build on foundation," he said, " and won't 

 keep to tl:e frames, but must also build be- 

 tween tliem." 



This last fault was not an attraction for 

 him. His frames were spaced 11/2 i"- apart 

 from center to center. No wonder, then, 

 that additional combs are built, since, with 

 frames only 1% in. from center to center, I 

 saw additional combs being built. It would 

 be still worse with frames spaced 1% in., 

 as is given sometimes in books. It is true 

 that this large spacing is for wintering; but 

 it happens that bees build combs even at the 

 end of October and in the beginning of 

 March. The result of this spacing, too wide 

 for the bees of this country, is what can be 

 expected. In some hives the combs cannot 

 be separated any more than if built across. 

 In others, by taking good care the frames 

 can be taken out; but some combs, being 

 fixed to the edges of the frames, can fall 

 easily, to the great danger of the operator 

 and of the neighbors. Moreover, some 

 frames supporting two combs are liable to 

 break under the weight. We had to correct 

 our comb-spacing to adapt it to the re- 

 quirements of the- bees of this country. It 

 was an easy matter, as we vise screws as 

 spacers. A few turns gave us the distance of 

 1 9-32 in. from center to center, which we 

 adopted. 



Another great drawback of the small size 

 of our pets comes from the want of proper 

 excluders. Those which we received from 

 Europe will not work properly. Many times 

 I have known queens to pass thru the per- 

 forations of the excluder so that the manip- 

 ulations made became failures. Likewise 

 the drone-traps alloAV all but two or three 

 of the largest drones to escape. 



When all this is considered one thought 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



comes to mind — viz., to construct imple- 

 ments and make foundation for China. 

 That would remedy the evil ; but the Chinese 

 are not for European or American methods 

 of beekeeping for the present, and there 

 would not be a sufficient demand to incur 

 such a cost at the present time. A second 

 solution would be to Italianize our colonies ; 

 but here, again, a great difficulty arises — 

 the danger of mismating. For a time I 

 thought we could have Italian bees, for I 

 had heard some one say that in Japan the 

 native drones would not mate with Italian 

 queens. I found it hard to believe, and 

 conjectured this was to be attributed to the 

 difference in size or to some other unknown 

 reason. Last year all my thoughts on the 

 subject vanished when a Chinese who had 

 studied beekeeping in Japan told m.e that 

 the Japanese cannot keep pure Italian bees, 

 because of mismating. 



Now, it may interest my readers to know 

 how I managed to have my combs built and 

 wired at the same time. I prepared frames 

 Avith wires as if foundation were to be set 

 in. A small starter with only two or three 

 rows of cells was fixed to the top-bar. The 

 frames thus made ready were put in the 

 hive, which was perfectly level from side to 

 side. I thus obtained beautiful worker 

 combs when those frames were inserted 

 between two brood-combs toward the end of 

 the season in strong hives, or at any time of 

 the year in rather weak ones. This process 

 for obtaining worker combs is slow, far 

 from being perfect, and cannot be compar- 

 ed to the regular and thoro work obtained 

 from comb foundation. I would gladly 

 receive suggestions as to the best way to 

 have combs built when no foundation can 

 be used. 



Shanghai, China. 



THE BEE IN COURT 



BY C. 0. TARBOX 



A recent decision in the City Court of 

 Yonkers, N. Y., determines the ownership 

 of a swarm of bees that have come out of 

 the owner's hive and alighted upon anoth- 

 er's premises. Judge Beall, in deciding the 

 case, wrote a very exhaustive opinion in 

 which he cites authorities dating back to 

 the time of Justinian. He says that Black- 

 stone classifies bees as wild animals; that 

 he takes his law from the Greeks and Ro- 

 mans, and that there has been practically no 

 change in the law from the days of Plato, 

 and that an uninterrupted line of decisions 

 thru Greek, Roman, English, French, the 

 Netherlands, and the English common law. 



down to late decisions in Iowa are to the 

 same effect, and suggests " the probable rea- 

 son for "this set policy being the danger of 

 touching the subject." The court holds 

 that, where a swarm of bees left its owner's 

 premises, his title to them was not destroy- 

 ed by their alighting on another's land, even 

 tho he would be a trespasser in going upon 

 that land to retake them; and that if 

 another than the original owner takes them 

 into his pos.session while on another's land 

 he gets no title which vests in him or in the 

 owner of the land upon which they are, 

 but is liable to the original owner of the 

 bees for conversion. This, however, seems 



