(iLEAXINGS m BEE CULTURE. 



Mar 



FIG. 6. 



The principal reason for using- this wooden cover 

 is because, when using the sheet or quilt, the bees 

 very freely propolize the tops of the sections, and 

 this board allows a bee-space on top. so that the 

 bees leave the sections nearly clean— another rea- 

 son, you see, for having the bee-space on top. If 

 there is to be no bee-space on top I would still use 

 this board, havinga'arim on the board to make 

 the bee-space. No other cover is put On top of this 

 super cover. C. C. MiIjLER. 



Marengo. 111., Feb. :.'«, 1SS7. 



The above covrespoiHlence between Ernest 

 and Dr. Miller touches on several impor- 

 tant matters connected with the matter of 

 getting corab honey. Now, the experience 

 of a man who has raised honey by the tons, 

 and first-class honey too. is surely worth 

 soiriething. Another thing that is encour- 

 aging, is, that a large amount of correspon- 

 dence in regard to this matter of T tins and 

 T supers agrees remarkably with every thin. i' 

 Dr. Miller has said. Let us take up ihe 

 diiTerent points one by one. 



T TINS, .4ND now TO FASTEN THE.AI IN 

 THE SUPER. 



The general opinion seems to be, that they 

 should be inovaltle, and that they should b-' 

 used on top of the sections as well as below. 

 Second, tiiey should be supported in such a 

 manner as to allow the bees access between 

 the side of the super and the outside row of 

 sections. The plan given by Dr. Miller 

 above is perhaps as good as anv. To pre- 

 vent losing the six little pieces of iron allud- 

 ed to. I would by all means nail tiiem in 

 their places, even when the supers are sent 

 out in the flat. This is quickly done in the 

 factory where the cases are made, and saves 

 valuable time for the buyer. They pack 

 just as closely, and ihere is no possibility of 

 being lost or "mislaid. 



SHALL THE SUPER BE MADE SO THE BEE- 

 SPACE IS ABOVE THE SECTIONS OR BE- 

 LOW THE SECTIONS? 



With the evidence given, 1 should sa> 

 have the bee-space by all means above the 

 sections, then use a plain honey-board on the 

 super, and the friends who ha\e complained 

 so much about the trouble of closing the 

 bee-space between the sections of the top- 

 most super will have their problem solved. 

 Mats, enamel sheets, or quilts, are not de- 

 sirable, for they soil the tops of the sections, 

 and cause the l)ees to put on more propolis 

 than the plain honey-board with the bee 

 space above. 



USING A SLATTED HONEY-BOARD IN CON- 

 NECTION WITH SUPERS. 



The slatted honey-board should be by all 

 means used. Ten or twelve years ago I 

 abandoned the T-super arrangement, prin- 

 cipally because of the comb attachments be- 

 tween the brood -ct)mbs and the bottoms of 

 the sections. We owe friend Heddon a vote 

 of thanks for having stirred us all up to the 



importance of some sort of a honey-board 

 between the sections and the brood-frames, 

 in order to avoid these attachments. 



HAVING A COVERING TO PROTECT THE SU- 

 PERS FROM BOTH FROST AND SUN. 



Here is a point where Dr. Miller and 1 

 shall have to disagree just a little. Some 

 years ago 1 made such very full and com- 

 plete experiments in trying to decide wheth- 

 er the cliaft: hive was an advantage in win- 

 ter as well as in summer, that I think I can 

 not be mistaken in thinking we should get 

 more honey in a well-protected super than 

 in one exposed directly to the weather, espe- 

 cially where there are cracks admitting rain 

 and wind. I veiitied it again in the house 

 apiary, by having the bees l)uild and store 

 comb" honey in sections protected by good 

 warm covering, and without any protection 

 except a piece of ducking. I repeatedly 

 caused the bees to commence storing and 

 stop storing in supers l)y putting a close 

 warm box over them and taking it off 

 again. The fierce heat of the sim would 

 sto]) work, and within a week or ten days 

 cold nights would stop work ; whereas, if an 

 outer hive or box confined the air at such a 

 time, work would go right along. Colonies 

 of equal strength were tested side by side, 

 and more bees went to the fields, and more 

 pounds of honey were gathered, where pro- 

 tection was given. Almost any bee-keeper 

 can test this by using chalf hives side by 

 side with hives made of inch boards. An- 

 other thing in favor of using Simplicity 

 hives : There are thousands, and may be 

 hundreds of thousands, in actual use in all 

 parts of the world. We have ourselves for a 

 number of years sold ten or fifteen thousand 

 annually. One reason why we sell so many 

 is because we make every thing to match 

 these hives in actual use. A great many 

 times something has come up, seeming to 

 make it desirable to change them — this 

 matter of eight or ten combs for a hive, for 

 instance, and the changes back and forth 

 fi'om comb to extracted honey. Almost 

 invariably, however, in a few "months we 

 have reason to be glad we did not change 

 our machinery and methods. If there seems 

 to be a great advantage in using hives with 

 only eight frames, 1 think by far the cheap- 

 est way will be to put in a dummy or dum- 

 mies, as friend Miller does himself, and let 

 your hives remain all of one size outside. 



HAVING A SUPER NO WIDER THAN A 



BROOD-NEST, AND A BROOD-NEST 



NO WIDER THAN A SUPER. 



I believe friend Miller is about right in 

 this matter. With better protection for his 

 supers, however, such as the chaff hive 

 gives. I think his bees would work just as 

 wetland he might perhaps get from ten to 

 twenty per cent more honey by letting the 

 super l)e wider tlum the brood-nest— say 

 about an inch or two on each side. Tlie 

 season might have something to do with it, 

 however. 1 have repeatedly seen a power- 

 ful colony working (ui HO sections in a chaff 

 liive, all at once, and the sections that did 

 net stand over the brood-nest seemed to l)e 

 filled almost as quickly as the others, t 

 think the reason is because the bees are so 



