32 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



place to put ill a frame of honey or 

 syrup, or a frame of partly fllk-d sec- 

 tions, to be fed out. It gives room for 

 a frame of sections to be put in for the 

 bees to commence work storing, before 

 it would be desirable to put on supers. 



Tiie matter of surplus receptacles or 

 sections has been pretty thoroughly 

 discussed, and each one will decide for 

 himself wliat is best for his own mar- 

 ket. Of the various supers in use I 

 have the l)est acquaintance with that 

 for the wide frame containing eight 

 one lb. sections. The super is of the 

 same size as the hive and holds seven 

 wide frames or fifty-six sections. 

 These seven wide frames occupy 14 

 inches in Avidlh and as the inside width 

 of the super is 154 inches there should 

 be left a space of \h inches, which in 

 actual practice is less. Separators are 

 on these frames and the seven are 

 crowded together in the super, and a 

 dummy made of common inch boards 

 resawed placed up against them. They 

 are not wedged up together in any way, 

 and the vacant space makes it easy to 

 remove them. I have seen supers with 

 a vacant space of a fourth or half inch. 

 I do not think I could well use tliem. 

 An objection to these supers is their 

 size. They are heavy to handle, and 

 after one is about filled it is often un- 

 desirable to give so much room as to 

 put on another with a capacity of fifty- 

 six lbs. Tlien again the lower tier of 

 sections is not generally finished at the 

 same time as that in the upper part of 

 the frame. I used some supers the 

 past season of half the height, each 

 wide frame holding four one pound 

 sections and think them an improve- 

 ment. The top bars of the frames 

 have a space of one-fourth inch between 

 them (perhaps I would be better) 

 which allows tiering up by putting an 

 empty super under a partially filled one.» 



The question of separators is being 

 somewhat agitated now, with a ten- 

 dency to dispense with their use if 

 practicable. At the last Northwestern 

 convention it was found that a large 

 portion of the members used no sepa- 

 rators. The surprise becomes less 

 Avlien it is considered tliat prol)ably a 

 very small number of those who used no 

 separators shipped to distant markets. 

 So long as I supplied only my home 

 market I had no use for separators. 



The past season I used some 200 su- 

 pers of James Ileddon's style in which 

 no separators are used. Although I 

 do not find it so easy to take out the 

 sections as out of the wide; frames and 

 although the sections did not pack so 



nicely as where separators are used, 

 yet they possess advantages making 

 them so much pleasanter to manipulate 

 that I think I prefer them to the wide 

 frames. 



To start the bees promptly to work 

 storing, it is a good plan to raise a 

 frame of brood from the brood cham- 

 ber, and put in the super between two 

 wide frames. I suspect this gives us 

 all the advantages of side storing. 

 Another plan which I have followed 

 Avith advantage both with the wide 

 frame and the Ileddon supers is to put 

 a frame full of sections in the brood 

 chamber and as soon as the bees com- 

 mence work on them put on a super 

 and put the sections in it. 



I like starters of foundation which 

 fill the section, and have had the best 

 success witii foundation running seven 

 feet to the pound. 



Additional surplus room should be 

 given as fast as needed, by putting 

 empty supers under filled ones ; but 

 toward the close of the honey harvest, 

 when it is thought the bees are work- 

 ing on about as many sections as they 

 will finish and still may ha crowded for 

 more room let an empty super be put 

 on top. The bees will be likely to fill 

 the sections previously put on, before 

 commencing on these new ones. 



Among the many matters belonging 

 to the subject which I am obliged to 

 omit, I know of none more important 

 than the management of swarming, 

 none upon which I more anxiously de- 

 sire light. I can do no more than sug- 

 gest it for your discussion ; and, from 

 the discussion, information will surely 

 come. Suppose no increase is desired, 

 is it best to suppress all swarming in 

 order to secure the greatest yield of 

 comb honey ? If best to allow^ swarm- 

 ing, how shall the swarms be managed? 

 If swarming is to be suppressed, what 

 are the best means to suppress it, and 

 what shall be done if swarms actually 

 issue in spite of the utmost eflbrts at 

 prevention? Light upon these ques- 

 tions will be welcomed by all producers 

 of comb honey. 



This was discussed by the members 

 as follows : 



L. C. IvooT. — In securing the best 

 yield of surplus honey we use the 

 large Quinby hives and manage them ou 

 the non-swarming plan. Our seasons 

 are short and we must consequently 

 have very populous stocks. We pre- 

 fer both side and top storing with box- 

 es placed in clamps and so arranged 

 that they are interchangeable with sides 



