212 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



The Missouri Bee-Keepeb is improving. 

 The last number shows most clearly that it 

 has an editor. 



Several Articles on " House Apiaries " 

 are crowded out of this issue. They will ap- 

 pear in the September number. 



Rats of Light can no longer be classed 

 as a bee journal. It has been changed to a 

 local newspaper and looks as though it might 

 be more of a success in that direction. 



Words of Praise were spoken last month 

 by the Review for the C. B. J. They were 

 deserved. In fact, the last two issues show 

 that the praise is more than deserved. It 

 really seems as though Bro. Jones had been 

 in hiding for months and months and had 

 now been found, l)rought out into the com- 

 pany and made to " talk turkey." 



The American Apicultubist for August 

 is but little more than a great big booming 

 circular for the business of E. L. Pratt and H. 

 Alley. By actual nteasvrement, more than 

 three-fourths of of its reading matter is de- 

 voted to the describing, praising, puffing 

 and pricing of those "wonderful Punic 

 bees," the " golden Carniolaus," or to berat- 

 ing those who have criticized said bees or 

 the methods of their breeders. 



YELLOW (?) CARNIOLANS. 



Some of the discussion upon the so- 

 called "yellow Carniolans " reminds one 

 quite forcibly of the bee journalism that has 

 past and gone. 



There is no doubt that yellow bees can be 

 found in Carniola, but it has been explained 

 how they came there, that they have inter- 

 mixed with the yellow bees of Italy. The 

 point is right here. Carniolans are a dark 

 variety while Italians are yellow. To secure 

 bees from just inside the border of Italy, 

 bees that had received a dash of dark blood 

 from an adjoining country, then breed out 

 the yellow blood and sell the result as black 

 Italians, would be exactly in line with what 

 is being done with the Carniolans. That 

 the bees sold as " yellow Carniolans " are 

 good bees no one has expressed a doubt, 

 that their immediate ancestors came to this 

 country from Carniola may be equally true, 

 but to call them typical Carniolans would be 

 as absurd as to call an octroon a typical 

 African. 



CLOSED-END FRAMES IN A TIGHT-FITTING HIVE. 



Ernest Root, in Gleanings for July 1.5, 

 contends that the deeper are close fitting 

 frames the greater is the difficulty of man- 

 ipulating them in a tight fitting case, a la 

 Heddon. He says that deep frames catch 

 and draw out by "hitches" as in the case 

 with a bureau drawer if it fits snugly and is 

 not pulled out perfectly straight. I am in- 

 clined to agree with Ernest in this matter; 

 not so, however, when he says that the right 

 amount of " play " or space cannot be main- 

 tained between the ends of the frames and 

 the outside case on account of the effects of 

 moisture. Lumber does not swell endwise, 

 and by halving together the corners of a hive 

 in such a manner that the inside of the end 

 pieces comes against a shoulder cut in the 

 ends of the side pieces, the hive can never 

 be any smaller inside in the direction of its 

 length, no matter hotv much the lumV)er 

 swells. Now for the frames. Their top and 

 bottom bars extend their extreme length and 

 can never be any longer from swelling. The 

 ends of the top and bottom bars fit into 

 notches cut into the ends of the end bars, or 

 uprights, and are nailed fast, the nails being 

 driven within ^g of the end of the top or 

 bottom bars. The end l)ars are V thick and 

 perfectly free to swell in either direction 

 from where they are fastened by nailing. In 

 other words, they can and do swell both 

 ways from the nailing. Outside of the nail- 

 ing, at each end, is % of wood that can swell 

 in such a manner as to lessen the distance 

 between the ends of the frames and the out- 

 side case. This is all the wood there is 

 about the ivhole hive that can swell in such 

 a manner as to lessen this space. V inch of 

 ordinary pine wood will never swell until it 

 is more than r)-l(> thick, while ^s play can be 

 allowed if necessary. 



My Heddon hives and frames are made 

 exactly as I describe them. When I put 

 them in the cellar in the fall I always loosen 

 up the screws as I well know that the end 

 bars will swell crosswise of the hive. Ordi- 

 dinarily the screws press the frames back 

 about r^-lG from the sides of the hive. 

 When taken from the cellar the end bars 

 have sometimes swelled so much in some 

 hives that this r)-l(> space is entirely closed up; 

 but between the ends of the frames and the 

 ends of the outside case there is ample space 

 to allow the manipulation of the frames. I 

 allow only I-IG " play " yet the blade of an 

 ordinary case knife might be easily thrust 



