1890 



GT.EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



95 



expect to call upon other Vermont apiaries to sup- 

 ply the great industry springing up here for tbe 

 raising of comb honey. And, Mr. Rambler, had I 

 the amount of extracted honey that you have, I 

 would see the commission men in Tophet before I'd 

 send them a drop. Just educate your neighbors to 

 raising it with a spoon." 



RAMBLER " RAISING " HONEY ON A SPOON. 



This phase of honey-raising by everybody with 

 forks, spoons, etc., pleased the Rambler immense- 

 ly. He started right off home on a dog-trot, got a 

 flve-pound pail of honey and a few teaspoons, and, 

 entering his native village, proceeded to give 

 everybody a taste. We halted Sam and Jim, Polly 

 and Jerusha and the children, for a taste of our 

 honey. As a result, the remnant of our honey was 

 soon all raised on spoons and buckwheat cakes. 

 Now, we are also going to set that honey almanac 

 to operating, and we expect to raise a regular 

 " fewroar " in the home market. This is a fact 

 thoroughly believed in by the Ramble^. 



THICK TOP-BAKS, AGAIN. 



THE EVIDENCE POURING IN; THEY PREVENT 



BRACE-COMBS, AND THAT, TOO, WITHOUT A 



HONEY-BOARD. 



The Bee-Keeper's Eeview for Jan. 10 is out, 

 and a good number it is too. The special 

 topic is wide and thick top-bars, and the 

 prevention of brace-combs. The testimony 

 collected in this issue very materialiy sub- 

 stantiates the testimony that has been 

 brought out in our own journal. The whole 

 thing summed up in a single sentence stands 

 about like this : To prevent brace-combs and 

 to dispense with the honey-board, use top-bars I 

 inch thick, 1 inch wide, and spaced accurately 

 i'r, inch apart. A top-bar i inch wide, and 

 bee-spaced apart, may largely if not entire- 

 ly prevent brace-combs ; but the extra i 

 inch added to the width, so far as I am able 

 to gather, makes a sure thing of it. The 

 testimony has been so convincing that Bro. 



Hutchinson says he is quite converted to 

 thick bars. He says that, when Dr. Miller 

 first intimated that the honey-board might 

 be dispensed with, at the Northwestern 

 Convention, in Chicago, it seemed to him 

 ''perfectly preposterous.'' And " yet," he 

 says, " who can read the discussions in the 

 present number without deciding that, in 

 all probability, the honey-board can be laid 

 aside?'" And I must confess that I was 

 very much surprised and pleased to note 

 how favorable Bro. Heddon seemed dispos- 

 ed to be toward the heavy bars (see leading 

 article last issue). We must give our Dow- 

 agiac friend credit for being progressive, 

 even if the prospects are pretty bright for 

 knocking out his slat honey-board. How 

 pretty it will be for those whose hives are 

 constructed like the Simplicity, and who can 

 not very well use the honey-board between 

 the extracting-supers, to be able to pull 

 apart the top story from the lower one, 

 without lifting the lower frames up en masse, 

 simply by the use of thick bars ! And still 

 another thing : There is no sagging with 

 such frames. That feature alone is worth 

 the expense of the change, even if we do not 

 secure that other grand feature, the preven- 

 tion of brace-combs ; and still again, Mr. 

 Heddon says straighter and better combs are 

 secured thereby. Is it going to knock out 

 reversing too? Our whole apiary will be 

 changed to thick top-bars, just as soon as 

 the trial of a/ew justifies the introduction 

 of more. Let me urge again : DonH try too 

 many at once. After you have tested a few 

 you can then act more intelligently ; and 

 don't be in too much of a hurry to break up 

 your honey-boards into kindling-wood. 



Ernest. 



SIZE OP TOP-BAKS. DR. MILLER TELLS HOW WE CAN 



ALL EXPERIMENT FOR OURSELVES WITHOUT 



GOING TO ANY PARTICULAR EXPENSE. 



T AM thankful for the amount of light thrown on 

 this subject. It seems to be tolerably well estab- 

 lished, that there have been quite a number of 

 cases in which tbe size of the top-bar has effectual- 

 ly prevented the building of brace-combs. Of 

 course, it is understood that too large a bee-space 

 is not allowed; and, indeed, one writer in Glean- 

 ings claims that, if a bee-space of ia inch is allowed, 

 the thickness or width of the top-bar is not materi- 

 al. If all are right, then there are three ways in 

 which we may succeed without a honey -board; 

 viz.: By having a i^ inch space; by having a top- 

 bar % inch thick, or thicker; or by having a top- 

 bar I's inches wide. It is to be hoped there may be 

 enough experimenting next season to settle more 

 fully what is most effective. In the meantime it 

 may do no harm to discuss some of the things to be 

 thought of in making experiments. 



WHAT is the best SPACE BETWEEN TOP-BARS 

 AND SECTIONS? 



I have always used f inch, and I suspect it is a 

 little too much. Still, with the slat honey-board, 

 the i space has worked well, generally. It is prob- 

 able that 4 inch between top-bars and sections 

 might prevent brace-combs, provided the top-bars 

 were not more than | inch apart; but I fear it 

 would be a difficult thing to maintain for several 

 years a space exactly M inch. The shrinking or 

 warping of lumber would interfere, and, moreover, 

 my bees have a habit of putting propolis in all sorts 



