XMU MMEMICMIM ®®1& JO'UKNSLIL. 



245 



Xlie Urown Itees. 



Written for Saint Nicholas 



IIY MAHOAUET EVTIXOE. 



Said litttle brown Bee to big brown Bee : 

 " Oh ! hurry here and see, and see, 

 The loveliest rose — the loveliest rose 

 That in the garden grows, grows, grows, 

 Hum-um um — hum-um-um," 

 Said little brown Bee to big brown Bee. 



Said little brown Bee to big brown Bee; 

 " Much honey must be here, and we 

 Should beg a portion while we may. 

 For soon more bees will come this way. 

 Hum-umum — humum-nm," 

 Said little brown Bee to big brown Bee. 



Said big brown Bee to little brown Bee : 



" The rose is not for me, for me. 



Though she is lovelier by far 



Than many other flowers are. 



Hum-umum — hum-um-um," 



Said big brown Bee to little brown Bee. 



Said big brown Bee to little brown Bee : 

 " No honey-cup has she, has she, 

 But many cups, all brimming over. 

 Has yonder little purple clover. 

 And that's the flower for me, for me. 

 Hum-um-um — hum-um um," 

 Said big brown Bee to little brown Bee. 



Zinc Queen-Excluders — Proper 

 Width of Top-Bars. 



Written Jbr the American Bee Jcm/mal 



Query 700.— 1. Are the zinc queeu-ex 

 cluders used by the advanced bee-keepers ? 2. 

 When working: tor comb honey, how wide 

 should the top-bar of brood-frames be made 

 for the Langstroth frame ? — New York. 



1. Yes, sometimes. 2. Seven-eighths of 

 an inch. — Mus. L. Harbison. 



1. By some of them. 2. Seven-eighths of 

 an inch. — A. B. Mason. 



1. Yes. 2. Seven-eighths of an inch, or 

 even one inch does no harm. — A. J. Cook. 



1. By some, but not by all. 2. An inch, 

 or a little more. — M. Mahix. 



1. Yes and no. Some do; some don't. 2. 

 One inch. — G. M. Doolittle. 



1. Of course they are. I use them. 2. 

 About % of an inch. — Eugene Secor. 



1. A great many use them. 2. The stan- 

 dard Langstroth frame is % of an inch 

 wide. How wide it should be, time will 

 tell.— H. D. Cutting. 



1. Some use them, and some do not. 2. 

 The open top-bar, % of an inch wide ; closed 

 end top-bar, scant IJ^ inches wide. — J. P. 

 H. Brown. 



1. Let them say. We do not use them, 

 and do not k^imv of any that use them 

 largely. 2. Seven-eighths to H^' inches, at 

 your choice.— Dadant & Son. 



1. More or less by a gi'eat many, cer- 

 tainly. 2. Just now that is an unsettled 

 question. I do not think that I would have 

 them less than one inch. — C. C. Miller. 



1. Yes, by many of them. 2. That is 

 now a much discussed matter. I prefer 

 them % of an inch.— R. L. Taylor. 



1. Yes, sir; and more will use them 

 when their advantages become better 

 known. 2. Top-bars of frames should be 

 1 inch by %, if you wish to keep them rea- 

 sonably free of brace-combs.- C. H. DiB- 



BERN. 



1 . To some extent, where comb honey is 

 the object. 2. I use top-bars % of an inch 

 wide, and % of an inch thick. — J. M. Ham- 



ISAUGII. 



1. Yes. 3. I like them an inch wide. 

 Usually they are made % of an inch wide, 

 for the reason that they are then conven- 

 iently rijjped off of lumber of that thick- 

 ness.— J. M. Shuck. 



1. If they are not, they ought to. I 

 believe, however, that the most successful 

 ones do ; but I also think that they are not 

 using queen-excluders where they are not 

 necessary. 2. Not le.ss than one inch wide. 

 Probably one inch and 1-16 wide lor l-'-^ 

 spacing, will prove the most satisfactory. — 

 G. L. Tinker. 



1. Yes, by all of them. 2. This is a 

 mooted question, but my experience of 

 over twenty years, teaches me that % of an 

 inch is just right, that being the exact 

 thickness of the brood-comb when brood is 

 sealed up in both sides. By close working, 

 viz : bee-space apart, the best results will 

 be given.— J. E. Pond. 



1. Yes, sir; the most advanced and suc- 

 cessful bee-keepers use them, and advocate 

 their use, and no kind of a device will ever 

 be invented to take their place for keeping 

 brace-combs away from the surplus recep- 

 tacles, and keeping the queen below. Put 

 me on record for that. 2. Never more than 

 >;,,' of an inch. — James Heddon. 



1 . I cannot saj' who all use the queen- 

 excluders. They are very useful when 

 hiving swarms, to keep the queen from 

 going into the surplus department before 

 she has established her brood-nest; and 

 they are very profitably used when taking 

 honey with the extractor. Any device 

 that will hinder the queen from leaving the 

 brood-nest to fill the surplus combs with 

 brood, must be considered useful. When 

 producing comb honey in sections, I do not 

 use the excluders. My queens never bother 

 the sections. 2. I use a X-inch top-bar. A 

 little wider will not hurt, but I see no rea- 

 son for a change.— G. W. Demaree. 



1. Yes. Quite a number of them use 

 queen excluders, and also advocate their 

 use, but there are some good, practical api- 

 arists who do not favor their use. 2. The 

 question concerning the width of top-bars 

 of frames is now being discussed quite 

 largely. Perhaps the result may be a 

 decision of the question. The usual width 

 has been from % to 1 inch. — The Editor. 



The Right Width for Entrances 

 to Sections. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



Query 701.— What is the right width for 

 entrances to sections, with tin separators 3H 

 inches wideV A l?.i-inch section, with en- 

 trance cut }i of an inch, makes comb of only 

 ?4 of a pound capacity.— Missouri. 



Three-eighths of an inch. — A. J. Cook. 

 I do not comprehend the question. — M. 

 Mahin, 



We do not use separators. — Mrs. L. Har- 

 rison. 



Five-sixteenths, I believe, is the adopted 

 width.— J. M. Hamisaugh. 



Five-sixteenths is what I use with sec- 

 tions 2 inches wide. — G. M. Doolittle. 



Five-sixteenths or 'V of an inch. I doubt 

 if the entrance makes the difference in 

 weight. — C. C. Miller. 



A i^-inch cut in the section will be suffi- 

 cient when tin separators are used. — J.P.H. 

 Brown. 



If the sections are cut out V of an inch 

 each, it will give a J4-inch entrance, and is 

 about right with such a separator. You 



certainly do udl succeed in getting them 

 very well filled, or they would weigh 1-t 

 ounces on an average, as mine do.— C. H. 



DlBBERX. 



One fourth of an inch is a good width for 

 that size separator. If you want your sec- 

 tions to weigh one pound, you will have to 

 use IX or 1 15 16.— H. D. Cuttixg. 



We do not believe that the entrance has 

 anything to do with the weight of the 

 section. We want entrances wide and 

 long. If l=;.j is too light, use 1% or 2 inches. 

 We prefer IX— Dadant & Son. 



A 1% section with ?io entrances, used 

 with a wood separator of the proper style, 

 makes as fine a section of honey as one 

 could wish to see, and it weighs near 

 enough a pound.— Eugene Secor. 



One-fourth of an inch. But a separator 

 as wide as the section is high, gives the best 

 results, in which case the top and bottom 

 bars of the sections should be i.< inch less in 

 width than the sides. — G. L. Tinker. 



The entrance should be >*«' of an inch, i.e., 

 the top and bottom of the sections should 

 be 'V of an inch narrower than the sides, 

 and such sections would, if well filled, aver- 

 age nearly a pound.— R. L. Taylor. 



I use sections 1 *i inches wide, and with- 

 out separators. The sections will average 

 14 ounces. There is no such a thing as a 

 pound section. Your tin separators are }^ 

 of an inch too wide. I prefer to have them 

 3?8 vfide. When the sections are in place 

 in the section case, the openings should be 

 full •*4 of an inch. If your combs are not 

 as thick as they ought to be, say IV thick, 

 your sections are badly adjusted. — G. W. 

 Demaree. 



One-fourth to 'Y of an inch. We cannot 

 help it about the weight of the sections. 

 Those who use Langstroth frames (and 

 nearly everybody does) cannot use sections 

 a trifle larger, and get along with any com- 

 fort. Charge all the faults, and credit all 

 the virtues, of the 4;4'x4i4' section, to 

 the "Wizard of Medina."— J. M. Shuck. 



The matter of getting exact weight into 

 a section is one of great difficulty. I think 

 that '4 inch is about the correct width. The 

 tin separator will add a little to that width. 

 Any narrower entrance will not be taken 

 to kindly, and any wider will cau.se trouble 

 in other directions. The question is not of 

 so much importance as it would seem to be 

 at first sight, as sections of comb honey are 

 seldom sold by weight, but by the section. 

 Particular attention should be paid to the 

 appearance of the package, as a nice, tasty 

 section of light weight will outsell a heavier 

 one that is not as neat. The eye as well as 

 the stomach must be pleased in all such 

 matters.— J. E. Pond. 



Tin separators do not change the width 

 of the entrance in among the sections. Its 

 bottom edge is up a bee-space above the 

 section. The proper space should be ^j of 

 an inch. It used to be y of an inch. I 

 believe I was the first to object and propose 

 a space of '^i;, of an inch, which is now uni- 

 versally used. Our seven-to-the-foot sec- 

 tions, when used with separators, give a 

 comb of more than ^{ of a pound capacity. 

 Fourteen of them usually weigh 12 pounds. 

 We prefer to have our sections underweigh 

 a pound, and to have the pound the maxi- 

 mum and not the minimum or average; 

 but either with or without separators there 

 always will be a variation in weight. — 

 James Heddon 



Three-eighths of an inch is right for 

 entrances to the section, but that has noth- 

 ing to do with the weight of the honey in 

 the section. If you want a full pound of 

 honey in the 4'.|'x4'4 section, you must 

 have it one and fifteen-sixteenths inches in 

 width ; but even then there will be a varia- 

 tion in the weight of the honey. — The Edi- 

 tor. 



