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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



full sheets of foundation, or at least with 

 starters, to insure straight combs, and 

 place the new hive where the old one 

 stood. Then put two frames of founda- 

 tion starters in the old hive, where you 

 took the queen and brood from, and 

 move it to a new location. This work 

 should be done in the forenoon of any 

 warm day, when the bees are flying 

 briskly. 



In five days, if your colonies are all 

 strong and making preparation to 

 swarm, divide what ,are left, or as many 

 as you think proper, leaving the old 

 queen in the new hive, on the old stand, 

 and moving the colony to a new place ; 

 then the next day go to the colony that 

 has been queenless six days, and cut out 

 all queen-cells but the one that looks the 

 most advanced, and one of a later date 

 (to insure a queen if the first doesn't 

 hatch). Now insert one of the best of 

 these cells in each of the queenless colo- 

 nies, by removing one of the most ad- 

 vanced of their queen-cells, and putting 

 the new one in its place ; it will insure 

 them a queen from six to twelve days 

 earlier than they would rear one. I 

 would use only the best cells, and de- 

 stroy the inferior ones, and I would 

 divide my best Italian colony first, that 

 might rear a good quality of queens. 



I don't think there will be any danger 

 of after-swarms from those colonies 

 where the queen-cells are Inserted, as 

 the new queen will hatch before much 

 of the brood is hatched, and there not 

 being many field bees in the hive, the 

 queen will destroy the other cells. 



Bronson, Kans. 



^ » 



Cloged-End Brood-Frames and 

 Their Use. 



Written for the A.mericnn Bee Journal 

 BY KEV. W. P. FAYIiOB. 



This subject having been discussed in 

 the various bee-publications during the 

 last few years so thoroughly, it may 

 seem useless to some to speak out again 

 about brood-frames. It is not so much 

 the "pros" and "cons" of a standing 

 closed-end frame that I wish to impress 

 upon the mind of the reader, as the way 

 to use such frames. 



The first kind of closed-end frame I 

 tried was after the Bingham pattern. I 

 made two hives of this kind. My great- 

 est objection to frames used as Mr. 

 Bingham used them, was the diflSculty 

 in keeping them even, lengthwise. 

 Neither did I like the wire attachment 

 to tighten the frames. More than this, 



whenever the frames were all taken 

 apart, I hardly knew what to do with 

 them. They would topple about like so 

 many sticks of wood in trying to make 

 one frame stand until another could be 

 placed against it. I used these hives 

 one season, and then they went "the 

 way of all the earth." 



When I saw an illustration of the 

 Quinby hive, as used by the Hethering- 

 tons, like many other bee-keepers seek- 

 ing after something new, I "waded 

 into " a few of these. Of course I did 

 not like the cord or string looped about 

 the panels and frames, but the worst 

 feature of all was found in those miser- 

 able hooks attached to the frames. To 

 use a hive two tiers or more high, the 

 hooks had to be left poking out at the 

 top. What did I do with these hives ? 

 Well, they disappeared somewhat like 

 the morning fog. They did not go up to 

 come down again, but they went down 

 to " come up no more." 



In regard to the Hoffman frame, I 

 may here say that I never took much 

 stock in it, as readers of the back num- 

 bers of the Bee Jouknal very well 

 know. It was invented more for moving 

 purposes than anything else, and I have 

 always thought, like Mr. Heddon, that 

 it was boomed temporarily, like the 

 auctioneer's razor — " to sell." Perhaps 

 in this I am mistaken. I hope I am. 



About the time the junior editor of 

 Gleanings gave the Hoffman frame such 

 merited praise, I received samples of 

 these frames from other sources than 

 Mr. Hoffman, with a request to give my 

 opinion of the same through the Bee 

 Journal. In doing so, I received the 

 most abusive letter the next week that I 

 ever received in my life. That letter 

 had about as much force on " my jolly 

 heart " as a snow-flake would have on a 

 locomotive. 



When I first tried the closed-end 

 frame, I did not think it could ever be 

 used successfully, but the way I now use 

 it, it can be used in any common hive, 

 such as the dovetailed. 



HOW I USE CLOSED-END FBAME8. 



Nail a strip of wood % of an inch 

 wide, and bee-space deep, on the inside 

 end of the hive, down even with the bot- 

 tom. Tack a strip of tin against this, 

 so as to project upward 54 of an inch 

 above the wood strip. Cut a square, or 

 rabbet out of all four corners of the 

 brood-frame H of an inch deep. Thus 

 you see the frames will stand on the tin 

 rests with a bee-space between the end 

 of the frames and the end of the hive. 

 The frames are to be low enough to 



