lS!f,' 



(JMOANINCJS IN HEE (UI/rUK. 



47 



used, hciu'c th(M>xtni sn!H't> adinils two follow- 

 (>rs uiul jrivt's room foi- liitci'ul movement of tlie 

 frames. The value of the lIolTmaii fiam(> for 

 rapid inaiiipiilalion (iepfiHis upon this al)ility to 

 separate tiie frames wiiiionl lifliiiii; ami liei'e- 

 in. perliaps. as miieh as in any t)ne point, lies 

 the seciei of his aliility to rare, almost unaided, 

 for sueli laisie numl)ers of l)ees. 



\V«> liave touched hurriedly upon tliecausesof 

 Mr. llotTman"s sneeess. and may have omitted 

 some points. If ain readei- desires mori' lisht. 

 we will ffladly resixmd if in (Hir power. In oui- 

 next we will tell something about how W(> ap- 

 ply and use tlie HolTman frame. 



Canajolijirie. N. V. J. H. Xkij.is. 



[Mr. Hoffman is one of those bee-keepers who 

 always meet witli a fair measure of success; 

 and this success is due in no little degrree to his 

 short-cut metliods. hive, and frame. The mere 

 fact of liis handlinsr 4<X> or .">()() colonies. i)ractic- 

 ally alone, is a powerful ai"tiunient foi' his 

 frame. This is right in lin<> with l'r(>sident 

 Taylor's address, published elsewliere. The 

 reason why some bee-keeix-rs can not make the 

 business pay is because, theii- methods ai'e so 

 lal)orious. recpiiring .so much hired hi>l|) that 

 the iioney costs about as much as they get for 

 it. Such bee-keepers can never make money 

 out of the business during poor yeai's. When 

 Ihev can average .")0 lbs. of comb hon(!y. or T.t to 

 l()o"lbs. of extracted, they do faii'ly well. The 

 successful bee-keepei- of the future is the one 

 who will, with a small average crop of honey, 

 (say ■-'."> Ibs.i. miike a fair margin of prolit: and 

 wlien lie has a larg<' croi) he simply has a bo- 

 nanza. Now. Mr. Hoffman is one who secures 

 his crop of honey with the greatest minimum 

 of labor, and he is l)ound to make some profit, 

 even if he has only a small yield. Hut lie gen- 

 erally securi'S pretty good yields. Perhaps 

 some of you may think We are " putting" Mr. 

 Hoffman again. We have no desire to do this. 

 but sim])ly to call attention to ftJiorPcut uieth- 

 o'/.s-. As long as we have editoiial control of 

 this journal we are going to do all w(^ can to 

 cry d(jwn many of the old-fashioned long, labo- 

 rious methods in honey-production.) 



.W years ago, when he refused t« meet with the 

 best bee-keepers of his tinn*. when bee-liter- 

 ature was hai'dly in its infancy. 



Naples. N. >'.. .Ian. 7. !■'. (ii-.Ki.NKi!. 



THE MAN WHO KNOWS IT ALL. 



i)/.ii;i:zoN AND GUNi)i:i.ArH. 



Dr. .lolin D/.ierzon will reach his 81st year 

 Jan. Hith. IS'.t:.'. He is enjoying good health, is 

 engage<l in kei^'fting bees to (juiK^ an extent, and 

 is still one of the best if not tiie ablest writer on 

 apicultural matters in his native country. Ger- 

 many. 



The 3i)th (Jerman-.Ausfrian Hee-ketipers' As- 

 sociation met in Luebeck. (iei-many. Sept. ;i.5-38. 

 18'Jl. The tirst one of these conventions was 

 held in th(^ '40"s. if I am not greatly mistaken: 

 and accoiding to Dzierzon an invitation was also 

 extended to the (at that timeidistinguished bee- 

 keeper (iundelach. His reply. liowe\-ei'. to 

 Dzierzon was that he thought lie could not learn 

 any thing more in connection with be(;-keeping, 

 and therefore should not attend. How selfish 

 and foolish the conduct of this man appears in 

 view of tiie present light of apiculture — in view 

 of the wondi'rful discoveries, the many liighly 

 pi'ized inventions! Hut iiave we reached the 

 climax? are we on the top-round of the apicul- 

 tural ladder? Hy no means. Much may we 

 know: but more is to be revealed in the future: 

 and the man who " knows it all " (?) and does 

 not try to keep himself posted by attending con- 

 ventions or reading some of tiie best br-e-pei'iod- 

 Icals exhibits as little wisdom astiundelach Wor 



THE NEW HOFFMAN FRAME. 



I)l{. MII.I.KH's 8UGQK8TIONS AND CKITIf;iS.MS. 



Before me lies (Ji^kam.ncs for Dec. l.'i, open at 

 Ijage U.")(). and also one of th(^ new frames dc- 

 scribed on that page. I hav(^ be(Mi wanting to 

 have my say about that frame for some days, 

 but la grippe has had its heavy hand upon me. 

 Now. however, on this bright 28tli of December 

 I begin to fi'cl that "' Hicliard is hinis(df again." 

 And how good it do(!S seem I 



Hut, about that frame, Mr. Editor. First. I 

 don't see why you should callyit a " modilicnl " 

 HolTman. Why. you've modi Med tlie llr)tTmaii 

 all (tut^of it. The soul and ess(Mice of the Hoff- 

 man is the closing-tog(!tli(^r of the top-Pars at 

 theends along with the closingof theend-bars at 

 the top. so that no bee can (>nter from above to 

 deposit propolis. I'm not saying that you don't 

 accomiilish the same thing as with the HolTman, 

 but that doesn't make it a Hofl'man any more 

 than a steam-engine is a modified horse because 

 it does the work of a liorse. 



lint let us examine the frame itself. That it 

 can be used in the liives already in use, is in its 

 favor. True, to get its full benefit the fieculiar 

 tin rabbet must go with it. but it often com(!S 

 handy to mix up frames in the old hives. That 

 tin rabl^et strikes me as a good thing. It giv(!S 

 the advantage of allowing the frames to slide 

 along even more readily than tlie HofTman. 



As to the top-bar, I must say I am just a bit 

 skeptical ai)out .^^i:!^ bcnng as good for thickness as 

 %. The little experience I have had says % is 

 more secure against burrs and braces. It is 

 possible that, with every thing else just right, 

 however, that % is sufficient; and if it will do, 

 wecertainly don't wantany unnecessary lumber. 

 In any case, that bead looks like a good thing. 

 One object in having a thick top-bar is to pre- 

 vent the possibility of the least sagging; and 

 that bead will prevent tlie sagging of the 

 top-bar perliaps more than the same weight of 

 wood added to the top-bar in any other way. 

 There are also some other advantages in having 

 a comb-guide, that I never thoughtof sufticient 

 value to make me use a loose one; but it is well 

 enough to have them when we can have them 

 with no extra trouble along witli the other ad- 

 vantages. The straight end of the top-bar will 

 not kill bees like tlie Hoffman, and perhaps that 

 will more than counterbalance the advantage; 

 of warmth in winter of tiie Hoffman. 



Tlie end-bar varies from the Hoffman in hav- 

 ing one side cut to a V edge. While new it will 

 mash fewer bees; but it is a question whether it 

 will when it has been in use some time. That 

 V edge leaves an angle l)etween it and the next 

 end-bar. and an acute angle at that, giving the 

 bees a pressing invitation to fill it with propolis, 

 and they will be very poor hands at the glu(^ bus- 

 iness if they don't i^rom lit ly accept the invitation. 

 Incieed. if they are good gltiers they will be likf^- 

 ly to fill the angle on Uie outside of the V edge 

 as well as on the inside. When these two 

 angles are filled, the frame will be worse than 

 without tlie V edg(\ for it will b(^ much harder 

 to move the framt^s. and I suspect a good many 

 more bees will be killed than if no V edge had 

 been cut. 



The bottom-bar squints toward a radical 

 change. You may remember that, some time ago. 

 I suggested that, while the best form of the frame 

 was in an unsetth-d state, it might be well to 

 consider the advisability of trying the bottom- 



