824 



(JLEAXIX(JS IN JiKK ( "UI/rUHK 



May 15 



from pliannacists for the "raw" material 

 from which the remedy is jiroduced. 



[While our correspondent modestly signs 

 himself "A Country Doctor," one of our 

 staff happens to know something of him. 

 Dr. — is connected with a great institution 

 where his oi)portunity for observation and 

 treatment of rheumatism is much greater 

 than most doctors have. AVe know, too, 

 that he had under his care one of the most 

 severe cases of rheumatic affection that is 

 often seen, and this case came from a bee- 

 keeper's family. We can only add that our 

 confidence in his judgment, as shown in the 

 case mentioned, is unbounded, and we know 

 his article is inspired by a desire to be help- 

 ful, and to set our readers right on this mat- 

 ter.— Ed.] 



PRODUCING COMB HONEY WITHOUT SEP- 

 ARATORS. 



How the Super Should be Arranged; Full Shee/s 

 of Foundation in Split Sections. 



BY SAMVEL SIM1MIN8. 



Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson and other practical 

 producers claim that they have produced 

 good straight section combs of high quality 

 without using separators, and they are fully 

 justified in making the assertion. Never- 

 theless, when manufacturers start to offer 

 supers for sections set up without separators 

 they find very little demand for such wares. 

 It may be that the members of our fraternity 

 have not been educated to the use of sections 

 without separators, though I fear many will 

 never take the necessary trouble, slight as 



it is, to keep their hives level. That point 

 is, of course, important, more especially 

 where full sheets of foundation are not used 

 and they are not fastened to both sides of 

 the section. 



Some thirty years ago I was making stren- 

 uous efforts to induce comb-honey producers 

 to make a trial without using separators. I 

 also showed how one might meet the prob- 

 lem half way, as it were, by adopting twin 

 supers with only four sections across (Fig. 

 17, 1904 edition, "Modern Bee Farm"), or 

 triplets with three sections across. In any 

 of these there are no lose pieces about, and 

 no large number of sections without a sepa- 

 rator. 



The narrow or vertically divided form of 

 super allows of rai)id completion, and per- 

 mits of further manipulation to that end. 

 It is well known that the end-row sections 

 are often thinner, and frequently delayed in 

 completion; but the twin crates all()w of 

 these outer ends being presently turned to 

 the center, and the center to the outside. ^ 

 They are then worked out as perfectly as ^ 

 any. The trii)lets first illustrated in my ^' 

 1886 pam^ihlet allow of similar nuinii)ula- 

 tion, while the central crate is quickly ready 

 for removal. 



Perhaps even a greater advantage with 

 these twins and triplets is that of having 

 fixed slatted bottoms. They can thus be 

 l)laced close on top-bars of the frames below; 

 but note this — always croiistvise of the 

 frames. Thus the bees have a number of 

 square openings, admitting them to the su- 

 l)ers, and those sjiaces are Jiever filled up 

 with bits of comb, for the simple reason that 

 no i)lace is left for brace-combs between the 

 frames and the first super. Neither is there 

 any space between the additional sets of su- 

 pers that may be given later — a condition in 

 ordinary sujiers which sometimes checks the 

 bees, resulting in the upper tiers being bad- 

 ly finished or entirely neglected. 'Though 

 placed crosswise on the brood-frames, all sets 

 of supers are placed the same way. 



You need crush no bees in placing the su- 

 pers in position, because they are in twins 

 or triplets; and for the same reason the glue- 

 ing-down causes little inconvenience com- 

 pared with the manifold advantages derived 

 from the twin or triplet system without sep- 

 arators. A full-size crate with slats close on 

 the frames below would, of course, be some- 

 what difficult of removal; but the sectional 

 formation on vertical lines is quite a differ- 

 ent thing, as a practical worker soon finds. 



The slats should not be more than X-inch 

 thick; a ^-inch bar is clumsy, and serves to 

 ]ilace the sections that much further from 

 the bees below — a detriment, as will be ad- 

 mitted, when first getting the bees to start 

 sui)er work. Many section-frame holders 

 have the bottom-bar y$ inch thick, and 

 these, again, sjiaced y^ inch away from the 

 frames — a most serious imi)ediment, more 

 especially when the ai)iarist also interposes 

 a queen-excluder. 



One reason why the ^-inch bar is used 

 under sections is probably because the pro- 

 ducer often insists upon working four sec- 

 tions in a frame instead of three, and, un- 

 fortunately, the manufacturer appears to £" 

 encourage this fal.se practice. By spreading %. 

 sections over too wide a superficial area the 

 combs are not completed so quickly, neither 

 are they finished all around against the wood 

 as perfectly as when fewer are used within 

 the confines of the warmth ascending from 

 the colony. The fact is, a t ier of three crates, 

 each holding 21 sections, will be finished off 

 more quickly, and in better condition, than 

 two crates of 24 or 28 .sections each. 



This point in favor of the smaller number 

 of sections to the crate is intensified when 

 the additional outer margins of space are 



