14 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



running order as he says he does. I have 

 said repeatedly, and I will say it again, that 

 the Hoffman frame is all right for such bee- 

 keepers. But the average bee-keeper will 

 not trouble himself to go over his hives every 

 spring and scrape off all surplus propolis. 

 In fact, it is almost impossible to get him to 

 do any thing whatever to keep his hives in 

 good working order. I should not enjoy that 

 sort of thing myself. Many of my hives 

 have had bees in them for eighteen years or 

 more, and I have not yet found any necessi- 

 ty for scraping the propolis off the end-bars.' 

 The frames separate about as easily as they 

 did on the start. I really should not care to 

 undertake the job of scraping the propolis 

 off the end-bars of the nearly 5000 frames I 

 have in use every spring. But if you like to 

 do it, and have time for it, it is all right. 

 My only contention in regard to the Hoffman 

 frame is that, in the hands of the average 

 bee-keeper, it comes pretty near not being a 

 movable frame. 



Doubtless some have felt that Prof. Eaton's 

 comment on the article of W. K. Morrison 

 on ' ' The Comb-honey Lie ' ' was too severe. 

 It was caustic criticism, it is true, but I can 

 not but feel that it was deserved. While 

 the article in question contains much that is 

 good, a part of it is misleading. It makes 

 statements that many persons in the ordi- 

 nary walks of life, to say nothing of those 

 who have had special training on these sub- 

 jects, know to be exaggerated and untrue. 

 We should understand, in the first place, 

 that Prof. Eaton's criticism applies only to 

 the paragraph relating to glucose. This para- 

 graph was quoted in the American Bee 

 Journal, and it was against this quoted para- 

 graph that Prof. Eaton's attack was direct- 

 ed. I have felt for a long time like enter- 

 ing a protest against some of the things that 

 have been said in the bee journals about 

 glucose. Some glaring misstatements have 

 been made. At other times, while what has 

 been said was not exactly untrue, the facts 

 have been distorted and given a deceptive 

 coloring. Doubtless this was not intention- 

 ally so. When a man wants very much to 

 believe a thing he does not question very 

 closely the evidence in its favor, and he is 

 quite apt to overlook the evidence against 

 it. So we have such statements as "Bees 

 can not be made to take glucose;" "glucose 

 is poisonous to bees;" "they will starve 

 sooner than touch it," etc. We can not af- 

 ford to make these misrepresentations. We 

 have suffered a great deal from the " scien- 

 tific pleasantries " and downright romanc- 

 ing in regard, to our industry in the newspa- 

 pers and magazines, but we have no right to 

 complain of it as long as we employ the 

 same tactics. Such arguments, wholly un- 

 true, or containing only half the truth, may 

 seem to serve a temporary purpose; but 

 sooner or later they will work against us. 

 There is plenty of argument against the 

 adulteration of honey by glucose or any 

 other substance without resorting to misrep- 

 resentation. We weaken our position and 



furnish weapons to our enemies when, in our 

 arguments, we depart from the plain truth. 

 When we can not confine ourselves to that, 

 it would be better to say nothing. 



With regard to the use of springs for keep- 

 ing brood- frames pressed together, the idea 

 is original with me. I have experimented 

 somewhat with them for that purpose, but 

 am not yet prepared to say whether I like 

 them as well as screws. I can not agree 

 with those who think neither is necessary. 

 I have had abundant opportunity for testing 

 this. Most of my hives have been in use a 

 long time, about eighteen years or more. It 

 is but natural that in some the screw feature 

 has become worn out, usually through the 

 failure of the screw-thread cut in the soft 

 pine of the hive side. With these, until I 

 have got around to repairing them, I have 

 had to depend on crowding them closely to- 

 gether with the knife I use in separating the 

 parts of hives. To me, at least, this is not 

 nearly as satisfactory as keeping them 

 crowded up with the screws. 



Inexperienced bee-keepers can not be de- 

 pended on to do any thing properly. My ex- 

 perience in inspecting bees has shown me 

 that not one in ten will keep Hoffman frames 

 crowded together. In employing help to 

 handle my hives, I have found it very diffi- 

 cult to get them to tighten up the screws 

 after they have been loosened for any pur- 

 pose. It is for this reason I think that 

 springs might be better for the average bee- 

 keeper than to use screws or to attempt to 

 get along without any thing of the kind. If 

 they could be induced to put them in place 

 once, they would stay there in full effective- 

 ness until they were removed, which might 

 not be for years. When they are removed, 

 something would have to be done with them. 

 While some of them would doubtless be lost 

 and others purposely dispensed with, I think 

 most of them would find their way back in- 

 to the hives, and it would be hard to put 

 them into the hives so that they would not 

 do some good. For brood-frames I think it 

 would be advisable to use a heavier spring 

 than is necessary for supers. They should 

 be made of well-tempered material, and 

 should have a sharp backward bend on one 

 end so that they can be readily removed with 

 the ordinary hive-tool. The diagram below 

 shows the only really satisfactory super- 



spring I have ever used, § wide. I will send 

 you a sample if you wish. These came from 

 the G. B. Lewis Co. [This super spring is 

 exactly the shape devised by the Root Co., 

 and adopted by the G. B. Lewis Co., al- 

 though it is after the general pattern of the 

 one used by Capt. J. E. Hetherington some- 

 thing like thirty years ago. For use in the 

 brood-nest a much stiff er spring undoubted- 

 ly would be required, and I am not so sure 



