504 



June 13, 1907 



American ^ge Journal j 



that — but never mind what they might 

 think I got on them. 



There is a big blessing coming to 

 the man who will discover an infallible 

 and quick propolis-eradicator. Per- 

 haps it might be better to produce a 

 strain of bees that have not the propo- 

 lis-instinct as a predominant feature. 



Commercial Letter-Writers 



I received two bee-papers to-day ; 

 they are good papers and true. One 

 was Gleanings in Bee-Culture ; the 

 other the "Old Reliable." I could not 

 help observing letters reproduced from 

 the files of the business or honey de- 

 partment of the A. I. Root Co. that 

 were printed in the former paper ; and 

 all about honey that seemed to have 

 mysteriously changed its character 

 while being shipped between two 

 points. Queer, but rather uninterest- 

 ing to the average reader. The other 

 paper had a lot more about honey — a 

 lengthy correspondence from honey- 

 merchants. This batch was interest- 

 ing to all. And there are others, too, 

 in both the reading and advertising 

 columns. But I was going to state 

 that these two numbers would make a 

 good " Ready Letter-Writer " to give 

 to the children as models of business 

 letters. 



The Hoffman Frames 



I like the Hoflfman frames very well, 

 especially when I am able to manipu- 

 late them once or more during the 

 year, but woe is he who has to tackle 

 a lot of them in hives that have not 

 been opened for several years ! The 

 amount of good, "healthy" propolis 

 the bees will pile on and about these 

 frames is a caution. I have recently 

 been using some of these frames that 

 have the "square" edge, and I like 

 them much better than I do when one 

 edge is beveled — that is, when one edge 

 on each side of a frame is so made. At 

 first I believed that when the flat or 

 square edges would come together, the 

 bees would be needlessly killed. I now 

 find that one does not have to be much 

 more careful in handling these frames 

 than when he is manipulating the 

 other kind. But I have been thinking, 

 will we always use the Hoffman frame? 

 I rather think not. Like lots of other 

 things introduced into our apiaries in 

 times gone by, we came to discard 

 them in the end, for good and sufficient 

 reasons. 



I am just in receipt of a letter from 

 Mr. R. M. Spencer, Ventura County 

 (this State), wherein he says that he is 

 transferring his combs from the Hoff- 

 man frames into plain frames of his 

 own. More than this he saith not. 

 Still, per contra, last week I heard of a 

 bee-keeper up the Sacramento river 

 who ordered 3000 of these frames from 

 a San Francisco bee-ware house. I 

 wonder if he, too, will be discarding 

 them, after a while. 



'< It Is continuous advertising 

 that Impresses the public 

 with the stability of a firm 





The " Old Reliable " as seen through New and Unreliable Glasses, 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B. Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



Swarming in France and Here. 



The carefully observed and collated 

 facts about swarming which Adrian 

 Getaz copies from the French ought to 

 be of decided interest. Different flavor, 

 for one thing, from what we get this 

 side. Several years and a number of 

 apiaries drawn on. When our folks 

 can get around to do the like, it will be 

 in order to note how things in France 

 differ from things in our country. 

 Meantime we can make luminous 

 guesses about our conditions and com- 

 pare conjecture with fact. For part 

 of the work I have records which will 

 parallel theirs — if it were not so great 

 a task to collate them. Have just run 

 over my first 3 years as to the dates of 

 swarms. Both earlier and later than 

 theirs, and, of course, more days in the 

 swarming period. Their extremes are 

 from May 17 to July 4, or 49 days for 

 the swarming period. My extremes 

 (taking in only 1880, 1881 and 1882) are 

 from May 12 to Sept. S, or 117 days — 

 much more than twice as long, not to 

 mention their average duration of only 

 24 days. My commencement for 1881 

 was not normal, as I was dividing, for 

 needed increase, everything I thought 

 would bear dividing. But after a bit 

 the bees struck in and would swarm 

 some notwithstanding the dividing. 

 Collating 1880 and 1882 together, I had 

 3 swarms in May, 120 in June, 126 in 

 July, 38 in August, and 1 in Septem- 

 ber. Total, 288. Number of colonies 

 was 56 the former year and 68 the lat- 

 ter. Some of my later years have been 

 much less swarmy than these. Col- 

 lating the whole great mass would re- 

 duce the proportion of August swarms. 

 Also, if a number of other apiaries 

 were collated with mine, the joint re- 

 sult would be less swarms per hundred 

 colonies, I take it. 



Only for the year 1900 and since have 

 I marked down the time of day. Was 

 moved thereto by what seemed to me to 

 be the absurdity of things I saw in 

 print about it. Sometimes the time of 

 day didn't get put down. Sometimes a 

 cluster is found hanging, and no one 

 knows how long ago it came out. But 



1 have the records of a sufficiently 

 jolly big lot spread over 7 years. The 

 total is 666. Queer that it should he 

 just the number of the Beast in Reve- 

 lation, but that is what it footed up. 

 Considering our extreme climate, we 

 might expect swarms both earlier in 

 the day and later in the day than in 

 France, and so it is. In the French 

 records 8 : 15 a.m. is the earliest. In 

 my records I have one at S : OS a.m., and 



2 more before 7. The latest for France 



is 4 p.m. My latest is 5 : 17 p.m. — with 

 a doubt in favor of another colony 

 which was hanging on the front of 

 their hive at S p.m., and swarmed un- 

 seen later. Both these extra-late ones 

 were prime swarms. About the 3 ex- 

 tra-early ones it was either unknown 

 or unrecorded whether prime swarms 

 or not. Let us now make way for the 

 table : 



Between S and 6 a.m 1 



" 6 and 7 " 2 



7 and 8 " 45 



Sand 9 " 75 



9 and 10 " 129 



10 and 11 " 99 



11 and 12 m 76 



12 and 1 p.m 81 



1 and 2 " 63 



" 2 and 3 " 45 



3 and 4 " 36 



4 and S " 12 



5 and 6 " 2 



Total 666 



I think that seeming decline between 

 11 and 12 is not an eccentricity, but 

 comprehensibly all right ; and 76 the 

 true normal for the hour and tempera- 

 ture. All previous figures swollen by 

 colonies that got ready to swartn dur- 

 ing the night, 3.n& had to postpone till 

 day. Practically all of these would be 

 out at 11 a.m. 



The French apiaries had only 5 per- 

 cent before 10 a.m. Mine had 252, 

 which is 38 percent. They had 22 per- 

 cent between 10 and 12. I had 175, 

 which is 26 percent. They had 56 per- 

 cent between 12 and 2 p.m. I had 144, 

 which is only 21 'i percent. (This is a 

 very striking divergence between 

 France and the United States. Swarms 

 in the early hours of afternoon are not 

 superlatively plenty with us.l They 

 had 15 percent between 2 and 3 p.m.; I 

 had 45, which is 7 percent. They had 

 2 percent later than 3 p.m.; I had 50, 

 which is 7yi. percent. 



Swarms naturally divide themselves 

 into primes, afterwarms, and deserters. 

 Some little differences of time of day 

 would very likely appear if they were 

 tabulated separately ; but I think the 

 difference would not be very material. 



Anierikanisclie Uienenziiclit, 



by Hans Buschbauer, is a bee-keeper's hand- 

 book of 138 pages, which is just what our 

 German friends will want. It is fully illus- 

 trated, and neatly bound in cloth. Price, 

 postpaid, $1.00; or with the American Bee 

 Journal one year— both for $1.75. Address 

 all orders to this office. 



