48 



GLEAN li^^GSs iJS JiEE OLILTUUE. 



3 AH. 



When another lot collects, let them out in 

 the same way, and in a very little time yuu 

 can have every bee out of "your room. In 

 view of su(;h occurrences 1 would have a 



food wide shelf just below the window, and 

 eep this shelf clear of rubbish. Then at 

 any time, by raising the window a little you 

 can easily brush out all the bees that have 

 dropped down, so as to keep your house 

 tidy and neat. Where there are only a few 

 sections that the bees can work on I woulil 

 put them in a tight box or cupboard. Sim- 

 plicity hives piled up will hold frames of 

 comb or sections of honey very well tem- 

 noi'arily. Now, if yon want to cure yom- 

 bees of hanging around the honey-house 

 doors oi- windows, just let them go in the 

 room and out at pleasure, until they are 

 satistied there is not a drop of honey to be 

 obtained. If it is during a season when 

 they rob l)adly. Simplicity hives piled up 

 may be a rather bad arrangement, for bees 

 smell the lioney through the cracks. In 

 such a case, cover the pile of hives with a 

 large sheet, or, better still, an oil cloth, 

 such as is used to spread over wagons ; or 

 if your room is not large enough, open 

 your bee-tent, and spread that o\er it. 

 Surplus comb honey ought to l)e very secure 

 indeed, to prevent bees from scenting it. 

 Friend Ileddon aiid some others have rec- 

 ommended double sheets of wire cloth, with 

 a space between them. 'ITiis prevents bees 

 on the inside from passing Money througli 

 to those on the outside ; but whatever way 

 yoii take to make it secure, don't have any 

 "mistakes about it, or you may h;ive such 

 scenes as our friend describes' so graph ic- 

 allv in the above article. 



SEPAHATOKS OB NO SEPARATORS, 



lliHO SOMETHING IN REGARD TO THE WORKING 

 OF HEnnON'S NEW HIVE. 



ENTIRELY agree with G. M. Doolittle, on page 

 f 939, that we have been making- a move in the 

 wrong' direction in reg^ard to separators. Un- 

 til three or four years ag-o I thinli it was prettj- 

 well settled that comb honey could not be sat- 

 isfactorily produced without separators. About 

 this time a number of comb-honey cases appeared, 

 designed to be used without separators. Some of 

 these were very convenient to use, and, aside from 

 the non-separator feature, were much better than 

 the old systems. These were " boomed " by those 

 favoring them; and from being written and talked 

 about so much it became fashionable to do without 

 separators, and many who really preferred them 

 were ashamed to admit that they could not do with- 

 out them. Everybody followed his neighbor. 



One of the most characteristic traits of the Amer- 

 ican people is their tendency to popular crazes, a 

 tendency to take up every thing that is new and 

 attractive, and carry it to extremes. Never more 

 Strikingly shown than in their amusements— as, 

 for instance, roller-skating and progressive eucher 

 —this tendency has its intluence in every depart- 

 ment of life. Any l)U8iness that is more than ordi- 

 narily profitable is rushed into, and almost imme- 

 diately overdone. Bee-keeping is suffering now 

 from just such an inundation on a small scale. 

 But this is a digression. 



With all the hue and cry against separatoi-s, 

 everybody seemed to think that everybody else 

 was giving them ui>, iiiid that he must fall into line 

 or be left behind. How the movement against sep- 

 aratoi-s was for\varde(l, may be learned from the 

 way the subject was handled at one of our conven- 

 tions. After some talk in which the anti-separator 

 men aired their views, while those who favored 

 separators for the most part stood back and listen- 

 ed, the subject was put to vote, and all who could 

 secure marketable honey without the use of sep- 

 arators were asked to stand up. Of course, the 

 most of those who voted at all stood up. Almost 

 any one can produce marketable honey without 

 separators. That is not the question. The report 

 of that convention, stating that three-fourths of 

 its members could get ak)ng without separators, 

 was, to a ceitain extent, misleading, as giving the 

 impression that they were in favor of doing with- 

 out them. I do not think this was the sentiment 

 of the convention. 1 think most of them were in 

 favor of se|)arators, and continued to use them, 

 and believe in them to-day. But their half-unwlU- 

 ing admission, that they could get along without 

 separators, no doulit had its influence in inducing 

 otiiers to try the non-separator case, who, finding 

 themselves reasonably successful with it, became 

 loud in its praise. 



I can produce comb honey without separatcjrs. 

 I have done so successfully. This season I had 

 over 200(1 lbs. of honey made without separators. 

 There may have been 2.5 sections that could not 

 well be crated. Perhaps 30(i required a little extra 

 care in crating, while the rest could be put togeth- 

 er anyhow without the combs touching. Stiil. 1 

 know that, without extraordinary care, 1 should 

 not obtain as good results every season; and as 1 

 can see no very important benefit to l>e derived 

 from dispensing with separators, I shall continue 

 their use, and shall ^jrobably make no more cases 

 to be used without them. I can certainly get as 

 much honey by using separators as without them. 

 When they are not used there is constant annoy- 

 ance from the uuflnished sections at the sides, and 

 particularly in the corners of the case, unless the 

 easels left on until all are finished; and no one 

 who expects to produce the best honey can afl:'ord 

 i to do this. With separators the work of the honey- 

 I producer goes on much more smoothly and satis- 

 1 factorily, and the marketaliility of the honey is not 

 ] so dependent on chance. 



The wide-frame sj-stem is, in my opinion, the 

 ' best way of using separators, but they should not 

 j hold over one tier of seetif)ns, and should be so 

 i arranged that thej' can be tiered up to any desired 

 I height. Kxpansibility and contractibility are both 

 ! valuable features in any hive. A hive should be 

 i so made that its capacity may be readily and quick- 

 ; ly enlarged or contracted, to suit the extreme re- 

 , quirements of any colony, and so that these chang- 

 es may be made gradually. 

 This brings us naturally to a discussion of the 

 • Heddon hive, of which more, perhaps, has been 

 i claimed in this direction than of any other hive. 

 I have used a number of them during the past sea- 

 I son, some of them since early spring. I am thus 

 . enabled to form a tolerably correct idea as to the 

 merits of the hive. I had formed a very favoi-able 

 opinion of it before 1 had ever seen it, and I must 

 ' say that, in practice, it nearly fulfilled my highest 

 expectations. There were some drawbacks, how- 



