18v<0 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



fi78 



United Stati's (or at least liave lieeu until (juile 

 recently) ijinif factories huilt up lo make elec- 

 trie lielts. medals, and eliai'nis. to e'liiv dis(nises. 

 wliile every educated man Knows that they 

 have not the remotest efl'ect whatever on dis- 

 ease of any sort. In fact, there is not even any 

 electncitij ahoiit them. Teoiile feel bad; and if 

 they do nothing at all they almost always feel 

 better after a while. In the meantime they pur- 

 chase these advertised trinkets, and then give the 

 triiihct the credit of the cure. Of course, we are 

 a little ahead of th(> C'iiiuese. and the heathen 

 with their signs and taboo, but I am sure that 

 the large amotints of money that iiave been 

 constantly paid for patent medicines, and, in 

 fact, for almost all kinds of medicine, is a great 

 mistake and a blunder. Peopl(> who take no 

 medicine at all are just as well or better off. I 

 wish those words of Dr. Holmes might be rung 

 out over land and sea, until th(>y reach every 

 household. A certain remedy or a certain doc- 

 tor gets to be the rage, and nobody discovers 

 that the whole thing was only a hallucination 

 until thousands of dollars have been wasted 

 and thrown away. Our friend touches on hoar- 

 hound honey. Perhai)S he has not noticed that 

 we have it for sale by the hundreds of pottnds. 

 if wanted: and it is as strong of hoarhound as 

 is hoarhound candy. To mo it is delicious with 

 my bread and butter: but I have not a particle 

 of faith that it has any remedial virtues what- 

 ever: in fact. I can hardly believe that hoar- 

 hound in any shape has any effect whatever on 

 coughs and colds, but the hot water taken with 

 it miiy have. Now. dear friends, it may be 

 that I am going somewhat to extremes in this 

 matter of medicine and remedies; but I think 

 our intelligent readers must admit that there is 

 at least a great amount of truth in my position. 

 I do not mean to reflect on our regular physi- 

 cians, for I believe that most of them under- 

 stand me. and believe, at least to a great extent, 

 just as I do. Take the advice of an intelligent 

 and progressive physician of the present day. 

 and von will not take very much metlicine. 



STRONG EVIDENCE FOE ONE AND THREE- 

 EIGHTHS SPACING. 



TlIK TKSTIMOXY OF I'.AKOX UKIiLKI'SCII .\XI) 

 OTIlKi: EMINKNT (iKIt.M AXS. 



I am glad to find that you give the matter of 

 si)aced frames so much attention in your valua- 

 l)le pajiei'. as I think' successful bee-lceeping de- 

 mands a hrood-franie with tixi'd spaces. If so. 

 we should ci-rtainly know the exact and right 

 distance from center to center. Why the bee- 

 keepei's of tills country differ so much yt-t in re- 

 gard to tln> exact measure of spacing bi'ood- 

 frames, I can not undei'stand. There is only 

 one way to get this distance i-ight. It is. to lind 

 how far th<' bees, \\hen left tu themselves, build 

 their coml)s apart in the hrood-nest. About 

 twenty years ago I settled this matter to my 

 own satisfaction. I began by using a spaced 

 frame of 1'.. inches from center to center, and 



found that distance too wide. At lliat time I 

 used, in hiving natural swarms, only snuill 

 starters in the frames, and 1 found the ))ees 

 would, in building down their combs, invariably 

 draw in the combs towai'd the center of the 

 brood-nest, so that the lower part of tlu' comb 

 would be built out of the frame. They would 

 do so until 1 icduced the space so as to measiu'e 

 only l-'s fr(mi center to center. As tiiis matter 

 seems to me to be of great imi)ortanc<'. I will 

 here quote from whom I believe to be the best 

 authoi'ity on tln^ subject. The Baron von Her- 

 lepsch. iii his iuie(|iniled work. Die Biciw mid 

 ihre Zacht (The p,ee and its Culture), says: 

 ■■ Dzlerzon, the inventoi- of the movable coml). 

 gave IK; as the right distance, until Wiepi'echt* 

 made exact nieasuremtMits on straw hives that 

 were built out with straight coml)S. He found, 

 that, although some variations were noticed, in 

 4!) measui'ements the average distance from 

 center to center of combs was I-i^h inches. 



"The coi'rectness of this statement. I (von 

 Ho'lepsch) can aflirm with the utmost certain- 

 ty, as I, in company with Kalb.+ also nuule 4'.i 

 measurements, the result being IfR inches as to 

 the average distance." 



The (i(>rman foot is I4 inch longer than ours: 

 therefore \{\. in. of l>('rlei)sch"s (iernuin mea- 

 sure would he ('(pial to lU. or scant 1-*K. of our 

 measure. But as the wood' of the frames will 

 shrink, and also wear off some. I make the 

 close-titting parts of my frames exactly l-'s 

 wide, and 1 believe this to be the b(^st width. 

 To mak(> the spaces more than 1'*m will l)e an- 

 tagonistic to the nature and well-being of our 

 bees. 



n we. for instance. S]jace th<' combs from cen- 

 ter to center so as to meastire lli instead 

 of \% inches, tli(>n we have an empty .space of 

 % inch between two combs of brood instead of 

 |. as it ought to be; and it will certainly re- 

 quire more bees to lill and keep w arm a % than 

 a i space. In a t-incli space, the breeding bees 

 from two combs facing each other will join 

 with theii- backs, and so close uj) the space be- 

 tween the two brood-combs; if tliis sjjace is 

 widened, however, to %. i\w bees can not do 

 this, and 'more bees will be required to keep up 

 the needed brooding temperature. What a 

 drawback this would be in cool spring weather, 

 wh(m our colonies are weak in numbei's yet, and 

 breeding most desirable, can I'eadily be under- 

 stood. 



My hives hold 11 brood-frames. If I siiace 

 them ly, the bees would have to occupy an V" 

 wide space of unnecessary and useless room 

 between the brood-combs tlirongh the whole 

 length and depth of the hive, as compared with 

 198-si)aced frames. Widei' spacing than \% 

 will also favor and encourage the building of 

 drone-cells and the raising of drones. 



In conclusion I will say. Use spaced frames, 

 and have them not more than I^^h apart from 

 centei- to c<'nter. .TxTLH-s Hoffman. 



Canajoharie. \. V., Aug. 23. 



:Many thanks, friend 11. The evidence that 

 you present out of your long and exttMided ex- 

 perience, for \'*H spacing, seems to me to be con- 

 vincing. At first I thought Natiu-e was against 

 us in urging 1% inches; but I am veiy glad to 

 believe that she is on our side, although my 

 good friend Doolittle may argue that she is on 

 his side. If tiie lie(>-keepers ultimately adoi)t. 

 fixed distances it is highly imi>ortiint thai this 

 distance be settled accurately in the lirsl place. 

 Berleijsch (whose most valuable researches we 



*A iiotod bee-l«'epcr and wiiter.— .1. H. 

 +A prominent bee-kecixT. 



