696 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Nov. 15 



during the swarming season to remove the 

 queen and cut out cells. 



I would not, however, advise any one to 

 throw away eight-frame L. hives for section- 

 al hives. The size and shape of the eight- 

 frame hive makes it well adapted for use as 

 a sectional hive by adding a half-depth super 

 of empty combs as soon in the spring as more 

 room is needed. When eight-frame hives 

 are used in this way the top-bars to brood- 

 frames should be ><X% inch. The shallow 

 extracting-frames and supers are well suited 

 for use in connection with the eight-frame 

 L. hive as above described, and should al- 

 ways be used in connection with eight-frame 

 hives in the production of either comb or ex- 

 tracted honey. This makes the eight-frame 

 hive a close second to the sectional hive, and 

 places it head and shoulders above all others 

 as a general-purpose hive for both comb and 

 extracted honey for any and every location. 

 The word "location " is being greatly over- 

 worked, and should be permitted to rest. 



Birmingham, Ohio. 



[There are some who will take issue with 

 our correspondent when he says there is no 

 class to whom the ten-frame Langstroth is 

 suited. Last summer our south yard, con- 

 sisting mainly of eight-frame hives and a few 

 ten-frames, was run for extracted honey in 

 connection with half-depth extracting-supers. 

 The yard is haadled with a minimum of labor. 

 One of our men will visit it perhaps a dozen 

 or a dozen and a half times a year, spending 

 perhaps half a day at a time. As in previous 

 years, so this year, the ten-frame colonies 

 not only produced more honey, but at the 

 close of the season they had relatively more 

 bees and stores than the eight-frame. The 

 larger hives winter better, are stronger in 

 the spring, and stronger all the season; and, 

 what is of much importance, require less at- 

 tention. 



As between the eight and ten frame hives 

 in the production of comb honey, we are not 

 sure but that the smaller hive may be the 

 better; but the larger or ten-frame hive run 

 for extracting for the farmer and the pro- 

 fessional man who has not much time to 

 spend with his bees, is, in our opinion, bet- 

 ter than the eight-frame. — Ed.] 



JUDGING HONEY. 



Testing the Body and Flavor of Extracted; 

 Record-keeping; Difference in Wax from 

 Different Solar Wax- extractors; Best 

 Frames and Hives for^Mating Queens. 



BY F. GREINER. 



To test the body of extracted honey, it is 

 said that, the quicker the air-bubble rises in 

 a bottle of honey, the poorer the body; the 

 slower, the better or thicker is the honey. 

 This is true; but it must not be lost sight of 

 that the size of the bubble has just as much 

 to do with it. The larger the air-bubble, the 

 quicker it will rise in the same medium; con- 

 sequently, in comparing exhibits it is neces- 



sary to select bottles having the same size of 

 space left above the honeyand below the cork. 



When testing the flavor we have no guide 

 at all. It is left to the individual taste of the 

 one judging, and tastes differ. 



About the color of honey there is much un- 

 certainty. So many points are given to color. 

 What does this mean? We do not know 

 what the color of clover honey should be. It 

 is the same with linden. Buckwheat honey 

 is an exception. Generally speaking, the 

 lightest-colored honey takes the prize. Is 

 that right and just? 



A SWISS SYSTEM FOR REGISTERING QUEENS. 



As has been stated by Dr. Miller, the Swiss 

 have proposed a herd-book in which bee- 

 keepers may register their stocks of bees. 

 Rules and regulations to keep this register 

 properly have been formulated by them. 

 How successfully such a record may be kept 

 is to be found out. Every bee-keeper, how- 

 ever, may keep a herd-book of his own, 

 which may be a very profitable affair for 

 him, and possibly for others. My records 

 have been kept on the honey-boards, and 

 can not be detached. Some of those honey- 

 boards have been planed off to make room 

 for more records, and thus that part of the 

 record has become lost, since it has not been 

 transferred to any book or something else. 



It may be a great advantage to be able to 

 trace back the blood of a colony. I would 

 give a good deal to-day to know whether 

 one certain colony in mj^ yard, which has 

 a record of 130 lbs. of section honey in 1907, 

 120 lbs. in 1908, and 48 lbs. in 1909, the 

 poorest honey season in many years, has 

 the blood of Root stock, of Moore, or some- 

 thing else. Perhaps a good way is to write 

 the records upon broken sections, and at the 

 end of the season bring these home and file 

 or transfer the records to a book. I notice 

 many of my records on the honey-boards be- 

 come so dim in time that they can not be 

 read any more. 



HIVE-NUMBERS. 



If a record is kept in this way, so that we 

 may, when we are at leisure, look it over 

 and find and classify our most profitable 

 stocks, the numbering of the hives is an ab- 

 solute necessity. Bee-keepers in Germany 

 have named their swarms after noted men 

 like Berlepsch, Dzierzon, Kaiser Wilhelm, 

 Baron Bismarck, etc. When owning hives by 

 the hundreds, numbers are better than long 

 names. Recently samples of numbers have 

 been sent me by a firm in Germany. They 

 are of aluminum, of silvery color. Such do 

 not show well at a distance. I should prefer 

 a jet-black color, and have the number, be 

 there a single figure like 1, 2, 3, etc , or two 

 like 12, 13, 14, 25, 99, etc., on one piece of 

 mefaly not each number cut out separately, 

 making it necessary in most cases to fasten 

 two or more numbers to one hive to get the 

 combined number. It seems to me there 

 would be a demand for these numbers if they 

 could be made cheap enough. 



Numbers which I have stenciled on hives, 

 also on pieces of zinc, have become i]legible> 

 and I should like something more reliable. 



