S4S 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



at the same time, every advantage of a loose 

 frame. It hangs on a single wire nail driven 

 into each end of the top-bar. The nails rest in 

 shallow notches in the edge of a strip of tin 

 nailed on the inside of the hive, projecting a 

 little above the bottom of the rabbet, and ex- 

 tend to the sides of the rabbet to prevent longi- 

 tudinal motion. There should be staples along 

 the sides, and toward the bottom of tlie hive to 

 hold the bottom of the fi'ame in position. There 

 is absolutely no chance for the bees to glue the 

 frame fast. A hive with these frames can be 

 tipped to any position except bottom up, and I 

 have moved them miles on the same wagon 

 with the Hoffman, with as good results. This 

 is the frame for me. and I shall eliminate all 

 others as rapidly as possible. 



In the footnote to Mr. Taylor's article I no- 

 tice that '"all spacing-devices in the rabbet 

 have been unpopular;" and the reason given 

 is, that you roll the bees over and over unless 

 two or three frames ai-e tii'st moved. I have 

 experienced no more difficulty in this way with 

 this frame than with the other, and can see no 

 good reason for its unpopularity. I have no 

 crow to pick in this matter, but am anxious 

 that the brethren should have the advantage 

 of the cheapest, handiest, and best. 



Etna, Minn., Oct. 12. W. A. Boyntox. 



[If your Hoffman frames swelled so as to 

 stick in the spring, they could not have been 

 made as Mr. HotYmau makes his. As he uses 

 them, they can not possibly do so; hence I con- 

 clude you use something a little different. Of 

 coui'se, the bees could not stick with propolis 

 your preferred frame in notched rabbets; but 

 such a frame destroys the function of lateral 

 movement; and I am sure that, with some 

 hybrids, you would angei' them very much more 

 by pulling the fi'ames out. At the present 

 writing I know of but three bee-keepers who 

 use fixed frames in notched rabbets, and they 

 have used them foi' only a season or two. But 

 I do know that sevei'al who tried the plan 

 abandoned it. With shallow frames, however, 

 I have no doubt it will work, and possibly that 

 is what you are using. But with a deep frame, 

 or with a frame as deep as the Langstroth.it 

 must of necessity roll bees over more or less 

 when the colony is strong, maiming a good 

 many, if not killing them.] E. R. 



THE HOME OF THE HONEY-BEES. 



ITS SIZE AND GKOWTII.— BY E. R. KOOT. 



If you were to get upon an eminence a couple 

 of hundred yards north and east of the Home of 

 the Honey-iiees you might see something very 

 much like what is shown in the accompanying 

 engraving. But we have no great hills or 

 mountains in our vicinity; so in order to get 

 any good view of our bee-plant we have for 

 some little time cherished the scheme of elevat- 

 ing a Kodak by means of a kite or balloon, and 

 then at the proper time pull the string and press 

 the button. But the scheme never materialized 

 beyond the building of a mammoth kite by a cou- 

 ple of nephews; and although it swung aloft 

 majestic and like a thing of life we did not dare 

 to trust our Kodak to its tender care. Accord- 

 ingly our special artist, Mr. ^Murray, elevated 

 himself in imagination; and what he saw is de- 

 picted here, we think, without exaggeration. 



We really do not wish people to think we are 

 bigger than we are; and if they have any such 

 idea, let them come and see for themselves. 

 Almost every week we are receiving visits from 

 bee-keepers from all over the land; and they 



have generally expressed surprise that we have 

 so large a plant, and every thing equipped so 

 perfectly. They had not imagined that we had 

 so many large permanent brick buildings. In 

 fact, it seemed inconceivable that so much ado 

 could be made about the busy little bee. With 

 the exception of our warehouse, shown at the 

 upper left-hand coi'ner of the picture, the large 

 buildings are all built of brick— one of them be- 

 ing fire-proof, and all equipped with automatic 

 Grinnell fire-sprinklers, the use of which we 

 have before explained. To add further to our 

 security in the way of fire protection, we put 

 in, in 1891, a mammoth steam fire-pump. 

 12x7x14. of a capacity equal to two ordinary city 

 fire-engines. To this is attached, at various 

 distances, some six hydrant stations, with 50(> 

 feet of r-'io-inch hose — all ready foi' instant ser- 

 vice, night and day. The entire establishment 

 is lighted at night by a complete Brush incan- 

 descent electric-light plant. This finds service 

 in the manufacturing departments toward 

 evening during the short winter days and at 

 other times when we are obliged to run nights. 

 The entire bee-plant, exclusive of horticultural 

 interests, covers an area of five acres; and this 

 whole amount, with some minor exceptions, is 

 devoted exclusively to the little honey-bee in 

 some form or- other. If you were to put all of 

 the larger buildings in a row. end to end, 

 their length would aggregate ."lOO feet, to say 

 nothing of the small structures and lumber- 

 sheds scattered h(>re and there, and the large 

 bank barn. As all of these buildings are two- 

 story and basement, the floor space, to the 

 width of about 40 feet on an average, would 

 reach 1.500 feet, or nearly one-fourth of a mile. 



The question may be ask^d, " What is the se- 

 cret of this enormous gi'owth. from one building 

 40 X 100, in 187S. to five such buildings in 1891, to 

 say nothing of the smaller ones scattered here 

 and thei'e. not to mention the large freight de- 

 pot put up by the railroad company just oppo- 

 site our works, very largely because our exten- 

 sive shipments demanded tempoi'ary storage 

 until the next freight could pull them out?" 



Few people have any idea of the amount of 

 advertising that we do. While oui' cards ap- 

 pear in some of the largest agricultural papers 

 in the country, this is only a small part of our 

 real advertising. We send out annually 100.000 

 .52-page catalogufs to new and old customers, and 

 the aggregate expense of this amounts to some 

 $3000. Add to this al)out $1200 for outside ad- 

 vertising, and it makes a total of over $4000, ex- 

 clusive of the indirect advertising through our 

 own journal. But advertising alone will not 

 build up a permanent business. There must 

 be good goods back of it, so that, when a cus- 

 tomer buys once, if he needs any more he will 

 be likely to buy again at the same place. Once 

 or twice during extraordinary seasons we have 

 been obliged to send out inferior goods, on 

 account of th(> rush of the season, and the cus- 

 tomers must have something. We hope we 

 shall never be caught that way again; for itis 

 not profitable to make rebates afterward. 



It will be impossible to enter into details in 

 regard to all the departments, though we may 

 touch upon some of the later improvements and 

 additions. The old main building shown in 

 front will be recognized as the one that has ap- 

 peared in our A B C of Bee Culture. In 1889 we 

 erected a 90- foot brick stack. For one-third of 

 its height it is square; for one-third more it is 

 octagon, then it terminates in a round shaft. 

 It is 8 feet square at the base, and tapers grad- 

 imlly to the top. The flue inside is round, and 

 40 inches in diameter. 



In 1889 another boiler was added, nmking oui- 

 boiler capacity equal to 120 horse-power, and 

 j'et it is hardly adequate. One of the latest im- 



