1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



959 



so in reality the paper boxes are only half 

 as expensive, as it is quite a job to nail up 

 wooden berry-boxes. These paper boxes 

 are coated with paraffine wax, and can be 

 left out in the rain without serious damage. 

 I think the paper from which the boxes are 

 made is coated on both sides by some roller 

 process. 



Now, Mr. Editor and manufacturer, why 

 can't you invent a paper section box? You 

 know paper is cheap— not only so, but it can 

 be prepared in any color, of any thickness, 

 and any degree of hardness, from soft as 

 velvet to hard as flint; and by the use of 

 paraffine they ought to be easily made so 

 that the bees won't use them for chewing 

 purposes. 



I hope it is only a question of time till pa- 

 per can be utilized satisfactorily as section 

 boxes, and be as good as and possibly better 

 than the one-piece wood section box. 



HOFFMAN FRAMES. 



I find the Hoffman self-spacing frame per- 

 fectly satisfactory when you get your combs 

 nice and straight so you can take out and 

 put in other combs, and then squeeze them 

 tight each time you go through a hive; but 

 if you are careless to begin with, and get 

 them built too thick, then you can't shove 

 them up close to each other, as they would 

 crush the bees; but if you get well-made 

 combs to start with, and always shove them 

 up tight, using the dummy, nobody can help 

 liking them; not only so, but they can be 

 handled faster than loose hanging frames. 

 I have 40 colonies on such frames, and oth- 

 ers on loose hanging frames; but I always 

 prefer to handle the former if they have 

 been kept as they should have been. I have 

 a few hives where the combs were built on 

 strips in which they were not built straight, 

 and they have crowded out the dummy; but 

 that was my fault, not that of the frame. 

 I think others who don't like the Hoffman 

 frame could find mostly that the fault is in 

 themselves in not getting combs built prop- 

 erly. 



DOUBLE BROOD-CHAMBERS. 



However, I am using several hives in 

 which two Ideal supers of eight frames each 

 are used on the brood-chamber, and I like 

 them so well that I shall put my increase in 

 such hives. For the last two winters I have 

 not lost a single colony in such a hive, while 

 I lost several in other hives; and I think the 

 space between the two sets of frames is a 

 big help in giving opportunity for the bees 

 to shift their position from empty to full 

 combs in cold weather. Out of 74 colonies, 

 18 are in such hives. I use the Ideal sec- 

 tion-5. and in that way the whole hive is com- 

 posed of supers; and in case of winter loss 

 each colony would contain 16 nice extract- 

 ing-combs. I produce both comb and ex- 

 tracted. I can also use sections and ex- 

 tracting-combs in the same super, as per 

 the Townsend plan, providing extracting- 

 combs are white and clean. 



White clover is all gone, and the weather 

 has been too cool for comb honey; but I 



shall have a fair crop of extracted and about 

 one-half or two-thirds of a crop of comb. 

 Sweet clover and catnip are in bloom; and 

 as weather is favorable the bees are storing 

 fairly well, and also drawing new comb; in 

 fact, catnip and sweet clover are doing bet- 

 ter than I have ever seen them do before. 

 Sweet clover is quite abundant this year, 

 and so is catnip. The honey coming in from 

 these two plants is always of very fine fla- 

 vor; in fact, I have always found that, the 

 more abundant catnip is, the finer the hon- 

 ey, every time. I have no faith in the idea 

 that catnip honey is of bad flavor. We 

 have lots of it here, and some of it goes into 

 the supers nearly every year; but what per 

 cent, I don't know; but there is at times 

 enough to give off a scent of catnip when it 

 is warm and being extracted, and the flavor 

 is very good. 

 Williamsfield, 111. 



[The comparative cost of berry-boxes of 

 paper at $2.25 per 1000 and wooden ones at 

 $3.00 to $3.50 brings up the question wheth- 

 er it might not be possible to make honey- 

 sections of paper. But a berry-box is not 

 required to meet the exacting conditions of 

 a section. The former may be more or less 

 flexible, and not at all interfere with the 

 carriage of the berries. We already have 

 in our office a paper section box; but the 

 cost of it, we find, would be consideraly 

 more than of one made of wood; and, be- 

 sides, it does not look as neat nor as dura- 

 ble. You will find an illustration and de- 

 scription of sections made of strawboard in 

 our issue for May 1, p. 548. This material, 

 provided it could be made neat enough, 

 would possibly be cheap enough for a honey- 

 section. But strawboard is vastly more 

 difficult to cut than wood of the same thick- 

 ness. 



The wooden boxes permit of being sent in 

 the "knock-down," or in the "flat," as we 

 say. A paper box that would fold over at 

 the corners would be a somewhat flimsy af- 

 fair. The difficulties in the way of a section 

 box made of any other material than wood 

 seem almost insurmountable, yet we shall be 

 on the alert to discover any new substance; 

 and you may rest assured that, if something 

 can be had to produce a box as good as 

 those now sold, at a less price, we will an- 

 nounce the fact to the bee-keeping public. 



Your experience with Hoffman frames, 

 when you find they will handle faster than 

 the ordinary loose hanging frames, is quite 

 in line with our own experience and that of 

 hundreds of others. Why there are some 

 who find them difficult to handle I can not 

 explain unless the frames are not properly 

 nailed together, not properly made in the 

 first place, or not properly spaced after they 

 get into the hives. Nearly every instance 

 of dissatisfaction might be accounted for on 

 one or possibly all of the causes combined. 

 Of course, all self-spacing frames must be 

 spaced close together. There is a use and 

 an abuse of any good thing. 



With regard to double brood- chambers, I 



