1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



443 



to disparage the work of friend M., for he 

 himself acknowledges he has not been very 

 much in touch with modern methods now in 

 vogue. The hive and frame with which he 

 was disgusted were probably not the mod- 

 ern hives now in use with their self-spacing 

 frames. It may be appropriate, as this 

 thing is coming up every once in a while, 

 to state some of the serious objections to this 

 arrangement. 



A frame-spacing rabbet in the hive does 

 not permit of the movement of the frames 

 from one side of the hive to the other with- 

 out taking them out one by one. In order 

 to shift the position of the frames en masse, 

 every one of the frames must be lifted from 

 its position, then be set out, and put in a 

 holder such as is shown in the bottom of the 

 engraving. Then they can be put in the 

 desired position one by one. In spreading 

 brood, for example, one might take out one 

 or two frames in the center, and desire to 

 shift them to the outside, closing up the 

 space from which the frames have been ta- 

 ken. With the arrangement here shown he 

 would have to manipulate at least half the 

 frames, one by one. Where the spacing ar- 

 rang-ement is on the frame itself he would 

 practically have to handle only the two 

 frames, and those in a pair. After the 

 space is made in the center of the brood- 

 nest, the remaining frames could be shoved 

 over en masse without removing a frame, 

 closing up the gap made. The frames ta- 

 ken out could then be put in the new gap 

 made by closing up the other. Then the 

 arrangement of adjusting these individual 

 frames to place consumes considerable time. 

 The lower nail-head must be slipped in be- 

 tween the V-shaped holes in the upper rab- 

 bet — an operation that requires some pre- 

 cision of movement. 



Still another serious objection is that 

 frames of this type can not be handled in 

 groups of two, three, and four. Modern 

 apiculture demands that the brood-nest 

 shall be manipulated in halves or quarters 

 to a great extent. Any system that requires 

 the separate manipulation of each frame 

 must be considered a failure. 



The general arrangement of the self-spac- 

 ing rabbet or notched rabbet, at first sight 

 looks ver}' pretty in theory; and it is pretty 

 in practice with a few hives, providing one 

 has never had experience with a better ar- 

 rangement. It is my opinion that friend 

 McManus had better abandon the arrange- 

 ment before it costs him too much money, in 

 the time wasted in handling such a hive. 

 At a rough guess I should say that any of 

 the staple-spaced frames — the Hoffman or 

 anj' of the standard closed-end frames — 

 could be handled in a half or a quarter of 

 the time that would be required by the 

 frame shown in the illustration. — Ed. 1 



leaving cells in it entirely empty, to occupy 

 new comb or foundation. I think I can 

 supply him with that one case. Mar. 31st 

 I got a large swarm which I put into a hive 

 containing four full sheets of foundation, 

 three old worker combs, and one frame with 

 a starter. The frame with the starter was 

 on the outside — I don't mean outside of the 

 hive. Next came a sheet of foundation, 

 then one of comb; then another sheet of 

 foundation, and so on. On examining the 

 colony later I found that the bees had 

 drawn out the foundation, and the queen 

 had filled it with eggs, skipping the old 

 comb, not putting even one egg in it. Of 

 course, I do not mean to say that the old 

 combs were quite empty, because they had 

 a good lot of pollen and honey in them; 

 but, as I understand it, what Dr. Miller 

 and yourself wanted to find out was this: 

 Which does the qtieeri prefer — old or new 

 comb? Reginald C. Holle. 



Alma, Brownstown, Jamaica, April 13. 



[Although you do not make the direct 

 statement, yet you imply that the bees and 

 the queen in this case left the old comb and 

 took up with the new comb and foundation. 

 Dr. Miller will please take notice. — Ed.] 



NEW OR OLD COMB FOR BEES. 



On p. 131 Dr. Miller says he would like 

 to hear of "just one case " where the bees 

 passed over old comb in good condition, 



PARROTS IN THE APIARY, TO ANNOUNCE 

 SWARMING. 



In reply to an article written for Glean- 

 ings some time ago, about having dogs to 

 watch for swarms, I will tell you of parrots 

 for that purpose. Being a parrot-dealer 

 myself I had a few birds left over from last 

 season's trade. One of them I took a fan- 

 cy for, or it took a fancy for me, I don't 

 know which; but when I came home the 

 parrot would call out, in Spanish, " There 

 comes the boy," as the men who were work- 

 ing for me would say when I was coming 

 home. You see that is how I got the idea. 

 "Well," said I to myself, "if the parrot 

 knows me, and calls out that I am coming, 

 that is a warning for the men." Then I 

 wondered if it would give me the same 

 warning when the bees swarm. I tried it, 

 putting the parrot's perch near the bees, 

 and left it there for about six weeks. When 

 swarming began I hired a small boy to 

 watch for swarms, as the bees generally 

 swarm when I am at dinner or lunch. The 

 boy would call out, "Za^ abejas! " (the 

 bees) over and over, till I could get there 

 and see to the bees myself. 



Well, this went on for another month and 

 a half, more or less every daj', and some- 

 times three or four times a day. At the 

 end of the six weeks I told the boy that he 

 need not come any more, as swarming was 

 over. So I paid him, and he did not come 

 again. Then I said to myself, " What bad 

 luck I had! " What I did not care for the 

 parrot to learn (as it was to give warning 

 to the men) it did learn, but not to give me 

 warning about the bees. Four days after I 

 told the boy not to return I heard a voice 

 calling, ''^ Las abejas."' only it sounded like a 

 woman's voice. I ran to see what it was, 



