1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



339 



hive, and right at the entrance all queen- 

 cells, if any, are upside down. Now, un- 

 der those conditions what may we antici- 

 pate? Having carried the nurse-bee cluster 

 to a position immediately under and very 

 close to the super, is it not quite likely to 

 ■cause the bees to cluster there, and find the 

 only desirable place for honey being brought 

 in? and is it not equally probable that the 

 hone}' from below, exposed near the en- 

 trance, will be the immediate demand for 

 space above the brood? and what is the ef- 

 fect on the bees in the event of preparations 

 for swarming, after being thus generally 

 upset? 



In the event of interference with their 

 plans, and when work is resumed, will not 

 the result be that the brood- chamber is en- 

 larged at the lower edges of the combs, the 

 super occupied, and the conditions so 

 •changed as to retard if not to destroy the 

 desire to swarm? I hope others may have 

 some practical suggestions along this line. 



Alton Park, Tenn. E. E. Starkey. 



[From 1883 to 1887 the bee journals were 

 full of articles relative to invertible hives 

 and reversible frames; but after money and 

 lime had been expended in getting up de- 

 vices, and good money had been wasted in 

 patents, it was discovered that very little 

 would be accomplished by turning things 

 upside down, so we hear but little of it 

 nowadays. But individual frames can be 

 reversed, often, to advantage; but beyond 

 the mere buildingout of the combs to the 

 bottom-bar, little else is accomplished. 

 Once reversing of a frame is usually suffi- 

 cient. As our correspondent says, invert- 

 ing has a strong tendency to disarrange 

 the general plans of the hive; and I doubt 

 if any of those who practice inverting the 

 whole hive have made a copper's more 

 profit per hive than they did before. J. M. 

 Shuck, in the early 80's, got out as good an 

 invertible hive as was ever made. He even 

 Vent so far as to invent an inverting- jack 

 to invert the whole hive. It performed the 

 operation in a twinkling; but we hear noth- 

 ing of the hive or the jack nowadays. — Ed.] 



he wishes to do so. thus securing the ad- 

 vantages of both fixed and loose frames. 

 When the idea occurred to me to cut these 

 notches I thought myself quite an inventor; 

 but I soon discovered that others had pre- 

 ceded me. 



NAIL-SUPPORTED FRAMES; EUROPEAN SILK. 



The editor, in Dec. 15th issue, p. 1044, 

 asks for information about frames hung on 

 wire nails. That mode of suspension has 

 been in use in Europe for some 50 years or 

 more, and is known in French-speaking 

 countries as "cadres impropolisables," 

 which means unpropolizable frames. I pre- 

 fer it to any other. I use 6penny common 

 or 8-penny finishing nails. The 6-penny 

 finishing are too light. In making the 

 frames, nail the top and bottom bars be- 

 tween the end-bars without any notch, some- 

 thing as shown in the cut. 



The figure also shows how the nails rest 

 on the tin rabbets or strips. The tin strips 

 are notched where the nails rest, as shown. 



The notches must be very light — just 

 enough to hold the frames in place, and 

 yet permit the apiarist to push them apart if 



GETAZ'S NAIL-SUPPORTED FRAME AND 

 NOTCHED METAL RABBET. 



Heavier nails could be used if needed, 8- 

 penny common, for instance. The danger 

 of splitting the wood can be avoided by 

 clamping the frame in a vise and driving 

 the nail while it is clamped. 



RAW MATERIAL FOR THE UNITED STATES 

 SILK FACTORIES. 



Mr. A. I. Root asks, further on, where 

 the silk used in the United States factories 

 comes from. It comes from Southern Europe 

 nearly altogether. The wages there for 

 farmwork is only one third or one-fourth 

 what it is here; and even that is not to be 

 counted. The bulk of the silk produced is 

 raised by peasants and small land-owners. 

 The work is done chiefly b}' the women and 

 children, and what they get is counted as 

 clear gain. We can not compete with them. It 

 has been tried several times, and I think 

 there is yet very little silk raised here, in 

 the Carol inas, and one or two other States. 



The raw silk, that is, merely reeled from 

 the cocoons, enters the United States free, 

 or perhaps pays only very light duties. 

 On the other hand, very high duties, prac- 

 tically prohibitive, are placed on the manu- 

 factured goods. The result is that the silk 

 is imported raw and manufactured here. 



Knoxville, Tenn. Adrian Getaz. 



[A nail- supported frame, nails resting in 

 notches, was illustrated some ten or twelve 

 years ago in these columns. The objection 

 to spacing-devices in the hive or rabbet (and 

 a serious objection too, in my mind) is that 

 it does not allow shoving the frames over 

 en masse for the purpose of making more 

 room. The shallow notches in your rabbets 

 minimize this objection to some extent. 



Another objection to such an arrangement 

 is that it does not permit one to remove the 

 bees to outyards without fastening the 



