NOVEMBER 15, 1913 



beginners; for, although many beekeepers 

 in cities are entirely out of the beginner 

 class, there are enough others, just starting, 

 to make the demand for elementary advice 

 insistent. 



In our April 1st issue we propose to get 

 together the best material on " Breeding " 

 that has ever been given to the public. It 

 certainly is true that we know too little 

 about selection of breeders and about breed- 

 ing in general. There have been repeated 

 calls for a special number on breeding, and 

 at last we are able to arrange for such a 

 number. 



For our first number, January 1, we so- 

 licit interesting and practical articles from 

 the poultry-raisers among our readers who 

 have something worth while to make public. 

 We are going to pay an extra price, as 

 usual, for all material used in our special 

 numbers, and this has reference as well, of 

 course, to the material from our beekeepeis 

 who are also poultry-raisers. In tliis con- 

 nection, however, we wish to say that all 

 material intended for this Jan. 1st issue 

 should be in our hands by Dec. 5. We shall 

 be able to use some good clear pictures ; but 

 if possible we should like them by Dec. 1. 



Gleanings is your bee-journal. It is your 

 medium for expressing your ideas. While 

 we have never yet known the time when we 

 were short of copy, we f'e always anxious 

 to get more and more of the very best 

 material obtainable. 



FILLING SECTIONS WITH DRAW^N COMBS FOR 



THE PRODUCTION OP COMB HONEY, AS 



DESCRIBED BY J. E. HAND, PAGE 805. 



On page 674, Oct. 1, Dr. G. A. Humpert, 

 of St. Louis, describes his method of pro- 

 ducing comb honey. It will be remembered 

 that this was a scheme for producing comb 

 honey in extracting-combs — that is to say, 

 Hie combs were drawn out, filled with honey, 

 and capped over, after which they were 

 cut up in squares of a size that would just 

 neatly tit inside of the sections. These 

 squares, when inserted, were placed in the 

 hive for the bees to fasten, after which they 

 were ready for market. 



Our ingenious friend and coiTespondent, 

 Mr. J. E. Hand, of Birmingham, Ohio, has 

 a plan somewhat similar, but differing in 

 this respect: Squares of nearly drawn 

 combs, before the bees have filled them, are 

 put into sections. These are put into regu- 

 lar comb-honey supers, when the bees fasten 

 them, fill them with honey, and cap them 

 over. Mr. Hand describes this system in 

 this issue on page 805. 



He is entirely coi-rect in saying that bees 

 will accept and fill drawn combs when they 

 will ignore foundation. He is correct also 



in saying that, if we put drawn combs in 

 sections in place of foundation the bees will 

 enter them much more readily, and that we 

 will secure a much larger percentage of No. 

 1 and fancy. But there is just one difficulty 

 in the way, as we see it, and that is a serious 

 one — to get a sufficient quantity of drawn 

 comb to put into the sections in time for the 

 honey-flow. To secure this it will be neces- 

 sary to have a heavy flow, strong colonies, 

 and probably shallow extr-aeting- frames 

 with thin super foundation ; but thin super 

 will stretch and buckle in frames as it will 

 not in sections. Light brood foundation 

 might overcome this; but then there would 

 be danger of too much midrib. 



For the last seven or eight years we have 

 been experimenting with the proposition of 

 getting the bees to draw out super founda- 

 tion fastened in shallow frames, fill it with 

 honey, and cap it over. Our i3roblem has 

 been nearly as gxeat to get the bees to draw 

 out thin super foundation in these shallow 

 frames as to get them to accept the same 

 foundation in sections. We have written 

 Mr. Hand, stating that we thought there 

 would be difficulty in getting the drawn 

 combs; but he replied, saying that he has 

 no fear on that score, because one good 

 strong colony could furnish enough drawn 

 comb to supply ten colonies having sections. 



So far as we can ascertain, Mr. Hand has 

 never tried this plan to any extent, or he 

 might not be as enthusiastic about it. We 

 have been trying something so similar, on a 

 large scale, that we believe we have aright 

 to an opinion on it. While it is easy to 

 produce extracted in shallow frames con- 

 taining drawn combs it is entirely another 

 proposition to produce comb honey from 

 foundation in shallow extracting-frames. 

 We find that the bees are very slow about 

 beginning this work in them. There must 

 be a continuous and heavy honey-flow — pre- 

 cisely the same conditions we must have for 

 tlie production of honey in sections. The 

 bees will swarm nearly as much with one 

 as they will in the other. We are becom- 

 ing more and more convinced that the reason 

 why bees hesitate to occupy a comb-honey 

 super is not because it is cut up into little 

 compartments or sections, as Mr. Hand im- 

 plies, but because they do not like to stop 

 and draw out foundation. If the sections 

 are already filled with drawn combs, they 

 will enter them just as readily as they do 

 bait sections; but to get the drawn combs 

 for all the sections — there's the rub. 



Years ago, as Mr. Hand points out, we 

 did produce artificial drawn comb by ma- 

 chinery. It was the work of the late E. B. 

 Weed, and it was marvelously perfect. 

 Bees accepted it as readily as (liey would 



