1082 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



hanger is turned, up or down the frame, the 

 slot will slip over a staple. The latter also 

 serves to space the frame from the ends of 

 the hive. At diagonal corners on the sides 

 of the frame are more small staples for comb- 

 spacers. The hive shown in the half-tone is 

 a special queen-rearing hive of Mr. Bray's 

 designing. His manner of wiring is some- 

 what novel, although, perhaps, not new. 

 While I was posing Mr. Bray for a picture of 

 himself and bee-yard, the genial Pat Keating 



THE BEES OF THE CARNIC ALPS. 



The Curious Hives Used by the Natives; 

 Carniolan Bees. 



FIG. 3.- 



-PATRICK KEATING AND MOSES BRAY SHOWING NEW PLAN 

 FOB REVERSING HANGING FRAMES. 



stepped upon the scene, as he wanted to 

 show Mr. Bray (and others too, I suppose) 

 some of the good features of his bee-veil. 



Oakland, Cal. 



[The manner of reversing the frame in- 

 vented by Mr. Bray greatly resembles the 

 Heddon reversible frame of the eighties, and 

 now discarded. Such a frame is considered 

 too expensive by the average buyer of hives. 

 — Ed.] 



BY RALPH BENTON, B. S. 



Assistant in Entomology, University of California. 



The peasants of the Austrian and Carnic 

 Alps are extensive bee-keepers. They have 

 a rare race of bees; and, though a simple and 

 agriculturally primitive people, have done 

 much to take ad- 

 vantage , of their 

 stock in trade. 

 Winding in among 

 the Carnic Alps is 

 the broad and shal- 

 low yet swift-run- 

 ning Save River 

 with its turbulent 

 mountain tributa- 

 ries rushing on to 

 meet the slow-mov- 

 ing, sluggish Dan- 

 ube threading its 

 way through the 

 plains of Hungary. 

 The people who in- 

 habit these narrow 

 valleys among the 

 rocky spurs are 

 Slovenians, and 

 cling tenaciously 

 to their language 

 and national cus- 

 toms against the 

 encroachments of 

 German Austria. 

 Their system of 

 bee-keeping is pe- 

 culiarly their own. 

 The hives are 

 made of thin ma- 

 terial, about three 

 feet in length, six 

 inches in depth, 

 and perhaps hfteen 

 inches in breadth. 

 The bottom-board 

 is but loosely se- 

 cured by four iron 

 nails, or in some 

 cases screws, and 

 projects in front 

 two or three inches 

 to form the alight- 

 ing -board. The 

 fronts of the hives 

 alone are movable, 

 and are tempora- 

 rily secured by in- 

 serting the top edge close under the slight- 

 ly projecting top-iboard, and then wedging 

 in by pvishing in snugly along the bottom- 

 board. The front pieces contain the en- 

 trance three to four inches long. On these 

 fronts are usually painted scenes illustrative 

 of some well-known proverb or a cardinal 

 event in Biblical history, as shown in the il- 

 lustration. The hives are placed one above 

 the other in rows of ten or a dozen, or even 



