1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



199 



string together over the top-bar If the comb should happen 

 to be such that it fits loosely for any considerable distance, 

 crowd in little pieces of comb to wedge it in place. In lifting 

 the comb from the table, it will be a help if you have pre- 

 viously put on the table a board a little larger than the frame. 

 Then you can lift board and all, turning it so the top-bar will 

 be uppermost before removing the board. If drone-comb is 

 present, cut it out and replace with patches of worker-comb. 

 Perhaps you can fill a frame or two with pieces fitted together. 



It may be well for you to take out about half the frames 

 at first, then when you get these transferred remove the old 

 hive from the stand and set the new hive with the transferred 

 combs in its place, then brush the bees from the remaining 

 comb into the new hive, filling up the hive after you have 

 transferred the balance. 



Transferring cau be done almost any time, but you will 

 probably do as well to take the time of fruit-bloom. After 

 two or three days you can remove the strings and save the 

 bees the trouble of gnawing them out. 



Another Frame-Spacer. 



I send a pattern of a spacer that I am going to try this 

 summer, although I suppose it has been tried and discarded 

 long ago. It looks to me as if it will be satisfactory. Please 

 give me your opinion. There are lots of bees in the woods. I 

 found four colonies last fall. Bees in this part of British Colum- 

 bia fly out occasionally through the winter ; they were out 

 Feb. 16, gathering honey for the first from the chickweed, on 

 the 19th bringing in pollen from the willow; the 20th was 

 too cold. One thing here against bee-culture is the springs, 

 which are generally chilly and wet, although some times it is 

 very warm and pleasant. M. S. 



Steveston, B. C. 



Answer. — According to the pattern sent, each end-bar is 

 made with a shoulder at top and bottom. The plan is not 

 new, and some like it, but where the frames are not put in the 

 extractor, there is no advantage perhaps over the use of com- 

 mon nails driven in the right depth for spacers. 



Starting in Bee-Keeping. 



If a person wishes to begin in bee-keeping, and must buy 

 his bees of some dealer, which way is the best to have them 

 shipped — by the pound, by the nucleus, or by the colony? 

 Which way would you do, everything considered? 



E. B. 



Answer. — In this case, if I understand it rightly, it isn't 

 a question as to where or from whom, but that part being set- 

 tled, it's simply a question as to which of the three ways it is 

 best for the beginner to get his start by. It will cost less to 

 get them by the pound for expressage, but a beginner isn't 

 supposed to have everything in good shape to set ito work a 

 lot of bees with nothing else. If, however, the bees are to be 

 got a long distance, so that the expressage is a very serious 

 matter, then it may be quite a saving to get the bees by the 

 pound, and get hives, etc., by freight. This presupposes, 

 however, that the beginner has read up pretty well in ad- 

 vance. But in ordinary cases, especially if only one or two 

 colonies are to be started, then I wouldn't advise getting by 

 the pound. Much the same reasoning will apply to nuclei 

 and full colonies. If the distance is great, there will be a 

 saving of expressage by getting nuclei. Otherwise it will be 

 better to get full colonies. 



Another item comes in to be considered, and that is the 

 length of the purse. If a merchant in good circumstances is 

 about to start in bee-keeping, and he doesn't care much for 

 the matter of expense, by all means let him get full colonies. 

 But if his clerk is the one, and that clerk is hardly earning 

 enough to get him decent clothes, better get nuclei. 



Cleaning Out Unfinished Sections. 



Having a large number of unfinished sections, I would 

 like to know if the bees that are a little short of stores as the 

 season opens would remove the honey that is in them, they 

 being placed in supers and put on top of the hive. O. L. 



Answer. — If they are short of stores, and if the weather 

 is warm enough for the bees to go up, they will take the 

 honey out of the sections placed over. If your object is to get 

 the sections emptied so as to have them filled again, you will 



do well to do something more than to merely place them in 

 supers on the hive. For there is likely to be some candied 

 honey in them, and the bees will not be sure to empty out all 

 the little granulations. If any are left in, even though so 

 little that you don't see it, it will spoil your section honey next 

 summer. Unfinished sections, to be used over again, should 

 be cleaned out by the bees at the close of the harvest, before 

 there is time for any granulation. After the bees have had a 

 chance to empty the sections on the hive, put them out where 

 all the bees can get at them. They will clean them out a good 

 deal better there than on the hive. But there's danger of 

 their tearing the combs to pieces. There are two ways to 

 avoid this. The best way is to put out enough at a time so 

 that all the bees in your apiary can find plenty of room to 

 work on the sections. If you put out a single section for a 

 dozen of colonies to work at, you may count the comb won't 

 be worth much when they're done with it. But if you have 

 only a few sections, then instead of having them all open as 

 you do when you have plenty, go to the other extreme and 

 allow an entrance to the sections only large enough for one 

 bee to enter at a time. But never again carry unfinished 

 sections over the winter with the intention of having the bees 

 clean them out in the spring. The fall's the time for that job. 



Facts About Sweet Clover. 



If sown with oats or other grain, it is apt to become choked 

 out, before the plants get a start, and should it be desirable to 

 sow in this way, the grain should be put in very thin. It has 

 always seemed to me that it would be a good plan for bee- 

 keepers who are also farmers to sow sweet clover quite exten- 

 sively and show neighboring farmers thatit is a valuable plant, 

 quite worthy of their attention aside from bee-keeping. If cut 

 the first year in September it will produce a fine crop of hay, 

 quite equal to alfalfa, and the plants will not beinjured. Show 

 farmers that it may be pastured for a month or more in early 

 spring to great advantage the second year. It may then be 

 plowed under to fertilize the land, but of course that would 

 destroy it as a honey-plant. At the present price of seed, I 

 am surprised that farmers do not raise it for that alone — it 

 would surely pay better than many other crops. Farmers 

 seem to be prejudiced against the plant and we should try to 

 teach them that they are wrong, and that it is really one of 

 their best friends. 



Show them that if they want to get rid of it from the field, 

 they have but to cultivate it thoroughly for two years, or turn 

 in plenty of stock for a few years, and hardly a plant will re- 

 main. If we but show farmers how this, and other honey-pro- 

 ducing plants can be profitably raised by them, the soon- 

 er will we hasten the time when "The good years will come 

 again." — C. H. Dibbekn, in Canadian Bee Journal. 



Shall We Use Separators ? 



I first used separators in 1872, on a small scale, to try the 

 feasibility of them. These were cut so as to leave one-half 

 inch at top and bottom of the sections, as I felt sure that they 

 would retard the labor of the bees in the sections, inasmuch as 

 they divided the bees into small clusters, apparently. To test 

 the matter thoroughly, I used fully as many without separa- 

 tors, and with other colonies I went so ffPr as to leave the bot- 

 tom pretty much entirely ofi' the sections, using only a thin 

 strip to hold the sections together at the bottom, to see how 

 much gain there would be by the most frequent communica- 

 tion all throughout the whole brood-chamber and surplus 

 apartment, but at the end of the season, each part of the api- 

 ary tried was about equal as regards the surplus. 



One thing I found, which was, that in my anxiety to get 

 all the communication possible, I had made a blunderain cut- 

 ting the tin too narrow, for the bees built the honey-cells out 

 too long at the top and bottom of the sections, thus making 

 them so they could not well be crated, without causing the 

 honey to leak more or less. The next year the tin was cut 

 wider, and also many separators were slotted so as to divide 

 the bees as little as possible and other colonies were prepared 

 with sections without separators. No perceivable difference, 

 as to yield, was the result, again, while many of the sections 

 used without separators could not be crated for mar-ket, and 

 had to be disposed of the best way I could. 



I finally adopted a separator as wide as the inside of the 

 section, less one-quarter of an inch at the top and bottom, with 

 no perforations of any kind, and today, although I have ex- 

 perimented many ways since then, I see no reason for aban- 

 doning separators, or changing what I decided upon in any- 

 way, but, on the contrary, see many reasons for still continu- 

 ing their use.— G. M. Dooi.ittle, in Progressive Bee-Keeper. 



