THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



December 



have a good play in warm days as late 

 as possible, but there is but little hope 

 for such days after November 15th, 

 and as early as that date our colonies 

 ■will be put into snug warm quarters 

 and left in quiet for a five months' 

 rest. 



(From Bee Keepers Record.) 



AMONG THE BEES. 



SUPER AREA. 



I had commenced writing an article 

 upon super area, about which — owing 

 to the advantages I have worthily or 

 unworthily obtained during my career 

 as an " authority " on bee matters — I 

 consider myself in a position to give 

 a very experienced opinion. Upon 

 reading the Record, however, I found 

 that Mr. H. W. Brice had on page 141 

 of October issue, to some extent fore- 

 stalled me, and consequently I, for a 

 time, gave up the idea of dealing 

 with that particular subject. But up- 

 on second thoughts, and considering 

 that as my experience extended over 

 a very wide range of country, as well 

 as covering a considerable period of 

 time — occupied in visiting many hun- 

 dreds of bee-keepers in nearly every 

 shire of these islands — I might, to say 

 the least, support our friend Mr. 

 Brice's experiences as noted by him 

 concerning the county of Kent. In 

 the last issue of " Gleanings" (Amer- 

 icam) I also notice that Mr. G. M. 

 Doolittle — a well-known American 

 bee-keeper — has a few words to say 

 upon the same matter, making it ap- 

 parent that the super-area question 

 has been stimultaneously disturbing 

 the minds of several of us bee-men, 

 even though located so far apart as 

 Britain and America. I am well 

 aware that one cannot make a bee- 



keeper of a man in a day, or even in 

 a single year, but there comes a nat- 

 ural inference that — after so much 

 has been written and taught about 

 bee-keeping — manufacturers of appli- 

 ances should cease to send out from 

 their factories hives which no advanc- 

 ed apiarist would for a moment think 

 of using. I allude to those in which 

 there is a want of full and suflScient 

 super accomodation. Although hives 

 are sold in numbers at the present day 

 which allow no more than one super 

 to be put on at one time, yet thousands 

 of others are sent out with unlimited 

 accommodation for supering, but, 

 which accommodation is not taken ad- 

 vantage of by keepers of bees (I don't 

 call them bee-keepers), and as a nat- 

 ural consequence quite a quantity of 

 honey is left ungathered, and a pro- 

 portionate amount of disappointment 

 felt by the owner when he hears of 

 such large crops of honey taken by 

 other members of the craft. I could 

 mention one county where there are 

 many hundreds of hives — with hinged 

 roofs — upon which it is impossible to 

 place more than a single super at one 

 time without damaging the hive. In 

 the majority of these cases the only 

 way of enlarging the hive is by re- 

 moving the roof-hinges, and this nec- 

 essitates the wrenching away of some 

 portion of the hive walls, because by 

 exposure to the weather the screws be- 

 come a fixture. But this is a small 

 matter ; the real harm is in giving 

 the owner of the hive (of course, a 

 non-reader) the idea that there is no 

 necessity for using four or five supers 

 on a stock at one time, or (he argues) 

 "why was the hive made to hold only 

 oneV He regards the hive-maker as 

 an authority on such matters — as he 



