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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



for I have seen the same things in years gone by 

 during some warm morning the latter part of 

 April or the first of May." 



" Indeed they did look beautiful, and it was 

 very reluctantly that I left them. But I want to 

 say a few words about sections and section-hold- 

 ers. Mine annoy me. The section-holders have 

 no top-bars — just ears to hold them up with. In 

 putting in the sections the tops are spread out- 

 ward; but when the holder full of sections is 

 hung in the super the weight tends always to 

 close the top, thus making the sections remain 

 close together. This seems to make many of the 

 sections diamond shape, so that, when I come to 

 crate them for market, and they are pressed to- 

 gether in the crate, it brings them back square 

 again, thus loosening the combs from two sides, 

 setting the honey to running, and endangering a 

 general breaking-down in shipping." 



" The proneness of all but nailed sections to 

 go diamond shape, or fall to pieces entirely, was 

 what lead me to discard the whole business, and 

 use only nailed sections — sections which do not 

 depend upon the honey, comb, and propolis, 

 which the bees put in and upon them to hold 

 them from going to pieces during the shipment 

 of the finished product." 



"But don't you have trouble about breakage 

 when shipping to New York or Philadelphia?" 



"Very rarely; and when any are broken it is 

 only one or two in a crate. A few years ago a 

 shipment of my honey went to New York on the 

 same car with a shipment of these sections which 

 you are speaking of, both to the same commission 

 man. Two sections in each of three crates out 

 of my shipment were reported as broken, while 

 the other shipment was so broken and smashed 

 that it brought only a little over half the market 

 price. In fact, nearly one-fourth of the honey 

 leaked out before it arrived at the commission 

 man's store." 



" But don't you think there might be other 

 reasons for this outcome.?" 



" Possibly but not probably, as the freight 

 agent told me both were loaded with the same 

 care. Let me give you another case: Two years 

 ago I carted my honey to the railroad station in 

 the auto; and as the springs were so easy I thought 

 it not necessary to take any special pains to pre- 

 vent its falling off. While on a smooth piece of 

 road I was spinning along when I met a team, 

 and, in turning out, one of the front wheels of 

 the auto dropped into an old rut on the side of 

 the road which was partly covered up so I did 

 not notice it. This threw one of the top crates 

 of honey off, it striking on the front wheel, then 

 falling on the ground in such a way that the 

 wheel struck the top and one corner of the crate, 

 tearing the crate to pieces, and scattering the 

 twenty sections all about over ten or twelve feet 

 of the road. I stopped the auto, saying, as I got 

 off, 'There goes $3.50 worth of my best honey 

 for my fool driving and fool loading, when, to 

 my surprise, not a single section was broken. I 

 collected the sections together; picked up the 

 crate, and drove on. When I arrived at the rail- 

 road I borrowed a hammer and a few nails, remade 

 the crate, and packed the sections in it. It went 

 with the rest, sold for the same price, and the 

 consumer never knew that his nice section honey 

 had been nosing all over the road up here in 



Onondaga Co. I would not take either the one- 

 piece or the dovetailed sections as a gift if I could 

 possibly buy the material for the nailed ones." 



" But it takes lots of time to nail them." 



" I know it takes a little longer to put them to- 

 gether; but this is done during the stormy days 

 of winter; and after they are made they are a source 

 of joy, and something which gives one a freedom 

 from annoyance not possessed by any other sec- 

 tion on the market." 



" Well, I know that my experience with some 

 of the sections has been very annoying, as well 

 as with the section-holders." 



" I think myself that your section-holders are 

 somewhat to blame for your troubles. With 

 properly made wide frames your sections would 

 not go diamond shape, and the sections would be 

 kept clean of propolis." 



"With your wide frames, don't the bees var- 

 nish the tops of the sections all over with propo- 

 |lis.?" 



"No; I never could tolerate any thing which 

 allowed the bees to have access to any part of the 

 outside of the section, for where they so have, it 

 takes double the time to clean our product ready 

 for market — time that is the most valuable of any 

 during the whole year, to say nothing of other 

 objections. Wide frames properly made keep 

 the sections nearly as clean and bright when re- 

 moved, even on their edges, as when put on the 

 hive; while the top and the whole outside looks 

 as clean and new as they did when they first left 

 the saw or sandpapering-machine. " 



CLIPPING QUEENS WITHOUT HANDLING THEM; 

 CHANGING PLACES TO STOP ROBBING. 



Mr. Holtermann told us that we should propo- 

 lize our fingers before catching a queen to clip 

 her wings, and then change her from one hand 

 into the other. I clip the wings of a queen with 

 small crooked scissors while she is running up 

 the comb. Several times I have found her in the 

 act of looking into a cell, and off would come 

 her wings, and she would look into the next one 

 without knowing any thing had happened to her. 

 I have practiced this plan ever since I started to 

 clip wings of queens. 



The plan I use to stop robbing is to change 

 the places of the robbed and the robbing colonies. 

 It works so well that I have never tried to improve 

 upon it. The uproar is twice as bad after the 

 change as before; but the robbing is stopped at 

 once. It is amusing to see those robbers come 

 rushing out with their loads of honey, to find out 

 they had to take it back where they got it and turn 

 around and defend the hive they had been robbing 

 only a moment before. I have followed this plan 

 ever since with good success. Isaac Balmer. 



Burlington, Ont. 



[Both plans here spoken of have been mention- 

 ed before. Clipping a queen while on the comb 

 was described by Friedman Greiner first in these 

 columns, and then in the ABC and X Y Z of 

 Bee Culture. The scheme of exchanging places 

 of the robbing and robbed colony was described 

 by A. I. Root in the first editions of the above- 

 mentioned work. But even if these ideas are old 

 tliey are good. — Ed.] 



