38 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



clean, there is no trouble from the bees. 

 We are often able to leave the door open 

 at times when bees would rob, and there 

 is no trouble. 



Each window has a screen of wire cloth 

 to keep out the bees and flies, and allo«v 

 the air to enter. At the top of each win- 

 dow is a cone of wire cloth to allow the 

 bees to escape. These cones are made by 

 boring a hole^in a board, and pressing a 

 piece of wire cloth into the hole by using 

 a stick having a cone shaped end. Then, 

 with a big spike, a hole is punched in the 

 apex of the cone. These cones are some 

 three inches long. 



The cellar is in the hill-side. It is of 

 the Dadant pattern. It is ten feet wide, 

 and extends into the hill about forty-five 

 feet, and will hold 300 colonies of bees. 

 The walls and roof are supported by heavy 

 oak timbers placed eighteen inches apart. 

 There are two ventilators; and two ante- 

 rooms at the entrance. The floor is level 

 with the apiary. Even the big, double, 

 chaff hives, some of which I have in my 

 apiary, are put into the cellar. These 

 are pretty heavy to handle, so I usually 

 wait until there is a little snow, when I 

 set them, one at a time, on a sled, and 

 slide them in. 



For carrying the combs to and from 

 the yard I use boxes. Each box holds 

 sixteen combs, which are just enough to 

 fill an upper story to one of my chaff 

 hives. One of these boxes full of empty 

 combs is taken out and set down by the 

 side of a hive. The cover to the hive is 

 raised, the blanket over the combs turn- 

 ed back, and one or two puffs of smoke 

 sent down among the bees. As the combs 

 of honey are taken out, the empty ones 

 are put :n their places; thus, when the 

 honey is all off, the bees have an empty 

 set of combs. The box of combs full of 

 honey is then carried in and set down by 

 the extractor for the man in the bee- 

 house to uncap and extract. 



As a rule, what few swarms I have are 

 hived back in the old hive. In getting a 

 swarm to cluster where I like, I use what 

 I call an "echoing box." It is made of 



light lumber, has one or more sides of 

 wire cloth, and is attached to the end of 

 a pole. When a swarm comes out, a few 

 bees are taken from the front of any hive 

 where there may be a few hanging out, 

 and put into this box. They are then 

 blown upon by the breath, which causes 

 them to set up a hunmiing or buzzing, 

 which attracts the swarm and often caus- 

 es it to cluster upon the box. After one 

 or two swarms have clustered there it is 

 not difficult to induce others to do the 

 same. 



I keep a colony on a pair of scales. In 

 1 898 the colon}' on the scales stored 2 1 % 

 pounds in one day. The best day's work 

 in 1899 was i4}4 pounds. 



Greenwood, Wis. Jul}' 28, 1899. 



HALL WE ADOPT THE TALL 

 SECTIONS? 

 BY J. H. MARTIN. 



I note what Mr. Ochsner says, 

 on page 396 of the Review, upon tall ver- 

 sus square sections. The ground is well 

 taken that be- 

 r'''^-^^S^'?JSiJ'!.'|il!!i.'''''''!?j cause the tall 

 section is a new 

 thing it is not 

 necessary for the 

 bee keeper to 

 change all the 

 fixtures in a large 

 apiary to the new 

 style just at the 

 say so of some 

 L_ enthusiastic ad- 



mirer. It is t)er- 

 haps a fact that the tall section will sell 

 better than the square in some markets. 

 Mr. Danzenbaker, the most enthusiastic 

 admirer of the tall section, Jtells us that if 

 the tall section is placed on sale beside 

 the square section, that the purchaser 

 will invariably choose the tall one, be- 

 cause it looks larger than the square one. 

 You will observe that in all the accounts 



