104 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



FORTELLING SWARMING WITH LOOSE, 

 HANGING FRAMES. 



Mr. Townsend dwells upon the ease 

 with which the two sections of the 

 Heddon hive may be pried apart, and 

 queen-cells seen, and, true it is, but 

 the principle is not inapplicable to some 

 other hives, as I shall show. Again, 

 in the December, 1904, Review, Mr. 

 Luding-ton, tells of his closed-end 

 frame hives, with hinged floors, which 

 may be dropped, and queen-cells easily 

 seen. True, but the standard L. 

 hives, with either Hoffman or loose- 

 hanging frames, are also well adapted 

 to this plan of fortelling swarming, as 

 I know from extensive practice. Since 

 1898, or 1899, where, (I believe) I 

 learned the trick in the apiaries of my 

 friend and early instructor, Mr. Thos. 

 Chantry, then of South Dakota. The 

 plan is as follows: Draw the hive 



forward about an inch on the bottom 

 board, hold the bottom down with the 

 one foot, then tilt the hive backward 

 until you have a perfect view of the 

 bottoms of the combs. Drive the bees 

 up with a little smoke, and separate 

 the bottoms of the combs rapidly, with 

 the fingers, when you can easily see if 

 there are any queen-cells in the hive, 

 even if they are well-up among the 

 combs. So you see that deep, closed- 

 end frames are a detriment for rapid 

 foretelling of swarming, as they cannot 

 be separated by the fingers to make it 

 easy to see well-up among the combs. 

 So, for our 250 or 800 colonies of in- 

 creaseinour comb honey yards for 1905, 

 we will use the standard, eight-frame 

 hive of L. size, hiving on starters only, 

 and say, with M. A. Gill, and tens of 

 thousands of others, "Blessed be the 

 name of L<angstroth. " 



Meridian, Idaho, Jan. 10, 1905. 



!i'r«^^>:^^<;^ 



BY ARTHUR G. MILLER. 



PROGRESSIVE, modern bee-keep- 

 ing demands a comprehensive 

 system of records; one that shows the 

 work to be done as well as what has 

 been done. The ideal system must be 

 elastic and simple, yet rapid in opera- 

 tion. 



To reach these ends requires the use 

 of the best mechanical devices, and the 

 elimination of every bit of information 

 not absolutely essential. 



The "card system" has, with me, 

 proved to be the best mechanical 

 device, and far superior to any book. 

 It lends itself readily to any and every 

 sort of elassification, enables one to 

 dispense with much copying, and is 

 refreshingly mobile. But with this, as 

 with any other system, it is essential 

 that the user has a clear conception of 



what he wishes to record, and why. 

 Furthermore, the signs or symbols used 

 for such records must be as simple as 

 possible, readily understood and diffi- 

 cult of misinterpretation. 



The appliances consist of an assort- 

 ment of cards and a tray or box for 

 holding them in an upright position. 

 There are three sorts of cards: "Guide 

 cards," having "tabs" or protections 

 in the upper edges, carr3'ing names, 

 letters, or numbers; "Record cards" 

 for the actual records; "Flag cards," 

 so designated because they are used as 

 signals. 



reasons for keeping records. 



Before describing these cards in de- 

 tail I must digress a little and refer to 

 a system of classification. The basis 

 for this must be the matter to be re- 



