416 



December, 1915. 



''■ ^^E ^^C 



American Hee Journal 



of fastening the top only. 



Dr. Miller surmises that the 4 bee-way 

 section may have something to do with 

 the result. It does. I have produced 

 thousands of sections of non-separa- 

 tored honey with two-bee-way sections, 

 but they oflfer one serious defect. When 

 supers are crowded, the comb of one 

 section will often overlap slightly the 

 crack between the two sections. It will 

 thus get sealed partly against the other 

 section, and when the two are taken 

 apart there is more or less daub. It is 

 no worse than what many times hap- 

 pens with the use of fence separators. 

 We all know how the fences are fre- 

 quently attached to the combs and re- 

 sult in dauby sections. I love honey, 

 but my love quickly turns to hate when 

 that honey gets on my fingers or 

 clothes. With a beeway at the side the 

 bees will rarely carry the comb beyond 

 and fasten it to the next section. 



I have just been cleaning up over 

 2000 sections, and in all that number 

 found but two cases where that had 

 actually happened. In some way a 

 sheet of foundation was dislodged and 

 fell out of the super. The bees simply 

 extended the two adjacent combs into 

 that empty section, and did fasten 

 them slightly to the middle section, so 

 slightly that they scarcely leaked when 

 pulled apart. Bees, especially Italians, 

 like to keep passage-ways open. Hence, 

 the side beeway is a great deterrent to 

 bulging sections. 



This article is intended to answer 

 the question, and should properly be 

 restricted to an answer. I find, how- 

 ever, that I have to supplement my an- 

 swer with explanation and possibly de- 

 fence of the method. At first I dis- 

 liked the idea of handling sections 

 with four openings. But it is like 

 everything else, when one gets used to 

 a thing he finds that much of his appre- 

 hension was ill founded. I have not 

 taken exact data, but I am beginning 

 to think that I can clean up a super of 

 four-bee-way sections more quickly 

 than I can the other sort. This is es- 

 pecially true if there is little glue. The 

 sections have so little contact that 

 they get better compressed than do the 

 other sections, and hence there is less 

 filling up of cracks by the bees. But 

 if there is lots of glue it is harder to 

 get a good result than with the plain 

 section. 



There are two tremendous argu- 

 ments in favor of the production of 

 honey by this method. One can get 

 more honey with the same labor and 

 the same bees. The product is more 

 kindly accepted by the public. Since 

 it is possible, to produce a good article 

 by this method, and since the desir- 

 ability of such method is great, I ask 

 for an honest consideration of the 

 method and a fair trial before it is 

 condemned. 



Norwichtown, Conn. 



No. 11.— The Honey-Producing 

 Plants 



BY FRANK C. PELLETT. 



(Photocraphi bv the author.) 



THE Indian-currant, also known as 

 coral-berry or buckbrush.-yvn/i/ro- 

 riciupos oibicithiliis, is a widely 

 distributed shrub that furnishes consid- 



erable nectar in late summer. It may 

 be found in woodland borders and 

 open forests from New York, west to 

 the Dakotas, south to Missouri and 

 Arkansas, and from New Jersey south 

 along the mountains to Georgia and 

 Alabama. 



The blossoms are very small and in- 

 conspicuous. Fig. 58, but where the 

 plant is abundant it is much sought by 



that hang on the bushes after the 

 leaves have withered and dropped, and 

 which will be instantly recognized by 

 any one familiar with the plant. These 

 berries are often about the only winter 

 food available for small birds when the 

 ground is covered with snow. 



.SPANISH-NEEDLES. 



The Spanish-needles, also known as 

 bootjacks, beggar-ticks, stick-tights, 



Fig. 58.— Indian Currant in Bloom 



the bees. In southeastern Iowa, the 

 season of 1914 was a very poor one for 

 the bees, and many colonies required 

 feeding to get them through the win- 

 ter. In a few localities where buck- 

 brush abounds they not only were well 

 prepared for winter, but stored some 

 surplus. The blooming season is July 

 and August in most northern States, 

 so that the clover harvest is usually 

 nearly over when it comes on. Figure 

 59 shows the bunches of red berries 



Fig. 5q.- 



-Berries of Indian Currant or 

 Coral Berry. 



and marigolds, Pidetis, are very widely 

 distributed plants, and are of interest 

 to the beekeepers from Nova Scotia to 



FIG. 00. -SPANISH-NEEDLE IN BLOOM 



