!318 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mak. 15. 



it, or some porous substance, to prevent their 

 gnawing the cushion and letting the chaff down 

 among them. Then put on your cushion and 

 let them alone until spring. 



The cut will illustrate where the cushion 

 goes, also the surplus-apartment. As will be 

 seen, there is room in the upper story for two 

 supers for comb honey, or a large super for 

 extracted, and the cover shuts over all. In 

 extremely warm weather the cover can be 

 raised a few inches in front, giving a circula- 

 tion of air all around the surplus-apartment, 

 and shading it at the same time. The cover is 

 hinged at the back end; and, when raised as 

 shown in the cut, it makes two shelves for the 

 use of the operator, which is highly appreciat- 

 ed; besides, there is no lifting on or off of covers 

 as is the case in all other hives. The alighting- 

 board, too, is hinged, and can be so arranged as 

 to touch the ground. This is a great advan- 

 tage to the bees during a heavy honey-flow. 



THE HILTON T SUPER; WHY I PREFER IT TO 

 THE I-OOSE TINS OR SECTION-HOLDERS. 



In the first place, I am prejudiced against 

 any thing that is more likely to be out of its 

 place than in when wanted; and I can see no 

 advantages in the loose tins that the stationary 

 tins do not possess. With me a super is more 

 easily filled or emptied with stationary tins 

 than loose ones, especially when the thumb- 

 screw device is attached; and the improvement 

 I claim is in the stationary tins and the thumb- 

 screws. I believe that, for the best results in 

 comb honey, the sections should be as near the 

 brood-nest as possible; and with the Hoffman 

 frames I do not find it necessary to use a honey- 

 board of any kind, which brings the sections 

 only ?A of an inch from the top bars. I believe 

 that, the sooner honey is taken from the crate 

 after it is capped, the better. I go over my 

 yards often, and remove all finished sections, 

 which can be accomplished by loosening the 

 thumb-screws. Any section in the super can 

 be drawn without disturbing the others; and 

 should the entire super be finished, it can be 

 emptied entire by turning it bottom up upon 

 the table or bench. Loosen the thumb-screws, 

 and, as a rule, they will drop down fg of an 

 inch, and the super can be lifted off, and leave 

 the sections in a lump. You need no follower, 

 as a slight jar will always bring them down. 



THE HILTON T SUPER FOR CHAFF HIVE. 



The reason I prefer the same arrangement 

 for the Dovetailed hive, of in any super that 

 uses section-holders, is, first, the holder removes 

 the sections farther from the brood- nest, and 

 places another network of wood between them 

 and the sections; and because of this the bees 

 do not enter them as readily; and with proper 

 spacing I believe sections are cleaned quicker 

 without a bottom-bar than with one; for I 

 never ^aw a bottom-bar that the bees would 

 not blow propolis in between the sections and 



bottom -bar This sticks them so fast that you 

 can not take out a section without first taking 

 out the section-holder and the four sections it 

 contains, and then you will frequently break 

 the bottom of the section in getting it out. In 



Hilton's t super for the dovetailed hive. 

 emptying the entire super I know of no way it 

 can be done satisfactorily; and in tiering up it 

 makes too much wood between the supers. 

 They are adapted to any width of section, with 

 or without separators; and the separators can 

 be made to cover the entire edge of the section, 

 and the screws keep them so tight that no pro- 

 polis is put on the edges. 



The cuts will show that it is no trouble to 

 get out the first row of sections, as is experienc- 

 ed with the Moore crate and others that have 

 no tensions to apply to the sections. 



There are other things I could say in its 

 favor, but will only say this: In the ten years I 

 have been sending it out, I have never known 

 is to be laid aside for any thing else. I send out 

 at least a thousand of them to ten of any other 

 kind. 



Fremont, Mien. 



[Dr. Miller and the members of his family 

 have always been strong advocates of remov- 

 able T tins; and when we made T supers in 

 the first place, they were according to Dr. Mil- 

 ler's ideas; that is, the T tins were removable. 

 But ever since we have made them we have 

 had calls for supers with stationary tins, and 

 the demand has been steadily increasing. 

 A few among those who prefer such I would men- 

 tion Mr. Harry Lathrop, of Browntown, Wis.; 

 Mr. A. B. Anthony, whose T super we illlus- 

 trated in our last issue, and George E. Hilton. 

 I requested the latter to give his reasons in full 

 for preferring his style of super, and the article 

 above is the result. 



When I called upon Dr. Miller a couple of 

 months ago I told him that the tide was chang- 

 ing in favor of the stationary tins, and that, so 

 far as I knew, those who were using the loose 

 tins used that style because they followed in 

 his tracks in purchasing Root T supers. I tried 

 to argue the doctor down in his position for 

 loose tins; but he would not, under any consid- 

 ation, use them, he said. Why! they could fill 

 the supers so much quicker. 



"You talk with Emma," said he (as if he 

 thought she'd vanquish me anyhow). "She 

 fills all the supers." 



I did so; and she proposed that we three go 

 out into the shop. There I noticed that she 

 put in one T tin, and fills one row; another tin 

 and another row, and so on until the super is 

 filled. 



