1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



il7 



days and coiuiiiuously till tho \vho!o mass of 

 houpy is ihorouRlily licatod and liquid, will do 

 the work all right without injuring the color 

 or flavor. My stove, where the heat is irregular 

 (in water bath), I have never succeeded in 

 liquefying so it would long stay liquid, unless 

 it became so hot as to injure color and flavor, 

 unless I continued the heal for '.M to 4S hours. 



But I am drifting from my topic, and must 

 return and t)ring this to a close. I must admit 

 thai my experien."e with other honeys than 

 alfalfa is quite limited. 1 have produced some 

 little basswood, a very little mustard, and con- 

 siderable white-clover, heartsease, and Spanish- 

 needle. I never carried a stock of comb very 

 long, and do not remember lo have had any of 

 these granulate; but the extracted did granu- 

 late more or less, though none of il so quickly 

 as does the honey here. 



My sources here are alfalfa for 7.5 to 90 per 

 cent, the rest being about equally divided. be- 

 tween sweet clover and cleome. I did have 

 some red clover, but it is about all gone now. 



I think the time is very near when extracted 

 honey will be marketed granulated, such as 

 will granulate; and if it does become solid it 

 will be no detriment— rather a help. If it is 

 true that other honeys in the comb will granu- 

 late as freely as alfalfa, then the latter is sure 

 to take the lead, for its color and flavor will 

 find it a market. I once sent a sample of alfal- 

 fa extracted to a Chicago firm who are very 

 extensive honey-dealers, and they said it was 

 " without question the finest sample of ex- 

 tracted they had ever seen." This hal been 

 melted before sending, but was of the honey 

 friend Abbott wants improved upon. 



Must Colorado apiarists use exceptional 

 methods that are not required by Missouri 

 producers ? No, friend Abbott; if we must use 

 other than "ordinary methods," as Mr. Foster 

 does, to get honey that will not granulate, it 

 but proves my statements. 



Usually the first honey gathered— that sup- 

 posed to have the least tendency to granulate— 

 is stored in the brood combs. How comes it, 

 then, that so much of il. granulates? The first 

 stored in brood-combs is the last to be used 

 from them, yet we find a large per cent of this 

 granulated. 



Loveland, Colo. 



THE ADVANTAGE OF NARROW BOTTOM- 

 BARS. 



osborn's comb-carrying cart — ob.jections 



TO IT. 



By 0. O. Poppleton. 



Nearly a year ago. Dr. Miller, in one of his 

 Straws, asked any bee-keeper, who preferred 

 and used narrow bottom -bars, to give the rea- 

 sons for his preference. I intended to answer 

 at the time, but it was overlooked. 



Unless combs are entirely built; down on to 

 the bottom-bars, spaces will be left between the 

 comb and bottom-bars These spaces above 

 wide bottom-bars are much more trouble to 

 brush bees out of than when narrow bars are 

 used. This, of course, applies to the produc- 

 tion of extracted honey much more than when 

 working for comb honey, and to me it is a very 

 important point. 



Theoretically, end-bars of frames should al- 

 ways hang in a hive a bee-space away from the 

 sides of the hive, and never be fastened by the 

 bees to the sides; but practically I have never 

 seen that condition. Frames will sometimes 

 get a little out of true; the sides of the hive 

 may get a trifle warped, or something else not 

 just right will diminish this bee space, and the 

 bees will fasten frame and hive together with a 

 mass of propolis. This makes extra work, costs 

 time, is a draft on one's stock of patience, and 

 a general nuisance. 



There are several ways in use for remedying 

 this, but I do it with ray narrow bottom bars, 

 which are about -^ x ^s inch, a trifle longer 

 than the made-up frame is long, and ends 

 sharpened. These are not nailed on the bottom 

 of the end bars, but inserted in a kerf sawed in 

 the lower ends of the end-bars, and allowed to 

 project enough beyond the bars to keep them a 

 proper distance from the sides of the hive. The 

 use of these projecting bottom-bars enables one 

 to handle frames more rapidly than otherwise, 

 as they can be taken hold of with one hand, 

 near the middle of the frame, and lifted out 

 quickly and carelessly, with no danger of crush- 

 ing bees between the end of the frame anJ the 

 hive. Mr. John Bird, of Bradford, la., one of 

 the most experienced and successful bee-keep- 

 ers in the Northwest, told me last fall that he 

 considered the projecting bottom-bars as one 

 of the most indispensable featur'vs of good 

 frames, because of the aid they give to rapid 

 handling. He uses the Langstroth frame. He 

 also told me that he values the narrow bottom- 

 bars for another reason. Nearly every one who 

 has wintered bees in the North knows how the 

 accumulation of dead bees on or near the bot- 

 tom of hives during long confinement in a col- 

 lar causes moldy combs. This can be mostly 

 remedied by occasionally dragging the dead 

 bees out with a bent wire — that is, if the wide 

 bottom -bars of frames don't catch and hold the 

 bees off the bottom- board. Narrow bottom- 

 bars, of course, allow the dead bees to collect 

 where the apiarist can easily prevent any un- 

 due accumulation. 



On p. 336 of Gleanings for May 1st you pic- 

 ture a whf>elbarrow for carrying combs of hon- 

 ey, and refer in your footnote to the cart used 

 by Mr. Osborn, in Cuba. I used his cart long 

 enough to learn it had several faults. One was 

 its being so low down that it was very back- 

 aching work to handle combs to and from 



