856 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



and the cooling breeze is wafted from it 

 throug-h the apiary. A firmisternial, tailess, 

 amphibious animal resorts here in g'reat 

 numbers in the winter. The^^ are very mu- 

 sical, though somewhat monotonous. They 

 hardly ever leave their element to perch 

 upon hives, and are perfectly harmless. 

 Not so, however, with the black ant. These 

 pests were so numerous in this apiarj^ that 

 it had to be elevated from the ground, plac- 

 ed upon those benches, and the legs smear- 

 ed with a mixture of corrosive sublimate. 

 These ants will attack and destroy every 

 bee that happens to miss the alighting- 

 board, and even enter the hive to grasp their 

 victims. I have never seen them so numer- 

 ous in any apiary as I found them here, 

 and I am sure that the soil so near the lake 

 was adapted to their propagation; but Mr. 

 Stearns has taken prompt and efficient 

 means to get rid of thein. 



[As one travels through the country it is 

 a little interesting to see how varied are the 

 methods used by extensive bee-keepers — 

 those that can and do produce great results 

 when there is any thing like a honey-flow. 

 Those inethods are so different one almost 

 wonders how this one and that one can pro- 

 duce honey economically, for it would seem 

 that certainly one has a good method, and 

 the other a very poor one. "B3' their fruits 

 ye shall know them," and the same good 

 rule applies to bee-men and the honey they 

 harvest. It seems to be a general rule to 

 have a small extracting-house, be it ever so 

 humble, at each outyard ; but here we have 

 the case of a man who actually hauls his 

 extractors — in fact, all his tools — to and 

 from the outyards, besides bringing back 

 the honey. 



Opinions seem to be about equally divided 

 between a two-frame extractor and a four and 

 six frame machine. The advocates of the 

 first named will claim every time that they 

 can extract just as much honey, and do it 

 easier; while those who talk in favor of the 

 big machines say they can not aft'ord to fuss 

 with the little ones. I did some extracting 

 while in California, or at least I helped. 

 My own opinion is that a six-frame machine 

 is too large for one man to turn comfortably'. 

 Even a four-frame extractor is large enough. 

 I came home with the conviction firmly root- 

 ed in my mind that these large machines 

 ought to be run b^^ some cheap gasoline pow- 

 er of a half or a. third horse power in size. 

 In the course of a month or six weeks I 

 think we shall have something that will run 

 these big machines, and actually save the 

 time of a big strong man. Labor in Cali- 

 fornia is rather expensive; and the cost of 

 maintaining a little gasoline-engine during 

 the honey season would not exceed two cents 

 a day while being operated. Contrast this 

 with the expense of a Si. SO man, and figure 

 out how much would be saved. Of course, 

 a man can do something besides turn the 

 extractor; but with a little power he can 

 make_ his own labor go twice as far, and at 

 the same time do the work more thorough- 

 ly.— Ed.] 



THE HOFFMAN FRAME. 



Criticisms and Suggestions. 



BY H. H. HVDE. 



I have noted with much interest the recent 

 articles in regard to brood - frames; and 

 while I do not set myself up as authority, 

 yet I have in mind a frame that we have 

 been using the last two years with entire 

 success. We had the Root Co. make us 

 some Hoffman frames as follows: Top-bar, 

 extreme length, 19 inches; width, 1,V; thick- 

 ness, }'2 ; end-bars, fg thick, and at the top 

 it is spaced as usual with both edges square 

 instead of one square and one V-edge bot- 

 tom bar 34X^3g. Now the reasons for this 

 style, or, rather, specifications. We will 

 take the bottoin-bar first. I want it ^4 wide 

 so as to render it highly improbable that the 

 bees will continue any comb below the bot- 

 tom-bar, as they will do when it is not wide 

 enough. I want both end and bottoin bars 

 j°R thick, as I find that the usual thickness 

 of !4 is hardly rigid enough in proportion 

 to the other parts of the frame, especially 

 where they are intended to support wires in 

 the frames. I want the spacers on the end- 

 bars to have square edges, both of them, for 

 several reasons: viz., easier manipulation, 

 no V edges to split off in manipulation, as 

 so many of the V edges do; and, best of all, 

 permits the use of a top-bar 19 inches long 

 instead of the full length of 19,is. This 

 small difference in length makes them very ■ 

 easily inanipulated. 



I shall order the next top-bars onlj^ one 

 inch wide, as we find that is wide enough 

 to prevent burr-combs, and then this width 

 gives a wider space between the brood- 

 frames at the top, consequently' freer com- 

 munication from brood-nest to super. We 

 have found that yi is thick enough to pre- 

 vent sagging, burr -combs, etc., and bj' 

 their use we do not have the brood-nest so 

 far from the super, neither do we have so 

 much useless wood, the space being taken 

 up with comb. 



You can experiment as much as 3'ou will, 

 but you will always find that, where the 

 above top-bar is used in lieu of the old 

 "fence rails," there will be a decided im- 

 provement in the way bees enter the supers, 

 and quite a little less amount of honey will 

 be found in the brood-nest. 



There is an objection to this top-bar; and 

 that is, unless it was made thicker the 

 wedge system of fastening in foundation 

 could not be adapted to it. This might be 

 a consideration with some; but with our- 

 selves, where we use our machine and melt- 

 ed wax for fastening in the foundation, we 

 would not turn around for the difference in 

 time it takes, or in the quality of the work 

 done by either method. But why use the 

 long-top-bar frame when the so-called "im- 

 proved end staples" have been adopted? 



I wish to say, in all deference to Mr. 

 Root, that, had thej' not placed them before 

 the people, and announced that they were 

 all right, there would now be very few of 



