1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



295 



for the present, except I may have occasion to refer to it again 

 in answer to some objections which have been offered to some 

 of my positions. These articles have brought me communica- 

 tions from all over the country, and I want to say to the 

 writers of these letters that I would gladly have written each 

 of them a personal letter, but my time has been so completely 

 taken up that I have found it impossible to do so, and I beg of 

 them to accept this as an acknowledgement of the receipt of 

 the same. 



If I have so written that I have helped any one, or stimu- 

 lated any mind to greater activity, then I have accomplished 

 the purpose I had in mind when I began. 



St. Joseph, Mo. 



More About the Size of Hives and Frames. 



BY .7. W. ROUSE. 



It seems that it is hard to settle the question either of the 

 proper size of a hive or the frame. While perhaps locality 

 has something to do as to what size would suit best, it is not 

 very probable it makes much difference. It is much easier to 

 flow or float with the tide than it is to go against it, but we 

 have been forced to some conclusions by observations even 

 against our inclinations. 



While I have always used the standard size frame, since 

 locating here, over four years ago, I have had a chance to ob- 

 serve the workings of the American hive and frame as they 

 have been made in this county for perhaps the last 20 years, 

 and there are quite a lot of these hives in this county. While 

 there are a number of serious objections (to my notion) to 

 this hive, still I have observed that bees kept in them winter 

 well, and those having bees in these hives secure honey in 

 them, although there are many keeping bees in them that are 

 not "up" very much in bee-ology, so they do not know very 

 much about bees, or the best methods of handling them. I 

 have always managed to secure some honey ever since starting 

 in the business until last season. Although I have always run 

 the most of my apiary in queen-rearing, I am sure if I had run 

 for honey, especially for one or two seasons since being here, 

 I should have secured a fair crop of honey. I have noticed 

 that some other bee-keepers with these hives did secure fair 

 crops of honey. I am aware that locality frequently has much 

 to do with it in securing a crop of honey, still I am forced to 

 the conclusion that the bees wintering in these hives, by being 

 in a deeper frame, and more together instead of spreading out 

 so long, build up faster in the spring, and so are ready for the 

 harvest when it comes. As I said, these hives do not suit me, 

 as I do not like their construction, not being easy to handle or 

 manipulate. 



I have had a hive in mind for some time, but as there are 

 already too many kinds of hives, I have never built any ac- 

 cording to my notion. Then, again, I have had no chance to 

 give a new hive a test for the past two seasons. I will give a 

 description of my idea, and, if thought worthy of notice, invite 

 friendly criticisms : 



A hive made long enough to take in three sections in a 

 row instead of four, as now in the standard hive, and make 

 the frames 11 inches deep, and the hive large enough to hold 

 as much as a 9-frame standard hive. While I feel sure this 

 size of frame would be good for the brood-nest, I do not 

 think it the best for extracting, but they could be made 

 shallower. 



I will not give my complete ideas, but if this is found 

 worthy of any discussion, I may give a more concise descrip- 

 tion in the future. Caution: I do not advise any one to 

 adopt this size of frame, but would advise, especially ama- 

 teurs and beginners, to follow in the well-beaten paths in bee- 

 keeping, and let the more experienced try anything new. 

 While it is possible for a beginner to get something good, 

 more than likely the thing they would try has been used be- 

 fore and thrown away. Many more reasons can be given for 

 using standard goods until something else shall be adopted, 

 but I will rest at present. Mexico, Mo. 



Some Comments — A Little "Talking Back." 



BT F. L. TUOJIPSON. 



Making the Bee Another Animal. — On page 18 Mr. 

 Abbott says : " To destroy the swarming impulse is to make 

 the bee another animal, and it cannot be done." It appears, 

 then, that when the python used its hind legs, which are now 

 under the skin of its body, and the whale and the seal walked 

 upon the land, they were not the same animals, or else they 

 never did such things. Mr. Abbott must be quarreling with 



evolution ; some features of which are respectable theories, at 

 any rate, and cannot be put overboard with an assertion. If 

 we suppose swarming to be a later mode of reproduction in its 

 origin than supersedure, bees only have to revert a little to 

 become "other animals." 



Non-Swarming Bees. — Mr. Abbott also says : " All this 

 talk of a non-swarming race is a fallacy. You might just as 

 well talk of a non-laying hen being the best to hatch eggs." 

 But hens have only one mode of reproduction ; bees have two. 

 To be sure, if they reproduced by supersedure alone under 

 prcsc7it conditions, a colony would be lost here, and a colony 

 there, and finally bees would die out ; but that, again, is a 

 question of evolution. The fact that workers now occasion- 

 ally act like virgin queens indicates a survival of a time when 

 such proceedings were of some use to them — bees at that time 

 may have been all laying workers and drones, the workers 

 being fertilized : indeed, one case of a modern worker mating 

 with a drone was given in this journal a year or two ago. 

 Moreover, that a race should die out from its own character- 

 istics would be nothing unnatural. Conditions of living are 

 changing now, and have changed in the past, at varying rates 

 of speed, and might easily change faster than the ability of a 

 race to develop new instincts or organs. And would Mr. 

 Abbott expect all strains of Leghorns, or all double flowers, 

 to survive without reverting, if left to themselves? 



Dealing with Adulteration. — On page 34: Mr. Dadant 

 tells of an experience that I can appreciate. Let any one at- 

 tempt to get up a honey route by canvassing several days in a 

 city, as I have done, and before he gets through he will think 

 some things. We have two theories of dealing with adultera- 

 tion : one is, fight it — whether openly or not, it does not mat- 

 ter; the other is, keep still. Now, I am not sure that the first 

 method has not done great harm, as the advocates of the sec- 

 ond method declare (though whether that might not have 

 happened anyhow is an open question) ; but what are you 

 going tu do about it «)?!c?i (?ic/ifm?i )ios been do7ie ;' That is 

 practically the case now. If any harm remains to be done, it 

 is only a question of time until it will be, even if we never say 

 a word more about it. A little knowledge is a dangerous 

 thing, but once gained, it cannot be eliminated and the former 

 state of ignorance brought back. Whether actual adultera- 

 tion is practiced little or much, makes no difference at all. 

 The public just now has attained such a degree of suspicion 

 of adulteration as to make it very difficult to sell extracted 

 honey to strangers, and how in the world that suspicion is 

 going to be lessened I don't see, except by keeping right on 

 and wiping out real adulteration so completely that the source 

 of suspicion will stop flowing. If that is an utterly hopeless 

 undertaking, if there will always be enough left to set agog 

 the public mind, then keep still — i. c., from a purely politic 

 point of view. As to whether it would be moral to do so, is 

 another question. But while there is any hope, better have 

 no half way measures about it. 



Feeding Back. — That feeding-back experiment on page 

 41 is suggestive. I wish bee-keepers would hump themselves 

 and present Mr. Taylor with a dozen nice theories of how to 

 prevent honey from granulating when fed back, so that he 

 could select from them, add to his own, and make an exhaus- 

 tive experiment the coming season. Here is mine : If the 

 honey fed was thinned to the consistency of fresh nectar, in- 

 stead of adding only 15 or 20 per cent, of water, the longer 

 ripening process might have the same effect as on nectar. 



Mr. Hunny-Man Melbee may succeed in disposing of his 

 extracted honey without feeding it back ; but humanity in 

 general needs providing for as well as a few geniuses. 



Outside Cleaning-Up of Combs. — Mr. Sturtevant's ex- 

 perience in outside cleaning-up of combs (page 52), is quite 

 in line with what was said at the Colorado convention. Two 

 years ago a number asked whether he should feed outside, and 

 was hopped onto by the others. This time there was not a 

 dissenting voice as to the superior merits of the proceeding. 

 Two things were agreed to be essential — that the feed should 

 be quite thin, and that it should be spread over a surf ace large 

 enough to comfortably accommodate all the bees. One mem- 

 ber pours the feed over a number of boards, and says that 

 when he gets through pouring, the feed is all gone where he 

 started. It is readily seen that the neighbors' bees get no 

 chance. Another uses a large quantity of old extracting 

 combs, on which the feed is poured ; another, ordinary 

 chicken-troughs, filled with straw. Mr. Aikin goes around 

 and taps on each hive, scattering a few drops on the alight- 

 ing-board, so as to bring all colonies out at once. It was 



