6(Jl 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUUE. 



Oct. 



probability, fill the extra space with brood; but if 

 you possess tlie ordinary frame, aud practice the 

 plan of spreading- the brood, and with a good queen, 

 very little advantage can be gained by reversing 

 the comb, so far as I can see. 



Point 'Z. When the ordinary Laugstroth frame is 

 employed, bees, as a rule, especially when possess- 

 ed of a dash of German blood, will occupy the top 

 sections, as a rule, immediately, other conditions 

 being: favorable; but if the deep frame is used, and 

 side-storing practiced in connection with top, a la 

 Doolittle, the bees can be made to work in, the up- 

 per sections at the pleasure of the apiarist. 



Point 3. If it is thought desirable to have all the 

 honey in the brood-chaujber removed into the su- 

 pers, this can be accomplished. 1. Providing the 

 honey is all stored along the to!)-bar; '.i, Providing 

 the frame is tilled solid with brood from end to end 

 below the honey-line; if those conditions are pres- 

 ent, then, by simply reversing the frames, the hon- 

 ey is carried upstairs at once; but if they are want- 

 ing in any degree, then just so far does the reversi- 

 ble frame ceaso to possess any advantage over the 

 ordinary in respect to point No. 3. 



Point*^. Wiring the usual style of frame, and 

 placing the fdn. almost in contact with the bottom- 

 bar on the wires, leaving !8-ineh space at the sides, 

 and J.i inch above the sheet, will give combs as solid 

 as can be produced by any reversible frame in ex- 

 istence. 



■Having now eomiiared the two styles of frame, if 

 I were asked which one I should adopt in view of 

 what I have written, my answer would be, the re- 

 versible, if I employed the Langstroth frame and 

 took my surplus from the top exclusively; but the 

 ordinary, if I used a deep frame, and practiced side- 

 storing in connection with top. 



Still further, I believe that I have made an im- 

 provement, even on the frame described in my ar- 

 ticle in Gleanings; but whether you, Mr. Root, 

 may consider it so or not, it pleases me better, and 

 comes still nearer my ideal of what a practical re- 

 versible frame should be; and, besides, doing away 

 to a considerable extent with the objections you 

 raised to the frame as described in Gleanings, 

 there is a saving of 4 wire nails to each frame, 

 which is a consideration. It would make this too 

 long an article to enter into its description here; 

 but if any should be desirous to learn more about 

 it they Avill find it described in detail in the A.B.J. 

 for July 30. A. H. Button. 



Brussels, Ont., Aug. 6, 1884. 



Tlie device referred to in the closing sen- 

 tence, friend D., is essentially tlie same as 

 the one mentioned on page 152 of Glean- 

 ings for the present year. I will explain to 

 onr readers that it is simply placing snp- 

 porting-arms to the frame midway Itrtwcen 

 the top and bottom of the end-bar, and, of 

 conrse, placing tlic rabbet on tlie ends of 

 the hives midway between the top and bot- 

 tom. The olijcction is, tliat frames so sup- 

 ported are much less steady tlian one luiug 

 by top-bar; and unless some kind of si)acers 

 are used for the top-l)ars of the frame, tliey 

 are very easily knocked out of place. The 

 8ui)iK)rting-arms must also be ])ut in very 

 accurately indeed, or the frame will be lean- 

 ing either one side or the otlier. 1 do not 

 tluid< it will obtain favor. Your remarks on 

 the subject are excellent, 



HONEY FROM CORN. 



HOW TO TELL WHEN SECTION.S ARE FULL, ETC. 



fW()|weeks ago I wrote you, stating bees were 

 out of employment for the present; but in a 

 few days they were at work gathering as 

 hard as ever; and as I have watched them 

 very closely this summer, so as to learn all 

 their little tricks, I soon found them in a field of 

 corn, so I concluded they were gathering. Well, 

 Prof. Cook doesn't call it honey; but as regards mjy 

 bees, it was as much honey as they gather on box- 

 elder when it blooms. It was a rank piece of early 

 corn they were on, and they worked in the same 

 style as on box-elder bloom. I got my glass that 

 makes a bee as large as a rat (or less), and could not 

 find any trace of the corn-louse. The field was in 

 pasture for six years before, which would make it 

 free from corn lice; and as the bees worked on this 

 field for four days before the other corn tasseled 

 out I had a good chance to watch them, which I did 

 for nearly an hour at a time, and could find no trace 

 of any other vermin. I may be, for all that, mistak- 

 en, but it would be hard to convince me of it. 



WAX SCALES SECRETED ONLY RY YOUNG BEES. 



Another thing I notice: It is only young bees 

 that make wax; or, in other words, a bee produces 

 only one crop of wax; and if comb-building were 

 needed ever so badly, the old bees could not pro- 

 duce any wa.v scales. 



HOW TO TELL WHEN SECTIONS ARE FULL. 



Another thing I find fault with is the way you rig 

 hives for surplus comb honey. You may say I need 

 not buy what I don't like, but I can't get them as I 

 like them, so I have to use what is on the market, 

 or make my own, which is not convenient. The 

 fault 1 find with wide frames is, you can't tell when 

 they are full without pulling one out, which dis- 

 tui-bs the bees. With the Heddou cases it is no bet- 

 ter. I got 10 of them, or, rather, 10 hives with 30 

 cases, and this is the last year I shall use them, un- 

 less some one can tell me how to find out how much 

 honey there is in the case without taking it off. 



SMOKERS AND CYPRIANS. 



I have only a Clai-k smoker, and I keep some of 

 those cross Cyprians, and Doolittle says you need a 

 Bingham. Now, I can't get any more smoke out of 

 a Bingham than out of yours, and the price I don't 

 like; still, some men think a cheap article "no 

 good;" and about those Cyprian bees, they are no 

 worse than Italians, and not half as bad as some 

 that came from the Banner Apiary. The trouble 

 with Cyprian and Holy-Land bees is, they are not 

 used to being handled; but if they get no quick jar 

 there is no trouble. W. Connelly. 



Ogden, Iowa, Aug. 4, 1884. 



Friend C, will you please tell us whether 

 the l)ees got the honey from the corn-tassels, 

 or tVoin the base of the leaves? I think it is 

 pretty well proven that bees do sometimes 

 gfit honey from corn.— If 1 am correct, old 

 bees can , when obliged to, secrete wax scales. 

 When there are bees of different ages in the 

 liive. tiiose of a certain age usually take up 

 this duly.— There are several ways in which 

 you cantell when the sections are Idled. Tiie 

 simplest is by slipping your linger along the 

 top-bar of the wide-frame, or, better still, 

 the top-bar of the sections. When yon get 

 accustomed to it, the sound of the finger 

 sliding over it will tell which sections are 



