1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



889 



board, which kept the bottoms of sections placed 

 over the brood-frames entirely clean. I have al- 

 ways valued highly this slat honey-board; but with- 

 in the past three years it has gradually failed to be 

 effective, and the present year I have had bad work 

 with combs and honey filled in between the slat 

 honey-board and the bottoms of the sections. In 

 former years every section was entirely clean from 

 burr-combs. Why the difference? The only ex- 

 planation I can think of is this: In former years, 

 before putting on the honey-board I scraped off 

 clean the tops of all the brood-frames, and cleaned 

 off the honey-board at the close of the honey-har- 

 vest. Latterly I said the bees would only have extra 

 work to All again these spaces, so I left all the burr- 

 combs on. You may be sure I shall clean them off 

 next year. So if you use the honey-board, profit by 

 my experience, and, before putting it on next 

 summer, make a thorough job of cleaning off all 

 propolis and wax above the upper surface of the 

 top-bars. Perhaps I may do well to tell you how I 

 have done it. 



I take a common garden-hoe; and while an as- 

 sistant blows over the top-bars just enough smoke 

 to keep the bees down out of the way, I hoe off 

 every thing, leaving the top-bars clean. The hoe 

 also makes rapid work in cleaning off the honey- 

 boards. Lay them down inside a shallow box, or 

 in some way so they are held firm ; and after you 

 have hoed them off, clean out the spaces between 

 the slats by means of a flat garden-trowel, which 

 may be used, indeed, for the whole of the cleaning. 

 If the honey-boards are cleaned off immediately 

 upon taking from the hives, you will have a sticky 

 mess, and may have trouble with robbers. To 

 avoid this, loosen up each honey-board a day or a 

 week before taking off. Pry it up at different 

 points, so that you are sure you have broken loose 

 all attachments, and then leave it closed up as be- 

 fore, and in 24 hours no honey will be found on the 

 honey-board. 



But, to come back to my starting-point. I am 

 quite anxious to know whether thick top-bars will 

 allow me to dispense with honey-boards entirely; 

 for notwithstanding the high value I have set upon 

 them, there is no denying the fact that they are de- 

 cidedly in the way when you want to lift out 

 frames; and from my experience I think they must 

 be taken off and cleaned at least once a year, which 

 is no little trouble. I think the editor made the. 

 objection to thick top-bars, that he didn't want to 

 use any unnecessary wood; but, pray, isn't there 

 any extra wood in the honey - boards? Besides, 

 thick top-bars are less expensive and more sub- 

 stantial, and surely there is less machinery about 

 them. I should really like to know why a honey- 

 board prevents the building of brace-combs. Some 

 claim that it is the break-joint principle. This year 

 I have given considerable attention to this point; 

 have had many cases in which there was no break- 

 joint, but the space between the top-bars corres- 

 ponded with the spaces of the honey-board, and 1 

 could not see that the break-joint was any better 

 than the continuous passage. I wonder if it is not 

 the simple matter of distance that prevents the 

 bees from starting brace-combs. In my hives, the 

 top-bars are % thick, then a space of | between top- 

 bar and honey-board, and another % space between 

 honey-board and the bottom of the section. Now, 

 this upper space is so far from the brood-comb that 

 the bees may not care to fill up so small a space; 



but after the space between the top-bar und honey- 

 board is all filled up with comb and honey, the bees 

 may next turn their attention to filling up the up- 

 per space, which is now only one-third as far above 

 filled comb as it was at first. Now, if the matter of 

 distance be all that is needed to prevent building* 

 then the thicker top-bar may better be used than the 

 honey-board, with no danger of its becoming inop- 

 erative. If any have tried the thick top-bar, and 

 found it a failure, I should like to see it reported. 



WlbTH OF TOP-BARS. 



My top-bars are one inch wide; and if I should 

 make any change in thickness, 1 might also change 

 the width, if % be a better width. I should like to 

 know just in what way % is better than one inch. I 

 am a little afraid that, in hauling without fasten- 

 ing, the narrow top-bars might not hold so secure- 

 ly in place. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111. 



P. S.— Since writing the above, I heard Heddon 

 and Hutchinson say they never clean off their top- 

 bars, and yet have no trouble. That leaves me all 

 at sea again. 



There, friend Miller, you have brought up 

 a subject that I have been thinking of for 

 some time. I had intended to experiment 

 with thick top-bars, but somehow 1 did not 

 ' "get round to it. " Mr. Danzenbaker, of Wash- 

 ington, D. C., when at Medina a year or so 

 ago, said he had used these thick top-bars in 

 his hives very extensively, and that they did 

 prevent brace-combs. Now, if Mr. Hall and 

 Mr. Danzenbaker, and others who have 

 testified to the value of these thick top-bars, 

 are correct, I do not see but that the honey- 

 board will have to take a back seat— at least 

 the plain slatted board, for I should a good 

 deal rather have the extra wood in the top- 

 bar, than in some extra contrivance. Will 

 Mr. Hall, or Mr. Danzenbaker either, please 

 let us know whether the thick bar still does 

 away with the building of brace-combs, par- 

 tially or entirely? We have always, at the 

 Home of the Honey-bees, been in the habit 

 of scraping the honey-board and the brood- 

 frames before putting on the honey-board. 

 For this purpose we have used a common 

 garden-trowel, both sides of which had been 

 ground to a sharp cutting edge. The hol- 

 low of the trowel holds the scrapings for 

 one whole hive ; and during the operation 

 of scraping, no bits of comb drop in between 

 the frames. With your hoe you can doubt- 

 less do it much more rapidly. You speak 

 about the width of top-bars. For the past 

 two or three seasons we have been using a 

 hive with top-bars H inches wide, but only 

 i inch thick. Quite accidentally this sea- 

 son we noticed that few or no brace-combs 

 were built above these top-bars. Had it not 

 been for the fact that two or three corres- 

 pondents had reported a similar observa- 

 tion, I should have thought no more about 

 it than that it was the peculiar condition of 

 the colony. Now, while I do not propose to 

 advocate or even intimate that a toide top- 

 bar would be advisable, I should like to 

 hear from those who have had opportuni- 

 ties for experimenting in this matter. I 

 know the general verdict is most strenuous- 

 ly in favor of a top-bar I inch wide. This 

 being the width of the average brood-combs, 

 and also being a very convenient thickness 



