620 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept* 



you remove a fertile queen? By the Alley plan 

 (waiting three days) I can get a part accepted, but I 

 have lost more than 100 trying to get them in as soon 

 as the laying queen was taken out, and never suc- 

 ceeded even nncc. G. M. Doolittle. 

 Borodino, N. Y., Aug. 4, 1883. 



Friend D., there is no trick or secret about it. As 

 soon as the laying queen is caged I take the virgin 

 queen by the wings and place her among the bees, 

 at about the center of one of the combs. Usually, 

 the bees pay no attention to her; if they do attempt 

 to sting her, I smoke them, and then watch her and 

 continue to smoke them until they let her alone, and 

 I never yet had to watch one more than ten minutes, 

 and seldom more than two minutes. I am well 

 aware that nuclei that have been queenless two or 

 three days accept a queen much more readily than 

 do those from which a queen has just been taken; 

 but in my experience, the percentage killed by in- 

 troducing them without waiting is so small that it 

 does not pay to wait. I have 130 nuclei this season, 

 and I do not think that I have inserted half a dozen 

 cells; all the queens have hatched out in the lamp 

 nursery, and then been introduced. As a general 

 thing, the laying queens have been caged in the 

 afternoon, and the virgin queens introd uced the next 

 morning. 



METALrCORNERED FRAMES. 



Friend Root, in your comments on my article in 

 July Gleanings, you say: '• Had you providedyours 

 with some of the spacing-boards we describe and il- 

 lustrate in our price list, you would have found it a 

 very simple matter indeed." And in reply please 

 allow me to say, had not the frames been metal- 

 cornered, spacing-boards would not have been need- 

 ed. Do you know what I did when I got those metal- 

 cornered frames home? No, I suppose you don't; 

 but you can easily guess. I just took the hammer 

 and "smashed 'em" right around the ends of 

 the top - bars, and then nailed another top - bar 

 right on top of the old one. The frames were a ti'ifle 

 smaller than mine, otherwise I could not have done 

 this, and should, I suppose, have been compelled to 

 use the metal corners. Cyula Linswik and her 

 sister do not like metal-cornered frames, and bought 

 them, I presume, just as thousands of others have 

 done, because you used and advised the use of them. 

 Candidly, friend Root, do you like frames with met- 

 al corners? do you know of any good purpose that 

 they serve that is not more than counterbalanced 

 by objections? A nailed frame made from % stuff 

 is strong enough, and then the top-bar doesn't sag, 

 and diagonal wires and center-posts of tin are done 

 away with. The tins cut the flagers. I know we 

 can take hold of the frames nearer the center; but 

 the frame back from the ends is more liable to be 

 covered with bees, and it is not so convenient as to 

 take hold at the projections at the ends. With met- 

 al corners we are not so liable to kill bees when 

 putting back the frames. True; and this, I believe, 

 is the only point in their favor. Now, I dislike to 

 kill bees; but I am in the bee business to make 

 money; or, if you will, to get my bread and butter; 

 and when it pays to kill bees, I shall do it; but the 

 number of bees that will be killed, even with ordi- 

 nary care, in handling all-wood frames, is a very 

 trifling matter indeed. When metal corners are 

 new they can be picked up more readily than all- 

 wood frames; but after the bees have their brace- 

 combs completed, a frame has to be pried loose be- 

 fore it can be removed, whether there are metal 

 corners or no metal corners, and it takes juat about 



as long in one case as the other. In working for ex- 

 tracted honey it is well to have the upper stories 

 made with metal rabbets; but in working for comb 

 honey, even metal rabbets are not needed, nor ad- 

 visable. 



the heddon, or manum, section. 



Friend Root, you have probably learned, ere this, 

 that I believe in " hewing to the line, let the chips 

 fall where they may;" and for this reason I wish to 

 enter my protest against the intimation that the sec- 

 tions sent out by Mr. Heddon are not thoroughly 

 seasoned, and will shrink and easily tumble to 

 pieces. Last winter friend H. sent me a sample. I 

 gave it to the twins to play with, and after they had 

 taken it to pieces and put it together again a few 

 times itwouldn't stand alone, let alone being knocked 

 off the window. The reason was, it had become so 

 worn. Friend Walker put that section together and 

 took it apart at least once, then you put it together, 

 and perhaps it was taken apart several times; if so, 

 it was not a fair test to knock such a section off the 

 window. Now, let me tell what I did. I took one of 

 friend Heddon's sections that had been put together 

 nearly three months, and threw it up ten feet; and 

 when it struck the floor it was thrown only slightly 

 out of the square. 1 continued to throw it up, and 

 the third time it came to pieces. You think Mr. 

 Manum might make some one-piece sections of the 

 same material. I fear not. I think the wood is too 

 hard and brittle; but, of course, I may be mistaken. 

 This hardness is a valuable quality, as it prevents 

 the honey from soaking into and discoloring the 

 wood. No, friend Root, and all the other fi-iends, 

 the section that friend Heddon sells is seasoned, and 

 thoroughly seasoned too, and it never mildews as 

 did some of the bass wood sections that you told 

 about last spring. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



RogersviUe, Gen. Co., Mich., Aug., 1883. 



Friend H., are you not getting a little ve- 

 hement, too? We make metal - cornered 

 frames and all-wood frames, and like our 

 customers to have which they prefer. In 

 our (>wn apiary we have tried, over and over 

 again, to get along with all -wood frames, 

 which we get every season in buying bees. 

 But I never yet had a hand in my employ 

 but that begged to be allowed to transfer all 

 the combs in all-wood frames into the metal- 

 cornered ones. Do you remember, that in 

 the price list I advise trying one frame with 

 metal corners before getting more ? Dif- 

 ference in locality may have something to 

 do with it. When I visited Cyula Linswik 

 and her sister I found their hiVes so cram- 

 med with honey that metal corners and every 

 thing else were built up solid. Further- 

 more, the combs were so heavy that the 

 metal corners would hai'dly bear the weight 

 of them. Now, we do not have this state of 

 things in Ohio ; or at least we do not allow 

 bees to get so crowded for room that they 

 fill up every thing in that way. Are not 

 your remarks a little intolerant of the opin- 

 ions of other people ? Should I allow the 

 protests that will come, from what you have 

 said, a place in Gleanings, there would 

 hardly be room for any thing else. We have 

 great numbers of customers who are order- 

 ing metal-cornered frames year after year ; 

 and the present season the demand has been 

 greater than ever before. As an illustration 

 of how opinions differ, I would cite you this 

 matter of introducing virgin queens, which 



