1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



243 



of white clover at 13'2 in 1-lb. sections, at 

 Eau Claire. Wis. Another item of white 

 clover at 18 cts. ; amber at lb, in the comb 

 or bottle, at Noble, Pa.; still another is 

 white clover at IZ'j cts. at Spottswood, Va., 

 the postoffice of our correspondent above, 

 and which he says he sold iit a satisfactory 

 fifjure. Observe, you pay no commission 

 except the express; and if you sell to the 

 other party, " he pays the freis'ht."^' 



The advantage of this commission scheme 

 is that one can pick out the nearest post- 

 office having tlie kind of produce he desires 

 to secure. He simply goes to his local ex- 

 press agent and asks him to get what he 

 calls for. 



And, again, when he has produce to sell 

 he gives the items of it to his local agent, 

 and requests him to place it in the commis- 

 sion department of the company at New 

 York — no writing at all until a customer is 

 found, when the sale is consummated and 

 the cash turned over. If you do not wish 

 to trust j'our man, all 3'ou have to do is to 

 send the produce subject to the C. O. D. 

 plan, by which the express company will 

 collect your mone^' and turn it over to j'ou 

 without any chance of loss on your p irt. 



The practicability of the scheme lies al- 

 most entirel_v in the fact that very often a 

 customer a short distance away can be se- 

 cured, when the express charges will com- 

 paratively light. For long hauls or heavy 

 shipments the plan would not be feasible. 



If 3'our honey is sold to other parties 

 through other channels, you will, of course, 

 notifj' the company that the goods are dis- 

 posed of; but, ordinarily, if one places his 

 produce in the hands of the express compa- 

 ny he should wait a reasonable time for 

 returns. — Ed.] 



HOFFMAN FRAMES TOO MUCH STUCK UP 



WITH propolis; how to convert into 



MILLER NAIL-SPACED FRAMES. 



Dear Dr. Miller: — I have almost decided 

 to take mj' jack-knife this spring and cut 

 all the end-bar projections off my Hoffman 

 frames, thus reducing them to the regular 

 hanging frame. I have about 800, manj' of 

 which have been in use from five to ten 

 years. As the result of j'our experience 

 and excellent practical judgment I want 

 j'ou to advise me in the matter. My objec- 

 tions to Hoffman frames are, too much pro- 

 polis; crowds the division-board against 

 the side of the hive; the frames can not be 

 crowded close enough in the spring; can 

 not be used to advantage in supers for ex- 

 tracting ; must be spaced like hanging 

 frames — that is, only 7 in an eight-frame 

 hive, and 8 in ten-frame, thus doing away 

 with the Hoffman principle, and making 

 them non-interchangeable. There are oth- 

 er objections, such as increase of cost, and 

 necessity for extreme accuracj' in making. 

 Last spring I had 300 made hy a regular 

 dealer in supplies, and he made awful 

 work. The advantage of rapidity in han- 

 dling, shipping bees, and moving to out- 

 apiaries, does not count with me. . To put 



it very mildly, I would say that for the ex- 

 tracted-honey producer they are a decided 

 nuisance. Alpine McGregor. 



Inglewood, Ont., Can., Jan. 17. 



[Dr. Miller replies:] 



Where there is no propolis there is much 

 advantage in the partially closed ends of 

 the Hoft-man and the automatic spacing. 

 The trouble is that you have propolis, and 

 the frames which worked like a charm when 

 in use only a week become intolerable with 

 time. Your jack-knife remedy w^ould, I 

 think, be an improvement; and if you don't 

 care for rapidity of handling nor exactness 

 of spacing, then nothing further is needed. 

 Pardon me, however, for doubting that you 

 mean just what you say when you say that 

 the advantage of rapidity of handling does 

 not count with you. Automatic spacing I 

 think we must have in some form, for ra- 

 pidity and exactness. 



Answering j^ou categorically, the proba- 

 bility is that reducing your frames to loose 

 hanging frames will be better than to keep 

 them as they are. I have done more or less 

 whittling on mine; and if I were to come to 

 a hive full of Hoftmans now, it would be a 

 question whether I would transfer them 

 into Miller frames or whittle the objection- 

 able projections and then make them self- 

 spacing with nails or staples. 



If you take the latter course, whittle away 

 the V-shaped edge (leaving the other edge 

 untouched) until you make the end-bars 

 I's inches wide. Then take a wire nail or 

 a staple, and drive into the unwhittled side 

 at each end until it projects % inch. These 

 will work very well mixed in with Miller 

 frames, and I advise any one in a gluy re- 

 gion to try a few of the latter. 



Marengo, 111. C. C. Miller. 



[We have made an effort to introduce 

 frames with metal spacers, and for several 

 years have offered for sale staple-spaced 

 frames. Yes, we have, where we thought 

 propolis was bad, recommended them in 

 lireference to the Hoffman; but " they don't 

 go!' I have been surprised over and over 

 again to learn how the trade will have the 

 Hoffman. After all, it is only in certain 

 localities that propolis seriously handicaps 

 the handling of such frames. Propolis, 

 though, is very bad in Marengo, much 

 worse than it is here in Medina, and I do 

 not blame the doctor, nor, perhaps, our cor- 

 respondent, for wanting something else. — 

 Ed.] 



the DANZEN BAKER AND THE EIGHT-FRAME 

 LANGSTKOTH HIVE. 



I have 55 colonies of bees in 8 and 10 

 frame chaff' hives. I expect to increase 25 

 next 3'ear; and what bothers me is the hive- 

 body, as I make my own outside or winter 

 case. 



Would you advise me to buy the Danz. or 

 the Langstroth Dovetailed? Will bees store 

 more honej' in the Danz. than the other? 

 Will they winter as well (that is, will they 

 need as little feeding? 



