1870.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



109 



wintering in the open aii". Second, tlie brood 

 and cards of honey can be so adjusted as to 

 bring the fomier next to your honey boxes, if 

 necessary ; as we never want more than one full 

 frame of honey between the brood and the sur- 

 plus honey boxes or frames. Third, in the 

 manipulation of colonies there is no comparison 

 between the side storing hive, and the top 

 storing. With the former, when the lid is 

 removed, we have access to the frames, without 

 the intervention of surplus honey or other boxes. 

 Top-storing hives are now behind the age. 



Those using shallow frames must, in this lati- 

 tude and climate, have a house for wintering their 

 colonies, and when bees are removed to their 

 summer stands in the spring, the lid that covers 

 the second-story or surplus honey chamber, 

 should fit on the brood chamber, that the honey 

 chamber may be left off till the time comes for 

 placing surplus honey boxes on your hives. By 

 this means all the heat i-ising from the bees is 

 secured and diffused through the main hive or 

 brooding chamber for hatching the eggs ; and 

 the bees multiply as rapidly for aught I can see, 

 and swarm as early as in the twelve inch frames. 

 I have used one hundred shallow hives, with 

 frames eight inches in depth, for three years ; 

 and when I sufl'er them to throw off natural 

 swarms, they swarm as early, sending oft" as 

 many and as large swarms as taller hives. 



In 1869, I had gathered six thousand pounds 

 of fine surplus honey in frames in the top 

 receptacles of my shallow hives. A large ijro- 

 portion of this I shipped, in the frames, to C. O. 

 Perrine & Co., Chicago, Ills. They paid me 

 twenty-five cents per pound for it, frames and 

 all. Should any honey raisers in the West wish to 

 sell to a good man, I should recommend them to 

 Mr. Perriue. I have trusted him with quite 

 large amounts at a time, and always found all 

 right at settlement day. 



Shipping Honey in Frames. 



To do this properly and safely make the box 

 or case in which you ship only wide enougli to 

 receive the length of the top bar of your frames, 

 and one and a half inch deeper than the depth 

 of the frame. Make the case tight and pitch 

 the inside with rosin and bees wax, so that the 

 leakage of the combs will not be lost. 



In packing the frame honey, first pierce the 

 projection of the frames through with an awl, 

 invert it and place in the holes one inch finishing 

 nails, then place the top of the frame down and 

 crossways in the case, and with a tack hammer 

 drive your nails. Place the next frame by the 

 side of this first, corresponding as built in the 

 hive, if it can be ; and place them so as slightly 

 to touch. In filling the last end of the case, 

 place an iron rod on the head of the nail to 

 drive it, as you cannot play the hammer. 



When the case is full, take two strips (com- 

 mon lath) just long enough and wide enough to 

 fill the case tightly from end to end, and cover 

 the ends of the frames and fit tightly against 

 the sides of the case ; drive an inch nail through 

 the strips in the end piece of each fx'ame, and 

 the £i-ames will be perfectly solid. 



I shipped from one to two hundred jsounds in 

 a case, in this manner, and Mr. Perrine tells me 

 the average was not over two frames broken 

 down per case, and no loss from leakage, the 

 boxes being pitched inside. 



A. Salisbury. 



Camargo, Ills., Sept. 6, 1S70. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The New Smoker. 



I introduce to the notice of bee-keepers a new 

 smoker for bees, believing it will be iironounced 

 the best, until a better one is found. 



It Avill be found the best for ease of lighting, 

 and to retain fire, and as burning with equal 

 facility, rotten wood, old rags, or a combination 

 of wood and rags ; and it will not annoy the 

 operator every few minutes by going out. 



To make one, procure a piece of wove wire. 

 I use very fine wire cloth, but suppose that a 

 coarser article will answer. The piece should be 

 twelve inches wide and from twelve to eighteen 

 inches long. Take of old rags a sufficient 

 quantity to make a roll about 2 or 2^ inches 

 thick and twelve inches long. Roll the rags 

 evenly and firmly together, and then lay them 

 at one end of the- sheet of wove wire, and roll 

 the wove wire over them pretty tightly, and 

 bind with wire. Light at one end with a match ; 

 and your smoker, if nicely made, will burn from 

 two to four hours. Or if it be only half filled 

 with rags, then fill out lightly with damp rotten 

 wood, and you will have a big smudge. 



John M. Price. 



Buffalo Grove, loica. 



[For the American Bee .Tournal.] 



Eeply to Mr. Worthington's Inquiry. 



Mr. Editor:— I see in the June number, 

 page 204, Mr. Worthington asks how to examine 

 bee stores, &c., in the American hive. Here is the 

 way I do. Remove the cap and honey box ; blow 

 a little smoke through the slot in the top bar of 

 frames, to quiet the bees ; remove the movable 

 side, and with your pocket knife, you can easily 

 run the blade between the top bai's, loosening 

 them ; lift out the frames, placing them in a 

 .skeleton frame made to hold them ; and in this 

 way you see exactly the condition of your bees. 

 In returning the frames to the hive, you have 

 only one place to watch to prevent killing bees, 

 that is the top. J. W. Sallee. 



Pierce, Mo. 



If a.sked how much such contrivances against 

 the moth will help the cai'eless bee-man, I an- 

 swer not one iota ; nay, they will jjositively fur- 

 nish him greater facilities for destroying his 

 bees. Worms will sinn and hatch, and moths 

 will lay their eggs, under the blocks, and he will 

 never remove them. Thus, instead of traps, he ^ 

 will have most beautiful devices for giving effec- 

 tual aid and comfort to his enemies. — Lang- 

 stroth's '■^ Hive and Honey Bee.^' 



