12 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



his apiary. What shall he regard with sus- 

 picion? What are the symptoms most likely 

 to strike his senses first? We wish for clear, 

 concise, correct descriptions of the symptoms 

 of the disease in its different stages, in order 

 that a decision may be easily reached, once 

 the suspicions are ai'oused. And, last, but 

 not least, what shall a bee keeper do when he 

 finds that his bees really are affected with 

 foul brood? One other point. We do not 

 suppose that any one would knowingly send 

 out queens from an apiary infected with 

 foul brood, but the disease might be present 

 a short time before discovered; and, in the 

 meantime, queens had been sent out. What 

 are the probabilities and possibilities of foul 

 brood being scattered by the trafiic in 

 queens, and what precautionary measures, if 

 any, would it be well for queen buyers to 

 take? If we have overlooked important 

 poirts, as is probably the case, we will be 

 obliged if correspondents will bring them up. 



DEEP TOP BAKS AND PROPEE SPACING WILL 



PROBABLY PEEVENT THE BUILDING OF 



BBACE OOMBS, BUT QUEEN EX- 



CLUDEBS AKE NEEDED. 



Soon after we began publishing the Re- 

 view, a good friend wrote u,s that he hoped 

 we would not follow the plan of the political 

 papers, that of striving to the utmost to 

 prove one side of a question and neglecting 

 the other side. We think that all who have 

 read the Review will agree in saying that its - 

 editor strives earnestly to arrive at the triifli, 

 regardless of what the decision may be. 

 Perhaps most of you know that we believe 

 in, or favor, specialty : while Prof. Cook 

 leans in the opposite direction. Well, over 

 at Lansing, at the convention, he burst out 

 with: "Bro. Hutchinson, I must congratu- 

 late you upon the fairness with which you 

 conducted the discussion upon Specialty vs. 

 Mixed Bee Keeping." We suppose we may 

 as well "own up" that the discussions in the 

 Review have several times changed, or at 

 least modified, our views. The discussion in 

 the present number affords the most striking 

 illustration of such a change. When Dr. 

 Miller, at the last meeting of the Northwest- 

 ern in Chicago, suggested that possibly the 

 honey board might yet be dispensed with, it 

 seemed to us as simply preposterous; yet 

 who can read the discussions in the present 

 number witliout deciding that, in all proba- 

 bility, the honey board can be laid aside. 

 We think this whole matter of the prevention 



of brace combs hinges upon exact and proper 

 spacing, aided, perhaps, by dej^th of top 

 bars. Bro. Hill, of the Guide, says that bees 

 do not recognize such a thing as a "bee 

 space," except between the combs and below 

 their lower edges. Now all experienced bee 

 keepers know that, as a rule, bees do recog- 

 nize, and leave free from comb and propolis, 

 a .5-1(5 space. To say that bees 7iever build 

 comb in this space would not be true, as, 

 when terribly crowded for room in a copious 

 honey flow, they will sometimes crowd in 

 bits of combs; but with proper attention, 

 such as all bee keepers worthy of the name 

 give their bees, brace combs in this space 

 are few and far between. Even a slight 

 increase in the size of this space greatly 

 increases the probability of brace combs 

 being built therein: while doubling its size 

 makes the building of them a certainty. 

 With top bars 7-8 wide and spaced 1% from 

 center to center, it will be seen that the 

 space between them is 5-8, and that brace 

 combs will be built in this space and extend- 

 ed to whatever there is above the top bars. 

 "Yes," says some one, "but top bars 1,^8 wide 

 have been used, and, while their use has 

 discouraged the building of brace combs, it 

 has not entirely prevented it." True, but 

 see here friend, were they accurately spaced? 

 Were they not upon the hanging laterally 

 movable frames, in which the spacing was 

 done by the eye, and any bulges and ine- 

 qualities in the combs were accommodated 

 by moving some frames farther apart, and 

 putting others closer together? We have 

 just received a letter from Mr. J. H Robert- 

 son of Pewamo, Michigan, which reads as 

 follows: "I have used, and still have, a large 

 number of 7-8 square top bars, and I have 

 never been able to discover that they had 

 any material effect upon the building of 

 brace combs. I rather prefer the 3-8 top bar, 

 and should as soon think of returning to box 

 hives as of dispensing with queen excluding 

 honey boards." We must remember that 

 his top bars are .')-8 apart and spaced by the 

 eye. If the top bars are put nearer together 

 than ,5-16, the bees do not build brace combs 

 between them. That is, the substance 

 placed between them is not coHib,' there are 

 no cells and no honey stored; it is simply 

 hard uhix. It will be noticed that Mr. Kil- 

 dow says the bees did finally plug those 8-1(5 

 spaces with hard wax. We have no faith in 

 a ;5-l() space. We have used supers in which 

 there was only from 3-16 to 1-4 inch space 



