1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



501 



looked as if the nearly 400 colonies and nuclei, 

 mostly the latter, were about to get ahead of 

 the boys I turned in myself and helped until 

 they could catch up. After the empty combs 

 in reserve gave out, we called upon the factory 

 hands to give us an extra lot of frames tilled 

 with foundation. They had what they consid- 

 ered a good stock on hand; but it became 

 necessary to turn in a lot more on short notice. 

 The foreman of one of the departments said to 

 me, as I came up after more frames, " If you 

 had only told me you were going to want so 

 much stuff I would have been ready for you; 

 but as it is, I have had to call in extra help." 

 " Well," said I, " I had no idea myself we woula 

 need so much. The bees took us by surprise all 

 around." 



By Saturday night, by hard work we man- 

 aged to give every colony and nucleus room 

 enough and a little to spare. When I first went 

 out into the apiary we were having about six 

 swarms a day; but after we had given them 

 more room, this number was reduced to one a 

 day. 



Please understand right here that I do not 

 claim that giving room stops swarming : it 

 simply discourages it— that is all; and, more 

 than all, it prevents the bees from getting into 

 the habit of loafing. 



LOAFING BEES. 



And that reminds me, that, if the bee-keeper 

 is careless enough to let some of his colonies 

 mope around a day or two for want of room, it 

 is not always easy to get them to start to work 

 again, even when plenty of room is given. Bees 

 are like human beings. After they have had a 

 loafing-spell for a while it is hard work for them 

 to get down to real business again. I am con- 

 vinced that it is very desirable to keep ahead 

 of the bees — not to let a colony, if it is a possible 

 thing, get inte the loafing-habit. But a lack 

 of room is not the only thing that encourages 

 this tendency. Small entrances or unshaded 

 hives, even when there is plenty of room, will 

 cause bees to cluster out in front, and simply 

 loaf, loaf, loaf. 



HOW BEES ATTACH THEIK NATUKAL BUILT 



COMB ; IS THERE A RIGHT AND WRONG 



AVAY TO HANG FOUNDATION? 



During the past year there has been more or 

 less discussion as to which way the bees build 

 comb naturally, that is, whether the two par- 

 allel sides of the cells are perpendicular or 

 "slantindicular," as one friend expresses it in 

 Rambler's story. Mr. Danzenbaker, the one 

 who introduced the lock-corner in hives, insist- 

 ed that the first-mentioned way was the man- 

 ner in which the heesalwayn build their combs; 

 but I showed him, while in the yard, that bees 

 build about as much one way as the other; in 

 fact, it does not seem to make any particular 

 difference to them which way the combs hang. 

 Mr. E. B. Weed, of foundation fame, who is at 



present experimenting on another invention, has 

 made the observation that the building of combs 

 is dependent largely upon the position of the 

 support. Said he, "The parallel sides of the 

 cells are always drawn outatrightangles tothe 

 support. If said support is perpendicular, then 

 the parallel sides will hang diagonal. If the 

 support is horizontal, as it is in the majority of 

 cases, then the comb will generally be built 

 with the two parallel sides perpendicular." 



Now, you may wonder what practical impor- 

 tance attaches to all this. Bee-keepers have 

 had more or less to say as to which is the pro- 

 per way to hang foundation in frames or sec- 

 tions. From the observations which we have 

 made, and from the testimony which has come 

 in, I am decidedly of the opinion that it makes 

 no difference. The bees build the foundation 

 just as readily one way as the other. In order 

 that the reader may understand just what is 

 meant by cells with parallel sides perpendicu- 

 lar, and cells the other way. No. 1 shows the 

 first mentioned, and No. 2 the second. 



NO. 1. NO. 2. 



Now, perhaps you may raise the question, 

 using all foundation as we do, how we would 

 have a chance to know or see how bees build 

 combs naturally. I am ashamed to confess it, 

 but the bees got ahead of us somewhat in a few 

 cases, and built combs naturally after their 

 own sweet wills, from enamel cloths, from 

 cover- boards, and super-tops, and sometimes 

 from the side of the hive. Each piece of natu- 

 rally built comb was carefully inspected, with 

 the results as above indicated. 



SMALL STARTERS VS. FULL SHEETS IN SEC- 

 TIONS. 



A fact that is pretty well recognized among 

 comb honey producers may perhaps be touched 

 upon here by way of confirmation. When we 

 put up supers containing sections for general 

 stock, only small starters are used, for the 

 reason that full sheets would not ship. Well, 

 during the last few days during the pinch we 

 had to use something that was right ready, 

 and accordingly a number of these supers were 

 used; but as soon as our employees in the fac- 

 tory could get at it they fixed up supers con- 

 taining full sheets. It was evident that the 

 bees accepted the latter much more readily; 

 and it was evident, also, that partly drawn-out 

 sections shaved down a la Taylor were much 

 more readily accepted yet. B. Taylor's idea of 

 using natural comb shaved down by means of a 

 comb-Ieveler is all right. 



