160 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



look nearer the centre for her. If you 

 wish to see a queen quickly on any 

 comb, don't hold it close to you and 

 look right square on it, but hold it off 

 ai arm's length and so that the vision 

 will strike it obliquely. Why? Becaui'-! 

 if you hold it close up, the vision will 

 only take in a little part of the comb, 

 and you will be loking directly on the 

 back of the queen, in which position 

 the wings will cover the larger part ol 

 her abdomen, when she more nearly 

 resembles a worker bee than in any 

 other. By holding the comb off at arm's 

 length, the vision takes in nearly the 

 whole surface of the comb at one 

 glance, and by holding it obliquely the 

 long, tapering abdomen of the queen is 

 easily distinguished from the shorter 

 abdomens of the v/orkers, for it is the 

 abdomen of the queen which more 

 readily tells of her presence than any- 

 thing else. Even in this worst of all 

 seasons, I have found queens at the 

 rate of ten an hour in the most popu- 

 lous colonies at the out apiary, taking 

 off and putting back the surplus apart- 

 ment at that, while I often treble this 

 speed with my queen rearing colonies. " 

 Well, we are glad you "don't agree,'' 

 else we should not have had these notes, 

 founded upon long and varied experi- 

 ence, for future reference. The only 

 reason which we have to offer for the 

 preference expressed, is because we 

 have generally been more successful in 

 readily locating the queen in strong 

 colonies than in weak ones. This is 

 particularly true of our experience 

 with black bees. 



HONEY WITHOUT SEPARATORS. 



Dr. Miller, in Gleanings, says: "R. 

 C. Reed, thirty miles north of Medina, 

 who has now 150 colonies, has been 

 using tall, narrow sections (5%x4i^x- 

 ly^) for thirteen years without sepa- 

 rators, and he thinks he has not move 

 than 100 bulged sections in a ton. W. 

 B. Ransom, the man who uses no sep- 

 arators and depends on level hives, had 



Scplvmhc. 



twenty-one bulgers in 1,000, but sever 

 of these were baits. Is it possible, i 

 we knew how, we could discard botl 

 fence and separator?" To this Editoi 

 Root appends: ."Yes, I think it barely 

 possible that the expert bee-keepe; 

 might do so, but the beginner and care 

 less, nevei\" Then comes J. H. Martii 

 in a later issue with this offering: 

 "Noting what you have to say abou- 

 producing comb honey without separ 

 ators leads me to remember seeing t 

 fine lot of comb honey in Riverside 

 Cal., that was produced without separ 

 ators, and there were but a few of the 

 sections that would not pack nicely ii 

 the case. Of course, the few bulgei 

 sections were just what were wante< 

 for home use. This honey was pro 

 duced by Mr. George K. Hubbard anc 

 in the Hubbard hive. He says he ha. 

 no use for separators." 



Now we beg permission to add tc 

 this medley our own "experience:" Wt 

 had no idea that the majority of bee- 

 keepers did use separators. We hav: 

 had more or less to do with the work 

 of producing a number of tons of comt 

 honey, some of which has been ad- 

 judged worthy of an award at public 

 exhibitions, and we have never used a 

 separator, with the exception of some 

 400 or 500 as an experiment one season, 

 and at present the advantages of their 

 use are, to our mind, very questionable. 



C. Stanley Baxter, in American Bee- 

 Keeper, comes out in defense of 'farm- 

 er bee-keepers." Just right, Mr. Bax- 

 ter, the farmer bee-keepers are in fact 

 an advantage. It is, in our opinion, 

 unscrupulous specialists who do the 

 legitimate trade the most harm. We 

 have them, more than some would sup- 



