(Entered at the Poat-Offloe at Chicago as Second-Class Mall-Matter.) 

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GEOKGK W. YOllK, Rditor 



CHICAGO. ILL, APRIL 25,1907 



VoL XLVII— No. 17 



idiitorial ^otes 

 and Commenfs 



^*v 



Caring for Empty Combs 



Various methods of caring for empty combs 

 when not in use by the bees have been men- 

 tioned. Recently it was advised to wrap 

 them in paper. Regarding this, Mr. E. V. 

 Pagan writes : 



Mr. Editor:— On page 286, "Michigan" 

 is advised to wrap his combs in paper to pro- 

 tect them from wax-worms. If the combs 

 are free from the eggs or larvae of the bee- 

 moth when thus protected, the plan will be 

 successful, for the moth that lays the eggs 

 will be kept out. But the chances are 9 out 

 ef 10, if not 99 out of IHO, that at least some 

 of " Michigan's" combs already had eggs or 

 larv;e in them, and these would go on with 

 their work just as cheerfully wrapped up as 

 unwrapped. Almost always, when combs are 

 to be taken care of, they are combs from col- 

 onies that have died in winter. Such combs 

 are pretty sure to have larvs or eggs in them 

 when left by the bees, and wrapping up 

 would be no protection. E. V. Pagan. 



Abbott Plan of Queen-Introduction 



Dr. Miller calls attention to the fact that 

 the Abbott method of introducing queens has 

 been mentioned several times in the American 

 Bee Journal, though some seem not to have 

 remembered seeing it, among them being 

 Wm. M. Whitney. Here is what Dr. M. says : 



Mr. Editor:— On page 280, my good friend 

 Wm. M. Whitney speaks of the Abbott plan 

 of introducing queens, and says: "I have 

 never observed it in any work on beekeeping, 

 nor in any paper, if I'm not mistaken " .\re 

 you not in the habit, Mr. Whitney, of skip- 

 ping anything you find on the introduction 

 of queens? Look at the American Bee Jour- 

 nal for 1906, page 449, 3d answer to .Minne- 

 sota, where you will find, " There is probably 

 greater safety in the Abbott plan of patting 

 the caged queen into the hive 2 or H days be- 

 fore," etc. See also page 738, 1906, last sen- 

 tence of reply to Massachusetts. Possibly, 

 however, you don't spend time reading such 



'^^- 



elementary things as are to be found in the 

 Question-Box — and I don't blame you for 

 that— but surely you ought not to have 

 omitted the editorial page 798 of the same 

 volume, where the 3d sentence on the page 

 reads, " Mr. E. T. Abbott advises this im- 

 prisonment without losing the time of the old 

 laying queen," and then particulars of the 

 plan are given. I am pretty sure mention of 

 the plan can be found in other places, but the 

 ones mentioned are enough to free the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal from the charge of neglect- 

 ing to mention what you esteem an important 

 item. C. C. Miller. 



Loose ° Hanging versus Self -Spaced 

 Frames 



The editor of the Bee-Keepers' Review val- 

 iantly champions loose-hanging frames. He 



says: 



"The American Bee Journal says that I 

 make it appear that the self-spacing is most 

 valuable for holding the frames in place when 

 moving bees, when the greatest value is in 

 the rapid handling that may be done with 

 self-spaced frames — no time used in spacing 

 them. Let's see about this rapid handling. 

 With self-spaced frames some sort of a wedge 

 or spring must be pried out. Then a dummy 

 must come out — and oh, how it does stick, 

 sometimes." 



Isn't that something new that a wedge or 

 spring must first be pried out? Has it ever 

 appeared in print before? Perhaps his is an 

 unfortunate locality, for with the right kind 

 of self-spacing frames there is no more need 

 of wedges than with loose-hanging frames, 

 and they are just as objectionable in one case 

 as the other. 



"Then a dummy and oh, how it 



does stick, sometimes.'' Yes, sometimes. 

 And how a loose-hanging frame does stick, 

 sometimes. But with the right frames and 

 dummy, what need of a dummy sticking? Of 

 course it is possible to have a dummy so 



made and so used that "how it does stick" 

 applies; but there is no need to have it so 

 made and used, ever. 

 Mr. Hutchinson says further: 



"Then the frames must be pried apart. 

 Sometimes it is possible to pry the brood-nest 

 apart in the middle, but oftener the frames 

 are stuck fast so tightly that it is necessary 

 to commence at one side and pry the frames 

 loose one at a lime until the middle of the 

 brood nest is reached, when, at last, we are 

 ready to remove a comb. All this does not 

 strike me as very rapid handling. With loose- 

 hanging frames it is necessary only to pry 

 loose a comb each side of the one to be re- 

 moved, press them over a little to one side, 

 when the comb between can be lifted out." 



It is to be feared that the bad cases have 

 made so strong an impression on Mr. Hutch- 

 inson's mind that the good cases are too little- 

 considered. Possibly, too, the good cases are 

 greatly in the minority. Later he speaks of 

 Hoffman frames as especially objectionable. 

 There are self-spacing frames and self-spacing 

 frames, and there is a material difference be- 

 tween frames with the end-bars partly or 

 wholly in contact and those with the small 

 point of contact of nails or staples. He says, 

 " Sometimes it is possible to pry the brood- 

 nest apart in the middle,'' and he might well 

 have added, " and with the right frames it is 

 always possible." Also, he might well have 

 added a " sometimes " to the statement that 

 to get out a loose-hanging frame it is neces- 

 sary to move only 2 other frames; at least he 

 has been extremely fortunate if he has not 

 met cases where it was necessary to move 3 or 

 4 other frames. 



It must be admitted that self-spacing frames 

 may be so bad that to get out the first frame 

 is harder than to get it out of nicely managed 

 loose frames, and if Mr. Hutchinson insists 

 that the worst case of loose frames he ever 

 met was not to be compared with some cases 

 of self-spacers, no one " in this locality " is 

 inclined to quarrel with him. But when there 

 is so much difference in self-spacers, it is 

 hardly fair to condemn all because some are 

 at fault. 



Again, Mr. H. says: 



" In the matter of getting the combs back, 

 one kind can be put back as rapidly as the 

 other. After they are in the hive, the loose- 

 hanging frames will probably need some 

 spacing with the fingers, but this won't take 

 so very much longer than it does to put in 



