468 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



July 26 1900 



ing to them, and places them in the scraping--box — of 

 which more anon. The operator having- a pile of combs 

 before him, with the knife occasionally held for a second 

 or two over the lamp, sets to work carving them up as 

 economically as he can. Of course, there will be some 

 waste, lots of odds and ends falling away, and which, to- 

 gether with the scrapings of the sections, will give alDout 

 three pounds of nice, light colored wax per 1,000 sections 

 thus treated. 



Fixing the pieces in the renovated sections goes very 

 rapidly once one gets in the way of it, and it is done thus : 



Place the piece of comb in position, and with a piece of 

 section held in the left hand, bear gently and evenly down 

 on it. Having held the knife for two or three seconds over 

 the lamp, slip it smartly in between the piece of comb and 

 section, move it rapidly backwards and forwards, bearing 

 down gently all the time with the bit of section in the left 

 hand, when heigh, presto ! it is fixt as firm as a rock. Per- 

 haps the " Daisy " may be made to do it. 



To adults who may find the work too " niggling " and 

 tedious, and who, in their want of patience may be apt to 

 deem the game not worth the candle, I would suggest hand- 

 ing the job over to the junior members of the family, espe- 

 cially where there are intelligent, light-handed lassies ; re- 

 ward them at the rate of, say, two cents per dozen, and they 

 will delight in the task. It is better than throwing them in 

 the pig-sty, the opinion of such millionaire (?) members of 

 our fraternity as Mr. E. T. Abbott to the contrary notwith- 

 standing. 



The hopelessly dirty sections I discard, and, in some 

 cases fit the combs into quite new ones. But by using what 

 I may term my "Handy Scraping-Box," I manage, and 

 that with very little labor, to restore the dirtiest looking 

 sections to their pristine whiteness, or so nearly so that 

 there is no question about putting them on the hives again. 

 Indeed, the use, or success, of this box has far exceeded my 

 expectations. Its construction is too simple to need much 

 explanation thereof. It is made of stoutish stuff and holds 

 six sections, which are rigidly fixt by means of a follower 

 and a wooden thumb-screw. Where a " screw-box " is not 

 available, a very good iron thumb-screw may be made by 

 beating out flat the head of a big ordinary screw, after hav- 

 ing made it white hot ; the sharp point must be filed down 

 a bit. 



Having placed six sections in the box, and screwed 

 them up, scrape the surface with an ordinary clasp-knife, 

 having a round or dagger-shaped blade ; then give them a 

 brisk rub over with No. 1 sandpaper, followed up with No. 

 0, which restores the original polish. Turn the box 

 over and do the other side. If the sides require it, which 

 they seldom do, do them, too, by altering the position of 

 the sections in the box. I find I can turn them out " like 

 hot-cakes." I have not yet had an opportunity of testing 

 the utility of this simple device for scraping and cleaning 

 np/ull sections, but I fancy it will be found very useful 

 where such are more than ordinarilj' dirty or stained. The 

 sections being held rigidly they can be scraped, and if re- 

 quisite, toucht up a bit with No. 1 or No. sandpaper far 

 more vigorously and efficiently, and with less fear of dam- 

 age than when held loosely in the hand and done one by 

 one. .As it costs, so to say, nothing to make it, and there 

 is no patent on it, I would advise every one to try this ar- 

 rangement, and those who don't like it can simply tack a 

 top and bottom on the box, with a slit in the top, and make 

 a money-box of it — tho I fear in that shape it will be found, 

 nowadays, just about as useless. Well, then, kindle the 

 fire with it, or give it to mother-in-law to keep her cotton- 

 spools in. South Africa. 



Distance Between Center to Center of Frames. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A CORRESPONDENT writes that he has an apiary of 

 100 colonies, and thinks of adopting a space of one 

 and S/16 inches from center to center, as the right 

 frame-space for the future in his apiary, he having formerly 

 used a space of I'i inches. He asks, " What do you think 

 of the venture ?" and wishes me to give my " think " in the 

 matter in the columns of the American Bee Journal. 



Well, to be candid, it is a venture I should not want to 

 go into. If I thought I could see some gain in such close 

 spacing I would try it on, say five, or not to exceed ten, of 

 the 100 colonies for a year or two, and then if it pleased me 

 I would fix the remainder in that way. 



Here is something that so many lo.se sight of, and rush 

 headlong into any project which seems good to them, using 



the whole apiary to experiment with, when any feasible 

 looking experiment could be just as well tried with half a 

 dozen colonies as with 100, and if the pet project proved a 

 failure but little loss would result, as against five to ten 

 times as much where the whole apiary is tried, which latter 

 is something hard to be borne, generally resulting in send- 

 ing the experimenter from the ranks of apiculture with the 

 idea that " bee-keeping does not pay." 



I really wish some one competent would tell us, in a 

 logical waj', just what there is to be gained in a real, prac- 

 tical doUar-and-cent way, by the close spacing of frames 

 which is recommended every now and then. I have care- 

 fully experimented for several years to find out whether I 

 was wrong in sticking to a spacing of 1!4 inches from cen- 

 ter to center of frames. That is the average, as I have 

 found by measuring many times, which the combs are apart, 

 when built by bees in box-hives where they have their own 

 way in the matter, and so far I see no practical reason for 

 departing to a closer spacing than Nature taught the bees 

 to use. 



During early spring a greater space is needed between 

 frames to keep up sufficient heat for brood-rearing than 

 later on when the weather is warm. If there could be arti- 

 ficial heat used so that the hive could be kept warm enough 

 for brood-rearing in any part of it during the spring 

 months, then a closer spacing than I'i inches might an- 

 swer ; but where the bees are obliged to create a heat suffi- 

 cient for brood-rearing inside of the cluster of bees, and not 

 inside of the hive, then the case is different. To thus 

 create and preserve heat inside of the cluster, the bees must 

 have more space than for a single tier of bees between each 

 range of comb, this single tier being all that can congre- 

 gate there where the close spacing of one and S/ld inches 

 is used. 



In my experiments I have found that far more brood 

 will be brought to perfection during the cool days of April 

 and May with a lyi spacing than with the spacing proposed 

 by the correspondent ; but when we come to July and 

 August weather his spacing will work fully as well as the 

 l^'-^-inch spacing. If it were not for the fact that one square 

 inch of brood in April and May is worth more than ten 

 times that amount in July and August ; and also that, do 

 the best we can, it is hard work to secure the necessary 

 number of bees to work to advantage on the early flow of 

 honey coming from white clover, this close spacing might 

 come into general use. But as it is I can only look on so 

 close a spacing as that proposed by our correspondent as a 

 move in the wrong direction. 



TRANSFERRING BBBS. 



Another correspondent writes that he wishes to trans- 

 fer some bees from box-hives to movable-frame hives dur- 

 ing fruit-bloom, andasks, " Which is the better way todo it ? 

 By the old way of cutting combs out and fitting them into 

 frames, or by what is known as the ' Heddon plan ?' " 



The old plan is the only one I would use at the time of 

 fruit-bloom, and, in fact, it is the way I prefer at any time 

 of the year, unless the colony to be transferred has such 

 crooked combs that it will cost much labor in fitting them 

 into frames. The Heddon plan of transferring, as I under- 

 stand it, is to drive the bees from their combs, leaving only 

 a few bees to care for the brood, and hiving those driven on 

 frames filled with comb foundation. In 21 days the old 

 hive is driven again, taking all the bees this time, these 

 last being hived on frames of foundation, the same as the 

 first " drive." The combs from the old hive, now free from 

 brood and bees, are to be rendered into wax. But, if I am 

 correct, Mr. Heddon never advised this way of transferring 

 where the same was to be done in early spring or in fruit- 

 bloom, before the hives were filled with bees and brood. 



With me, the time of fruit-bloom is just the time for the 

 bees to get under good headway rearing brood, and making 

 a general preparation for the main honey harvest from 

 white clover and basswood ; and should we transfer by the 

 Heddon plan at this time, we would break up all of these 

 plans of the bees just at a time when we wish every eg^ 

 possible laid by the queen, so the bees from them can come 

 on the stage of action when the honey harvest is on. 

 Hence, by using the Heddon plan at this time of the year, 

 we would so shorten our " crop " of bees that it might make 

 all the difference between a good crop of honey and no sur- 

 plus at all. One hundred and twentj'-five dollars would not 

 tempt me to allow any person to transfer 25 colonies of bees 

 for me in such a way in fruit-bloom ; as I should calculate 

 that I would lose that much or more by so doing in an aver- 

 age season. 



Then, the Heddon plan involves the melting up of all 



