June, 1914. 



205 



American Hee Jonrnal j 



Queen-Rearing Apiary of Mr. Lknoel. in Mabeul. Tunis. 



home; the bees make much noise, but 

 give trouble to neither man nor beast. 



She swarms too much. That is be- 

 cause the hives are both too shallow 

 and too narrow. They swarm because 

 they are too numerous for their abode. 

 They multiply very fast. 



She builds too little comb. If she 

 really swarms too much it is evident 

 that she must build combs rapidly, for 

 the one cannot go without the other. 

 It is easy to find fault. But I hope, in 

 the last of my articles, to show her 

 good points. Meanwhile, I trust the 

 readers will peruse in an impartial 

 spirit what I will have to say further 

 upon this important question. 



Nabeul, Tunis. 



[Mr. Lenoel, the writer of the above, 

 comes to us well recommended. It is 

 a hard task to fight for an already con- 

 demned cause. We bespeak for him 

 courteous consideration. — Editor.] 



the foundation while the string merely 

 lays in contact with it, or barely touches 

 it. Whether the splint is boiled in wax 

 or not the bees often try to take it 

 away. The few splints I used were 

 fine broom straws straightened by 

 soaking, then weighted at one end and 

 dried. I also split bamboo, which gave 

 a hard, tough fiber not much larger 

 than a thread. This idea I got from 

 Mr. Edison's electric light filament ex- 

 periments. 



Dr. Miller is a good guesser. I do 

 not know how much the fuzziness of 

 the string was resented by the bees, 

 but the string was removed before the 

 foundation was fully drawn out, as I 

 expected it to be. However, it had sup- 

 ported the foundation until enough 

 comb had been built to keep it in place. 



The strings were saturated with wax. 

 How could they help being when melt- 



ed wax was poured over them? A 

 cheap string is better than one made 

 of long staple cotton, as it is easier to 

 remove. 



A thing must not be condemned 

 without trial. These string " splints," 

 let me explain, are used i/s a temforary 

 support. My frames are wired for per- 

 manent support. While "actual trial 

 mtiy show less trouble with strings 

 than imagined,'" it may also show that 

 it is an ideal way to support combs. I 

 find it so. There is no gnawing away 

 of foundation. The closest scrutiny 

 fails to show that the comb had been 

 artificially supported. I expect this 

 season to try a hundred new frames 

 with strings alone. If they fail me I 

 shall make chunk honey out of the 

 combs. 



The careful experimenter this sum- 

 mer will put a frame in the hive with 

 medium foundation, one with light, 

 two more with wires, two with strings, 

 and two more with both wires and 

 strings, and keep the hive hot. But 

 not one person in a hundred can carry 

 an experiment to a logical conclusion. 

 Dr. Miller can, and I can — sometimes. 



Buck Grove, Iowa. 



No. 3.-Doubling the Yield of 

 Surplus Honey 



BY G. C. GREINER. 



THE success of the season's cam- 

 paign depends in a great measure 

 upon spring management. It paves 

 the way, as we might say, for future 

 operations. Some of the advantages 

 of my method, outside of heavier yield, 

 are directly due to the preparations and 

 treatments our bees receive before the 

 honey-flows are expected. A descrip- 

 tion of my method would not be com- 

 plete without a description of prepar- 

 ing them for the harvest. I will, there- 

 fore, give a few stray thoughts con- 

 cerning my spring management. 



To produce doubled and trebled 

 yields, your first aim must be to control 

 swarming. (This is one of the inci- 



String Splints 



BY IiR. A. F. BOXXEY. 



iAM NOT surprised that Dr. Miller 

 makes some guesses (page 161) 

 about my string splints, but I am 

 that he should pass on the matter with- 

 out a trial, and I trust the Editor of 

 the Old Reliable will let me have a 

 final say. 



Dr. Miller is not the only one whom 

 splints have not satisfied entirely. I 

 have yet to see the beekeeper who was 

 satisfied with them, and I am sarcastic 

 enough to suggest that Dr. Miller 

 might not have been had he not in- 

 vented them. I know / have clung to 

 awkward things because I invented 

 them ; but I am a stubborn sort of a 

 brute, to say the least. The Doctor 

 confesses that sometimes they " make a 

 gap of an inch or so in the founda- 

 tion." With five splints, as I have 

 strings, there would be little founda- 

 tion or comb left. 



Note that the splint is imbedded in 



A TUNI: 



Arabian Apiary. The Hives are Covered With Grass and Reeds. 

 Photograph of A. Lenoel. 



