1S06 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



339 



Most colonies, if managed rightly, will build 

 down to the bottom of sections; and if a colony 

 insists on leaving a bee-space I find it less trou- 

 ble to pinch the top starter from that queen 

 than to put a bottom starter in all the sections. 

 Now, instead of extracting the honey from part- 

 ly filled sections. I break or tear the cappings, 

 and also the cells, to within about half an inch 

 of the center, or base; then if some colonies are 

 short of stores, a super full of those dripping 

 sections will make them hustle while extract- 

 ing, trimming, and keeping robbers away. Or 

 if those sections are left a few days in a warm 

 damp atmosphere, nearly all the honey will run 

 out; then let the bees do the rest. Then to 

 make this drawn comb go as far as possible, I 

 cut it out of the old sections, divide it in two or 

 three pieces, then dip the long side of each into 

 melted wax, and quickly press in the top of a 

 nice clean section. 



STAINED SECTIONS. 



How to prevent bees from staining and var- 

 nishing the sections has puzzled my mind a 

 great deal. Smoothing the way for the bee that 

 is loaded with propolis will accomplish much; 

 and I have an idea that every thing being 

 smooth inside of a hive very often saves that 

 bee the trouble of gathering a load of varnish. 

 But the numerous little cracks, and uneven sur- 

 face between sections, offer great inducements 

 to the little plasterers, especially along toward 

 fall. Accurate fitting, and wedging sections in 

 tight, will remedy the matter to some extent on 

 the inside of sections; and if Mr. B. Taylor will 

 allow me to use his expression, 1 will say that, 

 whoever allows his bees to come in contact with 

 the outside of sections, " has not yet learned his 

 trade." 



PREVENTION OF PARTLY FILLED SECTIONS. 



Like Mr. B. Taylor, I give my bees plenty of 

 room, so as to discourage them from swarming 

 during the honey-flow; but instead of " piling 

 on an unlimited amount of supers, with sec- 

 tions, at or near the end of the flow," I put on 

 super-holders fitted with top-bars only. A set 

 of top- bars, or lath, with %-in. starters, are fit- 

 ted over the super- holder, and a set of pattern 

 slats to the bottom. Should the bees fill this 

 entirely with honey, they of course will fasten 

 the combs down to the pattern-slats. But they 

 will peel off; then cut the end of the combs from 

 the holder, and you have nice half-depth combs 

 that will sell or extract easily. I have even 

 shipped them (before cutting them out), and 

 they sold like hot cakes, probably because it 

 was in a new form. 



Savanna, 111. 



[Very many, and perhaps a majority of our 

 honey -producers, use full sheets in sections, 

 and it is ho doubt true, as you intimate, that 

 such sheets cause more of a fishbone than the 

 narrower starters. We as bee-keepers do not 

 object; but consumers, not knowing any thing 

 about foundation, jump to the conclusion that 

 such comb honey is "manufactured." There 



is now chance along the line of making use of 

 thinner foundation; and the new process gives 

 us hope that we can use such an article, and 

 yet such sufficiently strong so that bees will not 

 tear it down. 



I have for some time advocated supers in 

 which compression of the sections is a feature. 

 On my first bicycle- tour I observed that the 

 bee-keepers who used crates or supers that 

 would squeeze sections tight had less propolis 

 along the edge of the sections than those who 

 did not use compression. To secure this more 

 perfectly, the section-holder super was devised, 

 with wooden separators, and wide enough to 

 reach the whole depth of the section. — Ed.] 



GOVERNMENT AID TO BEE-KEEPERS. 



THE KIND OF ASSISTANCE NEEDED, AND HOW TO 

 GET IT. 



By W. K. Moirison. 



There is no more vital question to bee-keep- 

 ers than this: "What can be done to advance 

 the sale of honey ? " I shall make the state- 

 ment without fear of successful contradiction, 

 that no people are so prejudiced against honey 

 as the Americans, and for good reasons. The 

 newspapers, in season and out, have persisted 

 that the American bee-man is nothing but a 

 cute rascal. There is hardly an "influential " 

 paper in the country that has not given space 

 to the " Wiley lie," or something like it. It 

 should be noted, too, by all our fraternity, that 

 one reason why Prof. Wiley succeeded so well 

 was that he was a government official, suppos- 

 ed to be well posted on agricultural matters. I 

 am also sure of another thing, which is, that, 

 had Mr. Wiley made similar assertions in re- 

 gard to bee-keepers while in the employ of 

 either France or Germany, suitable punish- 

 ment would have been immediately dealt out 

 to him. In truth and in fact, his reputation 

 would have been damaged for life. Bee-keep- 

 ers who live in the country have little concep- 

 tion of the extent to which public opinion has 

 been led astray in this matter. 



Another thing, many people have been led to 

 put up their honey in bottles marked "extract- 

 ed." Now, if such would only inquire among 

 their city friends they would find out that 

 "strained" is what people want. The ''ex- 

 tracted " suggests machinery. When I bought 

 my " Cowan " I found a strainer attached to the 

 machine. What was it for, Mr. Editor? On a 

 close inquiry you will find that lots of people 

 " like the good old strained honey." My advice 

 is to put neither "strained" nor "extracted" 

 on your packages. Sell it for honey. But just 

 here somebody says, " What has this to do with 

 the government ? " so I must change. 



One reason, and the great reason, why the 

 bee-keeper fails to sell his honey at a reasona- 

 ble figure is that people do not understand what 

 a valuable product he has produced, so it be- 

 comes his duty to educate the "masses." I 

 propose, however, that we compel the recogni- 



