Gleanings in Bee Culture 



about a foot of straw, carefully smoothing 

 out the bumps. The hives were loaded in 

 four rows of five each, and held in place by 

 1X4 strips nailed to the sides of each hive 

 with a straw bumi)er between end hives and 

 car. The hive entrances were all toward the 

 car door with about 3 feet between the top 

 of the hives and the rack above. The rows 

 extended nearly to the door; and between 

 the doors I had five crates of chickens, a 

 cot, chair, gasoline-stove, and water-barrel. 

 As the last piece was loaded, the engine 

 backed on to the car, and the start was 

 made. 



We had not reached the first station before 

 I discovered that one pair of wheels on that 

 car were not true, and at a certain speed 

 every thing in the car danced in a fashion 

 that made me sick. As it was on the oppo- 

 site end from the bees I tried to hope it 

 would be all right with them. About half 

 the first night was spent in bracing the 

 chicken-coops and putting packing in where 

 I could to prevent chafing. 



The trainmen on my old division handled 

 my car in fine shape; but as soon as I was 

 among strangers the way that car was hit, 

 bumped, and jammed made me wish that 

 some of those switchmen and engineers 

 would have to ride over one division in a 

 car like that. 



There were eight divisions, and that 

 meant eight switchings; and although the 

 car was loaded by an expert loader, it had to 

 be rebraced several times. The hives, how- 

 ever, did not move on their bed of straw. 



Saturday morning we arrived at our desti- 

 nation in the IJig Horn Basin, Wyoming, 

 in the midst of a snow storm, and the bees 

 remained in the car until Monday, making 

 the total time just one week. I found the 

 two doubtful colonies and the one weak one 

 dead. The two had been queenless before 

 loading, so that there were none but old 

 bees. The smaller colony suffered because 

 the frames slipped over. Some were Hoff- 

 man frames and some loose hanging; but 

 only one of these moved. All the bees had 

 been sprinkled four times daily except the 

 two last days. Temperature ranged 50 to 

 75°. 



The late storm destroyed all the fruit- 

 bloom, and 1 commenced feeding May 15. 

 On .June 14 sweet clover started to yield; 

 then alfalfa and wild licorice. The flow did 

 not let up until frost, Sept. 20. All colonies 

 were tiered uj) as high as I could lift the su- 

 pers before any were removed. Three colo- 

 nies were divided, but I had no swarms. In 

 all, there was a crop of o050 pounds of water- 

 white extracted honey and 150 pounds of 

 comb; and I had 20 colonies ready for winter. 



During July I found a swarm in a rabbit- 

 hole. It had evidently swarmed, as there 

 was just a little sealed brood with several 

 vacant cjueen-cells and a virgin queen. This 

 colony I transferred to a hive, and u built 

 up to six frames without assistance. 



Cawley, Wyo. 



[The usual plan is to locate the hives in 

 the car so that the frames are parallel with 



the rails, so that, when switching is going 

 on, and the car is constantly being bumped, 

 there is not so much danger of breakage. 

 Your record, however, was very good. — Ed.] 



FENCES VERSUS SOLID SEPARATORS. 



Narrow Versus Wide Cleats. 



BY F. GKEINER. 



It is still vivid in my mind what trouble 

 I experienced with the comb-honey supers 

 which I used during the first few years of 

 my bee-keeping in 1875 and thereafter; but 

 I found something after a while that work- 

 ed so well that even now I do not see the 

 need of seeking for any thing better; and 

 had I not been led to using no-beeway sec- 

 tions, which made it necessary to use either 

 fences or cleated separators, I would have 

 nothing more to say on that subject. When 

 the no-beeway section was first brought out 

 by Mr. Morton, a discussion arose as to how 

 wide the vertical cleats should be, and it 

 seems that one-fourth inch has been settled 

 on, although at one time it appeared that 

 three-fourths inch, or at least something 

 much Wider than the present regular width 

 of one-fourth, would gain in favor; but of 

 late, and for some years, our comb-honey 

 producers have said nothing on the subject, 

 which seems to be accepted as evidence that 

 these narrow-cleated fences give the best of 

 results and are satisfactory. 



Now, it happened that, at the time I 

 wanted to make my plain-section supers, 

 fences could not be bought; none were ofTer- 

 ed for sale; and as the evidence seemed to be 

 in favor of a wider cleat I made up my cleat- 

 ed separators with cleats three-fourths inch 

 wide. Wishing to test fences also, I made 

 up 25 sets of fences with narrow cleats one- 

 fourth inch wide, as are commonly used now, 

 except that the separator material was one- 

 eighth inch thick instead of one-sixteenth, 

 as the larger part of the fences in use are 

 made. It also happened that, soon after 

 this, I bought some 20 or 25 supers with 

 fences of the narrow-cleat type. These su- 

 pers of different styles have been in use 

 ever since, which is quite a term of years, 

 and now I desire to give my experience 

 along this line. 



I want to add that, a year ago, I wanted 

 to increase my stock of supers; and, not 

 wishing to spend much time in making up 

 fences, which is a very laborious task when 

 one has not machinery to do it with, i 

 bought 500 Danzenbaker fences. All of 

 these were used last season with the others. 

 Now as to the result: 



The smoothest honey has always been pro- 

 duced with the solid wood separator, wheth- 

 er cleated or not; i. e., whether it came out 

 beeway or no beeway section-supers. There 

 was always the least of what friend G. M. 

 Doolittle called "mangled" honey with 

 these solid separators. 



The separators (or, rather, the fences of 

 the 25 supers which were bought during the 

 earlier time) were very flimsy; they were 



