1236 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1 



pipe in the hive? Who has not heard a 

 swann ehauge its note and suddenly march 

 into a hive, and isolated l)ee-elusters follow 

 the main elnster when hiving them? During 

 a season many evitlenees appear to show us 

 that l)ees hear. 



Wm. Couse, Secretary of the Ontario Bee- 

 keepers' Association, Streetsville, Ontario, 

 in a circular letter issued to memliers under 

 date of July 24, states, " From all reports re- 

 ceived, the honey crop is short, and bee- 

 keepers should not sell honey unless they ob- 

 tain a good price, probably 9 to 10 cents." 

 The above is valua))le, should be worth 

 much to members of the association, and is 

 the wideawake quick way in which all the 

 intei'ests of the association shoukl h^. guard- 

 ed by its officers, who, when they accept of- 

 fice, should consider it their duty to promote 

 its interests. Such action would generally 

 result in a much larger memljership in bee- 

 keepers' associations. 



tj€m€ 



FRAME-SPACERS. 



Should They Be a Part of the Rabbet or 

 Frame? Dr. Miller Takes Issne with 

 L. Staohelhau!-eii: an Interest- 

 ing: Discussion. 



BY DK. C. C. MILLER. 



When so able a man as Mr. L. Staehel- 

 hausen says a thing is good, it l^ecomes the 

 rest of us to be very modest about condemn- 

 ing it. A thoroughbred German, entirely 

 familiar with all that is going on in Vater- 

 land as well as in this country, keenly alert 

 for that which is best, either among the old 

 or the new, a Yankee in spirit in the best 

 sense of that term, his views must always be 

 worthy of respectful consideration; and so I 

 ask for a little space t(j discuss what he says 

 upon the question whether spacers should be 

 part of the hive or the frames, as found on 

 page 1009. 



The display of different spacers, exhibited 

 on that and the following page, ought to l^e 

 an eye-opener to some of us who seem to 

 think that, if the American nation would 

 cease to exist, all invention would die. Can 

 any one nuister 32 different samples of spac- 

 ers that have originated in this country? 

 And some of them got away from him at 

 that I One of the latest, and perhaps one of 

 the best, is simply a piece of wire bent in 

 such form as to be readily slipped on and off 

 the end- bar. What seem's to me the best in 



the whole lot does not appear — a nail with a 

 head of such thickness as to space the proper 

 distance, and which a child can make no 

 mistake in driving the proper depth. This 

 form of spacer is in extensive use in Germany. 



Speaking of top-opening hives in Germany, 

 Mr. Stachelhausen says: "All these hives, "if 

 spacei's on the frames were used, disappeared 

 very soon, and only such as hatl the spacers 

 fastened to the hive are still in use." If 1 

 interpret that aright, it means that in Ger- 

 many, with hives that open at the top, such 

 as ai'e in use in this country, no spacers at- 

 tached to the frames are at present in use. 

 I had supposed they were, but I may easily 

 be mistaken, and yield to Mr. Stachelhausen 

 as authority. Certain it is that spacers at- 

 tached to frames are in common use in Ger- 

 many at the present day: indeed, if one may 

 judge from advertisements they are in much 

 more common use there than here: for it will 

 be noted that of the 32 spacers illustrated by 

 him, pages 1009 and 1010, only ten are to be 

 attached to the hive, Ijut twenty-two to the 

 frames: and these twenty-two frame- spacers 

 are all modern affairs, to be seen commonly 

 advertised and illustrated in German bee- 

 journals and price lists. If they, then, are 

 all up-to-date, and not used in top-opening 

 hives, it must be that up-to-date German 

 bee-keepers use chietiy side-opening hives. 



Now if I could get my good German friend 

 Stachelhausen off by himself, with no Yan- 

 kees in hearing, I'd say to him in an under- 

 tone, "Look here, mein guter Bruder, if the 

 bulk of 1)ee-keepers in Germany are so far 

 behind the times as to be using hives closed 

 on top and opening at the side, what good is 

 their jutigment in the matter of spacers, any- 

 how?" 



JNlr. Stachelhausen says that, in a top-open- 

 ing hive, "the coirect place for the spacer is 

 on the hive. If this is not observed, all the 

 advantages of such hives are lost." He must 

 have been vei-y unfortunate in the use of 

 spacers on frames to come to such a conclu- 

 sion as that. Let us compare the work of 

 getting out the last frame in a side-opening 

 hive with that of getting out the last frame 

 in a top-opening hive with spacers on frames. 

 Let Bill run the first, and Joe the second. 

 Bill pulls out his first frame, and Joe pulls 

 out his dummy at the same time. Then, if 

 the hives are eight-frame hives. Bill has six 

 ]iiore frames to pull out before he reaches 

 the last frame. Each one must be pulled 

 out separately, like a l)ureau-drawer, and 

 each is a little hai'der to get out than the one 

 that preceded it. Joe looks on while Bill 

 takes five of these six frames entii'ely out of 

 the hive and disposes of them: and while 

 Bill is taking out the last of the six, Joe de- 

 liberately shoves the whole seven fi-ames to 

 one side, taking le.ss time than Bill iloes to 

 get his frame out of the recesses of the hive: 

 ami then while Bill is getting out his last 

 bureau-drawer Joe lifts his Irarae straight 

 up and out of the Jiive. Is the atlvantage of 

 the top-opening hive lost so long as Joe's 

 work of shoving to one side eight frames 

 that c-an all be pushed in a body is pitted 



