1) it has two pieces 1x8x21 inches for floor. Two end cleats 1x2x16 inches are placed at each end. Six penny wirenails, 6 at each end-3 to each end of a board-are driven right through these

FIG. 4.-NARROW AND WIDE TOP-BAR
FRAMES.

and the cleats, and are then clinched underneath. The 3% thick cleats for the hive to rest on are then nailed on the upper surface as shown, and the whole receives thorough painting.

The cover (Fig. 2) is made of the same material, 1x8x24 inches long, and has the same kind of cleats at the ends, only that one is placed above as well as below the ends of the boards. Long, slim, 10-penny wire-nails are nailed through the ends, cleats, board and all, and then clinched underneath. Το tighten these up they are placed on an anvil. This makes the strongest cover I know of, as the cleats hold the boards with such a grip that they cannot warp or twist in any way. With a piece of an "O. G." batten nailed over the central joint, and the whole well painted, I have the best cover I have had after trying nearly all.

Now for the hive or super-which? It is all the same. Fig. 3 shows one on end, and also the frames. I advocate the 10-frame size as the best for all purposes, especially for my purpose, as I have tried them side by side with 8-frame sizes; and I would not hesitate to advocate the 10-frame size with my system of management for comb honey in the North as well as here in the South, as I believe that I could get better results, with less swarming, even there, than are obtained with the too small 8-frame hives. These supers are nothing other than the standard 534

viated. The difference shows plainly in Fig. 4.

Now these shallow stories are not only used as supers; I use them singly with a bottom and cover for the nucleus of a colony. Add another to it later with empty combs or honey, and brood perhaps, and my, how they build up to full colonies! Then one story after another is piled on, as so many supers after the honey-flow has begun until I find that the colony, as shown in Fig. 5, has grown into that enormous stack of the finest sweetness on earth-280 pounds of the very prettiest bulk comb honey from one colony, in Fig. 6. That was the record kept of my best colony, and meant a surplus that brought $33.60 from that one colony of bees.

So much for the description of the kind of hive I would adopt and advocate when starting anew for the production of bulk comb honey.

In the next issue will be shown what is in that stack of shallow stories.

We also would have to handle it several times, which would be another loss, saying nothing about the smear we would have from beginning to end. We can take our section honey off the bees, case it, and haul it to market without getting one comb broken. I live 8 miles across two mountains to my nearest station and market. and if I were to produce chunk comb honey and take it to market, by the time I would get there with it you would not be able to tell whether I had comb, extracted honey, or what not, and I would not be able to sell one pound of bulk honey to where I sell 50 pounds of section honey. With section comb honey I can haul it 8 miles over the rough road to market without a single comb being broken.

So, my bee-keeping friends, it is no difficult matter to see the advantage we have of section comb honey over the old style of bulk honey. I think we bee-keepers should stick to the production of section comb honey, as we have an article we need not be ashamed of, and that we should go hand in hand to get our section honey to a higher standard, that we may be able to get better prices than we ever have had heretofore. I trust that we bee-keepers will take more interest in the production of section comb honey, that it may take the lead over all other grades of honey that are put on the market. T. A. CRABILL.

St. Davids Church, Va.

If you had given my method of comb honey production a trial, Mr. Crabill, I believe you would have found that there are at least some advantages in it over the production of section honey.

I am not surprised at the attitude you have taken, because there were many Texas bee-keepers who criticised the method, even denounced it with disfavor, when the production of "chunk" honey was first advocated. But do they still do so? Nay! Instead, some of them are today the most extensive producers of this article. Their claim, at first, was the same as yours, but finding that they would be left badly in the background, which, both from a social and, financial standpoint, became very serious, bulk comb honey production soon became to them as easy, if not an easier matter than producing either section or extracted honey.

Neither does such a change mean going back to the ways of our forefathers. It involves just as much study and systematic work to attain the highest results in bulk comb honey production as in any other, and the movable-frame hive is just as essential.

Neither can it be said that the honey produced is of cheaper grade, for if gathered from the same source, it must necessarily be the same in quality,

FIG. 5.-SCHOLL'S NUCLEI. widely known as the "Scholl" frame, as has been mentioned before. The difference in the passage-way between the two kinds of frames is an important item, as one hinders the bees and queen passing from one story to another, while with my frames this is ob

I have been reading and studying the writings on bulk comb honey, and I am not able to see any advantage in the production of it at all. We bee-keepers are not supposed to go back to where our forefathers stood, 75 or more years ago, before the movable-frame hive was known, when they kept bees in box-hives, and handled the honey in chunk. or bulk, as you may term it. If we are going to do away with our section-comb honey and produce bulk-comb honey, what do we want with the movable-frame hives? We are living up to a fast day now, and the industries of our country are progressing more and more each year. Then, why do we bee-keepers want to produce a cheaper grade of honey to take the place of our nice, attractive section-comb honey. I say, if our Southern bee-keepers want to cut their noses off to spite their own faces, let them go. Suppose the farmers of this country want to go back to the old way of farming, our country would be bankrupt within two years. So it would be if all of our bee-keepers were to produce bulk comb honey-our bee-industry would be ruined.

Then let us look at the disadvantage we would have in handling it over our section honey. We would have to cut the combs, so there would be a loss by the honey dripping from the combs where they were cut.

Of the two, the comb honey in frames is only the better in that it is ripened better-the combs are thinner in this case, and the ventilation in the process of ripening the honey can only be better on account of the continuous passage-ways between the combs.

After I have described the methods I employed in bulk comb honey production, and given a better idea of it all, and the advantages, the demand, and the profits over other kinds, I am sure that you will also look upon it with more favor.

Of course, it is needless to say that it is not my object to drive sections entirely off the market, for there is a place for them that must be filled, and the same can be said of the place for extracted honey. At the same time I know that bulk comb honey will find a good place also in time, and it will replace section honey to a great extent just as it has in Texas.

ANSWERS.-1. No, the inner width of the feeder is only 1 inch, so a bee can never have to swing more than half an inch to climb up one wall or the other.

2. I'm not sure, but I think 2 inches would be pretty safe. However, you can make safe for any width by putting in cork chips.

Feeding Granulated Honey in Combs.

Would combs in which honey was granulated before being extracted, and not taken out by the extractor, be all right for bees next summer, either for swarms or old colonies? Would the bees clean them out, or would it be an injury to them? WISCONSIN.

ANSWER. It will be all right so far as the bees are concerned, and will do them no harm. In giving such combs to the bees it will be well, just before giving them, to spray them with water. That will make it easier for the bees to use up the honey, and will also save some of it from being wasted, for bees are likely to throw out some of the grains. But you better not use the combs as they are in extracting-supers.

to candy the new.

Colony Dwindling.

cups are given in advance to the bees to be cleaned and polished, it is a pretty safe guess that the swabbing is to induce the bees to start the work of cleaning and polishing, and my guess would be that the cups are "swabbed" by being brushed out or moistened with honey or diluted honey. If that guess is correct, all you need to do is to daub with honey the entire inside surface of the cup.

Upward Hive-Ventilation.

I am a beginner and have packed my bees this winter in piano-boxes, 8 colonies in a box. They are packed very fine I think; sides, ends and bottom having about 4 inches of packing, the top having about 12 inches, with upward ventilation. Did I do right in giving them NEW YORK. upper ventilation?

ANSWER.-Opinions are divided as to the matter of upward ventilation, but with the large amount of packing wisely given on top, your bees ought to be all right.

Why Entrance at Side of Hive?

What is the reason for placing the entrance at the end of the hive instead of the side? I contemplate building tenement cases to hold several colonies, and by setting the hives lengthwise of the case the frames can be handled much more easily, although it will bring the entrance at the side of the hive. NEW YORK.

ANSWER.-In Europe, hives are The old honey may help used with frames running parallel with the entrance, called the "warm arrangement," and also with frames running at right angles to the entrance, called the "cold arrangement." I think the warm arrangement is in more common use there than the cold. In this country the cold arrangement is used almost altogether. It allows the bees more readily to reach each frame, and allows a better chance for ventilation. If any great gain were to be made by having frames run the other way, I would not hesitate to make the change.

I have one colony of black bees which has 25 pounds of honey. The bees are dwindling away in large numbers. Can you help me out? GEORGIA.

ANSWER. I don't know whether I can. You see I don't know what the trouble is, or indeed whether there is any trouble. Foul brood or some other disease may be present, but that would hardly make the bees die off in unusual numbers at this time of the year. The colony may have been queenless for some time, having only old bees, which have attained such age that they are dying off rapidly, and there is nothing to be done, unless it be to to kill them so they will not waste any more of their stores. There may be nothing wrong. Bees are constantly dying off from old age, and it would be nothing strange to have 100, 300, or more dying off daily in a strong colony.

Queen-Rearing Question.

I have now 100 colonies, and live in a good locality-horsemint. In "Simplified Queen. Rearing" (Swarthmore), I can not understand the following:

"If the pressed cups are first given to any colony of bees long enough for them to be polished on the inside, no failures in grafting will occur. Used cups are to be cleaned in the same manner, and new cups are first swabbed, as previously explained."

I have the Swarthmore series, but can not find the word swabbed explained. What does it mean, and how do I do it? My bees won't polish cups if I put them inside the hives.

I introduce fertile queens, virgins, and cells, without any trouble, failure, or loss of brood. I had no swarms, and had as fine a honey crop as possible.

TEXAS.

ANSWER.-Unfortunately I have not before me the text to which you refer, so as to find the word "as previously explained," but as the

Spanish-Needle

Winter Hive - En

trances - Do Bees Freeze?

In the spring of 1907 I started with 4 colonies, one of which was in a log from the woods. Now I have 51 colonies, all in good condition. I use the Langstroth hive.

The season of 1898 I sent for 7 Italian queens, and last year Italianized all my bees; I find it quite a task to get queens purely mated, on account of my neighbors' black bees. But on the queens I sent away for, I certainly got "stung." Out of the 7 I got only 4 good ones. The best of them all was the queen I received in a clubbing offer. I take the American Bee Journal, and could not, nor would not, think of doing without it while in the bee-business.

1. What kind of a flower is it that grows here in Southern Illinois? It starts blooming about September 1, and lasts until frost. The plant grows from 2 to 3 feet high everywhere in the fields, and every plant will have from 20 to 30 yellow flowers about the size of a half-dollar and larger. When in full bloom the fields look like a sheet of gold. When the seeds get ripe they stick to one's clothes, and are very annoying. We call them "bootjacks," as they resemble a bootjack more than anything else. The leaf of the plant resembles the leaf of ragweed very much. We call it "Spanish-needle," but I don't think that is the proper name, for I never see it spoken of in the paper. If it were not for this plant, bees could not live

here, as it is a great honey-producer.

2. Are drones produced by a drone-laying queen or a drone-laying worker, capable of fertilizing a queen?

3. How old does a young queen have to be before she will turn to a drone-layer, if she is not mated?

4. What is the cause of ice gathering at the top of the frames just under the cloth?

5. I winter my bees on the summer stands. What size entrance do you advise for this locality? We don't often have any weather colder than zero.

6. Would too small an entrance have anything to do with the ice accumulating? 7. Do bees often freeze to death with plenty of stores? ILLINOIS.

ANSWERS.-1. I hardly know how it has happened that you have seen no mention of Spanish-needle as a honey-plant. I'm afraid you haven't a bee-book. You cannot afford to be without one. Much has been written and said about Spanish-needle, which is also called boot-jack and golden coreopsis. In Root's "A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture," J. M. Hambaugh reports that an apiary of 43 colonies averaged in 8 days 47 pounds each of Spanish-needle honey.

2. Yes, either of them. But I don't believe I would want them for best stock. 3. Three weeks or more.

4. The moisture from the breath of the bees. You probably need more ог warmer packing on top of your bees. It should be warmer on top than at the sides. Moisture condensing on the sides of a hive does no particular harm, but on top it does. When it thaws it drops down on the cluster of bees. 5. An entrance -inch deep is good. The width depends upon the strength of the colony, perhaps an inch for each frame that is occupied by bees. 6. It might; for too small an entrance might prevent the escape of moisture. 7. No; unless the colony is too weak or a small cluster of bees get caught in a cold spell away from the main cluster.

Spring

Light Brood Foundation
Requeening Queenless Colony-
Queen-Excluders.

1. Do you consider light brood foundation sufficiently heavy to be used with your splints in regular Langstroth frames?

2. Is it possible, and advisable, to requeen a queenless colony in the spring by keeping them in the cellar longer than other colonies, and giving them a frame containing eggs from a colony which has started brood-rearing?

3. In your "Forty Years Among the Bees," you do not consider queen-excluders of much value to you. Would you consider them necessary if you were trying the method advocated in "A Year's Work in an Out-Apiary?"

ILLINOIS.

ANSWERS.-1. Yes, only in place of 5 splints, as with medium, 7 splints must be used with the light brood foundation. At least I did not feel safe to do with less than 7, and had good results.

2. Possible, but not advisable. It is not advisable to let a queenless colony rear a queen before there is a honey-flow, as the queen is likely to be very poor, and it would be still worse if the queen were reared in the cellar.

3. Yes, I think they are necessary in that. In some cases I think very highly of excluders, but they are not necessary to keep queens from going up into section-supers if the sections are filled with worker-foundation.

What Ailed the Bees?

I received my first copy of the American Bee Journal in 1879, and am still taking it. I kept my first bees in that year. I have 29 colonies in my door-yard, and some in other yards 3 miles away. I live in town on a lot 100 feet in front and 220 feet back. I secured about one-fourth of a honey crop this year (1909), of that black honey-dew. I sold it all at a fair price. I am expecting a good honeyflow next month (September) from heartsease or smartweed. My town is located on Big Raccoon, 18 miles north and east of Terre Haute, where heartsease grows abundantly. August has been very hot and dry. Last week it turned cool without any rain. We had 3 or 4 cool nights very cool, but no frost. I noticed those cool mornings that my bees were dying very fast. Some of the hive-entrances would be filled full of dead bees, some of them very young, white brood taken from the comb. What is killing my bees? Is it the black honey-dew or foul brood? I thought they were

starving at first, but when I looked in at them, I found them with plenty of honey. Then I feared it was foul brood. They have large brood-nests, and the brood looks nice and even, no sunken brood or bad odor in the hive. found some drone-brood in the cells, and when I lifted it out with a tooth-pick, it was just the skeleton of a drone, and at the edge of the comb I found some worker-brood that was not capped. It looked like brood ready to come out of the cell, but when lifted with the tooth-pick, it was dead and looked dark. That colony was strong with bees, but the broodnest was scattered. The bees have been very ill to handle this year. After the bees begin

to fly on cool mornings, they would clean up all dead bees. Now, what shall I do? Your answers to others in the American Bee Journal have been a great help to me in the past. INDIANA.

ANSWER. I am extremely sorry to say that your letter dated Aug. 25 was in some mysterious way mislaid, not turning up again until the beginning of the New Year to reproach me with its presence, and to remind me that among New Year's resolutions there should be one reading, "Resolved, That I'll not again mislay a letter to be answered in this department, nor let any one else do so."

I am very much puzzled to know what to think about your trouble. Some things in the case look like disease, but a good many don't. There seems to be some trouble with the brood, but you say the entrance of the hive would be full of dead bees, and some of them would be young bees. That seems as if the dead bees were mostly mature bees, making the trouble with the bees rather than the brood. On the whole, I am more inclined to suspect poisoning, although it was not at a time of year when spraying poisons would be going on. Of course, there might be poisoning in some other way. It could not very well be the honey-dew. That kills bees in winter, not in August.

ease,

SO

It is possible that before this time you may have informed yourself in the case as to need no suggestions from me. If there was poisoning, the trouble probably disapIf there was dispeared in a short time. that also may have disappeared with the cessation of brood-rearing, only to reappear with the beginning of brood-rearing next spring. In that case the thing to do is to keep watch, and when the first sign of anything wrong with the brood appears, send a sample of it, (a piece of comb 2 or 3 inches square) to Dr. E. F. Phillips, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. If you write for it, he will send you a box in which to send the sample. There will be no charge, and you will have the best expert advice possible to obtain.

Preventing Swarming-Amount for Winter Stores-Sour HoneyFoul Brood, Etc.

I have a small farm of 62 acres, and have always kept a few colonies of bees, or for at least 20 years. I remember very well my first bee-keeping, putting boxes in the trees and in that way capturing my My bee-yard at present consists of 18 Italian colonies, 10 spring count. I intend to winter the bees on the summer stands, in single-wall 8-frame dovetailed hives. I

swarms.

am

at the third 100-pound sack of sugar, feeding the bees. Last fall I had 26 colonies, but reduced them to 18, thinking the stronger the colony the less feed it would take to winter them. not remember such can poor honey-crop as the past season, and with many flowers in bloom. A good many bees in this country will certainly starve. 1. How long can a bee live?

SO

a

2. Will bees rear brood sooner in spring when wintered in the cellar on the summer stands?

3. How can I prevent bees swarming? I am running for section honey.

4. In what way will bees do better in the cellar?

5. About how many pounds of honey less can be fed to bees when wintered in the cellar than on the summer stands?

6. How high should the summer stands be from the ground for the hives to rest on? And how will it be best to build them?

7. What is the cause of sour honey that was taken out of supers about the middle of June?

8. What is the first sign of foul brood? 9. Do you think a Danzenbaker hive is a preventive of swarming more than any other hive? MISSOURI.

ANSWERS.-1. A worker-bee, in the busy season, lives about an average of 6 weeks. Some

think less. It depends much on the work done. A worker born in the fall, doing no work that fall, may live 7 or 8 months. A queen lives 2, 3 or more years, in rare cases 5 or 6. A drone lives till he dies from starvation, the workers declining to feed him when they feel they can no longer afford it. 2. They begin rearing brood as a rule sooner outdoors than in cellar. Even in the north brood-rearing outdoors begins often, if not generally, in February, and in the cellar generally not till March.

3. I don't know. I wish I did. Some pages of "Forty Years Among the Bees" are taken up with telling what I do in my strug. gle against swarming, but just the best way is still an unsolved problem. If you like the plan, however, you may avoid swarming by making a colony queenless 10 days before the harvest and then giving it a young laying queen. You can get the secret of Dr. Jones' plan of preventing swarming by sending 25 cents for his book. (See advertising columns.)

4. Almost any old way so there is abundant ventilation of both the hive and the cellar, with the temperature at about 45 degrees.

5. It depends upon localities and conditions. Perhaps generally about 10 pounds.

6. Where it is not necessary to take special precautions against ants, it is well to have hives near the ground, say 4 to 6 inches. Just now there is a decided tendency toward concrete stands, and it may be well to have the hive rest on only a small portion of the stand, as when it rests on a flat surface there is a tendency toward water remaining between the stand and bottomboard and rotting the latter. 7. I don't know. Likely some peculiarity as to the source of the honey.

8. Dead brood. If at any time you find dead brood and don't understand it, send a sample at once to Dr. E. F. Phillips, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 9. No, I don't think that is claimed.

Bees, Management, Wintering, and

Locality.

I have SO far received 3 copies of the American Bee Journal, and have during that time read some very interesting things in it. I am not in the bee-keeping business myself, but am very much interested in it, and would like to be, but there are certain things I can not understand about it as yet. In the first place, many people claim to have secured from one to 6 supers of honey from one colony in one season; others one to 2 supers of honey, and from 50 to 100 pounds of extracted honey from one colony in a season, and still others have secured a tremendous

amount.

This town is located about 50 miles west of New York City, in the Ramapo Valley, and

I should judge from the writings of others that this is a very good locality for bees, as there is plenty of dandelion, clover, sumac, goldenrod, asters, and some basswood, and several other honey-yielding plants, although the bees rarely made a living here last year. One colony did fill one super, but had a scant store for winter. There were about 50 colonies of bees here last summer, and years before that there were not so many owned by different men, say 5 or 6, each man owning only a few colonies, perhaps the owners were a mile apart. Now there is one man who received the best results from his bees. He started about 5 years ago with one colony that he got from a tree in the he woods, and every year since puts up hives in different places in the woods and catches swarms, sometimes catching a nicelooking yellow swarm, and more times catching black swarms, so naturally the bees are mixed, but the Italians seem to be a little the best, but not always, for sometimes he catches a real black swarm that stores equally as much as any other he has.

Commencing in the spring, his supers are ready with foundation, natural swarming is allowed, most colonies swarming twice, and some only once. He hives the swarms, giv ing them 8 Hoffman frames with foundation. After swarming is over he puts on one super apiece, and as soon as a colony fills its super he takes this off and replaces it with a new one, if the season isn't too late, and the bees will perhaps fill this with comb, and fill 2 or 3 sections with honey, but he never thinks of getting over one full 24-section super from one colony in one season; and some colonies will partly fill one super, and some will not go up into the super at all, and store only just enough for winter; and still some will not store enough for wintering. He never requeens any colonies, or catches any drones,

and, for wintering, the colonies are left outside on the east side of the hill. The hives are, or one-inch wood, with just an extra cover on, and no extra packing on the outside. Has he right kind of bees? Does he not manage his bees properly? Is the wintering too much for them? Is the locality too poor? What do you think about it? NEW YORK.

ANSWER.-Bunching your questions, I should say that the bees your neighbor has are probably not so very much to blame for his results, and from what you say about the flora, the pasturage is good. As to his management, he might do worse-if he tried hard enough. At any rate, if he had the best re sults, it must have been that his neighbors did worse. They must be experts at doing things the wrong way.

The man you speak of catches swarms in the woods every year. That's all right on his part, but some one must be doing pretty bad work to let so many swarms get away. Now let me recount some of the things that he does that are not good, and then tell how you will do when you get to be a good bee. keeper:

He puts supers on after swarming is over. You will put them on before there is any swarming, about as soon as you see the very first white-clover blossom.

He allows most colonies to swarm more than once. You will never allow any colony to swarm more than once, and will make some effort to keep them from swarming at all.

He does not give a second super until the first is removed, and appears never to have on a hive more than one super at a time. You will, as soon as the first super is about half filled, raise it up and put an empty one under it, and a third one under the second when the second is perhaps half filled, and sometimes you will have 4, 5 or 6 supers on a hive at one time.

He never requeens nor kills off drones. You will be likely to requeen a colony which doesn't do satisfactory work, unless you are satisfied the fault does not lay with the and although you may not kill any queen; drones you will take care that there is not a lot of drone-comb in every hive to rear unnecessary drones.

He winters outside with no protection. You will have your hives well packed, especially on top, or perhaps better still you will winter the bees in the cellar.

Now let me make up another thing out of my own head. He has no text-book on beekeeping. You will have a bee-book-more likely two or more. You can get along without a bee-paper (but you won't), but you can't get along without a bee-book. Not unless you want to lose money on bees.

Getting Strong Colonies in South Africa.

I am an American far from home, and I have about bee-keeping is a hobby of mine. 30 colonies of bees, mostly Doolittle strain. I have a few native queens (5 or 6), but will supersede them with Italians, as the wild The wild bees are wonbees are too vicious. derful breeders, breeding practically the year through, and are good honey-gatherers, too, but are so cross that it takes all the fun out of it. I have known them to sting everything in sight within 100 yards from the hive. And it is a common thing for them to kill dogs and fowls.

The Doolittle Italians are as good, or better, honey-gatherers, and are very gentle, but I find trouble in keeping a big force of them ready for the harvest, for when the honeyflow slackens, the queens stop laying; while the natives, if there is honey in the hive, will keep right on breeding.

Our spring begins about August 1, and in September and early October, there is a light honey-flow. This year I took an average of 15 pounds of extracted honey. After this there is no honey or pollen until the rain comes in October or November. This year Ten the rains came the last of November. days ago none of my Italians were laying, although I gave them a little syrup each night for about 10 days. Now I find queens are just beginning to lay, and a little pollen is coming in. We have had 7 or 8 inches of rain, and the main honey-flow will come in about the New Year.

The tem

Remember, this is our summer. perature before the rain was around 90. Bees were as quiet as in the winter time and not breeding. I would like a suggestion as to how to get a hive full of bees in time for this The harvest comes before the main harvest. queen is laying to her full capacity, and with

by this time was a mere nucleus, and I had no brood nor even drawn combs to give them, they were very slow building up. The weather was so cool and windy all summer the bees could not work more than half the time. There was not a day, however, that I can recall, suitable for bee-flight, that they did not bring in considerable honey, so I managed to get the combs built down and the hives heavy with stores for winter use. I have them in the cellar, but believe they would winter very well on the summer stands.

We have no alfalfa, no clover, nor any other artificial pasturage here. The entire valley, where susceptible to irrigation, is going into fruit, and the trees are too young to be any help to the bees.

I was in the bee-business in South Texas a good many years, but the seasons here are so different from what I have been accustomed to it is almost like starting over and learning everything anew.

Mr. Grigsby, of California, touched on a point of much interest to me, but his opinion differs from mine. I would say, if possible, give us more pictures. I always like a pee? at the apiaries, if neatly arranged, no matter how few the hives. And if I might make another suggestion, give us more pictures and descriptions of honey-plants from different parts of the world. J. D. YANCEY.

Bridgeport, Wash., Jan. 17.

First, because we depend too much upon the commission merchant to sell our crop for us. Another thing is, the man who does not care how he puts his honey on the market. Then, honey is not used as other foods, but more as a luxury. Honey also has many substitutes, while other foods have not. If we would try to sell our honey by advertising in some good journal or paper, we soon find we have better prices. But in order to do this we must send out samples of what we have, and be sure it is all right. And after we get our customers we will have no trouble in keeping them and getting a good price for our product. That is, if we still give them good, ripe honey.

Mr. Doolittle said that honey does not advance in prices with other farm produce, but still takes a "slump" when those things do. I think he must be mistaken in this, for honey is governed as to the amount produced as are all other things which we raise. If Mr. D. had taken the market price on eggs and butter along in the month of May, he would find that eggs were not 40 to 50 cents a dozen, as stated here.

I will say again, put your honey up in good order; have it good and ripe; sell direct to the consumer, and it will not be long till we have better prices. There are now also 5 beekeepers to where there was one 20 years ago. Now, I have told you how we can get better prices, and why I think they do not rise; I would like to hear from others on this question. RAY A. HAMILTON.

Donovan, Ill.

Pictures of Apiaries-Non-Swarming. EDITOR YORK:-I have read the November number of the "Old Reliable" with the usual pleasure, and the best of all was that nice, kind reproof you gave me concerning the little protest I offered regarding pictures of faces and apiaries. Although it made me feel just a little ashamed of myself, I must confess that it did me good to read it, in more ways than Mr. York, you are certainly an artist. Send on your pictures. I have no more to say. I suppose I have gotten myself into business by speaking of the compliments that have been passed on my apiary. I have received a number of cards and letters already urging me to send the picture of that beautiful apiary for publication.

one.

One sister bee-keeper in Ohio says she wants "to see the photo of you," underscoring the word "you" twice, "and of your 164 colonies, in the American Bee Journal," signing her name. A lady bee-keeper in Texas writes: "I earnestly request you to send the photograph of yourself, family and apiary, to the editor of the American Bee Journal for reproduction," and solicits my subscription to another bee-paper.

Like the Feast at Cana, the best came last. It is a letter from Mr. B., a Minnesota bee

keeper, who sent his picture and the picture of 20 colonies of his apiary, if I mistake not. He wrote me quite an extensive letter, and really he said SO many kind things to me about it, and all he said was said so very courteously, and in such gentlemanly style, that I enjoyed it, and filed it away to look at later. It really made me love him, and I wish I could meet him.

I believe that bee-men are generally, above all, gentlemen. If I did misbehave a little, I must confess that Mr. B. made me feel just as if I had been a little rude. I offer my

apologies to anyone whose feelings I may

have touched.

Just a word to those good sisters who solicit my picture, and that of my apiary. if I should reconsider and send it (which I do not like to after all I have said, someone being sure to think I was simply seeking an invitation), it would be after I have made some changes in my apiary grounds, which cannot be done before the fall of 1910. will in the near future write for publication in the columns of the American Bee Journal a plan I have discovered and put into practice, which has proven with me to be a sure and unmistakable preventive of swarming in an apiary run solely for extracted honey. .I treated each and every colony (115) that I began with in the past spring, many of which had sealed queen-cells, and just on the verge of swarming, all of which cells I found cut down a few days later, and all ideas of swarming abandoned. While the past spring this part of Southern California seemed to be in the grip of a swarming epidemic, not one of my colonies showed any further disposition to swarm after being treated. It is simple and absolutely inexpensive. C. L. GRIGSBY.

El Casco, Cal., Dec. 6, 1909.

[We will be pleased not only to have the picture of Mr. Grigsby's apiary, but also the description of his non-swarming methods.EDITOR.]

Moisture Above Brood-Nest, Etc.

tom-bars. I have the best success here in sight of snow-capped mountains, by keeping all hives in well-painted wintering-cases, packed with sawdust all the time. Many contrivances used in the single-walled hive I can

not use.

I cut a slot 2 inches deep, and 12 inches long for an entrance. My hives sit on a rim 2 inches high. Here, where timber is plenty, I make a dummy to fill up to within 1⁄2-inch of the brood-frames. This dummy is slanted on the front end, the lower edge comes flush with the outside of the case. I drive 2 staples in on the front end, have 2 wire hooks, that I hang on the outside of the case, when not in use, on the back side of the case. I make an entrance-block to cover the opening 14x22x2, with a 2x notch cut out of the under side. With this device one can feed whenever consistent without danger of robbers, or bees rushing out, by closing the entrance tight. There will be sufficient air in this large space.

I use the unprecedented brood-comb of only 4-inch depth, Langstroth length the other way, and 16 combs in 2 sections completes a hive. For extracted, comb, or increase, the sectional hive for me. F. F. GEORGE. Fraser, Idaho.

I have watched the columns of three beejournals to learn the thickness or thinness of lumber used to cover the brood-nest. was using inch boards, until several of them warped, one allowing the condensed moisture to accumulate on the sawdust and run back into the hive, and chilled the queen into a drone-layer. Then I made all new covers of 11⁄2-inch lumber with three cleats nailed acrosswise. I just examined to see results. All lie flat and sealed. I believe much moisture will escape through this thin cover, and pass up through the 18 inches of sawdust above. I never want paint or any of its relatives, nearer than 3 inches of a brood-chamber where winter-cases are used. I used quilts until the bees gnawed through. A good queen crawled up between quilt and cover, and I found her dead. I generally lay a rock on the cover in summer, but if left on in winter it will condense moisture that will soak I give a cover in one spot where it touches. all hives one inch slant to the south, that accumulating moisture may run out of the There are very few days but that snow will pack here. No danger of entrances clogging with ice.

entrance.

SEVEN TO ONE EGGS IN A CELL.

I received a queen August 13, 1909, that, to all appearances, was just a good, ordinary 3-band producer. She had traveled about 2000 miles. I gave her to some good-positioned 3-banders to eat out of the cage. A sectional hive of 8 combs, 4 inches high, all honey but 3, that were partly filled, was her laying ground. I looked in 5 days after, and a very few cells had one egg in it, the rest had from 2 to 7. Then I found the queen. Of all the monstrosities in the shape of a queen, she "took the cake." Her body was longer from tip of wing back than toward the thorax, and distended like a Baltimore & Ohio locomotive. "Good young lady, you fill the bill." Then I gave her more bees and 6 empty combs that she filled one egg to Now the cell. some would condemn, but I reasoned she is healthy, prolific, and in a cooler climate, that she has acclimated to at once. Her bees hatched out one bee to a cell, 3-banded, gentle and good workers. I wrote to the man that sent her, but he misunderstood and offered to replace her, but I declined the offer. Such queens are good enough for me.

FEEDING BEES.

I have dropped onto a plan for feeding at anytime consistent with necessities, but am a little in debt to Dr. C.C. Miller for that almost indispensable 2-inch space under the bot

Honey as a Health-Food

This is a 16-page honey-pamphlet intended to help increase the demand for honey. The first part of it contains a short article on "Honey as Food," written by Dr. C. C. Miller. It tells where to keep honey, how to liquefy it, etc. The last part is devoted to "Honey-Cooking Recipes" and "Remedies Using Honey." It should be widely circulated by those selling honey. The more the people are educated on the value and uses of honey, the more honey they will buy.

Prices, prepaid-Sample copy for a 2-cent stamp; 50 copies for 90 cents; 100 copies for $1.50; 250 copies for $3.00; 500 for $5.00; or 1000 for $9.00. Your business card printed free at the bottom of front page on all orders for 100 or more copies. Send all orders to the office of the American Bee Journal.