fair trial. So it may be well 

 enough to ask in advance, 



WHAT SPACER SHALL WE TRY? 



Some of them are too much like the closed end- 

 bars, requiring a movable side. And now I may as 

 well confess that, for several years, I have been us- 

 ing what is practically a side-opening hive. I used 

 eight brood-frames in a ten-frame hive, with a divi- 

 sion-board at the side; and to all intents and pur- 

 poses that made it a side-opening hive. Then when 

 I changed my ten-frame hives last year to eight- 

 frame, I made them 12'8 wide Inside, to correspond 

 with my supers. Spacing the top-bars \% from 

 center to center left a space of \\% inch at one side. 



