414 



May 16, 1907 



American Hee Journal 



share of thinking and planning, and 

 isn't there a lot of fun in it 7 



You seem to prefer smoking to 

 brushing or shaking in getting the 

 bees from the upper to the lower story, 

 with the chance that you may have to 

 operate the second time to get the 

 queen down. As the queen is the only 

 member of the family you are very 

 particular about, unless you have an 

 antipathy to finding queens, it might 

 be easier to find the queen and run her 

 into the entrance below. This would 

 avoid the possibility of a second opera- 

 tion, and there would be no need to 

 look in 2 or 3 days to learn the location 

 of the queen. 



You put supers under hive No. 1, 

 allowing the bees from above to go 

 down into the supers of sections. 

 Please tell us what effect that has on 

 the sections. When we tried it the 

 capping of the sections was consider- 

 ably darkened. Of course, if the combs 

 in No. 1 were quite new it would make 

 a difference. Ours were old and black. 



Thanks for helping out Mr. Aikin's 

 memory. 



Miller Frames— Antl-Swarmlng and 

 Extracting Management 



I am making some Miller frames as de- 

 scribed in " Forty Years Among the Bees," 

 page S2, and filling them with foundation just 

 as Dr. Miller says he does. The foundation 

 isS}4 inches wide, but instead of using splints 

 I mean to use medium-sized broom-wire, first 

 taking the temper out. The bees will rear 

 brood over this wire, and there is no ridge 

 over it as shown over Dr. Miller's splints. I 

 will then stretch 3 No. 30 wires lengthwise of 

 the frame. This is an experiment with me, 

 and I would like to know any objections there 

 may be to it. 



Then when the honey-flow comes for good, 

 and the bees are at their best before swarm- 

 ing, I plan on filling an empty hive with these 

 frames, placing it on the old stand, the old 

 hive in front of it with entrances together. 

 Then i put excluder-zinc over the new hive, 

 and a hive-body on that. Then brush the bees 

 from the brood down in the old hive, allowing 

 them to go into the new hive on the founda- 

 tion, and put the brood above, but keeping 

 out one frame, and spacing the rest equal dis- 

 tance apart by guess so as to fill up the hive. 

 After S days cut out the queen-cells. 



My idea is that this will start the bees to 

 carrying their honey above and building the 

 combs thicker for extracting as fast as the 

 brood hatches out, but the Miller frames are 

 thicker at the bottom than the Hoffman. 

 There is only ^4 -inch space for the bees to go 

 up through, and the air-space under them 

 will be °^-inch. Would this be ventilation 

 enough ifor that kind of frames? Would it 

 not be good to put a 14-inch piece around un- 

 der the top-story, giving entrance across one 

 end? Of course, I could put pieces on the 

 bottom -board and enlarge their entrance. 



I would be glad to read the criticism on 

 this subject. I have 30 colonies, and am 

 thinking of treating all this way. 



Laura E. Rudy. 



Fairmount, 111., April 27. 



Very evidently you have a wrong 

 idea of the ridges over the splints in 

 the Miller frame. I think you must 

 have gotten your idea from the picture 

 given on page 97 in " Forty Years 

 Years Among the Bees." That picture 

 is one of the frame filled with founda- 

 tion before given to the bees at all, 

 and what you call ridges are the splints 

 themselves. It is possible that once in 

 a while a ridge may be seen, but surely 



not often, as I do not now remember 

 ever seeing one, and usually the only 

 way that the presence of the splint is 

 discernible is by holding the comb up 

 to the sun and looking through it. If 

 you will look at pictures on pages 87, 

 101, 105, 261, you will see that there are 

 no ridges from the splints to he seen. 



Wire in place of splints will work, 

 but hardly so satisfactorily, as the wire 

 may bend, and the splints are always 

 perfectly straight. The addition of 

 horizontal wires will, of course, add 

 strength for extracting-combs, but are 

 hardly necessary. 



Your plan during the honey-flow will 

 work all right, but I would not advise 



you to give any more space under the 

 frames, as one experiment along that 

 line would be enough. The bees would 

 surely fill that space chuck-full of 

 comb and honey, and a sticky mess 

 you would have of it. If you wish to 

 give more ventilation, just shove the 

 upper story forward enough for bees 

 to pass, and that will give a free cir- 

 culation of air without the dire results 

 of the other plan. 



That X-inch space between bottom- 

 bars is all right. 



You do not mention that your plan 

 of operation is to prevent swarming, 

 but it is nothing more nor less than 

 the Demareeplan to prevent swarming . 



■-'*;' ^V.^?^*?*!^ 



RcflectioiiLy 



California Bcc-Kccpcr 



By W. a. Prtal, Alden Station, Oakland, Calif. 



"Our Youthful Bee-Expert" 



Ralph Benton, to whom I referred re- 

 cently as being connected with the 

 bee-department of the University of 

 California, is making a greater stir in 

 the bee-world in these parts than his 

 distinguished father did 30 years ago, 

 when he (the latter) commenced to at- 

 tract attention in the bee-papers by his 

 writings. Perhaps at the University 

 a new broom may sweep clean — I hope 

 it will always do so. At any rate, I 

 notice that the "youthful bee-expert," 

 as one of the daily papers calls him, is 

 to make a tour of the Southern Califor- 

 nia apiaries as soon as class-work is 

 over at the University, and get mate- 

 rial for a bee-bulletin. Bully for the 

 "Varsity ;" bully for Benton '. 



could find any. I tried to see if there 

 was anything to be had a few blocks- 

 further up, where I knew there had 

 been a dealer in dairy and bee fixings. 

 There was nothing on the block but old 

 bricks and other det>ris. Some exca- 

 vators were at work on some of the 

 lots, as they were on nearly every 

 block — they and the builders. 



The next day I found that a firm 

 from an outside city, which had faith 

 in San Francisco's future greatness, 

 had opened a big store and carries bee- 

 ware as well as a fine stock of garden- 

 supplies. But they don't advertise ! 

 Printer's ink is as essential in greas- 

 ing the path of the bee-man and his 

 allies as it is for the man who sells 

 Fillyourstomach goods and Feathers- 

 andf rills for Maria. 



Huntlns for Bee-Fixings 



Did you ever have to hunt for bee- 

 appliances ? I don't mean hunting 

 about your apiary, but in your town or 

 the next one. I've had a time of it this 

 week getting some things I found I 

 was short of. Before the big fire that 

 destroyed San Francisco a year ago, 

 there were a couple of places where one 

 could easily procure almost anything 

 in the bee-line. Well, the other day I 

 sought those places, but I must say I 

 did so sorrowing. The day was hot, 

 and it is no easy job to get around in 

 the " ashen city " these days, though 

 order and beauty are fast being brought 

 out of chaos. One of the houses that 

 represented a well known Eastern bee- 

 supply manufacturer, resumed business 

 in a big shack near the former location 

 of its fire-swept store. In answer to 

 my inquiry, I found that they did not 

 handle bee-supplies now; that they did 

 not have sufficient room to do so. 

 Neither could they tell me where I 



An Honored Professor Retired 



I learn that Prof. E. J. Wickson, for 

 many years Dean of the Agricultural 

 College of the State University of Cali- 

 fornia, at Berkeley, is to be succeeded 

 by a man from one of the Eastern col- 

 leges. This is rather unfortunate for 

 the California University, as Prof. 

 Wickson has been connected with that 

 institution for a little over 30 years, 

 and it may be said that he has done 

 more than any other person in the 

 State to give the University the high 

 standing it has won among the agri- 

 cultural colleges of the world. In his 

 earlier connection with the college he 

 held the Chair of Dairying, and at the 

 same time was editor-in-chief of the 

 Pacific Rural Press. Later, he was the 

 horticultural expert of the college, and 

 had general supervision of the agricul- 

 tural grounds, and at the same time 

 filled the position of Horticultural edi- 

 tor of the paper named. His work, 

 " The Fruits of California," is the rec- 



