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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



GETTING BEES TO EMPTY SECTIONS. 



" Along about these days," as the almanacs 

 used to say, the question will again come up as 

 to the best way of feeding out unfinished sec- 

 tions. I doubt the wisdom of keeping over till 

 spring any sections to be cleaned out merely for 

 the sake of being cleaned out. That would 

 better be done in the fall. That is, if a section 

 has just a little honey in it, it is better to have 

 that section left where the bees can rob it out. 

 and in that way they'll make a thorough job of 

 it; whereas, if left till spring it will be granu- 

 lated and dried down, so that it may not be 

 properly cleaned out when the bees are ready to 

 store in it again. 



I know that some believe that a section should 

 never be used the second time; but I can hard- 

 ly help the suspicion that such persons have 

 been unfortunate enough to use a second time 

 sections that have not been thoroughly cleaned 

 out. and I don't know of any way that thorough 

 cleaning can be done but by the bees. But if 

 there is any one thing I feel sure of in bee-keep- 

 ing, it is that a partly finished section, if nice 

 and clean, inside and out, is a profitable thing 

 to . use. 



If the wood is nice and clean, the comb gen- 

 erally is: but sometimes there will be di>colora- 

 tions, perhaps propolis at the edges or mouths of 

 the cells. Breaking or cutting off may remedy 

 this, but I should expect the invention of B. 

 Taylor for this purpose to be a great improve- 

 ment. I think, Mr. Editor, that you raised the 

 question whether it would pay to take the time 

 for this. Having never tried the plan, I can not 

 say with certainty: but if used hot enough, it 

 seems to me that both sides could be melted off 

 in at least as little time as it would take to put 

 together a new section and put foundation in it; 

 and if just as clean as the new one, I would 

 rather have the old one. 



As I have already hinted, those sections that 

 are kept over to be fed in the spring are those 

 with a larger amount of honey in them, and 

 they have been kept over because we want the 

 bees to have the benefit of the feed. It would 

 seem that there should be no great dilficulty in 

 getting bees to empty out sections in the spring; 

 but in actual practice it has turned out in the 

 experience of many a one to be quite difficult. 



^robably the first thought with every one 

 would be to put the sections over the hive. 

 Bees often carry down honey out of the sections 

 when we don't want them to, as at the stoppage 

 of a honey -flow, and they carry down well out 

 of a feeder, but they can't be relied on to empty 

 out sections on top. If for any reason I were 

 confined to that as the only way, I should break 

 open all sealed cells and smear honey all over 

 the comb to make it as dauby as possible, for 

 you can count on their cleaning it up; and, 

 once started, they are more likely to continue. 



After no little study over the matter, two 

 years ago I settled on a plan that as yet I have 

 not given to the public, and perhaps I ought to 

 apologize for not having done so. It is well 

 known that bees are prompt to appropriate hon- 

 ey at some distance from their hives; and the 

 problem was, to have the sections at such dis- 

 tance that the bees would not consider them un- 

 der their care, and yet so situated that no other 

 colony could get at them. I'll tell you how I 

 planned it. Under thehive was abottom-board 

 IK inches deep, same as in winter, and right in 

 front of this was a similar bottom-board, the 

 two entrances together. On thissecond bottom- 

 board I placed a super of partly fillt-d sections. 

 Then I covered over with little boards the pas- 

 sageway between the hive and the super, per- 

 haps 6 or 8 inches, leaving it open at the regu- 

 lar entrance of the hive. Thus you will see 



that no outsider could enter at any other point 

 than at the regular entrance to the hive, but 

 that the bees of the colony had free passage, 

 and at the sj.me time the honey was so far away 

 that it would seem much the same as standing 

 out in the open air. When a super standing un- 

 protected is found by a bee, it doesn't take long 

 for a large number to find the same place. 



Notwithstanding the completeness of the ar- 

 rangement, the bees had so often disappointed 

 my expectations that I could not feel entirely 

 certain of the result till after I had had their 

 verdict. Placing several supers in position, I 

 think I left them over night before examina- 

 tion. The next morning none of the sections 

 were entirely cleaned out. Indeed, it didn't 

 seem that the bees had done much at them, but 

 I might be mistaken in this. But after several 

 days' waiting, there could be no possible doubt 

 in the matter— the thing was a dead failure. 

 Worse than that, in some of the supers I found 

 dead bees by the hundred. Now, I'm not going 

 to explain why it failed — I don't know. But it 

 looks just a little as though the bees could not 

 find their way back out of the super into the 

 hive, and perished there. 



Last year Emma, for some reason, fed sections 

 to such colonies in the home apiary as seemed to 

 need it. without my help. The sections not go- 

 ing under the bottom- bars easily, she deliber- 

 ately broke the comb out of the section and 

 thrust the comb under. As a security against 

 starvation it was certainly a success. As a mat- 

 ter of economy it was not a success, for none of 

 the combs were of any further value but to be 

 melted up. I expressed my disapprobation of 

 the plan, and together we went to the Hastings 

 apiary to feed in a more sensible manner. 



We took along perhaps forty supers, raised up 

 the hive from its bottom -board, set the super 

 on the bottom-board, then set the hive on the 

 super. In some cases we put two supers under 

 a hive. No bee could get in, only at the regular 

 entrance, making it safe from robbers. I could 

 feel sure there would be no starving. But the 

 bees did not seem strongly impressed with the 

 thought that they should hasten to empty every 

 drop of honey out of the sections and carry it to 

 their brood-nest. In short, so far as getting the 

 sections cleaned out was concerned, the plan 

 was an utter failure; for, instead of bejng 

 cleaned, the longer the sections stayed there the 

 dirtier they got. They were, some of them, not 

 emptied when the honey harvest came, and so 

 blackened and filled with dirt that they were 

 fit only to melt up. Emma might have retaliat- 

 ed, but she didn't. 



Some one will say, "What's the use of writ- 

 ing about such things, if you have only failures 

 to report?" Well, it may save others from mak- 

 ing the same mistakes, and it would have been 

 worth a good deal to me if some one else had 

 reported these mistakes before I made them. 



Now I'll tell you the plan that so far has been 

 fairly successful- with me, although it is not 

 warranted to succeed the next time. Take the 

 hive off the bottom-board. Set your super of 

 sections on the bottom- board, and on this place 

 two empty supers, on which set the hive. Put 

 a separator between the super and hive at the 

 front, so that it shall form a sort of bottom- 

 board under the hive, and prevent any bee from 

 entering the super from the outside wi'hout go- 

 ing over the full width of the separator. I 

 think in this case the honey is so far down that 

 the bees do not consider it as under their care; 

 and as bees naturally 'go up to get out of a 

 place, they readily get back to the cluster. 

 The failure last year was perhaps due to the 

 fact that the honey was too close to the brood- 

 nest. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111. 



