THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



thrown out by the bee, and it is to 

 the organ noticed by Mr. Nasson- 

 off that it seems natural, according 

 to my idea, to attribute the expul- 

 sion of this excess. Might not 

 this be a specific peculiarity in the 

 organism of the bee adapted to 

 certain functions? 



On the other hand, it is known 

 that the bees of a colony which 

 need water bring it by taking it 

 into their abdomens — a proof 

 then that the functions of the glan- 

 dules are discretionary^ whereas the 

 act of jperspiring of organic bodies 

 is not so, and the exhalations (of 

 the bee itself) are cast off ordina- 

 ril}'^ in the form of vapor which 

 rises, and not drops which fall. 

 A. Z. 

 Wassillioico, Russia, July, 1883. 



THE TIE RING-UP SYSTEM. 



By G. W. Demaree. 



Years ago, I produced all my 

 surplus honey in single cases. 

 This system of management made 

 it necessary to wait on the bees 

 until each case was finished ready 

 to be removed, before empty cases 

 could be adjusted in their places. 

 It was evident to me that my bees 

 progressed slowly, sometimes let- 

 ting the best of the harvest slip 

 away unimproved. I began to 

 observe closely to ascertain if pos- 

 sible the cause, and my first discov- 

 ery was that my bees would fill the 

 boxes about two-thirds or three- 

 fourths full in a given time, and 



then waste as much more time in 

 finishing them up. This suggested 

 the tieriug-up plan. Of course 

 others had practised it, still it was 

 new to me, and upon making the 

 application I found its advantages 

 to be far greater than my most fond 

 anticipations could have led me to 

 imagine. 



In those days I used six pound 

 boxes with slots in tops and bot- 

 toms, four of which would just cover 

 the top of the brood department of 

 the standard " L" hive, and when 

 these were about two-thirds full of 

 comb and honey, I would raise 

 them, and adjust an empt^^ set un- 

 der them, and proceed in this way 

 till the upper sets were finished, 

 when they were removed and so on 

 through the season. In this way, 

 I could obtain an immense yield of 

 surplus. After I learned to use the 

 small sections, I tried to work them 

 in single cases, removing the sec- 

 tions as fast as they were finished, 

 and supplying their places with 

 empt}^ ones. I found this a fair 

 substitute for the tiering-up system, 

 but I also found it to be too much 

 work in a large apiary ; hence I 

 took up again the tiering-up plan, 

 raising the cases full of sections, 

 when partially filled, and adjusting 

 empty ones under them. 



When handling a few colonies of 

 bees it matters but little how tedi- 

 ous we go at our work. But in a 

 large apiary the case is altogether 

 diflTerent. The methods employed 

 must be in proportion to the mag- 

 nitude of the business. I have 

 given the wide section frames a fair 

 trial, and they work pretty well. 



