1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



291 



Any one of the three methods under discus- 

 sion will produce the plump section, and any 

 plump section is difficult to cut the comb 

 from. 



Permit me now to discuss the "better than 

 either," the bottom starter. Firstly, is the 

 bottom starter necessary? I feel constrained 

 to say that it is not. If one will nip the 

 heads of those queens whose workers fail to 

 build comb quite to the botto uof the section, 

 and breed only from those queens whose 

 workers build the comb down and fasten it 

 tirmly to the bottom, he will need to use no 

 bottom starter. 1 am inclined to the belief 

 that my good friend the doctor has bees 

 which are disinclined to build comb to the 

 bottom. A few years ago 1 was awarded a 

 premium queen which was reared by Dr. 

 Miller. She was a vigorous queen of good 

 size, and proved prolific. Hor workers were 

 energetic, and had honey-gathering qualities 

 which were not to be despised. But such 

 combs as they did build I 1 never saw bees 

 any worse in this particular. They would 

 build a frame of comb and not fasten it any- 

 where except to the top- bar, while their sec- 

 tions of honey were solid chunks of honey 

 with daylight showing all around the chunk 

 except at the top. It is needless to say that 

 1 quickly got rid of that queen. JN'ow, one 

 queen does not denote the character of the 

 bees in one's entire apiary; and, more than 

 that, we all occasionally find a queen of our 

 own rearing which will show this comb- 

 building trait. Still, Dr. Miller tells us that 

 he has to use bottom starters. 



I have pi'oduced hundreds of sections with- 

 out bottom starters, which had the comb al- 

 most as solidly built to the bottom as to the 

 top of the section. Occasionally 1 spot a 

 colony neai'ly all of whose product consists 

 of sections which will let you slide a match 

 along the bottom-bar without brushing the 

 plump comb above. That colony is marked 

 for requeening. 



Secondly, is it desirable to use even bot- 

 tom starters? My experience with these is 

 much less than that of Dr. Miller's. Only 

 two seasons have I tried bottom starters. I 

 tried them in the hope that I could produce 

 my honey thus without separators. And 

 they did help. I have no question that 1 

 get a larger percentage of cratable sections 

 (unseparatored) by theuse of bottom starters 

 than I do without such starters. 1 can not 

 here enter into the reason why I prefer to 

 go without separators; but having that pref- 

 erence 1 wish that plan of using foundation 

 which will bring the best results. 



With separators one can use almost any 

 plan of foundation fastening, starter or full 

 sheet. He will get almost as good final re- 

 sults whatever the plan, though even with 

 separators there is a choice as I will point 

 out in a moment. 



The bottom starter calls for more putter- 

 ing work. Just so far is it undesirable. It 

 makes each section of honey cost more. 



The bottom starter with me spoils many a 

 section. Right here I see' the doctor's jaw 

 drop in astonishment. Possibly 1 do not 



know how to use the bottom starter; but I 

 have tried faithfully to follow the very best 

 advice and directions, those nf Dr Miller. I 

 cut my foundation carefully, use a bottom 

 starter not over half an inch wide, usually 

 less. The space left between the starters is 

 about {\. inch, S(jmetimes as small as i. and 

 sometimes as large as i What results? I 

 have removed a case thus prepared, which, 

 from abuve, seemed to contain 28 sections, 

 every one nearly perfect Upon drawing 

 out the sections three-fourths of them show 

 bad joints between the starters. Right at 

 that po nt the comb at its best will be irreg- 

 ular, w;th cells of different size and of differ- 

 ent shape from the normal. When not at 

 the best there will be frequent unsealed cells, 

 and, not infrequently, empty cells of gro- 

 tesque shape. 



Looking into the why of this I discover 

 that the cause can be one of several. The 

 narrow bottom starter keeps a pretty well- 

 tixed position, but not so the upper sheet. 

 This gets out of true before the joint is made. 

 One cause of the disjointure is failure to see 

 that the foundation does not strike the side 

 of the section when it is squared up. If, 

 when squared in the super, the side of the 

 section pushes against the sheet of founda- 

 tion, it will throw the further (lower) corner 

 to one side. Again, bees frequently cluster 

 in the super between the foundation sheets 

 of adjoining sections, and start to draw out 

 that foundation several hours before a clus- 

 ter of bees get at work upon the other sides 

 of these two sheets. The side first drawn be- 

 comes convex and the unstartered side con- 

 cave. The drawing-out so strengthens the 

 sheet that it never becomes straightened by 

 the drawing-out of the other side. In this 

 way the lower corners, and sometimes the 

 entire lower edge of the sheet of foundation, 

 are thrown out of line with the bottom start- 

 er. Again, one lateral edge of the sheet is 

 early fastened to the wood while the other 

 still hangs free; then the earlier or more rap- 

 id building of one side throws the lower free 

 corner to one side. Again, I am inclined to 

 the belief that some foundation warps. Such 

 warping will throw the upper sheet out of 

 line with the bottom starter. 



Such throwing-out of line is disastrous. 

 The work at the juncture is delayed. The 

 perfect comb above and below is filled and 

 sealed, while still unripe nectar is in the ir- 

 regular cells between. This delays the re- 

 moval of the super; and, if the season is cut 

 short, prevents the completion of that su- 

 per. 



If the weather is hot the upper sheet tends 

 to stretch. If it stretches too much it will 

 frequently pass the starter, and the result is 

 again bad. If it has already been fastened 

 to the starter before the full stretching oc- 

 curs, a bad bend in the comb occurs. The 

 cells on one side will flare out while those 

 on the other side will run to an end before 

 they become full depth. I have seen such 

 cells filled with honey and no true capping 

 on them, the side-walls joining in a point. 

 I have even seen them dry and empty, air- 



