288 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



in equal condition, and from one take 

 all the early honey, leaving only the 

 late, unripe and inferior honey for 

 winter stores, and give the other well- 

 ripened and capped basswood or clover 

 honey for winter food, the condition 

 of the two colonies, in the spring, 

 would be far different, whether out- 

 door or cellar wintering were tried. 



But to the reports. In the Bee 

 Journal, page 59, Mr. H. Gripe re- 

 ports as follows, under date Jan. 18, 

 1883 : " Last spring I had 4 colonies 

 of Italian bees (two strong and two 

 very weak), they increased to 10 

 strong colonies, by natural swarming. 

 The increase all came from 2 colo- 

 nies, and I took 120 pounds of comb 

 honey from them. I could have taken 

 a quantity of extracted, but I had no 

 extractor, so I thought I would keep 

 it for spring feeding. After the honey 

 season was over, I sold 2 colonies and 

 bought 16 Italians and hybrids in 

 Simplicity hives. * * * 

 I packed 10 in sawdust and 6 in chaff ; 

 the other 8 I put in the cellar. They 

 are all alive (Jan. 18). but I cannot 

 tell how they will come out. * * 

 We have had a solid winter since 

 Nov. 23." 



Now, in giving tlie above report, 

 we wish to cast no slir, or find any 

 fault with Mr. C, but we want all to 

 see how reports could be made of 

 lasting good. He says on Jan. 18, 

 " all are alive, but I do not know how 

 they will come out." If this report 

 had been held until next June, he 

 could have told us how they came 

 out ; but as it is, we will not be likely 

 to ever know how they came out, and 

 even if he tells us next spring, then 

 we must find this report and compare 

 it with the spring report (which course 

 is not as yet being pursued, that I 

 know of) ; and even if we compare the 

 two reports, this one, at least, does 

 not tell whether the 2 Italian colonies 

 that gave 6 swarms were the two that 

 he sold, or whether they are packed in 

 sawdust, or in chaff, or in the cellar, 

 or whether the cellar is under his 

 dwelling, where the light is often car- 

 ried, or whether the cellar is made in 

 a sand-bank expressly for bee-winter- 

 ing, and how ventilated, wliat kind of 

 hives the first 4 colonies were in, what 

 kind of hives he put the 6 swarms in, 

 and whether the 6 were out or in- 

 doors. Will Mr. 0. please report in 

 this month and finish out what he has 

 begun in the above partial report. 



In another report by Mr. D. II. Hop- 

 kins, the same page, gives us to under- 

 stand about how he managed his bees 

 last summer, and that on Jan. 9, they 

 were all very quiet in the cellar, with 

 no dead bees on the floor, but that 

 there were more than a bushel of dead 

 bees on the floor the year before at 

 the same date. 



Now, if Mr. H. had told us how he 

 managed his bees through the sum- 

 mer of 1881, then we might, perhaps, 

 figure out the reason why bees, in the 

 same hives and same cellar (we infer 

 that they were the same) should win- 

 ter so "differently in two different 

 winters. The management through 

 the summer, and mortality the fol- 

 lowing winter, should have been given 

 in a report by itself ; and in the spring 



the summer management and winter- 

 ing that followed should be given, 

 then the two reports could be com- 

 pared, and the results deduced there- 

 from. 



In the report of the New Jersey and 

 Eastern Convention, on page 10 of the 

 Bee JouiiNAL, it will be noticed by 

 Mr. King's remarks, that it was the 

 next thing to impossible to get any re- 

 liable statistics on bee culture. Again, 

 on page 772 of the Bee Journal for 

 1882, in the remarks by the editor of 

 Bee-Keepers'' Magazine, he says that 

 no reliance whatever could be placed 

 on certain statistics, that he had 

 found erainating from the Depart- 

 ment at Washington ; and in his clos- 

 ing remarks, urges the necessity of 

 some plan which shall give accurately 

 the facts, and so enable beginners to 

 enter on the business understand- 

 ingly. I am of the opinion that it 

 would be a good plan for our editors 

 to furnish their patrons with printed 

 blank reports about May 1, request- 

 ing the bee-keepers to fill out by an- 

 swering the following questions, or a 

 similar list of questions could be ar- 

 ranged by the editors counseling to- 

 gether : 



1. How many colonies on May 1, 

 1883 ? 



2. What strain of bees ? 



3. In what condition 'i 



4. In what kind of hives ? 



5. What is your locality ? 



6. How did you manage them 

 through the month of May ? 



7. How through June 'i 



8. How through July ? 



9. How through August V 



10. How through September y 



11. How through October ?' 



12. How did you prepare them for 

 winter in November, and what kind 

 of stores, and how much surplus 

 through the season V 



13. How did they appear to do 

 through each winter months 'i 



14. If in cellar or clamps, on what 

 date did you set them on summer 

 stands in the spring of 1884? 



1.5. How did they do from the time 

 set out until May 1, 1884 ? 



It seems to us that a tolerable good 

 and reliable system of management 

 could be deduced from a few years' 

 report as above, but that one-half or 

 one-third of the reports made at ran- 

 dom, will result in very little good. 



Orion, Wis. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Essentials of a Standard Frame. 



J. W. rORTER. 



Replying to Dr. E. B. Southwick's 

 letter, on page 263, as an advocate of 

 the Langstroth frame, I would state 

 the reasons why very many have 

 adopted it, above all other frames : 



1. It affords a very much larger sur- 

 face on top, than any deep frame. The 

 largest surface for comb honey on top 

 is the main point, for many of us have 

 no success in side-storing. It favors 

 the internal economy of the hive, in- 

 asmuch as bees can reach their stores 

 sooner by climbing a less distance, in 

 the many thousands of loads daily 



carried in. 



2. The same superiority is claimed 

 for extracting from the second story, 

 over deep frames. 



3. It disturbs the bees far less, to 

 draw up from a hive the frames filled 

 with honey or brood, nine inches 

 deep, than twelve inches deep. 



4. If queen-cells are formed, they 

 are less liable to accidents. 



5. In case of a slight deviation from 

 the perpendicular in setting the hive, 

 there is less danger of the combs be- 

 ing fastened to the sides. 



So much has the first points been 

 esteemed, that many ciforts have 

 been made to carry it still further 

 and make the frames less deep, but it 

 appears that the standard Langstroth 

 frame is a sort of happy-medium be- 

 tween the two extremes of shallow 

 and deep frames. 



That it sufticiently meets the re- 

 quirements for concentrating the 

 cluster in winter and spring is clear, 

 judging by the great success of the 

 army of bee-keepers who use it. It 

 will be admitted by most of the apiar- 

 ists, I doubt not, that the square 

 frame, " American " or " Gallup," has 

 advantages for winter-clustering, but 

 we claim not enough to compensate 

 for the reduced superficies on the top 

 of the brood. 



Where are the returns from such 

 that can equal the reports we have 

 from those using the Langstroth 

 frame V Mr. Doolittle comes the near- 

 est to it, but I forget the dimensions 

 of his frame. But he has been greatly 

 surpassed, as the records show. While 

 it is my practice to confine frequently 

 to eight Langstroth frames, for comb 

 honey, I wish the space for ten frames 

 above, and have it oy inserting dum- 

 mies below, on each side. Even then 

 I have to tier up, in " the season," 

 the honey racks. Having used both 

 kinds, I have given such reasons as 

 my own experience suggests. 



Charlottsville, Va., May 24, 1883. 



BOOK CLOBBDiG LIST. 



We will supply the Amerlean Bee .fonrnal 



one year, and any of the folIowinB BoobB, at the 



prices quoted in the last column of dRures. The 



first column gives the retrular price of both. All 

 postafEe prepaid. 



Prici of both. Olub 



The Weetily Bee Journal, t2 00. . 



and Cool£'s Manual, 7th edilion(in cloth) 3 35. , 3 76 



Cook's Manual. (In paper covers) 300.. 2 50 



Bees and Honey (T.Q.Newman icloth 2 75. . 2 50 



Bees and Honey (paper covers) 2 50.. 2 25 



Binder for Weekly Bee Journal 27.i.. 2 60 



Apiary Register for ITO colonies .... 3 50. . 3 00 



Apiary Register for aw colonies .... 4 00. . 3 50 



Dzierzon'sNew BeeBook(cloth).... 4 00.. 3 50 



Dzierzon's New Book (paper covers) 3 50. . 3 00 



Quinby'sNew Bee-Keeping [3 50.. 3 25 



Langstroths Standard Work 4 OO 3 75 



Root's A B C of Bee Culture (cloth) 3 25. . 3 00 



Alley's Queen Rearing 3 23.. 3 00 



Scribner'B Lumber and Log Book 2 35. . 2 25 



Kisher's Grain Tables 2 40. . 2 25 



Moore's Universal As-istant 4 50.. 4 25 



Honey as Food & Medicine, TiOCopies 4.0O. . 3 75 



HoneyasFoodAMedlcine.lOO.Coples 6 00. . 5 50 



Blessed Bees 3 75.. 2 50 



King's Text Book 3 00.. 2 75 



The Monthly Bee tlanrnal and any of the 



above, f l less than the figures in the last column. 



