1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



887 



tax at least five cents per colony insttatl of 

 one; but that may be remedied at the next 

 session. One cent is hardly sufficient to do 

 any work to amount to any thing. How- 

 ever, we have a start, and we hope the fu- 

 ture will teach us which course is best to 

 pursue. 

 Cmcirnati, O. 



[The one cent will raise over $1000. 

 ought to be enough. — Ed.] 



»»«»» 



HOFFMAN FRAMES. 



This 



The Short Top bars Not Liked, as There is 

 No Finger-hold. 



BY W. C. GATHRIGHT. 



Mr. Root:—\ have been very much inter- 

 ested in the discussion of the mer ' -i and de- 

 merits of the Hoffman frame. Btfore com- 

 ing to California I used and liked the Hoff- 

 man frame; but I was a comb-honey pro- 

 ducer. I have visited many large apiaries 

 here, and am convinced the plain frame is 

 best for large apiaries run for extracted 

 honey. 



These frames as made here have one inch 

 projection of the top- bars past the end-bar. 

 This gives one a chance to get two fingers 

 under each end so as to get a good grip for 

 shaking off bees. You say, Mr. Editor, that 

 you prefer to pick up a frame by the top- 

 bar just inside the end-bars— that is, where 

 it is usually covered with bees, while with 

 the long top-bar the ends are furthest away 

 from the bees it is possible to get. 



While holding the top-bar as you say, be- 

 tween or inside the end-bars, and shaking 

 off bees, that would be entirely out of the 

 question with me. It's just like trying to 

 lift your hives without cleats or hand-holes. 

 Our hives are made with rabbets fXl, so 

 there is a bee- space at the ends of the top- 

 t»ars. The staples for end spacing are a 

 good thing; but cutting off the ends of the 

 lop-bar to get a bee-space when they were 

 already too short for ease of handling is, in 

 my opinion, ruinous. Then to make the pro- 

 jections almost useless as a support for 

 heavy combs, you have reduced the thick- 

 ness to i inch. They should not be less than 

 |, and nailed through the top into the ends. 

 This prevents splitting off the top. Most of 

 the Hoffman frames I find about over the 

 country are nailed only one way — i. e., 

 through the end into the shoulder of the top- 

 bar. They should be nailed both ways; but 

 if only one way it is more important to nail 

 through the top into the ends. One experi- 

 ment ought to prove this to you. Take two 

 frames, one nailed one way and one nailed 

 the other; weight them about like a comb of 

 heney; hold them above the hive, letting 

 them drop on the rabbets, and see which one 

 is first or easiest to break. 



THE ALEXANDER CURE FOR BLACK BROOD 



NOT A SAFE TREATMENT FOR FOUL 



BROOD. 



It seems to me unwise to recommend the 



Alexander method of curing black brood for 

 the cure of foul brood While the disease 

 might disappear for the time being, yet it 

 would be sure to appear again sooner or 

 later, because the combs can not be thor- 

 oughly cleansed of the germs; and, besides, 

 there is the infected honey still in the hive. 

 I think the mildest treatment we can dare 

 recommend is driving a part of the bees 

 with the queen out on to a new set of frames 

 with starters, as by the McEvoy method; 

 then in 21 days shake out the remaining bees 

 into another hive prepared the same as first, 

 giving them a young queen (burn the old 

 combs). This method can very well be car- 

 ried out during the swarming season. Thus 

 you can double the number of colonies and 

 get rid of the disease at the same time. 

 Fillmore, Cal., March 12. 



[There is nothing to prevent double or 

 cross nailing. We give our customers the 

 option of the short and long top-bars. — Ed.] 



papa's SWAhM i_THAT WOULD NOT STAY 

 HIVED. 



[Some time ago we received a photo from 

 which the accompanying half- tone was tak- 

 en. The letter that came with it seems to 

 have been lost, and hence we shall have to 

 let the picture tell its own story, which it 

 does very nicely. — Ed.] 



