THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



247 



my acquaintance did, wait until your 

 bees get to swarming and then hunt 

 up your bee book to see what to do 

 with them. 



There is a great deal to be learned 

 about this busy little insect. I have 

 been working with them now almost 

 constantly for five years, and if it had 

 been fifty instead of five I should still 

 expect to learn. I have gone into 

 the business for a lifetime, be that 

 long or short ; and I for one am de- 

 termined to make a success of it. I 

 am what is called an enthusiast in 

 bee culture. In addition to your text- 

 book you should take a good bee 

 journal. I would suggest the " Api- 

 culturist," that is published at Wen- 

 ham, Mass., for the small sum of one 

 dollar per annum ; you should also 

 get a good smoker, and a bee-veil to 

 protect your face. I never use gloves 

 now, though I did when I first began. 

 Of course, your bees should be in a 

 movable-frame hive. I decidedly pre- 

 fer one with a movable bottom-board 

 for our hot climate, so that in very 

 hot weather th^ hive can be raised 

 and thus ventilated from the bottom. 

 I only had one frame melt down 

 through our past hot summer and 

 that was new tender comb and very 

 full of honey. I saw it immediately 

 after it broke and don't think that I 

 lost two tablespoonfuls of honey. 



I would siiggest that in buying 

 your bees you get pure Italians 

 at the start from some good reliable 

 dealer and thus save you the trouble 

 of Italianizing them, for if you read 

 the bee literature of the day, you 

 will, I am satisfied, decide in favor of 

 the Italians. They show their super- 

 iority in a year like this, more plainly 



than in a real good honey season. 

 I have several of my best Italians 

 that have yielded 150 lbs. per col- 

 ony this year, while I have a few 

 common natives from which I have 

 not taken a pound of honey. 



To prove to you that our vocation 

 is a healthy one, I shall only have to 

 tell you that I weigh fifty pounds 

 more now than when I purchased 

 my one colony of black bees in a gum 

 hive. My health is better than erer 

 before in my life. I am often sur- 

 prised at my strength. Then, dear 

 sisters, do you wonder at my saying 

 that I am in the business for life? 

 If this interests you, I will try and 

 write again, and tell you of my suc- 

 cess as a specialist in bee culture. 



Salado, Bell Co.^ Texas, 

 Oct. 16, 1885. 



THE BEST FRAME. 



By Dr. G. L. Tinker. 



On page 207 of the ''Apiculturist," 

 a friend inquires why I should aban- 

 don the Gallup frame for a size 14I 

 Xgi, which I have adopted, after a 

 trial of several styles of deep and of 

 long frames, as my preference. In 

 the production of comb-honey, the 

 selection of a frame has generally liad 

 reference to the mode in which the 

 surplus receptacles are applied, and 

 in my case it has been no exception. 



After many experiments in winter- 

 ing, I came to the conclusion that 

 where a brood-chamber was enclosed 

 by chaff, leaf, or sawdust packing, 

 the form and size of the frame, where 



