AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



727 



waxed, and I want no better, although 

 I have the large Heddon feeder to feed 

 cappings back with. 



Ans. No. 2. — I keep Carniolans be- 

 cause they prove the best with me, and 

 also for anybody surrounded with 

 blacks, for the cross of blacks and gray 

 Carniolans is much better than with 

 Italians, and easier to handle, more so 

 than blacks and Italians. They also 

 winter better, and are good white cap- 

 pers, use no propolis, only to stop cracks 

 when necessary, and many times hardly 

 any. They are early and late workers, 

 want lots of room for the "goods," and 

 if they can't have it, they .will get out, 

 for they look for long winters. 



I do not think it is a fair statement to 

 make that Carniolans are excessive 

 swarmers, for when properly supplied 

 with room and shade, they seldom 

 swarm. But few swarmed last year. 

 By judiciously adding storage-room so 

 that when the large flow comes in a 

 shower, they will have a large plant to 

 dry out the nectar in — a strong colony 

 will use more room at this time than 

 most people think, and that is where the 

 profit comes in. I use as many as seven 

 stories, on an average, and with two 

 .queens as many as nine stories at a time, 

 the capacity being 1,600 to 1,800 

 inches in each of comb. 



Now comes the time to answer why I 

 recommend them still more, and that is 

 because I can take down and overhaul 

 this stock of hives with Carniolans when 

 with other crosses I would be driven 

 off with the job half done. They keep 

 still until you are through, but for a 

 small hive and super only I can get along 

 with any bees, but they will all swarm 

 then, and this is the stand-point from 

 which they are condemned, and if the 

 hives were still smaller, they would still 

 swarm more yet. But for Mr. Towle 

 and me there is the most money in the 

 Carniolans, with room, shade, and 

 honey to gather. If more would try 

 them, as I have, they will be surprised 

 at what else they will do. I could tell 

 many things, but I have said enough, 

 telling it as poorly as I have. 

 Ft. Ann, N. Y. 



[Perhaps if the reader will turn to 

 page 345, and read Mr. Sturtevant's 

 former letter, some parts of the fore- 

 going will be better understood. — Ed.] 



One-Cent Postage Stamps we 



prefer whenever it is necessary to send 

 stamps for fractions of a doUar. By re- 

 membering this, you wUl greatly oblige us. 



Tie Stephens Frame-Spacer DescrileJ. 



Written for " Oleaimigs in Bee-Culture^'' 

 BY GEORGE W. STEPHENS. 



Some years ago, when I began to keep 

 bees, I used loose hanging frames, and I 

 found it almost impossible to get straight 

 combs, from the fact that, no matter 

 how particular I was in spacing the top- 

 bars with my fingers, by guess, the 

 frames would not hang straight, and the 

 bottom-bars would be out of plumb, some 

 being close together, and others far 

 apart. The consequence was, the combs 

 would be correspondingly out of shape — 

 the cells on one side being built too deep 

 and on the other too shallow. I tried 



several methods to remedy this, but none 

 proved satisfactory, until one day, about 

 two years ago, I had the fortune, or mis- 

 fortune, to be forcibly struck with a 

 sudden idea. That settled it, and my 

 spacer as illustrated here is the result of 

 that idea ; and it has not been changed 

 in any particular from the original idea 

 that I was " struck " with. I imme- 

 diately made some of them, and showed 

 them to every bee-keeper whom I met, 

 and, without exception, they pronounced 

 the device a good thing. Thus encour- 

 aged, I concluded to have it patented, 

 and my letters patent bear date of Feb. 

 14, 1893. 



I presume there are thousands of bee- 

 keepers who are still struggling with 

 loose hanging frames, who would be 

 glad to change to a fixed frame, but are 

 deterred from doing so on account of the 

 expense. It will readily be seen that 

 these spacers can be easily affixed to the 

 frames they now have in use, at a nomi- 

 nal expense. I am not prepared to say 



