AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



771 



Mr. C. H. Dibbern, iii his article on 

 page 610, after giving an account of 

 his losses of 20 per cent., asks, " If all 

 the trouble was not caused by the 

 honey-dew, will some one tell us what 

 did ?" I am not here to say what did, 

 but could not I go a little further and 

 say, with equal propriety, if the honey- 

 dew did not bring my bees through so 

 successfully, then what did? 



I find there are a great many things 

 in bee-keeping which are hard to ac- 

 count for, or to explain, and some things 

 in which my own experience does not 

 seem to accord with that of others. I 

 will cite one little instance which now 

 comes to mind, viz. : 



Several years ago, I saw it asserted 

 through bee-periodicals, that bees would 

 winter well entirely covered with snow ; 

 so one morning, after a heavy fall of 

 snow, when sweeping the drift away 

 from the hive fronts, I thought I would 

 leave one covered. After the snow went 

 off, which was after several weeks, I 

 went around and found my bees in the 

 covered hive " as dead as a door-nail," 

 with plenty of honey and plenty of bees. 

 The rest were all well and " a-kicking !" 

 Was it a co-incidence, or do any of you 

 winter your bees under snow ? 



Linneus, Mo., May 10, 1892. 



Slaniari Size of Sections. 



C. B. JENKS. 



On page 670 a correspondent, speak- 

 ing of the adoption of a standard size 

 sections, favors the adoption of a box 

 which shall weigh 16 ounces when 

 filled. Now, I am not going to comment 

 on his statements, simply for the sake of 

 opposing them, but I wish to give my 

 views on the subject. 



If a box 43^x41^x1% inches, filled in 

 first-class style, weighs 12 ounces, as he 

 states, it would have to be made consid- 

 erably wider, or larger in some way, to 

 weigh a full pound. This would neces- 

 sitate altering the size of supers in a 

 great many cases, which would be a 

 detriment to bee-keepers in general, and 

 would incur a great expense for large 

 producers. 



Then, again, if we use a section that 

 will contain more honey than those in 

 use at present, the price per section will 

 have to be advanced, and many con- 

 sumers will get the impression that the 

 price of honey has gone up. 



I think that the section now in use is 

 better adapted to the Langstroth hive 



than any other size would be, and this 

 hive seems to be preferred by the ma- 

 jority of bee-keepers. 



I do not believe, however, in selling a 

 section, which contains 12 or 14 ounces, 

 for a pound ; and I see no need of so 

 doing. Why not call it simply a " sec- 

 tion of honey ?" or, in comparison with 

 a 2-pound section, one can be called the 

 " large size," and the other the " small 

 size." 



The majority of bee-keepers are in 

 favor of sections 4j^x4j^xlJ^ or 1 15- 

 16 inches, and why not let it so remain? 

 I think it would be more sensible, and 

 equally as honorable. 



Pawtucket, R. I. 



Preyention of Swarming. 



No two bee-keepers entertain the 

 same opinions as to the best methods of 

 preventing swarming. No practical 

 method has as yet been brought out for 

 either preventing or controlling natural 

 swarming. Wc have been told of the 

 queen restrictors, of clipping the wings 

 of queens, or the "jump" method, and 

 how swarming is prevented by extract- 

 ing from the brood-chamber, etc. In a 

 measure, all the above operations have 

 some effect in retarding and preventing 

 the issuing of a natural swarm. 



Of the plans above mentioned, that of 

 extracting from the brood-combs is the 

 most effectual. The disturbance to the 

 queen, bees and brood-nest, by remov- 

 ing and extracting the honey from the 

 combs, has much to do with breaking up 

 the desire to swarm. 



When an apiary is worked for comb 

 honey in sections, it is not practicable, 

 convenient or advisable to disturb the 

 brood-nest. A colony seized with the 

 swarming fever will surely swarm, even 

 though there is an unlimited amount of 

 surplus room in the hive. It is when 

 the bees have this fever that a method 

 for prevention of swarming is needed. 



The queen-trap is the only thing that 

 will serve the apiarist when he has his 

 hives all equipped with sections, and is 

 either away from home, or very busy. 

 If at home and not ready to attend to 

 hiving a swarm when one issues, it will 

 not be necessary to do so if there is a 

 trap on the hive. If a swarm issues 

 from a hive provided with sections, the 

 combs ought not to be disturbed 

 for three days, at which time the 

 queen-cells should be removed, and the 

 queen that came off with the swarm re- 



