80(5 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Apiary of T. Slapleton, Gwinear, Hayle, England. Mr. Stapleton also has an outyard. In both apiaries 

 he uses strictly up-to-date hives and fixtures. 



come these seemingly insurmountable ob- 

 stacles. At tliis stage, however, the bee 

 journals were discussing, pro and con, the 

 advantages of using full sheets of partly 

 drawn comb in all the sections. Though 

 convinced of the soundness of the theory, 

 we were no nearer the coveted goal, for 

 want of a practical method of securing these 

 combs and fitting them into sections. At 

 this time, however, the Root Co. being, as 

 usual, awake to the needs of the hour, were 

 experimenting with machinery for the man- 

 ufacture of partly drawn combs, of a size 

 to fill completely a 4^/4 section. 



THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING. 



After securing a sample, and finding it 

 entirely satisfactory, we immediately order- 

 ed enough to fill 2000 sections; and haying 

 lost no time in putting them on the hives 

 we anxiously awaited results. We did not 

 have long to wait, however, for the bees 

 immediately took possession, and the eager- 

 ness with which they began work in those 

 sections was indeed a revelation to us. These 

 sections were filled rapidly, and were the 

 finest we had ever before seen ; furthermore, 

 swarming was reduced 50 per cent, with a 

 marked increase in the average production 

 per colony. The proof of the pudding con- 

 vinced us of the value of drawn combs in 

 sections, and we would gladly have paid 

 $1.00 per lb. for it the following season; 

 but, unfortunately, its manufacture on a 



large scale was not a success, and it was 

 not to be had at any price. 



BEATING ROUND THE BUSH. 



Again thrown backward upon our own 

 resources, we scarcely knew which way to 

 turn ; but realizing the advantages of hav- 

 ing combs firmly attached to the wood on 

 all sides of sections, we were induced to 

 give Dr. Miller's two-piece method of filling 

 sections with foundation a trial. After us- 

 ing full sheets of drawn comb with such 

 surprising results, however, it was a long 

 step backward to cut up foundation into 

 small pieces, and handle and rehandle the 

 sections, one at a time, over a hot plate, not 

 mentioning those that drop down from the 

 weight of bees because the plate is either 

 too hot or too cold. And, finally, we dis- 

 carded this method also, as being altogether 

 too primitive and antiquated to meet the 

 exigencies of progressive methods. Neces- 

 sity is the mother of invention, and again 

 we began to east about to devise some up- 

 to-date method for the perfect filling of 

 sections with foundation. This movement 

 resulted in the development of the split- 

 section idea, by means of which we were 

 enabled to place a continuous sheet of foun- 

 dation in the center of four sections at one 

 operation without removing them from the 

 frame, and the sections were so perfectly 

 filled tliat no crack was visible. This was a 

 decided improvement over former methods. 



