Dec. 13, 1906 



1017 



American Ttee Journal 



be handled slightly carefully. I find 

 taking them out by the projectors the 

 most convenient way, and, when shak- 

 ing, I relieve all the strain possible off 

 the projections by pressing against 

 the side-bars. I put the staples at the 

 bottom of the frame, so they are out of 

 the way, and I find it works to perfec- 

 tion. And in nailing up the frame I 

 put an extra nail down through the 

 top. The new metal-spacer that fits 

 over the top of the frame must add 

 greatly to the strength of the projec- 

 tions ; but for extracting I would not 

 have any metal about the frame. 



The great advantage of the Hoffman 

 frame (which we can not appreciate 

 until we come to extract) is the wooden 



self -spacing device. It has no use in 

 the super, it is true, but very essential 

 below to keep the frames in order, in 

 case any of the upper frames have 

 been fastened down to them with wax, 

 which sometimes happens. But what 

 I am trying to get at, is the secure 

 grip that these spacers give you on a 

 full frame, when lifting it into the ex- 

 tractor, and for the knife to stop 

 against, instead of against one's hand, 

 and getting a cut, which happened to 

 me occasionally with the other frames. 



I think the Hoffman frames are all 

 right except for the wedge system, 

 which I would not have in mine if I 

 could help it. 



Canto, Cuba, Nov. 7. 



W.. 



Mr. /las fyfc?*^ 



The " Old Reliable >' as seen through New and Unreliable Glasses, 

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



Keeping Queens. 



If I understand W. H. Laws, on page 

 829, his best way to keep queens 21 

 days is practically a small nucleus with 

 no entrance. Reasonable plan. His 

 bad experience is capable of being 

 overrated. The colony would have fed 

 about as many, probably, and starved 

 but few, had they been given but IS or 

 20 instead of the 40 he overwhelmed 

 them with. 



"Independent Movements." 



Independent Movement, eh ? Well, 

 independence is a good thing. We sel- 

 dom have too much of it. Still, there 

 might be independence of the old despot 

 (real or imaginary), and, at the same 

 time, slavish submission to a new one 

 — especially if you went into the new 

 one's warmth and shelter, and ceded 

 him power to kick you out in the cold 

 just when outside temperatures ranged 

 very low. 



That's not what I would say if I were 

 just talking to a friend instead of writ- 

 ing. Just listen at the wireless tele- 

 phone and see if you can't hear me 

 talk. The American Bee Journal, and 

 Gleanings, and Review, with their edi- 

 tors, and Dr. Miller, and Mr. Doolittle, 

 are pretty prominent. They are hardly 

 to blame for being so. I fear that the 

 envy of less prominent papers and 

 folks counts too much in some direc- 

 tions — starts needless moves, and hin- 

 ders needful ones. For all that, my 

 weeping spells are quite short when I 

 think of the society organized to adver- 

 tise honey, and how the independence 

 of the brethren " busted " it. Page 829. 



Cork Chips for Bee-Floats. 



Glad to hear that cork chips for bee- 

 floats have triumphantly stood the test 

 of a season's use under the eyes of 

 Sister Wilson. Page 832. 



Temperature of a Bee's Thorax — 

 Keeping Dealers Out. 



I wonder. How ever, Mr. Getaz, did 

 they find out that the temperature of 

 the bee's thorax is always a little 

 higher than that of the abdomen ? I 

 suppose chemical action develops heat, 

 and also that the point where force is 

 developed is a point where heat ap- 

 pears — so that the heart is also a fur- 

 nace. In the bee the circulatory or- 

 gans most resembling the heart might 

 be expected to furnish heat. But are 

 those organs very much more in the 

 thorax than they are in the abdomen ? 

 And heat arising from chemical action, 

 I should expect more of that to be in 

 the abdomen than in the thorax. So 

 I'll say, Eat one grain of salt with 

 this, lest it prove another of those mis- 

 taken must-be-so's that occasionally 

 afflict us. There! I forgot that heat 

 from the muscular force of flying could 

 not readily get into the abdomen. 



As to keeping the dealers out of api- 

 cultural societies. I'll agree with Mr. 

 Getaz, theoretically. But, practically, 

 and so far as we have gone, would we 

 have had any societies worth mention- 

 ing if the dealers had all been kept 

 out? 



Cells for Superseding or for 

 Swarming ? 



Guess Mr. Taylor, on page 839, is 

 right, that you can get an inkling of 

 whether bees are building cells with in- 

 tent to supersede or with intent to 

 swarm. Cells for the former purpose 

 usually all in one batch, for the latter 

 purpose in several successive batches. 

 Also fewer in the former case, more in 

 the latter. I suspect, however, that the 

 swarm preparations of some one excel- 

 lent colony may be with very few cells 

 — fewer than the superseding prepara- 

 tions of some other colony. 



Traveling By Flying Machine. 



So traveling by flying machine af- 

 fords too little opportunity for enquir- 

 ing the way. 'Spects that must be so 

 — and it's bad, sure. Got to keep going 

 at a high rate of speed, and it's not 

 comfortable to be in total darkness as 

 to the wheres and the whithers. And 

 Baron Lieawful has given us this time 

 the most delicate and bubbling-over- 

 with-fun piece of apiarian humor that 

 has appeared for a long time. Page 

 83S. 



Honey-Vinegar Making. 



Aldehyde, an intermediate substance 

 between alcohol and vinegar. Sadly 

 fear that most people don't know 

 there is such a substance. Very vola- 

 tile, and liable all to get away, ruining 

 the strength of the vinegar you are 

 trying to make. So the vinegar-maker 

 has to work in two opposite directions 

 at once — expose to oxygen the most 

 possible, and expose to evaporation the 

 least possible. And if you have any 

 notion of vinegar-making, be sure you 

 read the paper of H. M. Arnd, on page 

 838. One doesn't find such practical and 

 minute directions every day. 



Hive on Bottles to Circumvent 

 Moles. 



That everlasting nuisance — the 

 mole ! Although he won't let a hive 

 stay level on 4 bricks, I think the 

 scheme of setting a hive on 4 long bot- 

 tles, deeply set, pretty nearly defeats- 

 him. Page 839. 



City Mating of Queens. 



Mr. Abbott's experience at mating 

 queens deserves more than a passing' 

 notice. In the city (St. Joseph) nearly 

 all queens mated with their own stock. 

 In the country, 2 miles out, nearly all 

 mated with some other stock. Build- 

 ings and other conditions of a city 

 would seem to shorten very much the 

 flights of queens and drones. Worth 

 while for some one to experiment on 

 this in some other city. Page 839. 



Shipping Comb Honey. 



And the regulation, always-to-be- 

 given old direction to ship comb honey 

 glassed and visible, now finds no one 

 to stand up for it. Now it's ship it 

 packaged just right for two men to 

 carry — always avoiding roost decidedly 

 any package which one man can pick 

 up and throw. Page 845. 



Why Bees Do Better. 



If not brand new it's certainly not 

 worn out — the problem why bees 

 moved a few miles about fruit-bloom 

 time always do better than just such 

 ones on the ground, and consequently 

 not given any wagon-bouncing ? First 

 answer would naturally be, "It's a 

 mistake— mere casual and accidental 

 circumstance." Too miny, and too 

 weighty, bee-men vouch for it as a 

 fact to get out of it that way. Best 

 answer seems to be that keeping them 

 excited and stuffed with honey for 

 some hours causes a greatly increased 

 amount of brood to be started ; and 

 that just at that time more brood 

 proves to be very profitable to the col- 

 ony. I'll add one more solution to 

 those given on page 844 : It's imagin- 

 able that unmoved colonies incline to- 



