the comb, lay a light piece of board over 

 the wires, take comb and frame up 

 between the two pieces of board, turn 

 them over so that the bottom side is 

 uppermost ; slip more wires on the now 

 upper side, and the job is done. I always 

 have a lot of wires on hand to fit the 

 frames and they can be used again and 

 again. The shape of the wires finished 

 is thus : 



If the long side is made a little bow- 

 ing they will always spring against the 

 comb to keep it in place, and the top 

 can be made to fit so that it will never 

 come off by accident. The wire does 

 not interfere with the bees so much as 

 strings or sticks ; the bees cannot bite 

 them and the bottom-bar cannot sag ; 

 they can be removed without jarring 

 the comb, and if left on all season, as I 

 have done occasionally, do not seem to 

 discommode the bees. I like No. 14 

 wire best, as it is stiff and sure. In 

 case the comb does not come down to 

 the bottom-bar, I place the frame 

 bottom up so that the comb presses 

 against the top-bar, and put a tempo- 

 rary bottom-bar in bowing, so that the 

 ends rest inside the end-bars, and touch 

 the bottom-bar, and the bow pressing 

 firmly against the lower part of comb ; 

 then with the wires on the bottom-bar 

 cannot sag ; and it will press against 

 the top-bar while the bees fasten se- 

 curely. With these wires it does not 

 matter whether the transferred comb is 

 full of honey or not; there are no strings 

 to tie with honey-daubed fingers, and 

 one can do transferring without any 

 trouble, and with a great saving of 

 time. I have used them for two seasons, 

 and have seen nothing to beat them. I 

 charge nothing for the patent, and only 

 ask for the credit of originality, if 

 found practicable. 



I am using the Langstroth hive and 

 frame, but on account of bees swarm- 

 ing so in this climate have increased 

 the depth of some of my hives, giv- 

 ing a frame lull inches perpendicular ; 

 have the pure Italian bee (50 odd colo- 

 nies); have worked comb honey in sec- 

 tions, size of sections 6 inches horizon- 

 tal, 5% inches vertical, 1% inches wide, 

 % inch thick ; use tin separators, and 

 tier up when necessary ; hives from 5 

 to 8 feet apart, and 3 or 4 inches from 

 the ground ; no shade yet ; clip all 

 queens after laying; have returned 

 swarms, cut out queen cells, and given 

 more room ; ventilated as much as pos- 

 sible, but bees did not give much comb 

 in sections until late that was all capped 

 over ; considerable was nearly capped 



for a long time, and got discolored be- 

 fore being finished, though the second- 

 story frames were all sealed over in 

 some hives, and one hive last week had 

 21 frames and 27 sections, the sections 

 same as I gave them in March, and 15 

 frames solid combs, the balance full of 

 brood, and young queen just having 

 laid, the colony filling the hive did not 

 swarm out at all, but have banished 

 their drones. I still have drones, and 

 among some 90 or more queens had 

 only one drone layer. Bees would work 

 lively for a day or two and then the 

 honey How would appear to cease. I 

 shall have about 1,500 lbs. of surplus 

 this season ; shall have several hundred 

 lbs. of comb honey, have had to extract 

 considerable from sections on account 

 of not being filled out. There has been 

 but little surplus honey in this neigh- 

 borhood, owing somewhat to want of 

 care given to the bees. 



In the southern part of the State bees 

 have fared worse. One bee-man in 

 Ventura county, tells me he has 400 

 colonies of bees. He built 1,000 hives 

 last winter, and filled them with foun- 

 dation ; piled them out-doors ready for 

 swarming ; will lose one-half his bees 

 by starvation ; and had no increase by 

 swarms at all. The general complaint 

 through the southern part of the State 

 especially, is that bees are starving. 

 The cold weather and late wet winter 

 kept the fiowers from blooming. The 

 white sage, on which they depend, was 

 almost an entire failure. The flowers 

 of this section, 45 miles north of San 

 Francisco, are different and I think of 

 more variety than that part of the 

 country. We had not so much bloom 

 as we generally do, but we have not so 

 many heads of stock as they do. It. 

 looks as though there might be a con- 

 flict between the herders and bee-men 

 in the future, though in time, when the 

 country becomes more settled, the stock 

 will be more scarce. This part of the 

 State is more settled and wild land is 

 scarce ; we naturally have more water. 

 Our best season is when every other 

 part of the State is suffering from 

 drouth. Napa Valley never fails en- 

 tirely of a crop, and is considered sure. 



I think if the same interest was 

 shown in this section, that the honey 

 would make a better showing. The 

 honey, except in the valley, has a better 

 flavor, and is more like the eastern 

 honey. I have heard of a few cases of 

 foul-brood, but have never seen it ; am 

 entirely free from it, and know but lit- 

 tle of moths from experience. 



I use the extractor, and comb-founda- 

 tion. I use pure wax which can be 

 bought here for 27 to 28c, and am 



