1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



439 



other mortals, wait to see whether or not the society will take 

 due notice of his extraordinary merits, but he writes a letter 

 to them rccjxicsilinij a " medal" for his researches on the propa- 

 gation of parasites. 



Have interesting new books, pamphlets, or essays ap- 

 peared ■? They are discussed, and the public attention is 

 drawn to them. Queries, either from unions or single persons, 

 are answered. Asks any bee-keepers' union for an instructor? 

 A teacher is sent to them. The society sees that their exhi- 

 bitions are well arranged and conducted. Wheueverthe legis- 

 lative powers have laws under consideration which concern 

 the interests of apiculture or insectology, the society exerts 

 all its influence that the latter be guarded. 



The organ of the society is " L'Apiculteur " (The Apicul- 

 turist) ; a monthly, edited and published at Paris, and being, 

 like the society itself, in its 39th year now. Its present very 

 able editor is Mr. Levalle, who, besides possessing a most 

 thorough knowledge of modern bee-keeping, is an enthusiastic 

 teacher and promoter of practical apiculture. The minutes of 

 the society are published in the paper, which at the same time 

 contains interesting articles, discussions, correspondences, 

 market reports, etc. There are also not a few advertisements 

 in it. St. Petersburg, Fla. 



Form aod Size of Brood-Chamber. 



BY F. A. SNKLL. 



The hive I prefer contains 10 brood-frames \\% inches 

 square, inside measure; top-bars tight-fitting except two open- 

 ings 2j-.2x3/16 inches for admission to the surplus depart- 

 ment. The bottom part of the frames are held in position by 

 spacing-nails. Width of space between the side-bars I prefer 

 5 16 inch ; bottotn-board movable. With this style of frame 

 burr and brace combs are reduced to a minimum. With this 

 form of brood-frame I have secured better results in wintering 

 and springing bees than with any shallow frame I have tried, 

 and they have been numerous and thoroughly tested. Each 

 bee-keeper has his preference, and I simply give my reasons 

 for my selection. 



I have tried large and small brood-chambers with shallow 

 frames, and others with frames 15 inches deep in the. clear, 

 and for wintering I have found nothing superior to these, and 

 have secured large yields of surplus for this locality, from 8 

 and 9 frame hives of this depth, and W% inches in the clear 

 horizontally. Such frames are not as readily handled as one 

 not so deep ; hence I use mostly the l]%xll%. The combs 

 are securely attached to the frames, the cluster of bees in the 

 best possible position to economize heat, and the honey or 

 stores near at hand, the form being compact. 



During winter the bees cluster below quite a portion of 

 the stores, thereby keeping the honey warm, and of easy ac- 

 cess ; the most compact form and normal cluster can be main- 

 tained. The colony is not forced to seek food at one end of 

 the hive, as with the long, shallow brood-frame ; and per- 

 chance the stores at that point become exhausted in extremely 

 cold weather, the bees cannot move to the opposite end of the 

 frames to secure food, and as a result, must perish. My loss 

 in wintering in this form of hive has been but slight ; spring 

 dwindling, swarming out, etc., I know scarcely anything 

 about by experience. I do not remember that I have had any 

 of the latter for the past 25 years or more. 



The form of the hive is such that the bees enter all parts 

 of the super and begin work at about the same time, securing 

 nearly uniform progress and completion. I practice tiering 

 up. In running for comb honey I have no use for honey- 

 boards, as the queen never enters the supers. Scarcely any 

 burr-combs to mention. The bees enter the sections readily 

 during a honey-flow. In fact, I fail by experience to see any 

 difference between this style of frame and those 8}^ inches in 



depth, in this respect, as it might seem to some, as the space 

 is not large through the openings in the top-bars, which could 

 be readily enlarged if desired. 



This form of the hive makes it much easier to carry or re- 

 move to and from winter quarters. With the long hives in 

 use two men have had to carry a hive, while these are carried 

 by one with us. The brood-chamber being large, the spring 

 must be a hard one, even with the extensive brood-rear- 

 ing carried on in this form of hive, if the bees run short of 

 stores. 



The above are sume of my reasons for preferring this 

 hive, which will suffice at present. Milledgeville, 111. 



Comments and Suggestions. 



BY EDWIN BEVINS. 



Strawbekkies and Bees. — Somebody was making a 

 clamor not long ago in the American Bee Journal for some 

 "facts" about bees and strawberries. The fact is I am short 

 about 12 strawberry short-cakes because my bees failed to 

 pollenize the blossoms of a row of Cresent strawberry plants 

 I had right In front of the hives, and not more than 10 feet 

 distant. These plants had staminate sorts on both sides of 

 them, which gave me considerable fruit, but not a Crescent 

 did I get. 



Doglittle's "Old Man." — I have just given the mouth 

 of Doolittle's " old man " a re-examination to see if I could 

 find that " droop " which Dr. Miller says is there. Is it ever 

 said of anything that it droops in the middle? Are the horns 

 of the new moon said to droop when they are turned upward ? 

 I will leave it to you, Mr. Editor, or any other more careful 

 observer than Dr. Miller, to say if the corners of the old man's 

 mouth are not higher than the middle. If you want to see 

 eipectancy. Doctor, look at the old man's eyes 1 



Spacino Wires. — To my new hive, 20 inches long, 12 

 inches deep, and 8-frame width, I have adopted the spacing 

 wire used in the big Dadant extracting-hive. I use two of 

 these wires in the bottom of the hive — one at each end of the 

 frames — and hold the frames at the top with a small wire nail 

 wholly or partly driven according to length of nail used. This 

 hive any bee-keeper can make at home at very little expense, 

 and with such tools as every bee-keeper is supposed to have. 

 With these wire spacers, frames that are sawed out with a 

 handsaw are just as good as any. And now having marked 

 out a brood-chamber for comb honey that suits me in all its 

 dimensions, I expect to soon say good-by to the standard. For 

 extracted honey I will continue to use the Dadant hive, as 

 with them swarming is almost unknown, and wintering has no 

 terrors. 



At Toronto. — I have just had another prophetic vision 

 of some more of the things that may be seen at the meeting 

 in Toronto in September. I see the Rev. Emerson T. Abbott 

 there raising h about " raising " honey. 



White Clover puts in no appearance here this season, 

 and I am bracing myself to buy more sugar for the bees, and 

 eat more sorghum molasses on my pancakes. 



Killing Bees. — I read the reply of Mr. McArthur to my 

 article, "Against Certain Bee-Killing Ideas," with some satis- 

 faction and some surprise — satisfaction at the moderate tone 

 of his reply after I had called him by the hard name of mur- 

 derer ; surprise that he still persists in advocating a practice 

 in bee-keeping which provokes. If it does not justify, such a 

 designation. 



In calling him by this name I only adopted the language 

 used by Langstroth towards all sulphurers of bees, whether 



