102 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Hutchinson's fears that working 

 against nature at a time when the 

 bees are not working at a profit to 

 their owner is not more wise than at 

 other times. 



But Mr. Hutchinson will doubtless 

 say that there is much work about 

 Mr. Doolittle's method of contracting 

 the brood-chambers of hives which 

 contain colonies run for comb honey. 

 In reply, 1 would ask. is it not better 

 to exhaust the honey-flow of a locality 

 by a fewer number of colonies built 

 up very strong, than to have so many 

 weak colonies in 8-frame hives to do 

 the same work V These little colonies 

 require about the same labor on the 

 part of the bee-keeper, and it is an 

 open question whether the bees in the 

 larger colonies will not produce the 

 most surplus. I say that they will. 



Til managing colonies on the plan 

 here given, we must have hives which 

 can readily be opened, and without 

 unduly disturbing the bees. (1 very 

 rarely use a smoker). Then when it 

 comes to taking out brood-frames, 

 contracting brood-chambers or cut- 

 ting out queen-cells, I can do it with- 

 out any great ado or loss of time. In 

 case I overlook a queen-cell, which is 

 rare, and an after-swarm issues, I put 

 it back after cutting out the offending 

 queen-cell. After handling hives and 

 brood-frames for several years on the 

 plan first given to the public by Mr. 

 Doolittle, I conclude, on tlie whole, 

 that it is more important to have 

 readily movable brood-frames than 

 •' readily movable " hives. 



New Philadelphia, O. 



tins of the form shown in the illustra- 

 tion, are secured in place at the front 

 and back of the hive, to receive the 

 nail-projections of the frame. It will 

 be seen that the bottom tins support 

 the weight of the frame, while those 

 at the top are merely slots to hold the 

 top of the frame in place. The tins 

 are easily and quickly made of a single 

 piece of tin— the only solder used is 

 where the sides of the bottom tins 

 come together, in order to more se- 

 curely hold the weight of the frame. 

 Where the space between the frame 

 and the hive is % of an inch, the depth 

 or projections of the tins should be }4 

 of an inch. This with the 5-16 projec- 

 tion of the nails of the frame, will give 

 % of an inch play between the back of 

 the tins and the ends of the nails, and 

 at the same time will prevent the nails 

 from getting out of the tins. 



Now, with this frame and its fittings 

 aside from all of the advantages ac- 

 cruing from a reversible frame, the 

 following merits over the ordinary 



For tlie American Bee JoumaL 



My Eeversible Frame. 



G. M. ALVES. 



An illustration is herewith submit- 

 ted to those who think of using a re- 

 versible frame during the coming sea- 

 son. As yet, the writer has never 

 used this frame, but he can see no rea- 

 son why it would not work admirably 

 in practice, and he is now making a 

 number of them for his own use next 

 season. 



The end-pieces are }4X% inches and 

 of the required length. The top and 

 bottom bars are each triangular in 

 shape. The center bar is % of an inch 

 square with a diagonal up ; tlie other 

 diagonal will come even with the side 

 of the end-pieces, as the diagonal of 

 % is equal to }«. Of course it will be 

 seen tliat the center bar is not neces- 

 sary to the frame or its arrangement, 

 but its use is preferred by the writer, 

 for the following reasons : 



1. By its use he expects to be ena- 

 bled to obtain much truer combs than 

 without it, as he finds that while bees 

 will build from a downward projection, 

 I hey are also disposed to build down to 

 an upward projection, 



2. Its use will render the frame much 

 stififer, and the comb will be held in 

 place much better. 



Near the top and bottom of the end- 

 liieces of the frame, good sized wire 

 1 ails with their heads cut off are 

 driven in so as to project .S-IB of an 

 inch. In lieu of rabbets to the hive, 



could use short pieces of T-shaped 

 tin ; the flanges being wide enough to 

 cover the entire width of the frame. 



It is believed that the more this 

 frame is studied the more it will find 

 favor. 



Henderson,*o Ky. 



^ 



hanging frame are obtained : 1. The 

 frame is stronger and less liable to get 

 out of true. 2. The frames are all 

 held equally spaced, both at the top 

 and bottom. It will be seen that the 

 sides of the lower tins act as guides, 

 hence the spacing of the frames at the 

 bottom is automatic. 



As to objections : It might be said 

 that it frequently happens that certain 

 frames cannot well be taken out with- 

 out moving the adjacent frames a lit- 

 tle off, and that this is done with the 

 ordinary hanging frame by sliding it 

 laterally on the rabbets of the hive, 

 and that this could not be done with 

 this frame; but it may be answered 

 that we simply lift the top nails of the 

 frame wished to be moved off, out of 

 their slots, lean the frame to the re- 

 quired side, and then allow the bottom 

 to gently glide into its former support. 



If it be objected that propolis might 

 interfere with the working of the 

 frames, it may be said that the space 

 between tlie ends of the frames and the 

 tin projection is only ji of an inch it 

 is true, but that little propolis could 

 be joined to the thin edge of tin. 

 Those who have doubts on tliis point, 

 in lieu of the wire nails to the frames, 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



My Experience in Wintering Bees. 



L. N. TONGUE, (25—70). 



My first lessons in apiculture were 

 learned in Belvidere, Ills., from a 

 practical bee-man, whose soul was in 

 the work. He was the first man who 

 drove a colony out of a hive and re- 

 tained one in the old hive; he also 

 was the first man to fasten slats in 

 the top of the hive for bees to build 

 combs upon ; and after experiment- 

 ing, the space adopted was 1% inches 

 from center to center of each slat. 

 Movable frames were not in use when 

 my instructor adopted liis plan of 

 having combs built straight. 



In 1880 I went to Minnesota where 

 I wintered my bees in a cellar for the 

 first time. When I took them out of 

 the cellar in the spring, the hives, 

 combs, and even the joists over-head, 

 were completely covered with mold 

 and dripping with water, and, not- 

 withstanding all this, the bees came 

 out all right. In 1882 I came to this 

 place and bought 50 colonies, increased 

 them to 133, and sold 21 colonies in 

 the fall of 1882. Then I moved my 

 bees 9 miles and put them into a cel- 

 lar without giving them a chance to 

 fly. The cellar froze up solid. In the 

 spring of 1883 I carried them out for 

 a fly and then put them back. When 

 I took them out to stay, I had 4 colo- 

 nies left, after spring dwindling. No 

 one need say that I do not know what 

 bee-diarrhea is. I never shall forget 

 the sight nor the stench. 



I bought 4 more colonies and the 8 

 I increased to 25 colonies. I wintered 

 them in a cellar, and in the spring of 



bass wood honey. I left them in the 

 care of my wife and son and then I 

 went to Tennessee to take charge of 

 an apiary. 



My experience teaches me that bees 

 in a Southern climate would have the 

 diarrhea worse than they do in a 

 Northern cUmate, were it not for the 

 frequent flights which they have in 

 the South. Bees gather immense 

 quantities of pollen there, and they 

 consume much for brood-rearing. 

 While I was in Tennessee I had fre- 

 quent occasions to witness the copious 

 discharge of pollen by bees when tak- 

 ing a flight ; also when shaking bees 

 from a frame, especially when they 

 had been confined in the hive by cold, 

 rainy weather. Had those bees been 

 retained in their hives until their ab- 

 domens had become inflamed, diarrhea 

 would have been the result. 



From long experience and close 

 observation, I conclude that Mr. Hed- 

 don is correct in this pollen question. 

 Pollen is the prime cause of bee-diar- 

 rhea, other causes being secondary. 

 Bees cannot rear brood without pol- 

 len ; hence by removing all pollen in 



