THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



179 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUKNAL TO BE CHANGED 

 IN FOEM. 



We are pleased to note that with the be- 

 ginning of the new year the Avierican Bee 

 Journal is to be changed to a two-column, 

 thirty-two page paper ; the same size that 

 it was when a monthly. We think this the 

 most desirable size for a magazine. 



In this connection we might mention that 

 the price of TJie Illustrated Home Journal 

 has been reduced to only fifty cents. It is 

 clubbed with the A. B. J. for only iJ^Lo"). 

 This lowering of the price is done to 

 secure an immense circulation which will 

 command a large advertising patronage. 



OBATES FOB SHIPPING CASES. 



The cases containing the comb honey that 

 we took to the fairs this fall were shipped in 

 crates like the one we illustrated and de- 

 scribed in the June Review. First they 

 went to Detroit, then to Lansing, and from 

 there home. We have counted up the num- 

 ber of times they were handled (loaded or 

 unloaded) during the round trip, and it is 

 twelve times, yet, barring the slight stain 

 left by the dust that the brooms raised 

 nightly at the Exposition, the white poplar 

 cases are as white as when first made. Not 

 a comb was broken ; not a drop of leakage. 

 Time and again did Cutting say : " Hutchin- 

 son, these crates are one of the best things 

 you have adopted in a long time." 



WIDE, DEEP TOP-BAES AND CLOSBD-END 

 FBAMES. 



Mr. Root has decided to make the Dove- 

 tailed hive (for those who wish it) with top 

 bars 1 1-32 wide and ^'y deep. In addition to 

 this, some hives will be made with closed- 

 end bars to the frames. No slatted honey- 

 boards will l)e needed with these wide, deep 

 top bars. At least this is the decision at the 

 Root establishment, and back of this is the 

 testimony of the representative bee keepers 

 of New York to the effect that they do not 

 use, and see no use for the slatted honey 

 board. To them it is a wonder why honey 

 boards are deemed necessary by Western 

 bee keepers. To us, the size and spacing of 

 the top bars explain the whole matter. 

 Western men will now be able, at little ex- 

 pense, to give these large top bars a trial, 

 and decide whether they prefer them to a 

 honey board. Apparently, the Root firm has 

 never tried so hard to be " up with the 

 times " as it has during the past year or two. 



ME. BOOT ADOPTS AND ADVISES THE BENTON 

 CAGE. 



AVe are very glad to see, by Gleanings of 

 Oct. 1, that Mr. Root has at last turned a 

 cold shoulder on the Peet cage. It was a 

 very undesirable cage for shipping. It was 

 heavy and expensive, the tin conducted the 

 heat from the bees, and allowed the queen 

 to be bumped around for lack of a foothold. 

 As an introducing cage it worked fairly well. 

 But we must not forget that the condition in 

 which a queen arrives has much to do with 

 our success in introducing her ; hence, the 

 care that brings her in the best condition 

 aids in her introduction. The cage that Mr. 

 Root has adopted is the Benton cage, which 

 is practically the same as the one we de- 

 scribed in these columns a month or two 

 ago. In this cage the queen is released by 

 the bees eating out the candy from the 

 entrance to the cage. We feel certain that 

 this is the way to have a queen released. 

 We are also glad to note that Mr. Root no 

 longer advises, in his directions for intro- 

 ducing, that the queen be hunted up after 

 she is released to see how the bees are treat- 

 ing her. We have often followed this advice. 

 Found the queen all right, sometimes, only 

 to have her give a "zeep " and start on a 

 run, with the bees after her. Soon she would 

 be in a "ball." Sometimes we would find 

 her already " balled," but we believe it was 

 the result of our disturbance. We presume 

 it was such experience as this that led Mr. 

 Root to conclude that by his timely (?) in- 

 terference he had saved the queen. Let the 

 bees release the queen by eating candy from 

 the entrance to the cage, and don't open ^)e 

 hive for several days, when the queen will 

 have become "wonted" and commenced 

 laying, and there will be no danger of 

 "balling." 



WE ABE " PLATING IT ALONE." 



In a recent letter from Henry Alley he 

 says: "Either you had a barrel of money 

 when you commenced, or else some one is 

 ' backing you up ' in the publication of the 

 Review." Neither assertion is true, and we 

 believe we have said as much before in these 

 columns. For the satisfaction of all inter- 

 ested we will again state, that we started the 

 Review without capital. A month or two 

 before the first number was issued we an- 

 nounced that with the beginning of the year 

 we should commence the publication of the 



