164 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



his waj' very carefully and instead of at 

 once utilizing the idea, he advanced cau- 

 tiously and provided the bell glass, an ap- 

 pliance I should think almost unknown in 

 the States, as a rtrst step. This appliance 

 is a bell of glass placed over a hole in the 

 crown board of the hive, and made, when 

 nicely tilled with fresh comb honey, a very 

 attractive appearance. It was discovered 

 to be a very awkward package and no bet- 

 ter than an ordinary straw super, thou- 

 sands of which are used in Enghand at the 

 present day. Tliey are small stiavv liives 

 of exactly the same shape as an ordinary 

 straw skep, and are placed over a hole in 

 the top of the stock hive until filled with 

 honey, then being removed. There are 

 two beekeepers, neighbors of mine, who 

 use nothing else and they have only "gone 

 in" for supering at all during the last two 

 seasons althougii frequently visiting my 

 apiaiy. 



Tlie advent of foundation materially as- 

 sisted these cautious beekeepers toward 

 advancement. Tiieir bell glasses were pro- 

 vided with curiously wrought devices in 

 foundation, and so supers with combs 

 built in the form of stars, rings, etc., 

 were frequently seen exposed for sale 

 and are seen so even now. As the 

 comb honey from such supers was ex- 

 ceedingly difficult to cut out in separate 

 pieces a furtiier step forward was taken ; 

 and square boxes, fitted with slatted tops, 

 having along the centre of each slat a strip 

 of foundation, were provided on supers so 

 that when the combs were finished they 

 could, by passing a knife down each side 

 be removed separately and so sold. 



After this the work of the British Bee- 

 keepers' Association (formed in 1874) be- 

 gan to bear fruit and the few beekeepers 

 who raised sectional honey obtained so 

 ready a sale for it, and so cleared the board 

 of all prizes at the various shows, that inu- 

 tators began to spring up in all directions 

 and then we were fairly launched into the 

 industry of honey production, a consum- 

 mation only reached to any extent during 

 the last four or five years. 



There not being many apiarists in Eng- 

 land who exercise this calling as a busi- 

 ness has led to their being quite a number 

 of what I may term fancy beekeepers; 

 they are men who will set aside one or 

 more colonies of bees for tlie purpose of 

 producing fancy supers. I do not know 

 whether tliis would be tiie right term to 

 use in the States ; what I mean are supers 

 made in various designs and cuiious pat- 

 terns. I have, in visiting difierent shows 

 and apiaries around the country, come 

 across a large number of these. One ex- 

 liil)ited last year at a show was a glass 

 case made somewhat in the form of a 



church, minus the steeple, filled with 

 combs in various patterns forming win- 

 dows, doors, etc. Others produce sym- 

 bols or mottoes wrought in honey comb 

 by ingeniously arranging foundation and 

 separators. Last season these were very 

 plentiful, a mania seeming to have 

 seized upon beekeepers to inaugurate in 

 honey comb the fact of the Queen of Eng- 

 land having reigiie 1 fifty years. These no 

 doubt to some are very pretty and I must 

 own tiiat they prove quite an addition and 

 attraction to a lioney show. There is one 

 of these supers exhibited in a shop win- 

 dow in Heading, Berks, Eng., at the pres- 

 eut time where the motto "God sav-e 

 Ileadin;^" is well executed incombhoney; 

 this is in three pieces and no doul)t was 

 built by three separate colonies of bees. 



The system of "tiering up" is now the 

 chief method adopted by the advanced 

 beekeeper; before this the "Combination" 

 hive was principally used ; this was a very 

 long hive capal)le of holding from twenty 

 to twenty-four frames placed across the 

 entrance. When a certain number, say 

 ten, of these frames were filled in the 

 brood-nest, others were added behind a 

 queen-excluding diaphragm for extracting 

 purposes, or for section honey wide 

 frames, the width of sections, holding six 

 sections were in a like maimer arranged; 

 there was also room on the top for a rack 

 of sections which was covered over by 

 the roof or lid of the hive. Supering with 

 frames of sections is, in England, almost 

 unknown, racks similar to the American 

 being used having the bee space at the 

 bottom ; top i)ee space is never seen. Sep- 

 arators are invariably used principally 

 made of No. 5 or 6 plain zinc. The racks 

 are so made that they allow of a lateral 

 movement of the sections which is to be 

 preferred to a rack only of just suflicient 

 size to hold the required luimber of sec- 

 tions. 



The craze for reversing supers had its 

 run in England as in America but has 

 quite died out. Last season the Jones- 

 Heddon hive nee Carr-Stewarton caused 

 quite a flash in the pan ; but notwithstand- 

 ing the repeated queries appearing in the 

 British bee-papers very few or I should 

 sa3' no favoral)le opinions have been ex- 

 pressed by either its former advocates or 

 those who have purchased sucii idves and 

 tested tliem during the last season; my 

 own experience is that these are no bet- 

 ter than any other; in fact, I shall not 

 use any more tlian I have at present. 

 Shallow frames of about 5.V in. deep used 

 in "tiering up" for extracting purposes 

 only are occasioiuilly seen in England es- 

 pecially in tlie north, I am inclined to 

 think that these will come into greater 



