194 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Apr. 1, 



skep ; the cap, holding may be 15 pounds, being taken off 

 when full and sold that way ; I saw it in all the stores, while 

 honey in sections was very scarce. 



The DeLayens hive is mostly used, being about square, 

 with the frames either perpendicular to or parallel with the 

 entrance. There was quite a diversity of opinions on this 

 subject. 



The bees are wintered out-doors in Switzerland, and gen- 

 erally come through all right, but they nearly always have to 

 be fed in the spring. 



Extracted hocey sells for about the same price as the 

 comb — from 24 to 28 cents per pound, according to the crop. 

 In the south of France, near Bordeaux, they seem to get bet- 

 ter crops than in Switzerland ; their surplus comes from black 

 locust and basswood, and is gathered in May and June. Their 

 spring is very early there ; on Feb. 15 I saw peach trees in 

 bloom, the bees were bringing in pollen, and there was sealed 

 brood in all the hives. The colonies get strong in time to 

 swarm at the end of April, just before the locust bloom. They 

 use a hive with 16 frames, about 16 inches square. As the 

 most of them work for extracted honey, and do not use upper 

 stories, they extract from the outside frames ; but what a 

 work ! the frames have to be taken out from the side, for the 

 top cannot be opened. I saw an apiary where the hives were 

 put on top of each other, four high. 



The bees there are mostly the common black bees ; I saw 

 very few Italians. In the city of Bordeaux are many bees, 

 but I was told that they wore mostly affected with foul brood, 

 a result, they thought, of robbing the sugar refineries. My 

 brother, who has a large fruit-canning establishment, told me 

 that in summer he lost from $3 to .1-4 a day by the bees (sugar 

 is 12 cents a pound in Prance, there being a heavy tax on it). 

 By the nature of his business he cannot get even with the 

 bees, as they do in the sugar refinery that I visited, where the 

 superintendent told me that they swept the bees together, put 

 them in a bag, hung it on a peg, and by their own weight the 

 sugar or syrup was squeezed out and then boiled again, so 

 there was very little loss ! 



Honey is used very little in France, which may be due to 

 its poor quality. In one of the stores they had quite a lot of 

 section honey, but it was half capt, dark, and partly candied. 

 I bought one section for which they charged me 30 cents ! I 

 think if they would put up their honey in nice shape there 

 would not be cases like that of a man I heard of, who had 600 

 pounds in his cellar, and could not sell it. When I left here, I 

 took with me a 12-pound case of basswood comb honey, and 

 how everybody admired it! They said they had neoer seen 

 such nice honey, not even In their expositions. 



I had to give them a talk on apiculture in the United 

 States, and afterwards repeat it to a large audieuce. I gave 

 them one of the sections of honey to look at, and taste of, and 

 most of them thought it wis delicious, but a few found it too 

 strong for their taste. 



I had been explaining to them my way of hiving swarms 

 with dipt queens. The next day it was reported to me that 

 one of my hearers was pitying me, thinking what a job I must 

 have every spring to cut the wings off all my bees ! The joke 

 was on me. Jefferson Co., Wis. 



Can We Dispense with the Haudliug of Frames? 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



In the struggle which apiarists are compelled to go through, 

 In these times of low prices of honey, in order that they may 

 live at their calling, or chosen pursuit, many " short cuts " are 

 advocated and many plans put forth, which were never thought 

 of when honey sold at paying figures. All know that the less 

 work we do in the apiary, or the less work done with a single 

 colony, helps toward making a given price for our honey, pays 

 us more for the labor performed, other things being equal. 

 But the question which confronts us is. Will we obtain as much 

 honey from our bees, with little or no work expended on them, 

 as we would if we gave them the same care we did in former 

 years, when honey brought from double to treble the price it 

 now does? I know that there are many "shortcuts" which 

 we can take to advantage, but are not some of the short cuts 

 advocated, very prolific in making "slipshod " bee-keepers ? 



Some are advocating the handling of hives instead of 

 frames as a means of cheapening the production of honey, 

 claiming that any bee-keeper of average intelligence can learn 

 to diagnose colonies with scarctely over opening any hive, or 

 ever taking out a frame. Such advocacy has in it, in my opin- 

 ion, the element of impressing the beginner that a careless 

 style of bee-keeping will accomplish as good results as will one 

 of push and energy, which is incorporated in the handling of 

 frames. Bee-keepers of long experience can be trusted better 



to guess at the inside conditions of a colony from the outside 

 appearance of the same; but I contend that, in order for any 

 person to become an accomplisht apiarist, he must, in his ini- 

 tiatory steps, become thoroughly acquainted with the inside 

 workings of a colony of bees by actual inspection of the frames 

 of brood, honey and combs. Handling hives, in the abstract, 

 admits of no suitable knowledge of the inside workings of a 

 colony equal to even a fair guess ; hence I claim that the ideas 

 advanced by some have a tendency of carrying us back to the 

 days of our fathers, when our beloved pursuit was pretty much 

 shrouded in mystery. Just listen to the following which I 

 found in one of our bee-papers : 



"We have lost sight of the advantages of judging 

 from outside appearances in our use of frames. If an exper- 

 ienced bee-keeper places his ear against the side of the hive, 

 and raps or jars, he can tell by the sound, pretty well, the con- 

 dition of the colony inside of the hive. During theearly spring, 

 in cold storms, when there are colonies in the apiary that are 

 liable to starve, if the apiarists will go from hive to hive every 

 day and place his ear on the side of the hive and rap, he can 

 tell by the sound whether all are fed. If the response is weak, 

 a little syrup given immediately will soon restore the strong, 

 vigorous response to the rap." etc ; while much advocated by 

 others savors of similar import. And all for what ? That we 

 may do something out of the usual line and learn to think that 

 no amount of work shall be considered too menial so long as 

 the handling of frames can be avoided in this great strife in 

 producing honey cheaply, so that apiarists can live by produc- 

 ing honey at the present, and fast becoming, deprest prices 

 of the same. 



Just think of such apiarists as Mr. Secor, Dr. Miller, or 

 Dr. Mason, going out every day in slush and storms, getting 

 down upon " all fours " in the mud and snow, placing their 

 ears to the side of the wet and nasty hives, and rapping on the 

 same to know whether any of the 101 colonies are going to 

 starve, when once handling of the frames during the first 

 flight of the bees in spring would place them where either 

 would positively know that ?io colony need starve during the 

 next six weeks to come ! 



Think of turning a hive bottom side up, and with smoke, 

 driving the bees down among the combs, peering in as best we 

 can, setting the hive back on the stand again, removing the 

 covering from the top, smoking again, and looking down into 

 hive that way, all for the sake of guessing what is inside, when 

 once handling of the frames the fore part of June would give 

 any one a perfect knowledge regarding all that would be nec- 

 essary to know about that colony for the next month to come ! 

 Is such as this to be the advancement (?) of the future? If 

 so, then I am glad that my apicultural life was cast among 

 those of the past. I cannot feel otherwise than that the whole 

 thing is a step in the wrong direction. 



Beginners should be taught that it is an absolute neces- 

 sity that they fully master all the minutia of the inside work- 

 ings of a colony of bees, and after this has been fully learned, 

 frames are to be handled only where a gain can be made by 

 them. Work in the apiary is required only where a profit is 

 to come from that work ; and that this handling and work 

 must be done at the right time, in the right manner, and in the 

 right place, if they would become successful apiarists. 



It is with pride that I look at our achievements in apicul- 

 ture during the past third of a century, and I doubt the advis- 

 ability of our now going back to the guesswork of our fore- 

 fathers. Rather let us keep climbing the hill of scientific api- 

 culture till we shall have reacht the loftiest table-lands, and 

 from there shout forth the victory which may come to us 

 through this always forward movement. Let the watchword 

 be " Forward, March!" Forward, till the unfathomable 

 depths of the prcscjit, are reacht in the future; till the mind 

 has graspt all that the mind of the Infinite has intended we 

 should understand of this our beloved pursuit. 



Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



Against the "Weed" Deep-Cell Fouudatiou. 



BY THOS. G. NKW.MAN. 



I have read with interest the articles in the bee-periodicals 

 by Mr. T. F. Bingham and Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson about the 

 use of the new " Weed " foundation, and must say that I share 

 their apprehension respecting the effect it may have on the 

 pursuit of honey-production and honey consumption. 



For years I fought the statement of Prof. Wiley, that 

 combs could, or would, be made by machinery, filled with 

 honey, and bo placed upon the market. I stated that it was 

 untrue, and even went so far as to say that I did not believe 

 that it could be done. 



I desired to protect comb honey from the suspicion which 



