86 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



tightly that it is necessary to commence 

 at one side and pry the f- ':.r-.>js loose one 

 at a time until the midr'io of the brood 

 nest is reached, when, at last, we are 

 ready to remove a comb. All this does 

 not strike me as very rapid handling"- 

 With loose, hanging frame j it is necessary 

 only to pry loose a comb each side of the 

 one to be removed, press them over a 

 little to one side, when the comb between 

 can be lifted out. In this matter of get- 

 ting the combs back, one kind can be put 

 back as rapidly as the other. After they 

 are in the hive, the loose, hanging frames 

 will probably nesd some spacing with the 

 fingers, but this won"t take so very much 

 longer than it does to put in the dummy 

 and get it into place with wedges or 

 springs. As inspector of apiaries I have 

 handled all kinds of frames, and if there 

 is anything I dread to meet it is the self- 

 spaced frame, es-pecially of the Hoffman 

 style. When I come to an apiary with 

 the plain, all-wood, loose hanging frames, 

 what a sigh of relief goes up ! 1 have 

 used the two kinds of frames, side by 

 side, in our own apiaries the last season, 

 and my choice comes from actual prac- 

 tice, not theory nor prejudice. 



When it comes to the production of ex- 

 tracted honey, the frames with staples, 

 and projections, "excrescences,'" I call 

 them, are simply not "in it." For several 

 reasons it is better to space the combs 

 wide apart in the supers, when the self- 

 spacing arrangements come to naught. 

 The oamo G?,n't be said of them, however, 

 when it comes to using the honey knife. 



»^it»^;'u«««.«^» 



Some of Our Plans for the Coming 

 Season. 



I expect that my brother and myself 

 will have somowhere between 500 and 

 600 colonies of bees under our charge the 

 coming season. Thus far they have win- 

 tered perfectly, and before another issue 

 of the Review reaches its readers, it is 

 likely that the bees will be out of doors 

 and on the wing. As soon as the warm 

 days come which will enable them to fly 

 freely, they will be set out upon their 



summer stands; end I expect that many 

 of the colonies, perhaps most of them, 

 will be protected with black, tarred felt. 

 By the way, the need of this protection is 

 not so great when the bees first are taken 

 from the cellar, as it is later, when large 

 quantities have been developed. 



As soon as settled warm weather has 

 come, and the danger of cold snaps is 

 practically over, some of the colonies, 

 probably most of them, will be fed. By 

 the way, 1 have about 1,000 pounds of 

 honey in brood combs, some that I got 

 with the apiary that 1 bought last winter. 

 The former owner took out these combs 

 last fall, and expected to extract the 

 honey, but farm-work prevented until it 

 was so late and cold that he gave it up. 

 1 expect to give this to any colonies that 

 are particularly lacking in stores. When 

 I visited Mr. J. P. Moore two years ago. 

 he told me of a fall harvest that came 

 from asters, I believe, and he saved solid 

 combs of this honey until spring, then put 

 one in each side of each brood nest, and 

 he said it was simply marvelous to see 

 how colonies so treated "shelled out" the 

 bees. Mr. Townsend never said truer 

 words than when he said that a colony to 

 do its best must have an abundance of 

 stores for six weeks previous to the main 

 harvest. This is what our 600 colonies 

 will have the coming spring. 



We are having 6.000 frames made and 

 filled with foundation this winter and 

 spring. About 600 supers are being 

 made. We are determined that there 

 shall be no loss of honey from lack of 

 ■ super-room. As soon as a brood nest is 

 full of bees, honey and brood, and the 

 flow of honey is on, we shall put on an 

 upper story, raise half of the combs from 

 below, and alternate them, in each story, 

 with sheets of wired foundation. When 

 these two stories, or the combs in them, 

 are nearly all full, and the flow continues, 

 a queen excluder will be placed b.itween 

 the two staries. In a few days an ex- 

 amination will be held to learn the where- 

 abouts of the queens. The presence of 

 eggs will disclose in which story a qi eon 



