298 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15. 



Why, Mr. Taylor, we can't, can't do it. We 

 ought not to do it. Why, sir, if we should 

 change our sections every year or two, we 

 should not get anywhere. We take only one 

 step ahead, and then we only step over in a side 

 rut in the road, when we change; no better, but 

 we get another rut in our road, and it costs 

 something to change. Now, sir, it does not 

 matter so much what kind of sections we use, 

 if all would use one kind, so that a box of honey 

 would be a box of honey, just as much as a 

 barrel of flour is a barrel of flour. So far as the 

 size is concerned, it would be far better for the 

 supply-dealers, better for the producers, better 

 for all who have anything to do with the honey 

 crop, if we could have a uniform section and 

 shipping-crate. How many poor widows have 

 had to sell their bies at less than half their 

 value because their husbands had kept chang- 

 ing their hives, their sections, etc., from time to 

 time, until their barn, shop, and every store- 

 room on the place was filled with all kinds of 

 bee-rubbish, good for nothing! The poor widow 

 can't run the bees, and has to sell fhem at auc- 

 tion in about 14 kinds of hives, together with 

 the rubbish, to the highest bidder at about the 

 price of kindling-wood. If everybody would 

 make his hives and sections alike, we could 

 buy and sell bees at any time for their value; 

 but we are not all alike, and so we must differ 

 from other folks. 



The4)4x43^xl%'is the section that I am using, 

 and I like it best of all. First, 4^^x434, because 

 more use this size than any other. Second, I 

 want them IX wide because that width suits 

 me best, all things considered. I am producing 

 honey for the money there is in it, and I can as 

 yet get more clean money from my bees by 

 using a section 4J^x4i4xl% than I can by using 

 a section 43^x4)^x1?^. I have had a little experi- 

 ence with these two widths. A commission 

 merchant told me that my honey would bring 

 more in the narrow section, which weighs from 

 10 to 13 ounces, or one pound with glass on. 

 Two years ago I used (JOOO of these 1% sections, 

 and about 16,000 of the IK section, and last sea- 

 son I used up about 2000 of the l^-il sections that 

 I had left, and I gave them a fair test, and the 

 1%-wide section was decidedly the more profit- 

 able section for me. I wish I had the figures to 

 give exact, but I can't now find the paper that 

 I kept the account on. But I figured it as closely 

 as possible. 



To begin with, I will say that I can use one 

 kind of section as well as the other on the hives, 

 as 14 sections 1% wide fill one of my half- 

 clamps, including separators and follower; and 

 16 sections I'X wide fill the same clamp, includ- 

 ing separators and follower, and two clamps 

 cover one hive; sections run the same way the 

 brood-frames do on this kind of hive; and, 

 again, I have 200 swarms in smaller hives, the 

 clamps of which hold 21 of the IX sections, and 

 24 sections 1% wide; and on these hives the sec- 



tions run across the brood-frames. Now, Mr. 

 Editor, I figured from 100 colonies in this way: 

 Say KX) colonies fill four clamps of honey each 

 ( I will not give all the figures now, as they are 

 laid aside). I could not get any more clamps 

 filled of one kind than of the other, but the 

 best work was done in the clamps with wide 

 sections. But the 3200 sections IX wide did 

 not weigh as much as did the 2400 sections IX 

 wide. But in using the IX section I had 800 

 sections more to pay for; also the extra founda- 

 tion to fill them, besides all of the time needed 

 to handle them. This I do remember: that, if I 

 sold the honey in the IX section from the 100 

 swarms for 10 cents per pound, I should have 

 more money than by using the IX section, and 

 selling the honey at 11 cents per pound. Both 

 were sold at the same price. 



My shipping-crates hold 24 of the IX sections, 

 and the same crate will hold 28 of the IX sec- 

 tions, but the latter does not weigh as much per 

 crate, so the cost is more to buy crates for the 

 narrow section. 



Again, the comb in the narrow sections is 

 more liable to be attached to the separators 

 than are the wide ones, from this fact: If a hive 

 does not stand level, so that the foundation in 

 the narrow box can swing but a trifle, it will 

 cause the bees to attach the comb to the sepa- 

 rators more or less. 



Mr. Taylor says that, long ago, he discovered 

 the great value of drawn empty combs in sec- 

 tions for getting a large yield of white comb 

 honey; and he found, too, that, by using them, 

 he wanted separators. I am glad of it. So do 

 I; but I don't want the kind he uses. 

 dI was going tosay more about separators when 

 I commenced, but will not now. But I will say 

 a word about what I have noticed with drawn 

 comb in tlie sections. I prize them very much, 

 and use one row (the center one) in every clamp 

 that I put on my hives before I tier up. Here, 

 again, the narrow sections are more liable to 

 be occupied with brood than wide ones. I will 

 admit that the section 5 inches high has an 

 advantage over a lower section of the same 

 weight. 



Middleburg, N. Y. 



[On my first bicycle-tour I called at the home 

 of N. D. West, in isc>0. The gentleman himself 

 was absent, hut I was kindly shown about by 

 his son. I saw evidences enough to convince me 

 that Mr. West was one of the bright, intelligent 

 bee-keepers of York State. I afterward learned 

 that he was a successful manager of some 300 

 or 400 colonies distributed in one or more out- 

 yards. I had the pleasure of making his ac- 

 quaintance at one or more of the York State 

 bee-conventions. At the meetings which I at- 

 tended he was full of ideas, and was ready to 

 give them to his brother- workers. The article 

 is a fairly good sample of what he knows about 

 bees; and the arguments he presents seem to be 

 almost incontrovertible, not the least important 

 of which is the idea of having regular goods- 

 something that everybody can use, and which 

 have a par value among bee-keepers everywhere. 

 -Ed.] 



