L894. 



THE . 1 MERIi '. I ZV BEE- KEEPER. 



Ill 



years, until at Last I became thorough- 

 ly convinced thai thes< combs added 

 largely to my crop of comb honey by 

 leading the bees into the 3< cl ions much 

 sooner than they otherwise would go. 



Now, some may say thai it is DO use 

 getting the bees into the sections as 

 soon as the first honey comes in ; but 

 I claim that this has very much to do 

 with our crop of comb honey. It is 

 not that the first three or four pounds 

 of honey stored in the sections could 

 ild for SO much cash that I wish 

 it placed in the sections, although that 

 might be quite an incentive where a 

 person kept 500 colonics, the same a- 

 mounting to about a ton oi' honey in 

 that case ; but. all my past experience 

 teaches me that, for every pound of 

 honey stored in the brood-nest at, the 

 commencement of the season, or honey 

 harvest, there will be five pounds less 

 Btored in the sections that year. Let 

 the bees once commence to store honey 

 in the brood-nest thus early in the 

 season, and they are loth to enter the 

 sections at all, and, instead of giving 

 us lots of section honey, they will 

 keep crowding the queen from the 

 brood-cells more and more, storing 

 them full of honey, until, when fall 

 comes, we have little honey for mark- 

 et, and our bees in poor shape for the 

 winter. 



Then, again, these thick top-bars, 

 which are used to do away with these 

 brace-combs, blace a barrier between 

 the brood-combs below and the sections 

 above, instead of forming ladders to 

 lead the bees to the sections. Who 

 has not noticed that where an inch or 

 two of sealed honey intervened be- 

 tween the brood in the hive and the 

 tops of the frames, that the bees were 



much more loth to go into ilc sections 

 immediately ,,n the firsl appearance of 

 honey from the fields, #ian they were 

 when the brood came up all alongthe 

 top-bars to the frame.- ? This \\;i 

 Of the claims for the contraction of 

 brood-chambers in the interest of 

 comb honey, that where contraction 

 was used the brood must come 

 to the bottom of the sections, and, so 

 Coming, the bees were in the sections 

 in a twinkling when the honey har- 

 vest arrived. I doubt not but what 

 all will be live to admit that an inch 

 of sealed comb honey would be a bel- 

 ter leader to the sections than an inch 

 of wood, as is now proposed. When 

 we come to fully understand this fact 

 we shall sec that, wherein these brace- 

 combs are the means of having our 

 bees enter the section sooner, just in 

 that proportion are they of value to us. 

 Try the experiment, brethren, and 

 see if, at the end of such a trial, you 

 will not be willing to put up with the 

 inconvience they cause you, for the 

 sake of their great value. G, M. Doo- 

 little in Am. Bee J'nl. (N. Y.) 



HOW TO DESTROY MICK IX A BEE HOUSE. 



We do not believe in advocating 

 cruelty to animals, but we are forced 

 from last years experience to advocate 

 most strongly the use of any and every 

 means to rid the hives from mice. It 

 is very important indeed that this 

 should be closely looked after — equal 

 quantities of arsenic, white granu- 

 lated sugar and flour mixed dry. put 

 on little pieces of paper about the 

 hives or apiary, where it can remain 

 for sometime without being exposed 

 to dampness, is a very sure way of 

 ridding the place of mice, yet in some 



