1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



117 



BEE Keeping AMOIS& the Rockies 



BLACK BEES AND PICKLED BROOD. 



In my first experience with pickled brood, 

 some years ago, it. was very evident that, 

 the nearer the bees were to blacks, the more 

 severely they were affected. Pure Italians 

 suffered comparatively little, though they 

 were not exempt from the disease. Here 

 there is scarcely any thing but pure Italians, 

 yet the disease is quite prevalent, though 

 never very serious. In all my experience 

 with the disease it has always disappeared 

 entirely during a good honey-flow. 



TEMPER OF EXTRA-YELLOW BEES. 



Extra-yellow bees appear to have been 

 produced in two ways: First, by careful se- 

 lection inside of the Italian race; second, by 

 crossing the Italians with the Eastern races, 

 such as the Cyprian and Holy Land. I have 

 had both. The latter were considerably 

 Grosser than the average Italians, while some 

 of the former were the gentlest bees I have 

 ever owned. I used to have a colony of 

 these that I was in the habit of handling, 

 for the benefit of visitors, without smoke 

 and without any protection, and I believe I 

 was never stung by them. 



BASSWOOD IN TEXAS. 



It seems that there are locahties in Texas 

 where basswood is abundant. I have been 

 told this by those who have been there and 

 say that there are large tracts of country 

 covered with it. Reports at the Texas con- 

 vention indicate that it yields honey just as 

 freely as in the Northern States. It appears 

 to be nice honey too. Several years ago 

 some of the Canadians argued that, the fur- 

 ther north basswood honey was produced, the 

 better was its quality, and they claimed su- 

 periority for their product over that pro- 

 duced in the States on that account. I won- 

 der if the Canucks did not manufacture that 

 theory out of whole cloth. Will some of the 

 Texans tell us more about the quality of 

 their basswood honey? Manufacturers of 

 sections will please take notice that these 

 Texas basswood forests will put off for a 

 while at least the time when there will be 

 no more basswood for sections. 



HOFFMAN FRAMES. 



The decision of The A. I. Root Co. to 

 abandon the V edge on the Hoffman frame 

 and to make the end-bars of thicker material 

 will go a long way toward remedying some 

 of the worst faults of the frame. The 



thicker ends will permit of longer nails, which 

 will make a more substantial frame. More 

 than this, though, it will do away with all 

 the trouble that now arises from putting the 

 parts of the frame together improperly. The 

 ends can not slide past each other, making 

 the combs closer together than they ought to 

 be, as is common with the present styles. 

 This makes them nearer "fool proof," as 

 they can not be nailed up wrong. The edges 

 of the end-bars will not be nearly so likely 

 to split off. Now, if means can be devised 

 to compel the crowding of the frames up 

 close together every time they are separated, 

 and keeping them so at all times, the frame 

 will be pretty nearly all that has been claimed 

 for it by its admirers. For this purpose I 

 think there is nothing so promising as a good 

 spring. .Just what this spring should be like 

 will require a little experimenting to deter- 

 mine. I have examined a number of pat- 

 terns sent me for that purpose. Some of 

 these are all right, except that the proper 

 degree of stiffness will have to be determined 

 by actual trial, after which I shall be ready 

 to report further. 



TWO FOLLOWERS FOR HOFFMAN FRAMES. 



It is hard for me to tell just what C. E. 

 Woodward is driving at on page 1157. First, 

 one would suppose he was writing about the 

 use of two followers in the brood-chamber, 

 with Hoffman frames, but he follows this up 

 by saying that, ' ' Even in Cuba it would be 

 better to have two followers in comb-honey 

 supers." Now, so far as I know, I have 

 said nothing either for or against the use of 

 two followers in comb-honey supers. Then 

 he says. "Of course, I am speaking of close- 

 fitting followers." Does he mean that the 

 ends of the followers should touch the inside 

 of the hive? He advises me, too, to use a 

 break -joint honey-board to avoid having to 

 pull frames to pieces in getting out the first 

 one. I have used break-joint honey-boards 

 ever since they were invented, and I can 

 not see how they are going to prevent the 

 frames from being fastened together with 

 propoHs or with brace-combs, which are all 

 below the upper surface of the top-bar. My 

 only objection to two followers would be the 

 difficulty of keeping the frames in as close 

 contact as can be done with one. If I were 

 using ten-frame hives, I would rather use 

 nine frames and two followers than ten 

 frames, but I would rather use one substan- 

 tially made follower than two flimsy ones. 

 A correspondent on page 1165, in speaking 

 of two followers, brings up a point in hive- 

 construction that has not been touched on 

 before. He says that, if only one is used, 

 the comb next to the hive "is often pasted 

 to the hive because the space is too small." 

 This is true of the most of the hives in use. 

 I have come across a few hives in which 

 some provision had been made for keeping 

 the first frame a proper distance away from 

 the side of the hive by means of two little 

 cleats nailed on at the proper points: but in 

 nearly all cases the first frame is shoved di- 



