January, 1910. 



American Hee Journal 



1. These supers are made in either 8 

 or 10 frame siKes, so they can be ob- 

 tained either for 8 or 10 frame Lang- 

 stroth hives, if you have them. In our 

 system we prefer the shallow Hoffman 

 self-spacing frames, as a self-spacing 



2.— SlIAI.l.cJW SlI'KK FOK ChL'NK HONEV 



frame is absolutely essential for our 

 purpose, as will hereafter be explained. 



Fig. 2 represents one of our supers 

 with 10 frames. The super is .5-?4 inches 

 deep, while the frames are -5^8 inches 

 in depth. These hang on plain, square 

 shoulders or rabbets without tins. No 

 tin rabbets are necessary. The frames, 

 5^8 deep, as shown in Fig. 3, are the 

 regular shallow Hoffman style, as put 

 out by most manufacturers, e.xcept that 

 they differ in the top-bars used, .^s 

 made regularly at the factory, they are 

 too wide. These are l!s inches wide, 

 making the spaces between the top- 

 bars of the frames too narrow for best 

 results, as the passage-way from one 

 super to another is cut off too much, 

 and discourages the bees more or less, 

 so that a loss in surplus honey results. 

 They are made only Is inch thick, and 

 with a deep, wide groove for inserting 

 foundation-starters, so that they are too 

 weak, and sooner or later sag, and 

 allow bur and brace combs to be built 

 between the tops and bottoms of the 

 several supers. 



Our frames have a narrower but 

 thicker top-bar, full fi-inch wide, and 

 full >^-inch thick, which makes the 

 frames much stronger ; no sagging re- 

 sults, and the trouble with bur combs 

 is thus prevented. We have no groove 

 for foundation-starters in these top- 

 bars, as, first, it only weakens them, is 

 an e.xtra expense, and then we abso- 

 lutely do not need them with our meth- 

 ods of fastening the foundation. ' On 

 the contrary, they are an abominable 

 nuisance to us, and prevent fast work, 

 as they are in the way. Even if we 

 should use them the first time, they 

 would be filled with wax each succes- 

 sive time foundation was put in the 



3.— Shallow Frame for Chink Honev. 



frames, and our experience has long 

 taught us that it did not pay to clean 

 out these grooves. How the foundation 

 is fastened in them will be described 

 later. 



In answer to numerous enquiries 

 from those wishing to procure the 

 proper supers for producing bulk- 

 comb honey the coming season, we 



recommend the above-mentioned su- 

 pers either 8 or 10 frame size, as needed 

 for the hives already in use. It would 

 be well to state here that when order- 

 ing these, special mention about the 

 kind of top-bars wanted will have to be 

 made, giving the desired width — U- 

 inch. full, and depth, full J^-inch, not 

 omitting //ta/ no grooi'c for foundulioti 

 is iviintcd — or the regular wide ones 

 will be sent. 



Here, and by those who use them, 

 these frames are known as the " Scholl " 

 trame, and several of the large bee- 

 keepers' supply manufacturers have 

 been asked "to put the Scholl frame on 

 the market." This is in all respects 

 nothing else but the shallow o^'s Hoff- 

 man self-spacing frame, but zvith the 

 ^i-itich zi'idt\ and ^z-i/ich thick ^ top-bar, 

 ifithout a grooTc to weaken it. This is 

 the frame that we have advocated for a 

 number of years, and we have several 

 times called attention to it, especially 

 for use, not only for bulk comb-honey 

 production alone, but for the shallow, 

 divisible brood-chamber hives, which 

 we use extensively in our work. As 

 this hive has given us the best satisfac- 

 tion and results in the production of 

 bulk-comb honey for many years, I 

 will describe it in the next article, for 

 the benefit of those who desire to pro- 

 cure new hives, or for others who wish 

 to follow my system of work this year. 



i.^HivK AND .Super for Chunk Honey. 



How Far Do Bees Fly ? 



It would seem that from all that had 

 been written and said on the subject of 

 how far bees will fly for honey, there is 

 but little left to be said or written on 

 the subject, still this is like the winter- 

 ing problem in the North — it's one of 

 the subjects that just won't down. 



I am ashamed to confess it, but it is 

 one of the few things connected with 

 apiculture that the more I experiment 

 the less I really seem to know. As it 

 is a subject that all bee-keepers are 

 more or less interested in I, for one, 

 should like to see it thoroughly dis- 

 cussed by all, this winter, through the 

 columns of the .\merican Bee Journal. 

 I think there is little danger of the sub- 

 ject becoming stale and of little inter- 

 est to the readers. Away back in my 

 boyhood days, when I first started with 

 bees in a practical way, I thought I 

 kiiezr they would fly from 4 to 6 miles, 

 and store honey at a profit; and I can't 

 help having the same feeling to some 

 extent even yet. But when I come to 

 read the testimonv of such men as E. 

 R. Root, Louis H.' Scholl, C. P. Dadant, 

 J. L. Byer. and a host of others I could 

 mention, at/ claiming bees seldom fly 

 over \% miles for stores, then, per- 

 haps, I become somewhat in the plight 



of Josh Billings, when he said, 'What's 

 the use of a man knowing so much 

 when half he knows isn't so?" In those 

 days I lived in Johnson County, Tex., in 

 what is known as the crosstimbers — a 

 belt of timber reaching practically 

 across the State where I lived. This 

 strip of timber was about 10 miles wide, 

 and 1 lived near the center. On either 

 side of my home, at a distance of from 

 .") to (5 miles, was black, waxy, prairie 

 land, which is very rich, and the natural 

 home of the wild marigold and horse- 

 mint, which, at that time, were the prin- 

 cipal honey-plants of north Te.xas. In 

 the timber the soil was a deep, sandy 

 loam, and I never saw a stalk of wild 

 marigold growing there, and none of 

 the kind of horsemint that furnished 

 the famous horsem'nt honey of Texas 

 years ago. But as tated, on the prai- 

 rie, 5 or 6 miles dway, these plants 

 grew to perfection, and in almost end- 

 less quantities, and, in favorable years 

 for their growth, these prairies were 

 almost a bee-paradise. (They are now 

 all in big farms, mostly planted in cot- 

 ton.) My bees, in the center of the 

 crosstimbers, worked freely on these 

 plants on both sides of me. 



Some might say, " .^re you not mis- 

 taken? Is it not possible there were 

 some patches of these plants not known 

 to you. that your bees worked on much 

 nearer, etc.?" I am not mistaken. I 

 was brought up on the farm, and knew 

 all the country for many miles around. 



Others might still insist that the 

 honey stored by my bees was from 

 some other source, and not from these 

 plants, as I thought. Here, again, I in- 

 sist I am not mistaken, for when bees 

 work on marigold they become dusted 

 'iver with a yellow dust from the 

 liloom, that looks very much like bees 

 do that are at work on the goldenrod ; 

 and marigold honey is of a pinkish red, 

 and has a flavor all its own. Then, 

 when they work on the horsemint they 

 become dusted on their backs, between 

 their wings, with a dust as white as 

 flour. It's no need to tell a Texan he 

 doesn't know the flavor of horsemint 

 honey. Not only that, I was the first 

 to get the yellow banded bees in that 

 part of the country, and I frequently 

 saw them working on those plants 4 or 

 .J miles from the apiary, and they would 

 store from 2."i to 30 pounds of surplus 

 honey per colony, each good year, from 

 those plants. Then, if bees seldom go 

 further than IK miles for stores, does 

 it seem possible that such a great num- 

 ber of colonies could be kept in one 

 yard and yet secure such yields of 

 honeyas the late E. W. Alexander se- 

 cured? I confess it hardly seems rea- 

 sonable to me. But when such men as 

 I have mentioned above, say they have 

 known bees to be in a starving condi- 

 tion, and good pasturage not more 

 than 2 miles away, it causes me to won- 

 der where we are at. 



I could give other instances where I 

 know bees went from 3 to 4 miles to 

 work on smartw-eed bloom, but with 

 the hope of seeing the subject more 

 ably discussed by others, I will desist 

 for the present. L. B. Smith. 



Rescue. Te.x. 



I am well pleased with the American Bee 

 Journal, as it has been a great help to me. 

 John G. Wagner. 

 Route 3, Elkader, Iowa. 



