l>evo-tei> to bees atsi> honey, and home interest*-. 



Vol. VII. 



MARCH 1, 1879. 



No. 3. 



A. 1. UOOT, 



Publisher and Proprietor 

 Vlett lit;:. O. 



' JEs 



Published Monthly. 



Established in 1873 



(TEKITIN: %1.00 Per Annum in Ad- 

 vance; 3 Copies for $2.i>0; 5 /or S3. 75; 

 (. lO oi more, 60e. each. Single Number, lOc. 



SCRAPS AND SKETCHES. NO. 3. 



HURKAH POK FOUNDATION ! 



'F there is anything in my apiary that makes me 

 feel like swinging my hat, it is the sight of 

 combs built upon ran. They arc so nice, true, 

 and even; not a drone cell unless wanted; combs 

 built and tilled with honey in 8 days; and all these 

 advantages secured at a cost of only 7 or 8 cts. per 

 comb. 



The first sheet of fdn. that I put into a hive was 

 given to a strong swarm, and I guess every "dear 

 little creature" in the hive wanted to see that "new- 

 fangled improvement," and then, Yankee like, 

 wanted to feel of it, to taste it! to smell it, and, last- 

 ly, wanted to go to work drawing it out into a nice 

 yellow comb; the result was, so many wax workers 

 and '"hangers-on" congregated upon the fdn., that 

 it broke in two, about an inch from the top bar. 



Well, instead of sending back my 10 lbs. of fdn., 



, and then rushing into print to 



warn the public, by informing them that fdn. was a 

 brilliant failure, 1 "rushed" for what "print— ed" 

 bee-matter I had, and set my wits to work, to dis- 

 cover a remedy. In J. H Nellis' circular for 1877, I 

 found the following: 



"We insist that the sheets be only ! s inch short at 

 each end, and explain the reasons as follows: the 

 bees commence to lengthen the cells and fill them 

 with brood and honey, from the center of the sheet, 

 and work towards ihe edges. When the space at 

 the ends is only ' 8 in., the bees work out the edges 

 (the sagging occurs when they first commence to 

 work the wax) and fasten it to the end bars, before 

 the sheet becomes so heavy that the top part cannot 

 sustain the weight, and either sags or breaks alto- 

 gether." 



On page 185, Vol. II, of Gleanings, D. B. Baker 

 writes as follows: 



"The bees always begin at the top to build them 

 oot. and, with me, always complete one side ahead 

 of the other. This will cause the sheet, sometimes, 

 to balance over toward the uncompleted side, and 

 as soon as the corner touches, or nearly touches, 

 the side bar, just so soon will it be fastened. Now, 

 as the bees go on finishing this side, ot course it 

 stretches, and as the corner is fastened, a bulge will 

 occur just above. I found mine not only bulged as 

 stated, but the opposite side was stretched too long, 

 causing another large bullae. My remedy was, to 

 cut it loose from the bottom bar, and take out about 

 ': inch; also to cut the corner loose and take out % 

 in. of comb. This lets it swing clear until comple- 

 tion." 



Of course. I wanted my fdn. to "swing clear until 

 completion," and if the lower coiners had got to be 

 clipped, why not do it when cutting out the sheets; 

 but then, Nellis says the fdn. must be only \ : in. 

 from the side bars, or it will say and break down. 

 Ten minutes thinking enabled me to effect a com- 

 promise, and in 2 more minutes 1 had a sheet of fdn. 

 cut in such shape that it almost touched the side 

 bars 2 in. down from the top, then it gradually ta- 

 pered as it neared the bottom, where it lacked about 

 % of an in. of touching the Bide bars. 



Fdn. cut in this shape proved to be the thing; I 

 had about 120 combs built, and there was no more 

 breaking down, and no kinks or bulges. 



As my frames are ll'/2 in. deep inside, I out the 

 fdn. I 1 ! in. short at the bottom, and the combs us- 

 ually stretched enough to nearly touch the bottom 

 bar; but they were all as nice and straight as a 

 board. 1 presume this management would not be 

 necessary with shallow frames. The fdn. was fast- 

 ened into the frames by tacking a strip of wood Jg 

 by % into the top bar, with the upper edge of the 

 sheet between them. 



To sum up, I will always have my combs built up- 

 on fdn.; and if I can't get the money to buy it, in 

 any other way, I will sell some of my bees. 



W. Z. Hutchinson. 



ltogersville, Genesee Co., Mich. 



The plan you mention, friend II.. or a sim- 

 ilar one, has been given before by some- 

 body ; for deep frames it is doubtless an ex- 

 cellent idea, but we have had such nice work 

 with the sheets as we make them for the L. 

 frames, that hardly anything more is need- 

 ed, unless it is something to make them 

 strong enough to ship. At present. I am in- 

 clined to think the line wire, woven in the 

 frames as described in Aug. No., of last 

 year, the most feasible. Even if the queen 

 does skip a cell now and then, she may use 

 these same cells, after the comb gets a' little 

 older. The matter needs a thorough test- 

 ing, and it will have it very soon. 

 * 'H * 



THE HIVE I AOT NOW USING; 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT INVESTING IN PATENTS. 



f ; HAVE been engaged in bee-keeping, from my 

 "pop-gun" days to the present time. Indeed, 



"£ 



work pertaining to the care and management of 

 the apiary is about all the work I take to kindly, and 

 with all the trials and failures incident to the fasci- 

 nating pursuit, the profits from the trade have most 

 liberally replenished my exchequer. 



The greatest ba?ie to my success has been my fool- 

 ish desire to purchase and test the many patented 

 hives that have been brought to my notice. About 

 tin- worst take I got was at the Ohio State Fair, at 

 Columbus, where I had the misfortune to meet the 

 King Bros., with their famous Am., hive. Perfectly 

 captivated was I, by the superb arrangement, so 

 much so that I danced to the tunc of $75. for rights, 

 and material ready to put together. At that memo- 

 rable time, I Was using the old style, eight frame, 

 Quinby hives, and right good were tbey, "you bet," 

 as friend Heal would express it; but then I had 

 learned something at the fair, and must make haste 

 to transfer my bees to the new wonder. 



After all were transferred into the marbleized Am. 

 hive, I felt happy. All I had to do, when the lower 

 box was partly filled, was to raise it "gently" and 

 "slip" the other under, and SO on, ail Infinitum. Gra- 

 cious I what a sublime arrangement ! But, like 

 friend Hutchinson, I soon found 1 had been soldout- 

 right. 



My greatest objection to the Am. hive is that it is 

 a fraud in nearly every respect, as 1 sec it. A closed 



