1078 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



ed, tainted, or rotten. This applies to milk, 

 or animal or vegetable substances. 



It is high time now that other States not 

 yet having a pure-food law should get one, 

 as they will otherwise be the sufferers from 

 the adulterators who must "pull out" from 

 the States having these laws. Texas is not 

 really so far behind, after all, as many may 

 have supposed. 



.& 



AN IDEAL SHALLOW FRAME. 



The shallow Hoffman (5| deep) frames 

 have been improved "a whole lot" by mak- 

 ing the end-bars full | inch thick instead of 

 J and scant y\ inch as before made. A 

 thickness of y^ inch seems to be only a very 

 small fraction, but this addition makes a 

 much stronger frame. Now let's improve 

 this frame still more by making the top-bar 

 thicker but narrower, and we shall have 

 what I call my ideal frame. The top-bars 

 should be only i inch wide the entire length 

 — no offsets or shoulders for the end-bars to 

 butt against. They should be | inch thick 

 to prevent sagging. I have tried many dif- 

 ferent kinds, and prefer these to all. They 

 give more space between top- bars, hence bet- 

 ter for tiering up, and by far a great advan- 

 tage in divisible- brood-chamber hives. There 

 arejio more burr-combs than with the wide 

 top-bars. 



In uncapping there is no frame better than 

 with such width of top-bars and the regular 

 |-inch bottom-bars, as the knife is simply 

 laid against the two, and the comb sliced 

 down in one swoop. With the wide top-bars, 

 and the frames spaced the regular distance, 

 there is more or less trouble, as the comb 

 does not extend beyond the wood. 



No groove for inserting foundation is nec- 

 essary on the top- bars, as I do not need 

 them^ — especially in bulk-comb-honey produc- 

 tion. Where the combs are cut out and foun- 

 dation put in its place time and again, the 

 groove is used only once, the first time. The 

 groove only weakens the frame, and it is re- 

 ally easier to fasten the edge of the founda- 

 tion on to the flat surface of the top-bar than 

 to insert it into the groove, either when fast- 

 ening with melted wax or the hot-plate-ma- 

 chine fastener. 



Such frames are easier and cheaper to 

 make, I am sure, as there are fewer shoulders 

 to cut out, no grooves, and only one plain 

 width. What think you of such frames, and 

 the cost of them, Mr. Editor? 

 .^ 



ROBBING AND SOME "CURES." 



One of the most provoking nuisances is a 

 bad case of robbing; and I have seen many 

 apiarists who, in the spur of the moment, 

 knew not how to proceed with such cases. 

 When / find a colony is being robbed in the 

 apiary, an armful of hay and a bucket of wa- 

 ter is my remedy. The hay, grass, weeds, or 

 what may be handiest, is thrown over the 

 entrance, loosely, so the bees, a few at a time, 

 can pass through, and the whole — hay, hive, 

 bees, and all — are given a good sprinkling of 

 water. 



The robbers scamper out of this mess in a 

 hurry, and go home: and those new-comers 

 that nose around also soon retire, for a while 

 at least. Then the colony is exchanged for 

 a stronger one and set on its place. This 

 usually settles it. See cuts on next page. 



When bees "go crazy" over a stack of su- 

 pers or combs in hives, especially when the 

 stacks have a leak, there is often great dan- 

 ger of such a demoralization that every thing 

 on the place is stung. This is most disagree- 

 able when living in a city, as I do. We had 

 such a case yesterday — got started before I 

 came home, and the women-folks had to play 

 prisoners in their respective homes. The air 

 was full of thousands upon thousands of 

 bees, and half a dozen stacks of newly ex- 

 tracted supers were covered with a wild an- 

 gry mass. The Jumbo smoker and some 

 coal oil and a brush were resorted to in this 

 case. The bees were smoked from the hives; 

 and with the brush, coal oil was "painted " 

 over the hive connections, only one stroke 

 over each being all that was necessary. In 

 te7i minutes all was quiet — yes, the scared 

 people wanted to know where the bees had 

 gone to. I have used this for years most 

 effectively. 



A FEW THINGS NOT TO DO IN BEE 

 KEEPING. 



BY E. W. ALEXANDER. 



LMr. Alexander always writes valuable helpful arti- 

 cles, but this one on the don'ts of bee-keeping is one 

 of his best. It should be read alike by the veteran as 

 well as the beginner. We are not sure but that some 

 might cut this out and paste it in their hats, where it 

 could be seen and read often.— Ed.] 



While we are so free to tell the inexperi- 

 enced what they should do in order to suc- 

 ceed, would it not be well to remind them 

 of some things they should not do? 



INVENTING HIVES. 



First, don't spend either time nor money in 

 trying to construct a new form of hive — not 

 but that there are some serious faults in 

 nearly all of our standard hives, but let the 

 experienced bee-keeper remedy those faults. 



MANAGEMENT OF WEAK COLONIES; HOW TO 

 PREVENT ROBBING. 



Don't allow your bees to acquire the habit 

 of robbing. Hundreds of weak colonies are 

 lost annually by this provoking habit which 

 is frequently caused by the neglect of their 

 owner. One of the worst features of taking 

 our bees from their winter quarters, a few at 

 a time, is that it almost invariably starts 

 robbing. The colonies that are taken out 



