7()8 



GLKAiNLNCJb L^ iikE (JULTUiiK. 



Oct. 



bettor to sell at home for 9 cents. Taking- this view 

 of it, he settles upon the plan of fixing- his price in 

 all cases ;J cts. below the city price. This maybe 

 all right, and it may be all wrong-. If his crop of 

 honey, together with that of his neighbors, is so 

 large that some of it must be shipped to distant 

 tnarkets, his plan may be all right. But suppose 

 the crop is short, and Mr. Jones follows the same 

 l-ule, selling- at 9 cts. because the city price is 12. 

 The g-roeers sell out all of his honey, which he has 

 sold to thetn at 9 cts., and then buy from the city, 

 paying l2 cts., and freight for It. Tf Mr. Jones had 

 none they would pay 13 cts. and freig-ht, say 13 cts., 

 for all. Now, is there any reason why in this case 

 he should not sell for 13 instead of 9 cts.? The 

 same rule holds in other thitig-s. Years ago, the 

 farmers about Marengo shipped their grain to 

 Chicago, and I could buj' corn from them at less 

 than the Chicago price; but of late, dairying- is so 

 extensive that more corn is consumed than raised, 

 and I have to pay more than the Chicago price. 

 So the prices for honey should be higher or lower 

 than city prices, according to circumstances. 



FULL COMBS TO CLUSTER ON. 



In the summer of 1886 I put some unoccupied 

 brood-eombs on a hive, to be taken care of. Some 

 of them were empty, and some of them Avere partly 

 filled with honey. I put five supers on the hive, 

 making the whole alfair six stories high, contain- 

 ing, in all, 60 brood frames. By the time the har- 

 vest was over, all were pretty well filled, and I left 

 them till about time to put in the cellar. When I 

 attempted to take off the upper super I found 

 bees clustered in it, and concluded the brood-nest 

 was there. Looking at the entrance I was surpris- 

 ed to see bees coming out, although it was too cold 

 for bees to fly. Did the brood-nest extend from 

 top to bottom, or was the colony separated into 

 two clusters? I took off the upper two supers, then 

 the next two, which I found solid with honey, hav- 

 ing but few bees. These few bees I brushed out, 

 and replaced the upper two supers, leaving- the 

 pile four stories high, giving the bees an opportuni- 

 ty to get together in one compact cluster. They 

 were left thus till Dec. 10 (my bees M-ere taken in 

 the cellar about Nov. 17), there having- been in the 

 meantime some zero weather. Dec. 10 I concluded 

 I would put in the cellar whichever story contained 

 the cluster. To my surprise I found the bees still 

 in all four stories; and taking out frame by frame I 

 succeeded in getting the bees into two stories, 

 which I put in the cellar. The combs I took out 

 were filled with honey, and, as nearly as I could 

 make out, the bees had originally distributed them- 

 selves throughout the si.x stories, clustering only 

 where there were empty cells. The question arises, 

 Are combs filled solid with honey good for bees to 

 cluster on? I have always supposed so, but in this 

 case the bees spread through si.x stories rather 

 than cluster on filled combs. This also makes me 

 think that very large results might be obtained by 

 piling up several stories of empty combs on a 

 strong colony at the beginning of the harvest, and 

 leaving them till its close. This colony was one too 

 weak to work on sections, but I thought they could 

 keep the worms out of these empty and partly fill- 

 ed combs. T can not tell how much honey they 

 stored, but I think at least half the combs must 

 have been filled by them. C. ('. Miller. 



Marengo, III. 



Your experiment of the six-story hive is 



yery interesting to me. You may remem- 

 ber I have mentioned working an apiary in 

 that way when we were too busy to extract 

 or do any thing else; and it "has always 

 seemed to me that the bees work hard- 

 er to fill all those stories than they ever 

 did before Vinder any other circumstances. 

 I watched anxiously to have you tell us 

 whether the bees wintered well or not. 

 Had you crowded them into two stories, say 

 in October, I am inclined to think they 

 would have consumed enough honey from 

 some of the natural coml)s to have" given 

 them an excellent brood-nest for winter. 

 And now I want to inquire if you did not 

 find that honey in those five supers very su- 

 perior in quality. It seems to me I have 

 never seen any honey equal to that which 

 we stored away in frames for taV)le use that 

 season. Many of the honey-combs had been 

 on the Jiive from July till October. 



A T-SUPER SHELL. 



FRIKXU .TENNINGS' PLAN OF MAKING ONE. 



TN my letter, published In Gleanings for Aug. 

 j^ l.ith, you make me say, " I had a little trouble 

 ^l to get my bees into the supers." It should 

 "*■ read, " I had no trouble," etc. 



When taking- otl' supers I find it quite a both- 

 er to have to first take oft' one or two hive-bodies 

 before I can get at the supers. Now, to obviate 

 this I have made shallow frames, or shells. 



.JENNINGS' T-SUPER SHELL. 



These shells are made exactly like a Simplicity 

 body (Fig. 2), beveled edges, rabbets (no tin rabbets) 

 and all, but are made only the depth of the supers. 

 On the ends of the supers, outside, is screwed a 

 cleat, 's X I'e, shown at C, Fig. 3, and as long as the 

 super is wide. This is screwed on about % from the 

 top, and should fit snugly in the rabbet when placed 

 in the shell, as shown in Fig. 1. This allows the 

 super, at the same time, to sit firmly on the honey- 

 board, and the shell to come well in its place on the 

 shoulder of the hive. The cleats also serve as han- 

 dles, when used without the outside, and keep the 

 super in the center, between the ends of the shell. 

 When you wish to remove supers from your hive, 

 all you need to do is to take the shell by the handles, 

 and off c<imes the shell, super, and all, at the same 

 time; or you can take oft' two or three with one 

 lifting, if you happen to be strong enough. There 

 is another advantage. Vou will notice in the Sim- 

 plicity hive that the honey-board projects -^^s of an 

 Inch above the shoulder. This causes the super to 

 project a corresponding distance above the shell; 



