248 



GLEAJNU^^GS LN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



Is not safe to predict what I will or will not do), but 

 I confess you have the better of the argument; and 

 80 long as you can conveniently do so, it may be 

 best for you to make use of the outside shell. But 

 if I must suffer the chagrin of giving up in this, I 

 can twit you of omitting an argument— that your 

 supers are lighter. I count this a matter of consid- 

 erable importance; for where you are handling 

 these supers all day long, a difference of a pound or 

 more in weight may malse quite a difference in the 

 amount of ache you feel at night at your backbone. 

 Please don't come down too hard on me if I should 

 hereafter get to using outside shells 



AN ADVERTISEMENT. 



I know advertisements][are not admitted in the 

 regular reading-columns, but I am in hopes Mr. Root 

 will not notice this one till the printer gets it too 

 far along. I want to advertise that I have no bees 

 to sell, no queens to sell, no hives, no supers, no 

 nothing in the way of supplies of any kind, and I 

 hope the friends will save the trouble of writing to 

 me for prices. I am nothing but a bee-keeper, pure 

 and simple. This for two reasons: First, I don't 

 know that I should be successful in doing things 

 satisfactorily, and I love my ease too well to want 

 to be worried over it. Second, if the queen-dealers, 

 tho supply-dealers, and the bee-papers, have any 

 right to exist it is because they have a basis in hon- 

 ey-raising as a business that may be desirable and 

 profitable. So I settle on the line that honey-rais- 

 ing is my business. 



For one, I want to thank you, friend Root, for 

 your words so kindly spoken of your most formida- 

 ble rival. The longer I know Bro. Newman, and 

 the more I know about him, the more I think he is 

 a man who has the good of bee-keepers at heart, 

 and whom we should sadly miss oufof his place. 



Marengo, 111., Mar. 21, 1886. C. C. Miller. 



HALF-POUND SECTIONS. 



CROWDING BROOD-FRAMES TOGETHER. 



"r MADE some experiments last season in cutting 

 ^ the 1-lb. boxes in two — that is, cut crosswise, so 

 'il as to be 2^ inches in depth for holding V2 lb., or 

 •*■ about. Theory told me bees would not accept 

 them as readily as full size, and they did not 

 quite; but I do think the plan will work, as consum- 

 ers will buy a V4-lb. box when they wouldn't more. 

 These small sections, too, look very cunning and 

 neat. My plan was to use whole boxes on the out- 

 side, all filled with fdn. 1 used separators; and as 

 1 use only a 20-lb. case I got very even and full sec- 

 tions. I use and make a side-opening case, with no 

 glass sides, which tend to keep bees out of the out- 

 side sections, and, besides, costs Imore. I am so 

 well pleased with the little sections that I shall use 

 many this season. I also used IVi-inch sections, full 

 size, 414. I believe they are sure to get the bees at 

 work sooner than a wider box, and can be used 

 quite well without separators. But one great rea- 

 son for the use ofiseparators is, we can feel sure of 

 even combs, and can remove a single box and in- 

 sert one with fdn., or exchange outside for the cen- 

 ter, and all is well. But when^we use IVi-inch-wide 

 box the case is different, as the bees, of course, are 

 closer, and the combs are nearer to each other; and 

 with only 24 boxes of the narrow ones, separators 

 are not so much needed. One thing Is sure to pay; 



and that Is, to use full starters, or to fill within 54 

 inch of the bottom of the section. 



How one can get along and use only starters in 

 brood-frames, I never could see. I am always get- 

 ting drone brood in such, yet perhaps a whole hive 

 of starters would come out all right. 



A great many ways to get bees into the sur- 

 plus department have been given. I well remem- 

 ber how the thought of crowding the combs close 

 together flashed through my mind some time in the 

 month of August, four years ago. It was a little 

 late, but I tested it as best I could at that time. The 

 next spring I made a thorough test, as reason told 

 me it would work. I had noticed, when extracting, 

 as I naturally closed combs quite near, that the 

 queen would lay nearer the top than usual; and 

 upon a second thought I said to myself, " Keep 

 them thus, and the bees can't bulge them, and Mrs. 

 Queen will use it, as she uses only % comb for work- 

 ers." The idea was in harmony with her duty. I 

 wrote an article on it for the Lewiston Journal that 

 season. I had never heard or read of any such plan, 

 and I was reading four bee-journals and four news- 

 papers. I was and am so well pleased that I make 

 all my frames with half-closed ends, so as to allow 

 only a bee-space. Some would object to frames at 

 fixed distances, but the advantages are to me a 

 great deal more than inconveniences, of loose, un- 

 even combs and frames. E. P. Churchill. 



Halowell, Maine, Mar., 1887. 



EMPTYING THE T SUPEK. 



DR. MILLER SHOWS HOW IT IS DONE. 



TTp S some of our correspondents fail to un- 

 ^^k derstand the device and tlie method 



jj^ of emptying the T super, as described 

 -■^^ by Dr. C. C. Miller in his book, we 

 wrote to him asking him to get every 

 thing in readiness and put himself in an atti- 

 tude for emptying the T super. He was 

 then to have his photographer take a view. 

 Friend Miller did as we requested, and, as 

 you will see, has sent us a photograph illus- 

 trating the manner of emptying. Along 

 with the photograph he sent the following 

 explanation : 



Friend Root:—l have mailed you to-day a photo of 

 myself in the act of taking out a super of sections. 

 The hat on the table is one of my five-cent hats with 

 veil attached. Beside it is a full super. Next is a 

 mallet, roughly padded (it was originally made to 

 jar curculias off plum-trees), to hammer on the up- 

 per edge of the super, as explained on p. 91, " A 

 Year Among the Bees." In the book I used a heavy 

 hatchet, or hand-ax, but I like this padded mallet 

 better. On top of the two empty supers at ray side 

 lies a stiff' case-knife, used to cut through the pro- 

 polis which, may fasten the upper part of the sec- 

 tions to the super. I have just pushed the super 

 nearly half way down over the sections, and the 

 next instant it will drop down to the bottom of the 

 inverted hive - cover, leaving the sections clear, 

 standing on the bearing-board. An extra bearing- 

 board lies on the table in front of me, in which you 

 can see the notches cut in the sides to let the sheet- 

 iron supports of the super pass through. The 

 pantaloons I am wearing are the ones I generally 

 wear in my apiary work, and are Newburgh over- 

 alls, for which I paid a silver dollar. 



Marengo, 111. C C. Miller, 



