1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



497 



twine; then a paper is wrapped around the 

 package and again tied with twine. This 

 makes a good solid package, and the customer 

 can not easily stick his fingers into the honey 

 until it is untied. 



Sometimes when I have a little leisure I tie 

 up a number of these packages so a customer 

 does not have to wait for it to be done, and you 

 are not hindered much when you are in a hur- 

 ry. By putting up packages containing one, 

 two, three, four, five, and six sections each, you 

 will be able, by combining these, to give the 

 customer the exact amount he may want. You 

 can put it up in packages containing an exact 

 amount, as 25-cent, 50-cent, or dollar packages, 

 or almost any other amount, as the sections 

 will vary a little in weight, and you can select 

 the ones that will make it come about even for 

 the price you may need. I sell the most 50-cent 

 and dollar packages. 



As you can make this much plainer to the 

 reader than I can, by a cut or two, I have sent 

 sample packages just as I put them up. To be 

 of the most value, a thing of this kind should 

 be just exactly as described. So I have sent 

 you samples just as I put them up, using the 

 same method and material, even to the paper 

 and twine, without any selecting whatever. 



You will notice that some of the packages 

 have a convenient handle or bail to carry them 

 by. These are for the "foot-folks" and those 

 on bicycles, or those who go on the train and 

 wish to take a package to a friend. This bail 

 is made by cutting the twine long enough to 

 weave back and forward a few times. It pays 

 to make it easy and convenient for a customer 

 to handle these packages. The customer gets 

 his honey home without breaking the cappings 

 or having any " mess " about it, and is much 

 more likely to want more. 



I put up other combinations; but these I send 

 are enough to illustrate the method, and each 

 can make combinations to suit his own case. 

 Sometimes if the sections are not well fastened 

 in, or the customer wishes to carry it a long 

 distance, I cut these "splints" off and make a 

 separator between each section. Some may 

 say this is too much trouble — let the customer 

 take care of it after it is sold to him. I have 

 found it to pay me to be to all this trouble. 



Kingsville, Ohio. 



[This cheap comb-honey packet I consider as 

 one of the best that has been devised by any 

 one; and I told our artist to spare no pains in 

 showing it up so plainly that any one could 

 catch the plan at a glance. 



To Bro. Phelps we owe a vote of thanks for 

 the excellent hints and suggestions he has giv- 

 en. He is one of our bee-keeping friends who 

 is of an inventive turn of mind, and one who in 

 years gone by has given us a number of prac- 

 tical hints. I refer particularly to the Phelps 

 frame-spacer, as illustrated recently and some 

 time ago.— Ed.] 



THE NON-SWARMING HIVE. 



CAN SW ARMING BE PREVENTED BY RAISING 

 NO DRONES ? 



By W. K. Morrison. 



This article is for the veterans only: others 

 will please look on. The average bee-man looks 

 on a non-swarming hive as a madman's dream; 

 but the veteran, looking back over the achieve- 

 ments of time, will look with some degree of 

 anxiety to see if the long-looked-for has come 

 at last. My belief is that the thing is within 

 our grasp— almost here. Watt built his engine 

 on Black's " Theory of Latent Heat;" Columbus 

 discovered the New World on the theory that 

 the earth is round; Maxwell's theory of elec- 

 tricity is at the bottom of all the electrical sci- 

 ence of the present day; so it becomes me to 

 have a theory too. The theory is simply this: 

 " isfo swarming without drones." Now, this 

 does not mean that one or two drones may be 

 permitted. Mr. Poolittle says, " Raise a few 

 drones." My dictum is, "Raise none — not 

 o?ie." Now, this is not so difficult as at first 

 seems to most of your readers. The present 

 spacing of frames or combs from center to cen- 

 ter is 1% inches. This has been decided on 

 chiefly because it is Nature's spacing. But 

 what do we wish to copy Nature for? Our en- 

 tire system of bee culture is the most unnatural 

 thing out. People who wish to follow Nature's 

 way had better let their bees go wild. The 

 great sign of swarming is seeing drones about 

 the hive, either hatched or in the cell state. 



Can we stop— in fact, absolutely prevent — the 

 building of drone-cells, and so put it beyond the 

 power of bees to swarm at all ? for I conceive 

 that it would be impossible to make bees swarm 

 unless drones were in the hive, in some condi- 

 tion. They seem to say to themselves, "No 

 chance for the young queens to mate, unless 

 drones are in the hive." Mind, too, they do not 

 know that other hives may have drones — they 

 only know what is in their hive. 



All the spacing of combs in a natural hive 

 proceeds on the idea that room may be needed 

 to make drone comb whenever the bees are so 

 minded. Do we need to follow this rule? Cer- 

 tainly not. The British bee-keepers follow 1}4- 

 inch spacing for brood comb — many do this, I 

 believe, and find it profitable. This does not 

 absolutely prevent the building of drone comb, 

 although it does to some extent. The best 

 authorities say a brood comb is X inch, and in 

 actual practice it certainly is not more than 

 this, as we shall see presently. I have spaced 

 to some extent as close as l}4, and yet the bees 

 suffered no inconvenience — not the slightest; 

 and by making the width of the frame X, one 

 can see that the comb is even a little less than 

 %, and the bees have room to move up and 

 down, back to back, at l>g inches, center to cen- 



