208 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15. 



perature of the water placed in them. Owing 

 to the difference In the material and thickness 

 of the walls, the amount of heat absorbed by 

 the walls in each case was not the same. If I 

 could have placed the whole lot in a large oven, 

 so as to heat all the materials to the same de- 

 gree, as was done in Rnmford's experiment, the 

 result obtained would have been more reliable. 

 As it is, however, the experiments give some 

 indications of the comparative waimth of the 

 different hive-wails. S. Coisneil. 



Lindsay, Ont., Feb. 30. 



[Friend C, we are very much obliged indeed 

 for the report of your valuable experiment. I 

 wish, however, you had placed a similar pail 

 of water right outdoors, without any protec- 

 tion; then we could have told just how much 

 any sort of protection amounts to. Another 

 thing, a colony of living bees giving off mois- 

 ture from their respiration requires a covering 

 somewhat different from that needed to pre- 

 serve a vessel of hot water or a cake of ice; 

 that is, the arrangement that would hold the 

 heat longest for the brick or the ice would not 

 be exactly what we need for a cluster of living 

 bees. Your experiment demonstrates very 

 cleai'ly, however, the advantage and the pro- 

 tection that chaff' and cut straw afford to a 

 colony of bees during severe weather.] 



FIXED FRAMES. 



AN ILWNOIS MAN DISCUSSES SOME OF TIIEIH 



FEATtTKES; HE CAN HANDI.E THEM 



FASTER THAN THE UNFIXED 



FKAMES. 



Friend Root:— The discussion that has ap- 

 peared in Gleanings in the last six months in 

 regard to the different frames used in hives 

 should interest every progressive bee-keeper, 

 since Ernest's visit to the East; and he there 

 found a majority of the bee-keepers using a 

 fixed-frame hive. It has aroused an inquiry in 

 the minds of many of the bee-keepers of the 

 South and West: Does tiie tixed frame possess 

 advantages with which we are unacquainted? 

 and have its disadvantages been exaggerated? 

 The discussion has, I think, disrlosed the fact 

 that there are more using a lixed-frame hive 

 than was generally supposed — not from mere 

 choice, but because they were convinced, after 

 trial, that it possessed advantages not found in 

 the hanging or adjustable frame. 



I believe it is generally conceded, that, in the 

 fixed-frame hive, there is less burr-comb built 

 than in the hanging frame, especially between 

 the hive and supei-; that it possesses superior 

 advantages when hives are hauled on wagons 

 to out-apiaries or distant fields to take advan- 

 tage of honey-flows not existing in their own 

 neighboi'hoods. The frames being lixed, they 

 are ready to load on the wagon without hav- 

 ing to stop and fasten them in the hive by some 

 device, and then unfasten them on arrival at 

 destination. 



The disadvantages claimed for the fixed frame 

 are, that they can not be manipulated as fast 

 or as easily as the adjustable frame; but when 

 Ernest saw some of the prominent bee-keepers 

 of the East handle fixed frames easier and fast- 

 er than he could the loose fi'aine, he was con- 

 vinced that the disadvantages claimed for it 

 in this direction had been greatly overrated, 

 and so I think. 



I have been experimenting with hives for 12 

 years, havjng tried most of the different styles 

 that have* laid claim to popular favor, being 

 desirous of obtaining the best hive invented. 

 Having tried many of them, I will say that I 



can handle a fixed-frame hive, invented by Mr.. 

 Armstrong, of Jerseyville, 111., who is now out. 

 of the business, with greater ease, and faster, 

 than I can any loose-frame hive that I am ac- 

 quainted with. But I have settled on a shal- 

 low fixed-frame hive, brood-frame 5 inches, 

 deep. Two cases filled with these frames make 

 a bi'ood-chamber. Here we have nothing but. 

 white clover to depend on for surplus, and it is. 

 gathei-ed in from two to five weeks. Now, in, 

 order to get throngh the honey-harvest with as. 

 few unfinished sections as possible, we must de- 

 vise some plan to keep the bees at work in the 

 sections from the time they commence until, 

 they are finished; for if we allow them to stop,, 

 which they usually do when they swarm, the- 

 harvest is likely to be ,over before the sections, 

 are finished. Now, in order not to have the 

 bees stop work in the .sections when they swarm, 

 I move away the hive that has swarmed, and: 

 in its place 1 set one case of the shallow hive; 

 put on a queen-excluding honey-board and the 

 supers from the hive that has swarmed; then, 

 run the swarm in the new hive. The bi'ood- 

 chamber being so shallow, the bees are forced, 

 up into th(> sections; the work goes on, and the 

 sections ai'e completed without delay. In four- 

 or five days the queen-excluding honey-hoai'd 

 can be taken off', if desired. The queen will not 

 go above in the sections. If, when tin; .sections, 

 are about completed, there is not time to fin- 

 ish another lot. raise up the supi'r and insert, 

 between it and the bi'ood-chamb;'r another 

 section of the bi'ood-chamber, which the bees 

 can proceed to fill for winter stores, or it can be 

 exiiaeted. 



While the plan above is not new or original^ 

 yet I think it worth repeating, as we sometimes, 

 have to read a thing two or tliree tinu^s before- 

 we think there is any thing in it. 



Delhi, III., Feb. 5. " H. D. Edwakds. 



[Yes, it appears that there are more using fixed, 

 frames than was generally supposed, and that, 

 too, when most of the books and journals for- 

 years have declared against them. Now that the 

 tide is changing, the fixed-frame users will in- 

 crease greatly, but the loose fi'ame will continue- 

 to be used largely yet. See page 224.] 



R. F. HOLTERMANN ON A VISIT. 



HE CALLS ON MK. AUPAUOH. 



A visit to the home and apiary of Jacob Al- 

 paugh, St. Thomas, Ont., could not result in any 

 thing but material gain to an ob.sei'ving bee- 

 keeper. On every hand we find ingenious con- 

 trivances to lessen labor, and to do work in a 

 iDetter manner. To assure the readers of 

 Gleanings that these inventions are practical,. 

 I need only to mention that they are in use by 

 Mr. Ali)augh and others, and tlaat Mr. A. in- 

 tends running five apiaries the coming summer,, 

 and has at present ."570 colonies. 190 of them in 

 the cellar, the remainder wintering on their 

 summer stands. The bees wintered on their 

 summer stands are packed four in a box, two. 

 entrances at opposite sides. They are packed 

 with forest-leaves, no packing at the bottom; 

 at the top, a fresh quilt and about eight inches, 

 of forest- leaves; the entrance is left open to the 

 extent of about eight inches. A few colonies 

 are being experimented with for the second 

 year, the first having been an entire success. 

 An empty story is placed between the bottom- 

 board and the body of the hive; an entrance is. 

 left in each; an eight-inch packing of forest- 

 leaves is put above the body, with bees in it. 

 A new quilt is, of course, put above the bees. 

 No further protection is given to the bees. Of" 



