1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



97 



we do hear that little or no material damage 

 has been done to the trees. It is as yet impos- 

 sible to tell how much if any damage has been 

 done the bee-interests of the E-ist Coast. I 

 hardly think they are seriously injured, but 

 certainly they have not been helped any. 



O. O. POPPI^ETON. 

 Stuart, Florida, Jan. 6. 



[Since the above was received we have had 

 information from other points, to the effect 

 that the orange-trees are damaged but little 

 unless it is in a few localities. Vegetables for 

 the northern markets are in many cases dam- 

 aged badly, and the strawberry crop will have 

 a setback of several weeks ; but if no more 

 severe weather occurs the result will not be 

 ver)^ much worse than what happens from late 

 frosts more or less most winters. — Ed.] 



HOFFMAN FRAMES SUPERIOR TO STAPLED 

 FRAMES. 



We have used staples, nails, bent tin, and 

 iron-blocks for spacing frames sidewise, but 

 they can never take the place of any arrange- 

 ment like the Hoffman frames, as all these 

 (the staples, etc.), permit the bottom to vary 

 in their spacing. 



Why not call the "no-bee-way" sections 

 " fence sections " ? I admit that the former 

 name explains at once what these sections are, 

 but we all shall know what a " fence section " 

 is, as they must be used with a fence. 



E. Kretchmer. 



Red Oak, Iowa, Dec. 11, 1897. 



[Fence section would be a good name; but 

 the term " plain section " has been used for 

 over a year, and is a good descriptive name. 

 Why change now? — Ed.] 



/. M., Can. — We are still using a few of the 

 original A. I. Root two-story chaff hives ; but 

 they are fast being displaced by the more con- 

 venient single-story double-walled hive. These 

 latter give good results in wintering, and can 

 be handled in every way the same as a single- 

 walled hive. 



W. E. B., Tex. — I do not really understand 

 what you mean by robbing colonies at this 

 time of the year. If you have a surplus of 

 stores, and you desire to take away some of 

 them, I should think you could do so in ^^our 

 locality, at least, without detriment; but ordi- 

 narily it is bad pol cy to meddle v\ith colonies 

 during winter — worse yet, to take away stores. 



A. C, III. — In regard to the item on page 

 769 of Gleanings, in reference to the Dan- 

 zenbaker S(.cUons, the first sections that Mr. 

 Danzenbaker sent out last season had bee-ways 

 on dol/i sides ; but those that were sent out a 

 little later had bee ways on only one side, the 

 same as those described in Gleanings ; but 

 in either case the bee-ways were differently 



constructed from those in the ordinary section, 

 as you may know from the sections which 

 you have. 



/. E. M., Mich. — I can not understand why 

 your bees should tear down your foundation, 

 unless you left the supers on the hives after 

 the honey-flow. They will do this sometimes. 

 It is possible that you used extra-thin founda- 

 tion when it would have been better to use the 

 ordinary thin. The extra thin will do very 

 nicely, providing the supers are not put on too 

 soon. 



G. E. Jl'., N. v. — If there is any place in 

 the world where bees and fruit can be made to 

 do well it is in Central New York, especially 

 along the line of one of those beautiful lakes. 

 Whether you can make it pay will depend 

 upon your skill and adaptation to the business. 

 It is not always wise to depend upon bees 

 alone, nor, for that matter, fruit alone. The 

 two together might do, however, very well ; 

 but I would not advise you to sacrifice your 

 present interests entirely. If you can some- 

 how arrange to try the new venture for one 

 season you will be in a better position to know 

 what you can do in the future. 



A*. G. //., IVas/i. — If I am correct the 

 only way to get the pollen out of combs is to 

 give the combs to the bees in the spring, and 

 let them dig it out. You can make an at- 

 tempt at it by soaking the combs in warm wa- 

 ter a few hours, then putting them into the 

 extractor. By this means you will throw out 

 some of the bee-bread. 



The albinos are nothing more nor less than 

 a strain of Italians that have bright silvery 

 fuzz bands between the bands of gold ; but as 

 they are only bees to please the eye, and were 

 thought by .some to be short-lived, the demand 

 kept waning till it ceased. I do not know 

 where they can now be obtained. 



The red-clover .strain of Italians was reared 

 by selection, the same as albinos ; but in this 

 case it was bees for business and not 'or beau- 

 ty. You can obtain these bees of J. P. Moore, 

 Pendleton, Ky., one of our old advertisers. 



7^. C. //., Ohio. — As to which frame is bet- 

 ter — the staple-spaced thick-top or the regular 

 Hoffman — will depend upon the locality, and 

 whether propolis is deposited very freely in 

 your locality or not. If it is, then I would 

 recommend the frame having staples as spac- 

 ers; if not, you would do well to select the 

 Hoffman . 



If you have set aside combs filled with 

 stores, these may be given along in the spring 

 when colonies run short ; but if a hive has 

 from 20 to 25 pounds, ordinarily it will not 

 need these extra combs. >^ 



I would transfer the combs that are out of 

 the hive whenever it can be done most con- 

 veniently. As to the combs that are already 

 in the hives, these you can transfer along next 

 spring, and I would make a job of it by doing 

 it all at once rather than to do part at one 

 time and part at another. 



J. D., Mich. — Bees are sometimes trapped 

 and poisoned by malicious persons — fruit-men 

 who imagine that bees are detrimental to fruit- 



