1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



655 



honey — a hint which I thought all practical 

 bee-keepers would see without having to 

 state it clearly. But here it is, in plain 

 words. I sell all my extracted honey at 18 

 cents per pound. The light-weight-section 

 fellow gets about 7 cents, average. Who is 

 losing here? I am educating all my custom- 

 er — all consumers in my territory — to de- 

 mand a full-pound section. Next season, 

 grocers will be called upon to cut out light- 

 weights and sell by the pound. This they 

 will not do. Then, of course, they will not 

 buy the light-weight sections. 



I agree with friend M. "that force of 

 honey- flow, temperature, and other atmos- 

 pheric conditions, strength of colony, build- 

 ing and storing propensity of individual 

 colonies," etc., are factors which govern, to 

 a great extent, the weight of the finished 

 section. But I again disagree with him 

 when he states that more is dependent upon 

 these factors than is upon the ' ' size and 

 shape of the section." On these points I 

 am in accord with friend J. E. Crane, page 

 1305. I endorse, in the main, all he says. 

 I am glad to say, also, that this is one time 

 more that I can endorse the editor's state- 

 ments in his footnote to friend Crane's ar- 

 ticle. All the readers of Gleanings will do 

 well to go back and again carefully read 

 that article and footnote, and ponder them 

 well. 



Tophet, W. Va., Jan. 23. 



IF I WERE TO START ANEW, WHAT 

 STYLE OF FRAMES, SUPERS, AND AP- 

 PLIANCES WOULD I ADOPT ? 



The Hoffman Preferred for Extracting. 



BY WM. ROHRIG. 



[Mr. Rohrig- is one of the most extensive bee-keepers 

 in the West. At one time, at least, he owned apiaries 

 both in Arizona and California, with a total aggregate 

 of something over 1000 colonies.— Ed.] 



In the discussion of the merits of the 

 Hoffman frames, one thing, to my mind, has 

 been brought out quite clearly. Bee-keep- 

 ers will never agree on a uniform style of 

 hive, frame, super, or other appliances. 

 While location, undoubtedly, has a great 

 deal to do with this difference of opinion, 

 yet it is a fact that there is difference of 

 opinion even in the same locality. This is 

 brought about to some extent, doubtless, by 

 the natural dislike of many to having any 

 thing but uniform hives, etc., in use in the 

 same yard. Having started with a certain 

 style of hive and frame, and other appli- 

 ances adapted to their use, they very natu- 

 rally dislike to change. 



It so happened in buying a number of 

 apiaries some years ago that I was unfortu- 

 nate in securing hives of different sizes and 

 styles. I saw at o".ce that, if I intended to 

 keep bees on any thing like a large scale, it 

 would be well for me to adopt a uniform 

 size of frame. As most of my hives and 

 frames were of the Langstroth style and 

 size I concluded to try the Hoffman frame; 



so. about fourteen years ago I sent a small 

 order for this frame and began to experi- 

 ment with them. As I was producing ex- 

 tracted honey I am free to say that I 'did 

 not like the looks of the things, fearing that 

 the end- bars would be quite a nuisance when 

 it came to uncapping. After two years' 

 trial I was convinced that the frame was all 

 right for my use. By using only nine frames 

 in the super of a ten- frame hive, the annoy- 

 ance that I had expected while uncapping 

 was scarcely noticeable, and, no other seri- 

 ous objections presenting themselves, I bs- 

 gan to use the frame quite extensively, un- 

 til now I have several thousand in use. I 

 still have a large number of free hanging 

 frames in use, and they are good frames 

 too; but in time they must all go, and the 

 Hoffman will take their place unless some 

 other self-spacing frame should be develop- 

 ed that I think is better. My reasons for 

 preferring the Hoffman above all other 

 frames are that, with ordinary care, they 

 are always quite accurately spaced. If it is 

 desirable to move an apiary, so far as the 

 frames are concerned the hives are always 

 ready, and there is no danger of the frames 

 jamming together, mashing the bees and 

 making a mess of it; and they can be han- 

 dled rapidly during the busy season when 

 time is money. I do not wish to be under- 

 stood as saying that the Hoffman frame is 

 without fault. It has its faults. The main 

 one with me is that it can not be manipulat- 

 ed with the same rapidity when the weather 

 is cool and propolis hard. The free-hanging 

 frame has, perhaps, a little the best of it at 

 this particular time of the year; but usually 

 no great amount of work can be done at 

 such times any way, so that this does not 

 count for much. 



In conclusion I will say that, if I were to 

 start anew to build an apiary in this locality 

 I would adopt the ten-frame Langstroth 

 hive furnished with Hoffman frames (V 

 end-bars) well wired, with full sheets of 

 foundation in each frame. 



Tempe, Ariz. 



PROPER COLOR FOR HIVES. 



A Reply to Mr. Greiner's Article, Page 85. 



BY ALLEN LATHAM. 



Mr. Greiner's article has much in it with 

 which I can heartily agree, and the same 

 can be said of the footnote by the editor; 

 but there are some statements which are 

 misleading, and others which are not based 

 upon the bottom facts. With the editor's 

 permission I will ask for further space in 

 which to make my position clearer. 



Let me state again that my experiments 

 have all been conducted with air-spaced 

 hives covered with an almost black roofing- 

 paper. I have grave doubts as to the ad- 

 visability of painting thin-walled hives 

 black, not so much because of their being 

 too severely heated by the sun as because 



