162 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Feb. 22, 1906 



tempting wisp of sweet clover hay in a way that showed plainly what 

 his sentiments were. I have never had a horse or cow that would not 

 eat it readily without any teaching, especially when made into hay ; 

 but I know that some stock do not take to it readily at first. This 

 does not prove that it is not good forage. Cattle feeders tell us that 

 stock just brought in from the range often refuse to eatcorn, and they 

 sometimes have considerable trouble to get them to make a start on it ; 

 yet I never heard any one argue from this that corn is distasteful to 

 cattle, or that it is not good feed for them." 



Watch Your Colonies 



Keep your eyes or ears on your bees, or the colonies, 

 anyway. It is a good time to watch your colonies for stores 

 now, especially since brood-rearing- is under way. 

 -^m — ^ 



Improvement of Stock 



Improvement of stock is a great thing. If our bee- 

 keepers would only spend half as much time over this 

 question as they do over some other things, the whole bee- 

 keeping world would be better off. Better bees, with better 

 bee-keepers, of course, will mean increased yields — larger 

 returns, and greater profits. 



New blood should be procured and introduced into the 

 yards. Some good breeders, and then some good breeding, 

 would make it possible to produce honey-gathering strains 

 that would be profitable to their keepers. 



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Canabtcm 

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Conducted by Morley Pettit, Villa Nova, Ont. 



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Frame-Spacers and Spacing Frames 



Dear Mr. Pettit : — Your words on spacing frames, in 

 the American Bee Journal, interested me, as nearly every- 

 thing on that subject does. In regard to the so-called 

 " Alpaugh " spacing device there illustrated, the only new 

 idea in it is the form of the end-spacer, and combining the 

 end-spacer with the pin under the projection of the end-bar. 

 Spacing by notches in the rabbet, and a pin (headless nail) 

 under the top-bar projection was described in the American 

 Bee Journal years ago. The scheme might be excellent, 

 but when we put on the extracting supers we can't afford to 

 use close spacing, so we use 8 combs in a 14'+' -inch space- 

 never more than 9; then our " advantageous " spacer is 

 useless, and worse — the frames are now raised perhaps one- 

 sixteenth of an inch or more, as the wires no longer rest in 

 the notches ; and if we don't use a quilt there is not suffi- 

 cient bee-space over the frames, and you know what that 

 means. 



If it were perfectly practicable to use the same spacing 

 in both supers and brood-chambers, that would really be an 

 excellent device, but inferior to either staple or Hoffman 

 frames, in that one can not shove over two or more frames 

 en masse. 



How you manage to " take no thought of spacing" in 

 the extracting supers I don't see, unless you have staples 

 driven so as to make a wider spacing in the supers, and 

 then never interchange frames above and below. I think 

 the Hoffman frame superior to any of these make-shifts. 



Meridian, Idaho. E. F. AtwaTER. 



It would be interesting to know the exact date when 

 spacing by notches in the frame-rests and pin under top- 

 bar lug was first described in the American Bee Journal, 

 and by whom. Mr. Atwater's objection to its use in the 

 super can be overcome by having the super-frame rests 

 notched for wide spacing. 



The main objection I see to the system is the next point 

 he mentions — ''that one can not shove over two or more 

 frames en masse.'' 1 Barring that and the necessity some- 

 times to space close in the super, I consider it the best 

 spacer I know of. 



My "taking no thought of spacing in supers" means, 

 in one yard combs with staples driven for wide spacing, 

 and no exchanging with brood-chamber combs; in other 



yards it means, close spacing in the super, which is objec- 

 tionable. We can only choose the system with the most 

 advantageous and fewest objectionable features. The 

 spacer shown by the A. I. Root Co. at the National Conven- 

 tion would, I think, be better than staples or Hoffman 

 frames. 



It materially strengthens the lug of the top-bar, which 

 more than counterbalances the danger of the metal to the 

 honey-knife. It does not provide for propolis like the Hoff- 

 man, and allows combs to be handled in bunches better 

 than staples. It does not provide for wide spacing in the 

 super, unless a different size of spacer be used on the super- 

 combs. With the latter, super-combs could be put in the 

 brood-chamber occasionally, and probably as often as that 

 should be done. So, all considered, and judging by theory 

 based on general experience, as I have never used the new 

 Root spacer, it may be a good thing. 



Distributing the Caucasian Bees 



Editor Canadian Bee Journal — 



Dear Sir: — Unwisely, I think, and so do many others, the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. Washington, D. C, is arranging without a thor- 

 ough test to distribute the Caucasian bee. Mr. 3. B. Hall condemns 

 them stroDgly, and says after 23 years' effort to stamp them out their 

 objectionable traits at times crop up in the apiary. Would it not be 

 well for Canadian bee-keepers to suppress their curiosity and let the 

 United States distribute them. We can wait a season, and may keep 

 ourselves from introducing at different points through the country 

 what may be as objectionable as the English sparrow. 



R. F. Holtermank. 



So say we all. 



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(Dur*Stster 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Breeding from the Best— Stimulative Feeding 



J 



Dear Miss Wilson : — Bee-keeping is " so full of a 

 number of things," and so many interesting points have 

 been raised in the American Bee Journal lately, that one 

 hardly knows where to begin or end in writing. However, 

 as you are always so willing to answer our questions, per- 

 haps I would better begin by answering yours (page 903 — 

 1905). 



I began in the spring with 31 colonies, and packed away 

 46 in winter quarters at the end of the season. A super of 

 chaff goes under the cover of each hive, and I have small 

 movable sheds to shelter 4 hives each, which I put over 

 them, and pack the whole well with straw. 



The bees were splendidly strong in the early summer, 

 but, as you know, the Colorado honey crop was anything 

 but a large one last year, and, with the best intentions, my 

 bees gathered only 300 pounds of comb honey fit to pack, 

 and I rendered down a lot of culls, which gave me about 50 

 or 60 pounds of extracted honey, which my misguided fam- 

 ily always prefer to the finest " comb." 



I find the very best way to do this is to put the comb, 

 after cutting them from the sections, into a white enameled 

 pan, which then goes into a solar wax-extractor. If the 

 sun is hot enough it will melt right through, and the vat 

 will cool in a cake at the top in the evening. A slit can be 

 made at the edge of the vat, and the honey can then be 

 poured from under it. It will be found so clear that it will 

 need no straining through cheese-cloth, and the sun seems 

 to give it an extra-fine flavor. 



Now for a few of the " points " I have been noticing 

 lately in the Journal. So much has been written about 

 Italians vs. blacks, that I will give my experience. I have 

 my figures as nearly correct as I can, but in some cases it 

 was a little hard to judge what each colony did. I had, 

 sometimes, to let one colony cap what two or three had 

 helped to fill. 



Getting 360 pounds from 31 (spring count) colonies, 

 gives an average of less than 12 pounds a colony. But of 

 this the colony ruled by the 6 golden Italian queens I bought 

 the previous fall, produced 193 pounds, or 32 pounds per col- 

 ony. The remaining 25 colonies of " mixed " bees made 



