450 



GLEANlKtiS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



reason why it should not, if introduced and set 

 free in our Southern States, produce there, as 

 it does in the forests of India, gieat quantities 

 of honey and wax, the latter product (derived 

 almost wholly from Apis dorsaUi) forming an 

 important article of export from India. 



4. We may hope to bring to this country 

 Jij)is indica. a bee smaller than our ordinary 

 honey-bee, but an industrious gatherer, wtaich, 

 in quite limited numbers, is kept in hives by 

 the natives of India. It miglit be found that 

 A. indica would visit only smaller flowers than 

 our bees, and thus, even if kept in the same 

 fields, not lessen the yield we obtain from the 

 races already here. It would be no small gain 

 for the apicultural interests of the country if 

 three apiaries could be kept at one point with- 

 out material interference with one another. 



There is also in connection with this under- 

 taking much other work from which we have 

 reason to expect important results. Of this, 

 information will be given In due time. I have 

 no desire to arouse hopes that might prove ill- 

 founded and thus bring only disappointment. 



In conclusion I wish to ask the indulgence of 

 my readers to enable me to correct an error 

 connected with the subject, bnt the original 

 source of which I do not know. It first appear- 

 ed long ago, and has been repeated frequently — 

 even in books on bee-keeping. I refer to the 

 statement that "the first expedition after ^pis 

 dorsata cost Mr. D. A. Jones, of Canada, a small 

 fortune," and that in this undertaking I " was 

 the agent of Mr. Jones.' The facts are, the 

 expedition cost less than SIOOO; I was in part- 

 nership with Mr. Jones in this work, and it cost 

 me just as much as it did him; moreover, as 

 Ml". Jones did not go to India, but was in Cana- 

 da at the time, I had the hardships of the work, 

 and the illness which followed my exposure in 

 the jungles, to bear. Frank Benton. 



Washington, D. C. 



[We had seen the newspaper reports referred 

 to, and, hesitating to reproduce thi'm for fear 

 that they might not be authoritativfi, we wi'ote 

 to Mr. Benton for a reliable statement, with 

 the above I'esult. Of course, every bee-keeper 

 and every bee-journal will hail with delight 

 this effort on the part of the government in our 

 behalf, and Gleanings will do every thing in its 

 power to assist the enterprise. We owe a vote 

 of thanks in advance to Prof. Riley and to Hon. 

 Edwin Willits. and congratulate them on being 

 able to secure the services of so experienced a 

 man for the work as Frank Benton. The read- 

 er should not confuse the name of Prof. i?i ley 

 with that of Prof. ^Filey. The former has been 

 our friend; and it is he who, through the influ- 

 ence of Prof. Cook, autluiiized the establish- 

 ment of an apicultural station at Lansing, and 

 which already promises much good to bee-keep- 

 ers. We wish we could say as much for the 

 author of the Wiley canard — the professor whose 

 name begins with a W^ It is an open question 

 with intelligent and honest bee-keepers wheth- 

 er the chief chemist (the wily man) is a friend 

 or foe.] 



WIDTH AND THICKNESS OF BOTTOM-BARS, 

 ETC. 



DOOLITTI.E DECLARES IN FAVOR OF THE NAK- 

 ROAV BOTTOM -BAR. 



A correspondent writes: "What width and 

 thickness of bottom-bars do you use, and why 

 do you use them thus?" 



When I first began using the frame hive I 

 used a bottom-bar the same width as the rest 

 of the frame, which usually was one inch, and 

 }i inch thick. The bottom -bar to the frame 



was also X inch above the bottom-board of the 

 hive. After using frames thus for some years 

 it came to me one day that half an inch was 

 too great a space under the fi'ami'S. not only on 

 account of this being a waste space for the iiees 

 to loaf in. but in many of the hives the becs 

 were bent on building little mounds of wax and 

 propolis up to the bottom of the frames, seem- 

 ing, apparently, to use these as step-ladders, if 

 I may be allowed the expression, on which to 

 climb up to the combs or bottom-bar of the 

 frame. After a while these mounds got so high 

 that the bottom-bars of the frames would rest 

 on them, and then I had the frames tipping 

 every way, not at all to my liking. I now re- 

 solved to reduce the distance between the bot- 

 tom-bar of the frame and the bottom of the 

 hive to i%of an inch, as I had always called j4 

 of an inch about right for a bee-space, where 

 the matter could be made exact; and knowing 

 that the hive would shrink and swell some. I 

 allowed the extra -^ of an inch for that. After 

 using frames thus for some time I found that 

 now and then a frame would be glued down to 

 the bottom -board, and concluded that ?^ of an 

 inch would have been a better space below the 

 frames than the one I had adopted. When 

 thinking this matter over. I finally concluded 

 that there was no need of the bottom-bar to the 

 frame being 34 thick for the bees to brood, as i% 

 would furnish all the strength needed at this 

 point. 



In thinking this matter over it was but natu- 

 ral that I should look at the frames of combs to 

 see if I thought a bottom -bar so thin would be 

 strong enough. In thus looking over the frames 

 I see that, in nearly every one, the combs were 

 up a bee-space from the bottom-bars of the 

 frames, this space giving a place for bees 

 and queens to hide, when I wished to find the 

 queen, or -"hen I wished to clear the combs of 

 bees; besides, the bees were keeping this space 

 warm, with no profit as regarding young bees. 

 After some careful thought along this line I 

 decided to make 100 fiames with bottom-bars 

 3?8 wide by ^ thick, and try them. The result 

 of the trial gave neither trouble in the frames be- 

 ing glued to the bottom-board, nor mounds of 

 wax; but. what was of greater importance to 

 me, it gave me a comb built clear down to the 

 bottom - bars of the frames, and fastened to 

 them in most instances, thus doing away with 

 all the troubles along all lines which I had en- 

 countered before. I have also used bottom- 

 bars k' inch wide; and. so far as I can see, these 

 work equally well, and have the advantage, 

 when we come to wire the frames for founda- 

 tion, of being a little stiffer to resist the tension 

 of the wire. For these reasons I have used 

 these narrower and thinner bottom -bars for 

 several years past, and am so well pleased with 

 them that I desire no others. 



QUEEN-CELLS IN THE UPPER STORY. 



As the time is here for queen-reai'ing again, I 

 will try to make the cell-cup plan a little more 

 plain, if possible, especially as I see on page 692 

 of Gleanings for 1891 that friend Root wishes 

 I should point out the " missing link." I there 

 see that J. D. P^ooshe starts his cells in queen- 

 less colonies, after which he gives them to the 

 upper stories of colonies having queens below to 

 finish, and friend Root says he is doing the same 

 thing, for only in that way, or where the queen 

 was absent from the lower story, does he have 

 success. I can not understand why the cell-cup 

 plan, just as I (jive it in my book, does not work 

 in the hands of a few, while hundreds write me 

 that it is a perfect success with them. There is 

 no " missing link " to be supplied, that I know 

 of, if the directions are followed just as f give 

 them. Queen-cells will be just as good if start- 



