624 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



moisture to toughen the thin film of wood where 

 the bend comes. 



T SUPERS. 



I am using- quite a number of these this year, and 

 so far I like them very well, after making some 

 changes. I did not like to have the sections held 

 so far apart by the T tins letting them get out of 

 square, and leaving great chinks for the bees to fill 

 up with propolis. So I took the tins to the vise and 

 flattened the fold until it was uo thicker than the 

 two thicknesses of tin. Perhaps they are not quite 

 as stiff that way, but they are stiff enough. Then 1 

 cut the sides & of an inch shorter, and, nailing 

 them so that the inside length was slightly less at 

 the top than at the bottom, 1 had a case that keeps 

 the sections close and true, and avoids a great 

 deal of propolizing. 



GETTING THE LAST SECTIONS INTO T TUFERS. 



Several devices for this purpose have been de- 

 scribed and illustrated, I believe. Nothing better 

 can be made than a piece of heavy tin the width of 

 the section, or less, and five or more inches long. 

 Bend it at right angles, 4J4 inches from one end, 

 and nail a small block close to the bend, on the out- 

 side, to handle it by. Two of these may be needed. 

 Their use is evident. 



UNFINISHED SECTIONS. 



Well, Dr. Miller, you have done it. I have been 

 wondering for a long time who would be the one to 

 make that point against the claim that sections fill- 

 ed with comb built the year before are unprofitable 

 to use. We all know that, in producing extracted 

 honey, empty combs a e very profitable to use, and 

 it really seems as though the same principle ought 

 to hold good with combs in sections. In my experi- 

 ence, though, it does not. Within the past week I 

 have taken finished sections of honey, built on 

 fresh foundation, from ;ill sides of sections, filled 

 with nice, clean, dry comb, nearly half of which 

 were still unsealed, both put on the hive at the 

 same time. Why is this so? Do the bees object to 

 the small size of the combs, or does it simply take 

 longer for them to ripen the honey put into the 

 cells of full depth V The latter seems to me the 

 belter explanation. Perhaps if we should give the 

 bees all the sections, of comb that they could fill 

 with honey, and then give them their own time to 

 seal it after it was thoroughly ripened, we should 

 find they would store as much or more honey than 

 in sections where they had to build their comb. I 

 confess I never tried this in just this way. This 

 would be managing them on the extracted-honey 

 plan. 



With comb honey we very properly try to remove 

 the honey as soon as it is sealed, while extracted 

 honey should be left on the hive as long as possible. 

 To produce extracted hoi:ey profitably, too, a much 

 larger hive is needed than for comb honey. If we 

 should allow a colony storing honey in combs no 

 more room than is usually given to a colony pro- 

 ducing comb honey, aud not extract the honey 

 from any comb until it was perfectly sealed over, 

 should we get any more of extracted honey than 

 we should of comb? I rather think we should not 

 get as much. 



1 have experimented with sections of comb in va- 

 rious ways this year. I have used a great many 

 bait sections, just as Dr. Miller advises, and I am 

 willing to take back a part of what I have said, and 

 admit that these bait sections often serve a very 

 good purpose; and as there need be only a few of 



them, it does not matter very much if they are not 

 first class. I know of no better way to convince 

 anj one that sectionsof old comb are seldom if ever 

 finished so as to equal in appearance those built 

 new, than to use just this one bait section in each 

 case, all others being filled with fresh foundation. 

 Let such cases be filled during a good flow of honey 

 from white clover, and any one with eyes can see 

 the great difference in appearance. I am trying 

 another experiment which I wish the readers of 

 Gleanings could see in its progress. I have a 

 number of Heddon cases, new style. These have 

 seven single -tier wide frames, held together by 

 screws on one side of the case, which we will call 

 the front. The three back frames in each of these 

 cases are filled with sections containing foundation 

 put in them last summer, but little or not at all 

 worked. The middle frame contains sections filled 

 with comb built last year— nice ones, no candied 

 honey or any thing objectionable about them. The 

 three nearest the front are filled with sectionsof 

 fresh foundation. Very often, as I pass about the 

 apiary I lift the covers of these hives and note the 

 progress of work in the sections; and it is very 

 comforting to me to see in how many cases the 

 three front rows are in advance of all the rest, al- 

 though the row of combs in the middle has the 

 best place, and it deepens my desire to have just as 

 few unfinished sections as possible in the fall. 

 Dayton, 111., July 10, 1889. J. A. Green. 



Thanks, friend Green. If you will turn 

 to page 306 of Gleanings for April 15 you 

 will see a diagram which represents the 

 "double-decked cells,'' as you call them. 

 We should like to know, however, whether 

 the combs containing these cells are of or- 

 dinary thickness. If so, it is a rather unusu- 

 al phenomenon. — Your method of dampen- 

 ing sections is rather novel ; but in our 

 climate we are of the opinion that the 

 damp blanket would have to be around the 

 crate of sections more than over night. If 

 left long enough it would surely do the busi- 

 ness, and you have our thanks for the sug- 

 gestion. — As to the matter of putting the 

 last section in the T supers, although we 

 fill a great many supers for hives set up, we 

 use no special appliance for getting the last 

 section in. It does sometimes cause a little 

 trouble ; but a little shucking of the crate 

 will usually cause it to slip into its place. 

 The point you speak of, of a space between 

 the sections, formed by the T tins, is one of 

 the objections against the T super, as ordi- 

 narily made. The one-piece sections have 

 a tendency to assume a diamond shape. 

 When two of these sections lean in opposite 

 directions from each other, we have noticed 

 sometimes a space of nearly a quarter of an 

 inch. The space formed by a T tin is usual- 

 ly just wide enough to cause the bees to 

 chink propolis in between the rows at the 

 top. This can be obviated, however, by us- 

 ing an extra set of T tins ; and this extra 

 set will at the same time hold the sections 

 perfectly square. — On the matter of unfin- 

 ished sections, we do not suppose there will 

 ever be an agreement among the mass of 

 bee-keepers as to whether their use is profit- 

 able. Our experience rather coincides with 

 Dr. Miller's. Quite a number of our colo- 

 nies would not go up into sections, although 

 they were strong, and their brood-nest was 



