1892 



(iLHANINCiS IN HEE CULTURE. 



()21 



And. oh the i-Diiit'ort itf not liaviii^ to use any 

 stii'ky hoiicy-hoai'd! I belicvi' tliat is best of 

 all. .\mi lu'rt> aijain you savt> both time and 

 bi'os. Just try putting on a iioncy-boaid that 

 has bciMi taken off a stronjj colony where the 

 burr-eoiubs are lilled witii lioney, and see if it 

 doesn't take both tiiur and palieiioe to got it 

 on iiirain and not kill any bees. 



Our UolTnians ai'e mostly tliose that wei'e 

 lirst sent out fioni Medina, and we have not 

 tried the latest so ihoioushlv. 



Mai-engo, 111. ..July H'.. E.mm.\ Wit.sox. 



[We do not wonder that yoti '•grew red in the 

 face" in trying to pull tlie wedges out : so did 

 we. To confess, we shall have to acknowledge 

 that the use of wedges in connection with the 

 llotTinau frante was a scheme of our own; but 

 after using them one season we pulled them all 

 out. even for use in the old-style Uotl'mau. We 

 have learned that the V edges to the Hoffman 

 end-bars render keying-up unuec(issary. kill al- 

 most no bees, and. contrary to what you might 

 expect, propolis offers very little interference. 

 The last time we talked with ]Mr. Hoffman he 

 assured us that wedges were not n(H'(>ssary. pro- 

 viding the V edges were used: and we are sat- 

 isfied that he is right. If you like the old-style 

 Iloffinan frames— and they were a very good 

 frame — you will be delighted with the new 

 ones. And those burr-combs! Mow any sane 

 bee-keeper who has tried the burr-comb and non- 

 burr-comb frames side by side can declare for 

 the former is beyond our comprehension. Per- 

 haps no one has ever done so; but quite a num- 

 ber who have not used the thick top-bars insist 

 that th(>y do not find the burr-combs any in- 

 convenience, and. on the contrary, they argue 

 they are a necessity, heanisc the bees need little 

 ladders to climb up into the upper story. Our 

 bees store honey above the thick- top-bar frame 

 as nicely and as readily as above old thin-top- 

 bar frames. No. no, no! when the bee-spaces 

 are only I4 inch, bees do not need ladders to 

 climb up into the supers. 



You have described e.xactly the two impor- 

 tant features of the Hoffman "frame; viz., being 

 always ready for moving, and being more easily 

 handled. It is a great comfort to he able to 

 split the brood - chamber into perpendicular 

 halves or quarters; to shove over the whole or 

 a part of a set of frames at one operation, with- 

 out being obliged to finger over each frame in 

 order to get room to pull out the middle frame, 

 and then afterward spacing them all back, on 

 the cut-and-try plan. About half of our apiary 

 is on Hoft'man frames, and the other half on the 

 old thin-top-bar frames and some old Iloff'nian 

 frames. We have a splendid opportunity for 

 testing the relative merits of each. Our boys 

 are just i-nthusiastic over the new self-spacing 

 fratnes. and they are very anxious to have us 

 get the old combs on loose frames out as soon as 

 possible, because, as thev say, they can save 

 time, stings, and bother all around.] E. R. R. 



colonies that did nearly as well. I don't know 

 but it was Just as ijrolitaitle. Once in seven 

 days I would open the hives and take out a 

 comb of brood near the center, each time tak- 

 ing out the same coiiih. which would not weak- 

 en the colony very much nor stop its working 

 in sections, if I put in two empty combs, onlv 

 one would l)e lilled with brood, the other witfi 

 honey, and the work in sections would cc^ase or 

 go very slowly for a few days: but if only one 

 was given, the queen would nearly every time 

 lill it full of eggs, and. at the end of a w(!ek, the 

 eggs would be hatching into larva^. If I found 

 (lueen-cells I brok(> off those I found without 

 hunting much for tlietn, and inverted the 

 combs: not having to hunt for the (lueeiis, the 

 work could be more quickly d<jne. In hybrid or 

 black colonies that ar(! very large it is oftcm 

 very diilicult to find the queen, especially ja 

 black colony, as the bees run so. 



The colonies worked on the Consor plan, one 

 colony gave two .'iti-lb. supers full, and 8 sec- 

 tions, making eighty 1-lb. sections. Another 

 colony did nearly as well, giving 82 sections; 

 but their queen was lost. We gave another 

 from a nucleus hive, and saved the queen-cells. 



The third colony lost its queen also; and 

 when another was given it killed her, and they 

 were slow to work in sections. 



One colony in the apiary, let alone, gave two 

 supers full of sections; 72 one-pound sections, 

 and 10 eighty-pound section-cases. As it was 

 near the house I took no brood from it, and it 

 did not swarm; and all three of the above good 

 colonies are now slowly working on their third 

 supers. Even small colonies are bringing in a 

 little honey daily. If our colonies had been in 

 good condition this spring we should have 

 secured a good spring crop of honey. 



Roseville. 111., Aug. 1. Mrs. L. C. Axtell.g 



[If we understand the Consor plan, it is "a 

 good deal on the principle used by the Dadants 

 for so many years with success. Their large 

 hives give queens unrestricted room for egg- 

 laying, and herein is the secret, as it seems to 

 us, of a large hive. We applied the same 

 principle this summer to our eight-frame Dove- 

 tailed hives. By tiering them up three or four 

 bodies high we made a large hive, tree-shaped, 

 something as the bees have it in nature. The 

 queen occupied two, and sometimes three 

 stories; but the bees did not swarm — no, not 

 even building queen-cells. This plan is not 

 practical, however, except in the production of 

 extracted honey. When running for comb 

 honey we do not see how it is possible to avoid 

 more or less swarming, because the brood-nest 

 must be contracted to some extent in order to 

 force the bees into the sections in the first 

 place.] 



Heads of Grain 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



PREVENTION OF SWARMING. 



THK CONSOK i'I-\.\. 



John Consor's idea, advanced in the Progress- 

 ive Bee-heeper of May. to give the queen plenty 

 of combs that she may not be restricted in lay- 

 ing her eggs. I believe is correct. This summer 

 we had three colonies run on the Consor plan 

 to prevent swarming, and they did not swarm. 

 We liked the system, except the trouble of hav- 

 ing to hunt out the queens every ten days, 

 which is quite a task in such enormous colonies; 

 but they gave large surpIu.s.cWe had a few 



A HEAAV FLOW OF HONEY AT RENO, NEV. 



As I have read Gi.kaxinos for weeks and 

 have failed to see our prospering State and fiow 

 of honey mentioned, it makes me feel as though 

 it were time to give our niughboring States an 

 idea of what we are doing in lhe„ line of bees 

 and honey. ; 



We are enjoying a large and wonderful flosv 

 at present. I have one swarm that I transfer- 

 red out of an old-style box hive into a Dove- 

 tailed hive. .July 4th; and on the 24th I received 

 48 one-pound sections, well sealed. I have a 

 large number of the hives that you made^in 



