368 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



April 26, 1906 



of a brood-chamber without removing any follower, for the 

 following reasons : 



1. No wax built to fasten top-bars to their neighbors. 



2. No long shoulder of Hoffman frame to pull loose 

 from the shoulder of its neighbor. The spacer is a staple 

 which touches the next top-bar by a rounded point only. 



3. While the top-bars are 9-8 wide, the bottom-bars are 

 only 6-8 inch, so the whole comb is wedge-shaped, end-bars 

 and all slip out freely when once started. 



4. The top-bars are just even with the top of the brood- 

 chamber, so the excluder rim rests flat on their ends, and 

 keeps them clean so they do not need to be cut short to pre- 

 vent their being built in solid to the rabbet. 



5. The Ferry Hive-Tool, which I carry hanging on my 

 little finger all the time I am operating on brood-chambers, 

 is all that is necessary to give a comb a little pry loose, 

 then hook in the staple to lift one end and get the first comb 

 started. 



Did Dr. Miller just go round a corner ? I only wanted 

 to say before he gets out of hearing : I would not use fol- 

 lowers for money. 



Bees Moving Egg's 



I have been waiting for the more able ones of the trio 

 to bring forward their proof that bees sometimes move eggs 

 (page 165). My experience, as I recollect it definitely now, 

 is this : 



1. A comb containing eggs, larva;, etc., moved into the 

 extracting super (by the bee-keeper, not the bees). In a 

 day or two queen-cells containing eggs started on the ad- 

 joining combs, showing the bees had moved these eggs 

 across the space to the next comb where no queen had been. 



2. Queen-cells on the lower edge of the super-combs 

 when I felt positive no queen had been up. It does not 

 seem probable that bees could move larva?, as Mr. Hasty 

 hints (page 307), without injuring them. 



Wintered Fairly Well 



Mr. Frank P. Adams, of Brantford, writes on March 

 22 of his bees in the cellar : 



They seem to be coming through fairly well. Those that I put out 

 in January for a flight are sweet and clean yet — no spotting whatever; 

 but whether the flight has proved a benefit in other respects of course 

 will only show when brood-rearing is well under way. There is some 

 spotting among the other colonies in the cellar, possibly 5 or 6 out of 

 200 odd. Frank P. Adams. 



Spring Management of Bees 



Mrs. E. H. Dewey, in the Prairie Farmer, has an article 

 on spriDg management, from which we quote a few terse 

 sentences : 



Every effort of the bee-keeper should be exerted to build up these 

 small colonies, and at the same time it never pays to rob Peter to pay 

 Paul, especially if Peter is going to be seriously inconvenienced 

 thereby. 



Too much protection can not be given the bees in the spring, es- 

 pecially weak colonies. 



Spreading brood is a dangerous move in changeable climates, and 

 needless work in others. 



Gentler Bees Hardly Necessary 



Speaking of gentle bees, Farm, Stock and Home says : 



The ordinary bee-keeper is willing to endure a few stings and get 

 along with plainer lookiug bees if dollars and cents are what he is 

 after. 



He is also willing to have his out-yards protected from 

 possible marauders. If the word went out that we had 

 "stingless" bees, that anybody could handle without fear, 

 we might give up bee-keeping as a business. For the honey 

 in our hives would be as free as melons in the " patch," and 

 so many who are only deterred from bee-keeping by the 

 fear of stings would launch out in the business that the 

 country would soon be greatly overstocked. 



Metal-Spaced Hoffman Frames 



used regular Hoffman frames, and do not want to do so. I 

 have used rcazV-spaced frames, and consider them an abomi- 

 nation. I use staple spacers entirely, and like them well, 

 but I see this disadvantage that the metal spacer described 

 will overcome : When a staple is driven into the side of a 

 top-bar the latter's tendency to split is increased so that in 

 shaking a heavy comb to get the bees off, the lug sometimes 

 comes off, too. The metal spacer described comes up over 

 the top-bar, and strengthens the lug instead of weaken- 

 ing it. 



Northern and Southern " Longfellows " 



Six feet three ! (Page 175 ) My friends and acquaint- 

 ances tell me I am tall, but I can not come up to Mr. Louis 

 Scholl of " Southern Beedom." I was harboring a sort of 

 sneaking feeling that I was the tallest man on the staff, 

 but I am only 6-1 '2. Now, see, Mr. Scholl, with the South 

 and the North united we could have things our own way, 

 and ye Editor-in-Chief would have to call in all the rest of 

 the family to prevent it. Unless it be Mr. Hasty. I don't 

 remember having met him, to know what he looks like. 



*% 



2Hr, pasty's 



j 



A metal spacer for Hoffman frames is mentioned on 

 age 118, which, I think, is a good thing. Now I have not 



The " Old Reliable " as seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B. Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



Bees that are Slow to Dncap Stores 



There is one point in favor of the bees that A. K. Ferris 

 condemns on page 251 — bees that are slow to uncap their 

 last slender stores of honey even if brood is starving — they 

 are safer against winter starvation. If you insist on bees 

 that rear brood and fill sections with that reckless enthu- 

 siasm that some choice strains of bees will, you must not 

 let alone in the fall and say, " Guess they're all right." 

 (I've tried that.) 



Spring Dwindling— Finding Queens 



I'll agree that bees, when filled with feed, are much in- 

 clined to get out of the hive and fly with it — yes, might 

 even do so when the case was such that some would perish 

 before getting back. Hardly think that would happen so 

 often and to such an extent as to be a valid explanation of 

 such a big curse as spring dwindling. C. Davenport seems 

 to think it does. 



That queen-finding of Mr. D.'s was a triumph. Four 

 successive queens of strong colonies found in the number of 

 seconds he names— 87, 64, 109, 96. We are "all ears " to 

 hear how it was done. Page 252. 



"Untested" and "Selected Untested" Queens 



So J. E. Johnson thinks that " untested queen," when in 

 company with " select untested queen," means poor queen. 

 Might be looked at in that way, I guess. One can not select 

 without there being some culls. If I was to order a dozen 

 untested queens I think that I also would rather not send to 

 the man who offers to cull the nice ones all out first. 

 Page 252. 



What Mice Like and Dislike as Food 



The matter of what mice like and what they don't like is 

 not going to add one to the insoluble questions. If it is 

 thought of enough importance to pay expenses we can of 

 course go to work and clear it up. The experiment that Dr. 

 Miller suggests for me, on page 308, I'll try to bear in mind ; 

 but may not have a convenient chance to try it. In such a 

 trial mice must also be supplied with water — and that item is 

 of considerable importance. The mouse is somewhat unique 

 in that he will live and breed (as his cousin, the rat, will 

 not) in situations where there is no water, and no chance to 

 go to any. Doubtless gets desperately thirsty between 

 driving showers and chance supplies, but succeeds in living 

 through it, somewhat as the sheep also does. Just as the 

 last extremities of hunger might make him eat honey, 

 though disliking it, so raging thirst might make him swal- 

 low honey because there is considerable water in it. The 

 sort of honey Dr. Miller mentions is just the sort to furnish 



