THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



41 



from actual experience, that there is 

 not a frame that I know of that is 

 equal to the Hoffman for being block- 

 ed in with honey, and I think that the 

 wide end of the top bar has something 

 to do with the cause of it. The bees 

 will build out the comb through that 

 notch between the two frames, and 

 then up goes the comb and filled with 

 honey. Perhaps a good many will say, 

 " AVell ! I never had that happen," and 

 why not? There are two reasons: First, 

 you were not crowding your bees to 

 finish the last section at the closing of 

 the harvest. Second, you very likely 

 had not got hives full of bees that had 

 not swarmed. Raise your queens after 

 the honey flow. With us it is between 

 the sumach and fall flowers, from Aug. 

 5 to Sept. 10 or 15, and you will have 

 but little tendency to swarming the 

 next season, if you start them right, 

 and, contrary to what some of our au- 

 thorities say, these non-swarming col- 

 onies, well manipulated, will pay bet- 

 ter than those that swarm and you 

 have capital in two hives. 



Yours, &c. , H. L. Jeffrey. 



Woodbury, Conn., Feb. 15. 



Friend Jeffrey : We are glad to 

 hear both sides of the Hoffman frame 

 question, and especially any sugges- 

 tions of improvements. However, in 

 our own experience of several years 

 with regular Hoffman frames, we have 

 never had the trouble you speak of. 

 We would like to hear from others on 

 this subject. 



The Bee-keepers' gathering in Flacht, 

 Germany, Oct. 19 and 20, 1890, proved 

 to be a most interesting one. Repre- 

 sentatives were present from all parts 

 of Europe to listen to Pastor Wey- 

 gandt's new doctrine of artificial heat 



in winter repositories. He claimed that 

 dysentery is chiefly caused through 

 chills, unhealthy food, old dysentery 

 spots in repositories, under-filling of 

 the boxes with honey, and too early 

 brood starting. The theory of artificial 

 heat in bee houses and cellars does not 

 seem to take very strong hold on the 

 Teutonic mind. Yours, &c, 



Stephkn Roese. • 



Dear Sirs: * * * Bees are 

 coming out all right, with good pros- 

 pects of plenty of honey. Peach and 

 orange trees in full bloom ; also, wild 

 flowers coming on fast. Bees are rear- 

 ing brood now, and getting some 

 honev. Yours respectfully, 



A. C. Hart. 



Eustis, Fla., Feb. 16, '91. 



THE PROPER SPACING OF BROOD FRAMES. 



A great deal of interest has been 

 manifested of late concerning this mat- 

 ter. I am not sure that any fixed dis- 

 tance from center to center of the 

 combs is necessary or even desirable. 

 I prefer to have my combs movable so 

 that I can exercise my best judgment 

 when spacing them. When combs are 

 being built by the bees I place the 

 frames as nearly lfapait as is practi- 

 cable, for thereby I get straighter 

 combs, having fewer waves and kinks, 

 whether built from starters only, or 

 or from full sheets of foundation. But 

 after the combs are fully completed I 

 prefer to work them \h inches from 

 center to center in the brood nest and 



