THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



243 



reader of the Review approves of this 

 course, or has any specific complaint to 

 make, 1 should be gflad to hear from him. 



««ii^ii«»»*» 



Surplus Combs may be cleaned up at 

 the close of the season, writes Mr. J. Rid- 

 ley, of Minnesota, by taking^ two or three 

 combs out of each super, so that the 

 combs may be spread apart, and then pi- 

 ingf the supers up, crisscross, out of doors, 

 and letting- the bees "wade in." The 

 combs removed may be hung upon some 

 pieces of scantling, or put into extra su- 

 pers. He says that the bees will not tear 

 the combs unless placed close together. 

 They won't injure old combs, but. judging 

 from my experience. 1 don't feel so sure 

 about new. white, tender combs. 



**ir*^^«-* .'^L" 



Metal Spaced frames are defended by 

 Bro. Root to the extent of calling the dull- 

 ing of the honey knife upon the staples a 

 "man of straw." He has talked with 

 those who have used them, and they ridi- 

 culed the very idea of dulling the knife 

 upon the staples. I passed three or four 

 days lately in uncapping combs, and some 

 of them were in frames that were staple- 

 spaced. I will be candid enough to ad- 

 mit that the presence of staples is not a 

 serious obstacle when uncapping combs, 

 but it certainly is very exasperating, when 

 working with a keen-edged knife, to have 

 it go slap dab against a staple that was 

 unseen because covered with wax or a bit 

 of brace-com.b. 



I •••^»,«««^ 



Bee Escapes are all right for getting 

 bees off the surplus honey, but there is 

 one point that all must bear in mind; if 

 they don't, it will be most forceibly im- 

 pressed upon them, and that is that the 

 supers must be bee-tight when escapes 

 are used after the close of harvest. If 

 there is the least bit of a crack that rob- 

 bers can squeeze through, they will be 

 into the super and carrying off the honey 

 very soon after the escape has done its 

 work. You may think that your covers 

 and supers fit perfectly tight, but you will 



be surprised to see how small a crack 

 will allow a bee to wiggle through. It is 

 possible to have hives and covers fit per- 

 fectly, and it is also possible to i/7/nA- thsy 

 are bee-tight when they are not. 



**^ ».Pk^^F^^ 



E-xtracting is finished at two of the 

 Northern Michigan apiaries. The yield 

 was not so great as we had hoped and 

 expected. I think bee-keepers are given 

 to over-estimating their crop while it is on 

 the hives. The average in these two 

 yards was only about 45 pounds per col- 

 ony—not half a crop, but as good as the 

 average. The Morey yard, the one shown 

 in the frontispiece, is yet to be extracted, 

 and I expect that that will have a much 

 higher average. The excluders were put 

 on early in this yard, and there will be 

 solid combs of honey, instead of some 

 from which brood had hatched, as was 

 the case in one of the other yards; be- 

 sides, all of the hives in this yard are 

 ten-framers, while at least half of the 

 others were in eight-frame hives. I came 

 home to get out this issue of the Review, 

 then I am going back, and Elmer and I 

 will live in a tent and have a picnic of a 

 time while extracting this honey. Don't 

 you see how nice it is to be able to ex- 

 tract your honey just whenever you are 

 ready ? 



»^*^»»^»«« 



The Far-Western Bee-Keeper for June 

 contained the following advertisement: — 



"Wanted, a business manager for this 

 journal. To run a comb honey apiary of 

 100 colonies, all alone, through the honey 

 season, look over several hundred pages 

 of bee literature every month, prepare 

 copy for 20 pages of this journal, look to 

 the subscription list, make collections, ad- 

 vertise, and attend to all of the number- 

 less details of the publication, is too much 

 like slaving, and. as 1 don't fancy slaving. 

 I would like somebody to help me." 



Since June, the Far-Western has failed 

 to put in an appearance, and I fear that 

 brother Horn failed to secure the needed 

 help. Without actual experience, one can 

 have only a faint conception of the amount 

 of work necessary in getting out even a 

 small and very ordinary monthly journal 



