THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



175 



head up ag'ainst the wire cloth until 

 the air was all shut oflF, but they man- 

 aged to pull through until they could 

 be released. Look out when you move 

 bees in hot weather. 



The 11 colonies just mentioned, added 

 to the nine I already had, enabled me 

 to begin the season with 20 colonies. 

 So far, I have increased them to 44. I 

 shall be a bee-keeper again before I 

 know it. 



Good Stock and its value have been 

 commented upon time and again, but it 

 is doubtful if the majority of bee-keep- 

 ers realize its importance. Many of 

 my readers know of my selling a strain 

 of bees, a few years ago, that 1 called 

 Superior Stock. Well, I have received 

 many testimonials in regard to their 

 value, but never received one the equal 

 of that given me by a bee-keeper living 

 only five miles from here. He was 

 on the train going to the Grand Rapids 

 convention with Mr. Tyrrell and my- 

 self, when he mentioned the matter. 

 Two 3'ears ago he bought one of these 

 queens of me, reared eight young 

 queens from her, and introduced them 

 to as many colonies. Last year was a 

 good honey year in these parts, and 

 his average, from his whole apiary of 

 60 colonies, was 96 V sections per col- 

 ony, while his average yield from his 

 nine colonies of the Superior Stock was 

 ISO sections per colony ! I know that 

 this sounds almost sensational, but I 

 have known this young man for years, 

 and know him to be honest and truth- 

 ful; besides he has no interest, what- 

 ever, in deceiving any one in the 

 matter. He saj's that not only did the 

 bees of the Superior Stock store more 

 honey when the flow from basswood 

 and clover was good, but, when it be- 

 gan to slacken, and the ordinary stock 

 practically quit work, the Superior 

 Stock kept right on grubbing away, 

 even if they did not get honey so 

 rapidly. These two points: Storing 

 honey faster, and sticking to it even if 



the rtow were not so good, enabled 

 these bees to store nearly twice as 

 much honey as was stored b3' theordin- 

 nary stock. See what he might have 

 gained if he had requeened his whole 

 apiarj' with this stock ! 



This man's name is Leonard Griggs, 

 and his post office address is Flint, 

 Mich., R. F. D. No. 5. If you are a 

 subscriber to the American Bee 

 Journal, you can see his picture in the 

 group that accompanied the report of 

 the Michigan State Convention. 



*»^i^«'«^«^^«» 



Self-Spacing Frames and Perfect Combs. 



Bro. Root tells, in the last issue of 

 Gleanings, of their buying bees this 

 spring, and how nice and perfect the 

 combs were in hives having self-spaced 

 frames, and how "awful" they were in 

 the old, loose, hanging frames. I 

 don't doubt it a particle; but now let 

 me tell my story. I, too, haye bought 

 bees this spring. One lot was on self- 

 spaced frames, and the others on the 

 loose, hanging frames, and my experi- 

 ence was exactly the opposite of that of 

 Bro. Root's. The trouble was that the 

 man who had the self-spacing frames, 

 did not know that they ought to be 

 crowded up together, and he left them 

 a little distance apart, the same as the 

 swinging frames are left. This placed 

 the frames too far apart, and the bees 

 went on and built their combs helter 

 skelter, the same as they would in a 

 box hive. The colonies on the hang- 

 ing frames came from up-to-date, intel- 

 ligent bee keepers, and each comb was 

 as straight and perfect as a board. 

 Perhaps this will not be considered a 

 fair illustration. Perhaps it isn't, but 

 it shows how difficult it is to make 

 thing's "foolproof." Nearly everything 

 must be used with intelligence; and, 

 still further it seems to me that neither 

 Bro. Root's experience, nor mine, in 

 this particular instance, is much of an 

 arg-ument either for or against self- 

 spaced frames. We should not be in- 



