THE mm^mmicRu beb jouimmt,. 



183 



NATURE'S WAY. 



Arc ^vc Ooin^ Against IValure 

 AVorking for Comb Honey i 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY G. 51. DOOLITTLE. 



When I first began bee-keeping, the 

 sections or honej'-boxes were not like 

 those of the present day, as a part of 

 them were made to hold 15 pounds, 

 while the smallest boxes then in use in 

 this locality held fully 6 pounds. Some 

 of these boxes had glass sides, while 

 others had onlj- a small piece of glass 

 over an auger-hole, so that the owner 

 of the bees could see through this 

 glass to tell when the combs were com- 

 pleted, or when the honey was ready 

 to take off; for, when these combs 

 were sealed next to the glass, the 

 whole of it in the box would be so, as 

 a general rule. 



In these boxes we frequently found 

 brood and pollen, even when a hive as 

 large as 2,300 cubic inches was used, 

 and many wondered why the queen 

 would go above to lay, when there was 

 apparently plenty of room for her be- 

 low. The reason for this, as I look at 

 it, is that new comb is being built 

 above, which is generally of the drone 

 size of cells, where the bees have their 

 own way in building it, which, with 

 the desire of the queen to be where the 

 bees are the most active, causes her to 

 go into the surplus arrangement to lay. 



Some seem to think that this trouble 

 of brood and pollen in the surplus 

 apartment of the hive is something 

 that comes by our working against 

 Nature in these latter days, caused by 

 the contraction of the brood-charaber, 

 which is done by many of our leading 

 apiarists ; but this is a mistaken idea, 

 for I found more brood and pollen in 

 my comb honey years ago, before I 

 ever contracted a hive, than I have 

 since, where no queen-excluding honey- 

 board was used. 



As time passed on, the thought 

 originated in some enterprising bee- 

 keepers' head, that honey would sell 

 better if stored in still smaller boxes 

 than those weighing 6 pounds, so we 

 soon had the 3-pound box. This box 

 was used in the same way as its prede- 

 cessors had been, namely, with glass 

 sides, while it was made long enough 

 to hold only one comb, which comb 

 was about 2} inches thick when com- 

 pleted. With this box I had very little 

 success, for the bees seemed very loth 

 to work in it, and when they did so, 

 they would frequently try to put in 

 three combs, which made it in very 



poor shaiic for market. For this rea- 

 son I decided that it was not in accord 

 with the nature of the bees to be cut 

 up in so little chistors, and have their 

 combs as thick as 2| inches. Con.se- 

 quently I went liack to the ti-pound 

 boxes again, leaving it to others to 

 work the smaller ones as they pleased. 

 When the 2-pound sections with sep- 

 arators were introduced, I considered 

 them as being still worse than those 

 preceding them, for the bees were 

 divided into still smaller clusters than 

 before ; at least this was my first 

 thought. One night, while lying awake 

 thinking on the subject, I believed that 

 I saw a diflerence between this way of 

 using small boxes and the old way, 

 where glass was used on both sides of 

 the box ; for in using separators, the 

 bees wore not, properly speaking, di- 

 vided into little clusters, but virtually 

 had one box of the size given by the 

 number of sections used in one tier, 

 which was generally twice the amount 

 of the 6-pound boxes ; for as the tin 

 did not come within f of an inch of 

 either the bottom or top of the sec- 

 tions, the bees and warm air could 

 pass from one to the other just the 

 same as if no tin was there. But there 

 was so small an entrance that I feared 

 this would be a hindrance to the bees 

 coming up in the sections to work to 

 good advantage, and in order to over- 

 come this, I left the bottom off of all 

 those first used, so that I might not 

 meet with a partial failure, as I had 

 done with the 3-pound sections or 

 " boxes," as all such were termed at 

 that time. 



My yield of honey from colonies in 

 these hives was greater that fall than 

 from the other hives, which went far 

 more toward convincing me that this 

 plan would succeed better than au}-- 

 thing else could ; but I found that in 

 leaving the bottom of the sections off, 

 I had gotten into a job which I did not 

 care to go through with again, and, 

 beside, in using the tin separators so 

 narrow that ^ of an inch was left both 

 above and below them, I h.ad a bad job 

 here also, for the bees built through 

 here so that the combs were mashed in 

 putting on the glass afterward. 



Although still fearful that I might 

 lessen the yield of honey by putting on 

 the bottoms of the sections and widen- 

 ing the tin, yet I resolved to try, so the 

 next season found me putting sections 

 on a few hives, the same as I use them 

 now, while the rest of the apiary was 

 worked with the 6-pound boxes as 

 heretofore. 



At the end of that season I found 

 that the colonies having the sections 

 with separators, gave me the largest 

 yield, and the combs in these sections 

 were simply perfect ; while manj' of 

 those in the larger sections were far 



from being so. These sections had a 

 comb about 1| inches thick, which 

 thickness the bees seem to prefer for 

 storing honey, although they can be 

 made to use either of those thicker or 

 thinner. The entrance to the sections 

 also seemed ample, and by a little figur- 

 ing, I soon saw that the J-inch space 

 between each section was greater as a 

 whole than the entrance given to the 

 larger box. 



When the next season came, I work- 

 ed about half of my bees with sections, 

 and the other half with the large boxes, 

 thus using caution when starting out 

 on something new, as I always think it 

 advisable to do. The result of that 

 season proved the same as that of the 

 seasons before, so that I then adopted 

 sections entirely, and firmly believe 

 that such an arrangement does not in- 

 convenience the bees in the lea.st, over 

 what they would be in a box of the 

 same capacity without separators. 



When the queen-excluding honey- 

 boards came before the public, I tried 

 them slowly, as I did the sections, 

 using more and more with each year, 

 till to-day I am fully prepared to say 

 that none of these things are of any 

 inconvenience to the bees. Only in this 

 way can any one fully saj- what is 

 good, and what is not ; for the con- 

 demnation of a thing without using it, 

 amounts to nothing. The old injunc- 

 tion of " prove all things, and hold 

 fast to that which is good," is as valua- 

 able to-daj- as it ever was. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



MANAG-EMENT. 



Putting Bees Out of Cellars- 

 Spring methods. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY MISS IDi. L. SMITH. 



The best time to take a retrospect of 

 any line of action is after we have 

 passed through it, and by our failures 

 in the past we are able in a degree to 

 avoid the rock upon which so many 

 are wrecked. In apiculture, as in 

 many other pursuits, to avoid failures 

 manj- of our plans have to be laid, 

 reaching far ahead. It is not in the 

 management that prepares the strong 

 colonies for the honey harvest, that an 

 apiarist shows his skill, but in getting 

 the weak colonies strong, and ready to 

 go into the sections. 



Apiculture is a continuous chain the 

 year around, each part of a season 

 depending upon the preceding, so that 

 entering upon spring management of 

 bees we will presume that everything 

 has been done in the proper way, and 

 at the right time ; we will especially 

 assume that the bees have been win- 



