1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



701 



you wisli to raisi' honey, potatoes, or strawber- 

 ries. 1 am really glad to have you give friend 

 Boardman such a reconiineudation. Now, friend 

 B.. tell us all about this wonderful invention, 

 and whether you have them to sell, and at what 

 price. It can not be that they cost very much, 

 if it will pay a man to have one w ho produces 

 only .'iO lbs. of wax a year. 



^ — •— ^ 



EENEST'S NOTES OF TRAVEL AMONG THE 

 BEE-KEEPERS OF YORK STATE. 



HOFFMAN S; TIIF. UOFFMAX FUAMF, 

 ETC. 



After bidding good-by to our friends the Van 

 Deusens. we started on our jcmrney again. INIr. 

 El wood driving, and I hanging on to the bicycle 

 at the back of t lie seat. ^Vilenever w(> struck a 

 rut or hole in tlie road, it gave my arm a good 

 jerk. It may have seemed somewhat of an 

 anomaly to |)assers-by for a bicycle rider and 

 his wheel both to be carried in <i ira{j<n\. It 

 was not because the \\ii('el would not carry me. 

 nor Ix'cause tiie country was !iill\' and rough, 

 but that wc might have an opportunity of visit- 

 ing togi'thei' as before mentioned. I am afraid 

 if ithad been possible to carrymy friend Elwood 

 ■on th(> I'ear of (;)j/ vehicle, folks along the road 

 would have stared evi'ii more than they did. 

 for our Starkville friend \\eighs more than :.'()l) 

 pounds. 



As we went o\'er the I'oads. 1 noticed in this 

 hilly country that th(> effort of late years had 

 b(>en to (ivoiil hills rather than to go straight 

 over them. Although somewhat paradoxical, 

 many times, the longi^st \\ ay to a point anujug 

 these hills is the shortest. The early settlei's 

 formerly made their roads go in a bee-line over 

 the hilis, or very nearly so. The result was, 

 there were some terrible climbs for poor horses. 

 But later generations discovered tluit they 

 could make bettei' tinu- by going further and 

 (lyoimtl the hills. 



As ]Mr. Elwood was to take a somewhat dif- 

 ferent route tluui the one he had before taken, 

 he had to nuike incjuiiies along the way. The 

 point we wanted to I'ench \\as the honu' of 

 .Julius Hotfnian. two or three miles out of C'ana- 

 joluirie. We noticed on this journey what I 

 had befoi-e and have sul)se(|uently observed, 

 that residents ahuig the roadway very often 

 have vei'y crud(> ideas as to distances. Foi- in- 

 stance, we would in(juii'e of some old I'ustic ho\\' 

 fai' it was to the next town. The reply would 

 l)e (we'll say). "Five miles." After having 

 traveled half an hour, on the right road, per- 

 haps o\ir next infornumt would say that it was 

 six mill's. It was i)erfectly evident tiuitoneor 

 both (probiil)iy tile lirstl must ha\'e been wrong. 



After dri\ing along in this sort of way \\'e 

 finally came to within a resijectable distance of 

 ('anajohari<'. which used to be the old home of 

 the ncc-l;c('i)crf<' ErrhaiKjc, a monthly bee- 

 journal edited and publislied by .J. H. Xeliis. 

 later by lloiik i*v- Peet. It was discontinued 

 in iss:i. If i I'eniember coirectly. Mr. Nellis is 

 still located in t'anajoliai'ie. though not now a 

 bee-kee|)er. If we had had a little nnii'e time I 

 should have liked veiymuch to call on him and 

 exchange greetings, in view of his past services 

 as a ])ee-k<'e])er and a Ix-e-kceplng editor. I 

 have a kliidlv sympathy lor all this latter class 

 of people, especially as wc know somewhat of 

 the trials of publishing a bee-jouinal. 



We did not go to C'anajohaiie direct, but 

 nuide a short cut dii'ectly to Mi'. Ilotfiiiairs 

 home. Mr. 11. foiiiieih' li\ed at Fort riaiii: 

 but lately he has been located as above. On 



arriving at the place we found a very pretty 

 residence, and a general ajjpearance of thrift. 

 Not know ing exactly the date when 1 should be 

 at Mr. HotTman's. and not having written him. 

 I was a little uncertain whether I should be 

 able to lind that gentleman at home: but fortu- 

 nately we found liini there. He is not as old a 

 man as I expected to see. We found him to b(» 

 an intelligent and jmigressive bee-keeper, an 

 energetic rei)i'es<'ntative of his " fatherland." 

 (iermany. After dinner we went out into the 

 home yard. I told ^Nlr. Hoffman that I was 

 anxious to see him handle those frames. 



rilF. HOFFMAN FKAMK. 



He handles his frames— the Hoffman, before 

 described in these columns— with raiiidity and 

 eas(>. While he did not reinov(> and reiilace 

 them any more rapidly than Mr. Elwood did 

 his closed ends. I am sure he manipulated them 

 in less time than most of us would the hanging 

 frame. In former years he tried the hauging 

 frames thoroughly: but as li(> could not handle 

 tlieni rapidly enough, and they were never I'eady 

 for moving, he atlopted the lierleiisch top-bar. 

 something after this pattern, and subse(|uently. 



if I remember, widened the end -bars near tli(> top, 

 making what is generally known through this 

 section of the country as the Hoffman frame. 

 Here was a l)"e-keeper who had ."i(ii) or <'i()() colo- 

 nies, and I think he uses only one assistant, and 

 him only part of the tiiue. He attributes the 

 reason w'liv he can run so many colonies in sev- 

 eral different out-apiaries, ijractically alone, to 

 the fact of his using fixed distances. He would 

 oiien up a hive, unloose the follower, and then 

 he would pick up five or six frames at a time, 

 put them (low n by the side of the hive, and 

 piu'haiis the next frame we picked up would 

 have tlie queen. Then w hen he got ready to 

 close the hive he would pick up all the frames 

 that were leaning against the hive, and insert 

 them hack in their iilacesimiiltaueously. With 

 his two thunibs on the outside top-bar he would 

 ci-owd all the rest of the frames together. 



One of the reasons why Mr. Elwood and Mr. 

 Hoffman, and all the rest who use fixed frames, 

 economize in time over those who use hanging 

 frames, is in the final sijacing. It is true, both 

 use a knife or a screwdriver to start the 

 frames: but 1 miticed that ^Ir. Doolittle with 

 his liangiiig frames also uses one: in fact, so do 

 all who" use hanging frames on wood rabbets. 

 As to the propolis sticking th(> closed ends to- 

 gether, so as to make the manipulation dil'llcult, 

 that is more in theory than in practice. Like 

 Mr. Elwood. Mr. Hoffman could get his colonies 

 ready to move on short notice. He had an 

 ingenious wire-cloth button, so arranged that, 

 by turning it. it cIoscmI the entrance with wire 

 cloth, and. in less tinn' than it takes to tell it. he 

 could lix up any of his colonies ready to move to 

 an out-apiary. 



Mr. llolfiuan I'uiis for extracted honey only: 

 and as he has produced ions of that article. 1 

 took occasion to ask- liiin about I'Mractors. He 

 liad been using a Stanley automatic reversing 

 inachine. While not altogi-flier pleased with it. 

 he thought tln-re were a number of good features 

 about it. He pi'elcrs soiuetliing of his ()wn <ie- 

 simi. This, if my lueinoiy sei-ves me rightly, is 

 a 7oui-fiaine non-reversing extractor. I tbink 

 lie has used a \o\ ice machine, hut considered its 

 capacity too small for his work. 



After wc hatl looked around aw hii • 

 througii the honey-house ami the apiary wo 

 went into the hoiiM-. Mv. Hoffman is an Intel- 



