170 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



is generally a better filling of the sides 

 and bottom, except two big pop-holes at 

 the bottom corners, and two at the upper 

 corners; depending on the width of the 

 starter. If the starter comes clear to the 

 upper corners, no holes, or only very 

 little ones, will be found there. 



Concerning the filling up of the section 

 in regard to thickness, it is unquestion- 

 able that the closer the honey comes to 

 the edge of the section the fuller the sec- 

 tion looks; and the more valuable it will 

 be. When the surface of the honey lacks 

 % of an inch or more of reaching the 

 edge, the section looks as if it were only 

 half full. That is the point; the artistic 

 question raised by friend Bingham is not 

 "in it" at all. That is one of the reasons 

 why I do not use separators; but with the 

 "fence" now offered for sale at a low 

 price, I may change my S3'stem. How- 

 ever, there is against the use of separators 

 another reason besides the lack of plump- 

 ness in the sections. The bees will work 

 in the sections sooner and Vjetter without 

 than with separators. Anyone who wish- 

 es to try, can verj' easily set apart a por- 

 lion of his apiary to each process; taking 

 care that the colonies average alike as 

 nearly as possible in each lot, repeat the 

 experiment, three or four years in suc- 

 cession, and he will find out that the 

 separators are a hindrance to the bees. 

 The temperature inside the hive and the 

 strength of the colonies have something 

 to do with it; if the temperature is high 

 enough so that comb building can go on 

 without making it necessary for the bees 

 to gather in heavy clusters, then it mat- 

 ters but little whether there are separa- 

 tors or not; but if the temperature in the 

 supers is low and the bees have to cluster 

 in large bunches to produce the necessary 

 wax, then the colonies not having separa- 

 tors will be found far ahead of the others. 

 The irregularity of the sections is the 

 objection to the non-use of separators. 

 This irregularity can be considerably dim- 

 inished by using sections open all around; 

 in fact, that is the only kind I use now. 

 With them, in a good continuous honey 



flow, and a temperature not too low, I 

 can obtain a whole crop of sections as 

 regular as can be wished, notwithstand- 

 ing the absence of separators, but, if these 

 conditions are not all present a certain 

 percentage of the sections will be irregu- 

 lar. So far, I have not been seriously 

 inconvenienced; as I sell altogether in the 

 home market. But if I had a much larger 

 crop, and had to ship, I would probably 

 have to return to the use of separators. 



As to using full sheets of foundation, 

 or only starters, in the sections, I have 

 had b}' far the best results in using full 

 sheets. There may be, however, some 

 cases in which starters are sufficient. If 

 the temperature is rather high and the 

 hone}^ flow continuous, the secretion of 

 wax will, after a few days, be perhaps 

 sufficient to build up full combs; and the 

 full foundation given them wonld be a 

 waste of wax; but it must be remembered 

 that it is only after a few days of flow 

 that the wax secretion is well established; 

 so, at the beginning, full sheets should be 

 used anyhow. Another point to be con- 

 sidered is that the comb building takes 

 place chiefly in the night, when all the 

 bees are home, and the night temperature 

 is to be considered rather than the day 

 temperature. In countries high above 

 the sea level, such as east Tennesee, 

 the nights are always comparatively 

 cool. 



It takes the bees but a little time to 

 draw the foundation, and if a large amount 

 of foundation is given, quite an amount 

 of honey can be stored in it, as soon as it 

 is drawn, and then the foundation given 

 answers the same purpose as would a less 

 amount of full comb. It must be remem- 

 bered, however, that the larger the sur- 

 plus room the more difficult it is for 

 the bees to keep up the temperature; and 

 if entirely too much is given, the bees 

 might even be compelled to cluster very 

 closely in the brood nest, and neglect the 

 supers entirely, in order to keep the 

 brood sufficiently warm. This would be 

 certainly disastrous so far as the honey 

 crop is concerned. 



