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they are not reared. The hxrviu old 

 enough to live on honey and pollen, 

 are saved. 



If you had first given this eolony a 

 frame of sealed brood, and when many 

 of the young bees had emerged given 

 them a frame containing eggs and lar- 

 va3, you would have had the larva? 

 reared and queen-cells built. I think 

 it is poor economy to -rob Peter to 

 pay Paul." You lost a frame of brood, 

 and tlie colony that you took it from 

 will have less bees in consequence. 



Peoria, Ills. 



BROOD-FRAMES. 



IVotcs of Travel Among IVew 

 York Bee-Keepers. 



Written for Oleanings in Bee-Culture 



BY ERNEST R. ROOT. 



I may say at the outset, that one of 

 the main reasons why I made this trip 

 was to learn something about closed- 

 end frames, and, in particular, frames 

 at fixed distances, whether closed or 

 otherwise. Mr. Elwood, Capt. Hether- 

 ington, and almost all bee-keepers 

 whom I visited among the York State 

 hills, are using fixed frames of some 

 sort. It will be remembered that El- 

 wood and Hetherington use the closed- 

 end Quinbj' frame and system. Their 

 frame, however, is about two inches 

 shorter than the regular Quiuby, re- 

 taining, I believe, the original depth. 



CLOSED-END vs. HANGING FEAJIES. 



Well, after leaving Mr. Tunioliff, 

 Mr. Elwood and I starterl eii route for 

 one of his out-apiaries, and w'ere dis- 

 cussing fixed distances and the rapidity 

 with wliich they could be handled, as 

 compared with the common suspended 

 or hanging-frames. Said I, •■i/' fixed 

 frames can be handled as rapidly, and 

 at the same time without killing bees 

 as the hanging-frame, they will be the 

 frame of the future." INIr. Elwood did 

 not boast vei-y much what he could do 

 — in fact, he did not malce any very 

 great claims to the system, etc.. which 

 he was using. Sometime ago, in an 

 article he said he could handle the 

 closed-end Quinby as rapidly as we 

 could the hanging-frame. I well re- 

 member at the time I did not doubt his 

 veracit}', but I did somewhat question 

 his knowledge as to the manipulation 

 of the suspended frame. I told him, 

 as we approached one of the apiaries, 

 that one of the privileges that I had 

 long desired was to see him, or some 

 other bee-keeper using the Quinby 

 frame, handle them as rapidly as the 

 hanging-frame, and not kill bees. 



By this time the yard which we were 

 to visit loomed up in sight ofl' in the 



fields at the foot of one of those big 

 hills. It is located at .some distance 

 from the road, partly because^ of the 

 protected position, and partly because 

 it is secluded from those who might 

 pilfer or meddle with the liives. We 

 drove up under a low-spreading ever- 

 green not a great way from the apiarj-. 

 We there unhitched and led tiie horses 

 a little bit further off, and gave them 

 their oats. As we did so, Mr. Elwood 

 said there was a spring up on the hill- 

 side, and that, befoi'e eating our lunch, 

 if I felt inclined, we would go up and 

 see it, and get a pail of water. After 

 strolling a little distance among the 

 rich undergrowth, suddenly a beauti- 

 ful spring of water came in sight. 



Perhaps I might as well remark, by 

 way of parentliesis here, that all the 

 York State water, especially from the 

 hillside springs, is clear and cold. In 

 my own State of Ohio it is not very 

 advisable for me to drink from differ- 

 ent wells or springs — at least to any 

 great extent ; but on my bicycle tour 

 through New York I drank freely from 

 every roadside spring with impunity ; 

 and. oh, how good, pure and cold it did 

 taste ! What woidd I have given if I 

 could hav.e transported one of these 

 springs, that seemed so common in 

 York State, to my own home in Ohio ! 



Mr. Doolittle had water from one of 

 these springs piped to his house. I 

 remember how thirsty I was, and how 

 refreshing the water. Just think of it 

 — a running spring in the house of 

 beautiful water ! But, to return : 



Mr. Elwood and I secured the lunch- 

 basket ; and after hunting around for 

 a good log to sit on, we partook of a 

 hearty lunch ; which, being dispatched, 

 we put on our veils and proceeded to 

 the yard. I had expected to see large 

 Quinby hives ; but, to my surprise, the 

 brood-nest or brood-chambers were no 

 larger, on the average, in cubic ca- 

 pacity, than are those in our eight- 

 frame dovetailed hives. I had sup- 

 posed that the York State bee-keepers, 

 like the Dadants, advocated and used 

 large brood-chambers. vSo far as I was 

 able to discover, however — in the pro- 

 duction of comb honey at least — they 

 practice contraction, and use brood- 

 chambers no larger in capacity than 

 an ordinary eight-frame Langstroth 

 hive. The frame being two inches 

 shorter than the original Quinb}', six 

 of these frames would bo about equiv- 

 alent to eight of the Langstroth, I 

 should saj', v/ithout figuring. I was 

 surprised to learn that all, or nearly 

 all, of the bee-men of York State who 

 have adopted tlie Quinby closed-end 

 frame, like Mr. Elwood and Capt. 

 Hetherington. use it two inches shorter. 

 and it is no doubt a better frame for 

 the reduction in length. 



After lighting the smoker, Mr. El- 

 wood and I entered the yard, and he 

 proceeded to open up a hive while I 

 was looking on with eager exjieetancy. 

 The entrances were on the under siile 

 of the hive. Blowing a little smok(! 

 under to drive away the guards, lie 

 lifted off a case of sections. I expected 

 to see those frames come apart with a 

 snap, and an onslaught of bees. There 

 was no snap or onslaught. He picked 

 up and handled the frames as rapidly 

 as j'ou or I can handle suspended 

 frames ; and I am not sure but he ma- 

 nipulates them more rapidlj-. 



Mi\ Elwood then examined continu-^ 

 ously 25 or 30 other colonies ; and 

 when I came to think of the time he 

 hail spent in doing it, of the queens 

 we had seen, of the brood surface we 

 examined, I was simply astounded. I 

 feel pretty sure I could not have ex- 

 amined the same amount of brood 

 surface in the hanging-frame in so 

 short a space of time. Did he kill any 

 bees ? Not one that I saw. Did the 

 frames stick together ? Scarcely at 

 all ; and yet the bees were hybrids. 

 Here was a large yard of, say, over a 

 hundred colonies. I do not remember 

 to have asked how long it would take 

 him to examine each one ; but at the 

 rate he handled those before me he 

 would have gone through the whole 

 apiary in four or five hours, and hunt- 

 ed all the queens besides. He did not 

 move very rapidly ; on the contrar}', 

 his movements were deliberate, but 

 they counted. 



I am well aware that this is a heavy 

 testimonial for the closed-end frames 

 on the Quinb}' plan ; but I deem it but 

 just to give it, because I know the bee- 

 keepers of the West, and those who 

 have been using the hanging-frames, 

 have somehow got the idea into their 

 heads that the closed-end frames were 

 simplj' intolerable, and that the bee- 

 keepers who were using them were 

 either very much behind the times, or 

 so stubborn as not to be open to con- 

 viction that there might be something 

 better. Indeed, when we consider the 

 fact that nine-tenths of the bee-keepers 

 of that section of New York where I 

 visited are using fixed frames, and are 

 intelligent and progressive men ; and 

 when we consider the other fact, that 

 they make bees pay, we must admit 

 that their system is not so clumsj' and 

 awkward, after all. C!apt. Hethering- 

 ton. years ago. used hanging-frames 

 faithfully, and finally discarded them 

 for the closed-end Quinby. Capt. 

 Hetherington, with his three or four 

 thousand colonies ; Mr. Elwood, with 

 his 1,300, and a great man)- others, 

 owning from 300 to 400 colonies in this 

 part of New York, use only fixed 

 frames, some Quinby and some Hoff- 

 man. 



