n 



THE AME RIGA N APIC UL TUB IS T. 



may be possible to grow these as a crop 

 for the sake of furnishing a pasture for 

 the bees. Prof. Coolc claims that the 

 greatest hindrance to beekeeping is not 

 "winter killing," or "foul brood," but 

 lack of nectar. It is possible to depend 

 upon wild flowers for a large share of 

 the crop* and provide a pasture at the 

 times when there would otherwise be a 

 dearth of nectar. There is a species of 

 Cleome known as the Rocky Mountain 

 bee plant that has been tested some- 

 what. Then there is the Chapman 

 honey plant (yEcliinops). A mint (J/<?- 

 lissa) has also been employed. The 

 right plant may not yet have been found. 

 Those experimenting in the apiary are 

 doing a good work along many lines, 

 and in time the bee pasture will be a 

 thing to be admired for its beauty and 

 its profit as well. 



QUEEN-EXCLUDING HONEY- 

 BOARDS. 



A writer in Country Gentleman says : 

 'With the majority of frames in use, bees 

 build little bits of combs between the 

 top bars of the frames, and extending 

 the combs upward, connect them with 

 the cover of the hive, or the bottoms of 

 a case of sections, or whatever is next 

 above the tops of the frames. These 

 little bits of combs are called brace- 

 combs, or burr- combs. It is very un- 

 pleasant, unprofitable and untidy to lift 

 ■off a case of sections, and in so doing 

 pull apart a network of combs that con- 

 nect the bottoms of sections with the 

 tops of the brood frames. The honey 

 drips and daubs about, and attracts 

 robbers, if there are any to attract. The 

 bits of comb must be scraped from the 

 •bottoms of the sections, and the muss 

 cleaned up as best it may be. 



The beekeeping fraternity is, I be- 

 lieve, indebted to Mr. James Heddon 

 for the wooden honey-board, which 

 practically does away with all trouble 

 from brace-combs. This honey-board 

 is simply a series of slats fastened to a 

 frame as large as the top of the hive, 



and placed over the brood-nest. These 

 slats are about five-sixteenths of an inch 

 thick, placed three-eighths of an inch 

 apart, and of such width and so ar- 

 ranged that each opening between them 

 comes exactly over the centre of the top- 

 bar of a brood-frame below. In other 

 words, the slats break joints with the top- 

 bars of the frames below. As the tops of 

 the frames are three eigliths of an inch 

 below the level of the top of the hives, 

 there is a three-eighths inch space be- 

 tween the top of the frames and the 

 bottom of the honey-board. The out- 

 side rim or frame work of the honey- 

 board is three- eighths of an inch thicker 

 than the slats ; thus the surplus case is 

 raised three- eighths of an inch above 

 the slats of the honey- board. In short, 

 the honey-board is a series of slats three- 

 eighths of an inch apart, placed between 

 the brood-nest and the supers, with a 

 "bee space" both above and below the 

 slats. In the space below, between the 

 slats and the brood-nest, the bees build 

 brace-combs just the same as ever ; but, 

 for some reason, the space above is 

 almost always left free from the dis- 

 agreeable brace-combs. A case of sec- 

 tions can be lifted off as clean and free 

 from daub as when placed upon the 

 hive. 



I once tried to make these slatted 

 honey-boards queen-excluding by plac- 

 ing the slats exactly five thirty-seconds 

 of an inch apart. So far as excluding 

 the queen from the supers was con- 

 cerned, they were a success, the greatest 

 drawback being the fact that when the 

 slats were placed so close together, bees 

 filled the spaces between them with 

 hard wax. It is also some trouble to 

 place the slats exactly five thirty-sec- 

 onds of an inch apart, and fasten them 

 in such a manner that they will remain 

 exactly that distance apart. I next 

 tried to make a wood queen-excluder 

 by substituting a thin board (three-six- 

 teenths of an inch) for the slats, and 

 then perforating it with a small circular 

 exactly five thirty- seconds of an inch in 

 thickness. Such excluders worked 

 better, owing, I think, to their being 



