550 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



choice mother, ought to be worth half the 

 money she would bring if fertilized. 



In the case of Mr. Laws he succeeded in 

 getting thirty queens out of sixty cells. He 

 is an expert queen-breeder; but in our own 

 3'ards we should feel that the loss of thirty 

 virgins (or 50 per cent) would be such that 

 all the profits would go glimmering. Of 

 course, we do not succeed in getting all of 

 our virgins fertilized; but if we should lose 

 50 or even 40 per cent, as 3^ou seem to imply 

 you might lose by your plan, we should con- 

 sider it as too large a percentage to be at 

 all considered, and the plan a failure. 



I don't like to come down on the small 

 nuclei, but I believe that they will prove 

 only a disappointment atod a vexation of 

 spirit, for the average bee-keeper. If I am 

 wrong, I hope vny friends will come at me 

 "with hammer and tongs," brickbats, and 

 any old thing except mud. — Ed.] 



BEE=SPACES, ETC. 

 Some New Old Things ; Closed°end Frames. 



BY A. I. ROOT. 



I want to saj' to my dear old friend Dr. 

 Miller (see p. 455) that I felt exceedingly 

 glad to find among the Straws a question 

 to his old friend; but before I answer it I 

 want to say to Ernest that I never thought 

 of nor said one inch is a "proper bee-space. " 

 The matter came up in this way: A friend 

 of mine, and a bee-keeper as well as a 

 wood-worker, wanted to make me a lot of 

 two-story L. hives that would be exactly 

 right. I paid him $4.00 each for 50 hives. 

 Now, when these hives were put into use, 

 some of the frames in the upper stories 

 mashed bees by striking the top-bars below, 

 while others were so high above the top- 

 bars the bees built comb and filled it with 

 honey between the upper and lower stories. 

 My good friend, when apprised of the fact, 

 said he would come and make every thing 

 right, free of charge, and he would fix the 

 lot of hives so any upper would go on anj^ 

 lower story, keeping the space "within 

 bounds" all the time. "Well, he and I work- 

 ed a long time at it, but we were both com- 

 pelled to give it up. During these trials 

 we both decided this space must never be 

 greater than one inch. The vexation and 

 disappointment I went through with at this 

 time made me declare I would not only make 

 some hives where all parts would be inter- 

 changeable (like the Waltham watches just 

 then coming out); but that we must have 

 ?i\%o frames with both top and bottom bars 

 that would not sag or bend down, no matter 

 how much honej^ the bees "piled" into 

 them.* I worked long and hard at many 

 desirable problems, and gave them up as 

 being too difficult and two complex for at- 

 tainment, but have had a series of "happy 

 surprises" late years in seeing Ernest 

 tackle that very thing, and succeed. It just 



*Wiring the combs so as to brace and support the 

 bottom-bar came in at this time. 



now occurs to me that I felt a little cross at 

 him because of what he said about that 

 " one-inch bee-space;" but perhaps he just 

 wanted to vex me enough to "call me out;" 

 if so, it is all right, for I have been getting 

 ready to write something on bees for some 

 days back. 



Before I forget it, I want to say that Er- 

 nest has not onlj' John, Arthur, and Huber 

 to help him work out improvements, but he 

 has the help of as fine wood-workers and 

 machinists, almost, as the world affords. 

 Perhaps I had better mention that, when 

 he spent so much time experimenting with 

 "fences," I said I had been all over that 

 ground, years before, and when he finally 

 made it a success I said again they could 

 never be made cheap enough so the rank 

 and file of bee-keepers cotxld aflrord them. 

 Of course, you all know how it turned out. 



Well, I have, in a pretty little nook down 

 by that bicycle-path (and the peach-trees), 

 two colonies of bees. A few days ago the 

 bo3's working for me said my bees, would 

 swarm, and one day thej' declared they 

 were swarming. I explained it was the 

 3'oung bees plajang, and tried to convince 

 them I knew a few things about bees. A 

 few da^'s later one of them asked me if I 

 knew a plan had just been discovered for 

 ' ' sending queen-bees by mail. ' ' That even- 

 ing I transferred mj' one colony to a hive of 

 the ver}' latest pattern, sent me by Ernest 

 ( making two colonies of it), and at the same 

 time I gave the bo}'s a little talk on bees. 

 The transferring took just 20 minutes, and 

 I cut out some of the combs too; but when I 

 looked over that new hive and "took in " all 

 that had been worked out by the busy 

 brains of the bee-keepers of the world dur- 

 ing the 3'ears I have "sort o' dropped out," 

 when I noted first one point and then an- 

 other that had been so successfull}' and so 

 beautifully managed, I could not but raise 

 my heart to God in thanksgiving and praise 

 that he had permitted me to live to see, with 

 my own eyes, the realization of xx\y dreams 

 of years ago — j'es, more than realized; for 

 in my wildest flights of imagination and 

 enthusiasm I never expected to see all that 

 modern bee culture has already accomplish- 

 ed. Now to get back to that "bee-space." 



I hope there are no bee-keepers nowadays 

 who tolerate an}' such bungling work as to 

 have a whole inch bee-space anj^where in 

 the hive. If there are, they had better get 

 at least one up-to-date hive, say for comb 

 honey, and try it one season. The only 

 thing that worries me about the new hive is 

 the fact that the}' are not all as perfect as 

 this, and interchangeable. 



Talk about fractions of an inch! wh}-, 

 there are things about this hive where the 

 variation of even " a hair's breadth" would 

 spoil the beauty of its working. At first I 

 thought it would be difficult to open and 

 close with a lot of bees in the way; but in 

 24 hours I opened it without smoke or veil, 

 did it very quickly, didn't kill a bee, be- 

 cause every thing went into its place so 

 nicely. 



