1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



149 



moved, and all are to be put back exactly In 

 their right places. If there are eight frames, 

 you have just 16 operations to perform. You 

 must look at each end of each top-bar, and set 

 it to its place, and you can't do it with a jerk 

 either. I can push the whole business up at 

 one operation, and I've no need to be careful 

 either, for I can't push a frame beyond its right 

 place. 



As you say, when you want to have your 

 frames at fixed distances, ready for moving, you 

 can put in spacing-sticks in a short time. But 

 however short that time, in just that much less 

 time can one be got ready that has the shoul- 

 dered end-bars, for they're always ready. 



So, as it now looks to me, no matter how the 

 frames are made, I still need the fixed distances, 

 and I don't see how I can follow the advice in 

 your " finally" to have my frames made better 

 than heretofore, for I don't believe the thing 

 can be "did." 



But that last sentence of yours hurts my feel- 

 ings, where you talk about my " new-departure 

 hive." Why, bless you, I'm not trying to make 

 any new departure— just trying to get the best 

 of the old. About the only change I have ask- 

 ed in the Dovetail is to go back to the old form 

 of the frame, both as to top-bar and end-bar. 



I'll make friends with you, however, and join 

 v\ith you in pitching into the editor for putting 

 that heading to your article, "Exact Spacing 

 not Necessary." He ought to know very well 

 that you didn't hint at any thing of the kind, 

 but only ^claimed that you could have exact 

 spacing with the old loose hanging frame. I 

 give up that I can't. 



Marengo, 111. 



[We meant that Mr. Corey considered "exact 

 spacing unnecessary" by mechanical devices 

 forming part and parcel of the frames them- 

 selves.— Ed.] 



A GOOD POINT IN FAVOR OF WIDER TOP-BARS. 



Seeing a call in Gleanings for reports on this 

 subject, I will give you my experience. Two 

 years ago I left an order at one of our hive- 

 making establishments for 3000 frames of the 

 modified Hoffman type, with l^^^-in. top-bars; 

 but through some mistake the top-bars were 

 cut Ijn wide. We cut 20(3(J down to l^V, the re- 

 mainder we nailed up and used as they were 

 cut by the manufacturer — namely, iji wide by 

 K in. thick. I find on those that are l^V in. 

 wide, plenty of burr and brace combs, while on 

 those that are 13^ in. wide I find but very few 

 burr or brace combs. Now, give me a top-bar 

 1}4 in. wide by % in. thick, spaced l,9y from cen- 

 ter to center, with J^ in. between tops of frames 

 and sections, and I will show you hives with- 

 out burr or brace combs. T. R. Canady. 



Fallbrook, Cal., Dec. ;.'5. 



[The result of this experiment is quite inter- 

 esting, inasmuch as it is quite accidental, and 



quite contrary to what friend Canady expected. 

 Now we should like to ask, Would it be desira- 

 ble to have wider tops, but thinner than we now 

 make them? — Ed.] 



fe^^gwS 



t:^^-%s> 



CONTROLLING SWARMS. 



A young friend of mine, a recent bee-convert, 

 recently complained to me that, out of five 

 swarms the past season, three had gone off di- 

 rectly, and the other two had gone some dis- 

 tance and alighted in most inaccessible places. 

 This i-ecord appeared so remarkable to me that, 

 on the young man's assurance that the people 

 who had lived on the place before him had ex- 

 perienced the same bad luck, I went to look at 

 his hives and explain the cause. 



As soon as I caught sight of the place I was 

 more puzzled than ever, but at my friend's lack 

 of foresight. Not a tree, bush, or vine— not 

 even a fence within many rods of the hive. 



" My dear sir," I asked, "where did you ex- 

 pect them to alight?" 



" Why, I don't know," said he, looking around 

 for a po'JSible roost. 



" Which is precisely what has ailed your bees," 

 I added. "They had to start away to find an 

 alighting-place, and, when once started, found 

 it inconvenient to stop at all." 



I don't suppose there are many who are guilty 

 of such ignorance as that, but there are com- 

 paratively few outside of the pi'ofessionals who 

 give the matter the attention that should be 

 given. Times without number, almost, I have 

 seen people climbing trees and out on limbs 

 after a swarm that had lodged some place 

 where they would not have allowed their small 

 boys to go for a captive kite. " He might have 

 kept his kite out of there." You might, nine 

 cases out of ten, have kept your bees out, too, 

 even though you did not see them start. 



There is quite a general idea that, in the ab- 

 sence of some special appliance for their cap- 

 ture, a swarm of bees will alight pretty nearly 

 where they please, about all the effort made to 

 regulate their course being the antiquated tin 

 pan and dipper process still more or less in 

 vogue. It is necessary to become neither a 

 squirrel nor a lunatic to keep bees. Watch two 

 successive swarms that come from the same or 

 adjacent hives. At first their course is almost 

 identical, and an arrangement set for the con- 

 venience of the one would very likely be as 

 agreeable to the other. But bees are not al- 

 ways willing to alight on the sharp end of a 

 stick, nor even on the patent appliances for that 

 purpose. Give them a good old grapevine trellis 

 just before their door, and they are pretty sure 

 to take the invitation to rest. Where but few 



