546 



June 20, 1907 



American Hee Journal 



Mr. Whitney— With me, I never close 

 the entrance, but mine is a double-wall 

 hive, has a subway, and I do not have 

 to close it in the spring or any time in 

 the winter. It stands out all winter 

 and I do not have any trouble with their 

 drifting or going to other hives when 

 they come out in the spring, because 

 they come out always when it is warm 

 enough during the winter any time. 



The Best Super. 



"What is the best super for comb 

 honey?" 



Dr. Miller— T-super. 



Mr. Taylor — I would not have one 

 on my place. 



Pres. York— What does Mr. Taylor 

 prefer then, a section-holder super? 



Mr. Taylor — No, not exactly; I want 

 a wide-frame, single tier. 



Mr. Wilcox— That is mine exactly, 

 for my locality. I think if I lived where 

 Dr. Miller does I would not care so 

 much for it. The reason I prefer the 

 wide frame is because the top of the 

 section is covered, and the bees can not 

 fill it with propolis. They surely would 

 in my country and they surely would not 

 do it with white clover. 

 • Pres. York — How many prefer the T- 

 super? 4. How many prefer the ordin- 

 ary section-holder super without a top- 

 bar, like the wide frame, the ordinary 

 section-holder super? 4. How many 

 prefer the wide-frame super that Mr. 

 Taylor speaks of? 5. Any other kind 

 of a comb honey super? 



Mr. Abbott— What does Mr. Taylor 

 mean by wide frame— with slats in the 

 bottom or what? 



Pres. York— As I understand, it is 

 enclosed all around, single-tier instead 

 of double-tier. 



Mr. Taylor— Top and bottom revers- 

 mg, enclose the thing. If made right 

 they are the best thing you can get, not 

 excepting the T-super. 



Mr. Abbott— I wouldn't have them. 

 ^ Mr. Arnd— How do you get the sec- 

 tions out of such a frame as that? 



Mr. Taylor— The great thing is to get 

 them in. There is no trouble getting 

 them out. I can show you. What do 

 you mean, get the frames out of the 

 hive? 



Pres. York— How do you get the sec- 

 tions out of a wide frame? 



Mr. Taylor— Supposing this is a wide 

 frame (mdicating;. Of course the 

 \yide frame is made to clasp the sec- 

 tion so that the bees can not get much 

 propolis in between the top-bar and the 

 section. Ordinarily, unless it is cold 

 weather, they will come right out, un- 

 less there is considerable propolis there. 

 In that case the top-bar may stick to 

 the sections a little. In that case you 

 want to just run a knife a little between 

 the top-bar and the sections, then take 

 your thumb-nail and press on the sec- 

 tion at this end and just start it a lit- 

 tle, and take that end the same, and they 

 drop right out. 



Mr. Abbott — You will wear your 

 thumb-nails ofif. 



Mr. Taylor — It won't wear mine off. 

 Everybody that works with bees ought 

 to have thumb-nails and finger-nails. It 

 is just as necessary as to be ingenious. 

 You can't get supers made right in the 



shop. I will tell you why. The manu- 

 facturers are careful to save every sliver 

 of their lumber, and they cut the bottom 

 and top-bar straight across. You want 

 to cut them the right length and then 

 let the saw run over the bar so it is not 

 straight. It is a little bending. Then 

 in nailing them together you put those 

 bends in so they will hold on to the 

 section, and they keep the propolis out. 



Mr. Wilcox — I think there is a better 

 way to get them out than that. I would 

 not use the wide frames if there was 

 not. I would adopt the T-super. I 

 have used for many years a "back," or 

 you might call it a "push-board." I 

 wish I could illustrate it and possibly 

 I can. 



Mr. Taylor — To get them out of the 

 wide frames? 



Mr. Wilcox — Yes,- sir. 



Mr. Taylor— Where is your separator? 



Mr. Wilcox — My separator is nailed 

 right on to the side of the wide frames. 

 It is a 4% section and a 3-inch separa- 

 tor, and there is a little space both above 

 and below the separator. It doesn't ex- 

 tend clear to the top nor clear to the 

 bottom. There is space enough so that 

 a thin board, it may be wood or metal, 

 is fastened on to the edge and sticking 

 up an inch on each side, and then you 

 take the wide frame with the tin sepa- 

 rator side down, and lay it on that block 

 so that the edge of the sections both top 

 and bottom comes right along the edge 

 of this strip nailed on to a little block 

 here, or, if it is metal, screwed on. Then 

 you push a little down on it and all your 

 sections are pushed right up and out 

 as far as you wish them. 



"Is the T-super suitable for a begin- 

 ner?" 



Mr. Taylor — No. 



Pres. York — It is all right for a man 

 who has had bees for 40 years, and has 

 written a book on them, I suppose ! 



Dr. Miller — I would advise a begin- 

 ner, if he wants to begin with the best, 

 to begin with a T-super. 



"If the T-super is the great comb- 

 honey super, how is it that it is not 

 listed by manufacturers?" 



Mr. Taylor — They know better. 



Dr. Miller — -Another question might 

 come up on that : How is it that manu- 

 facturers list T-tins and do not list T- 

 supers? 



Pres. York — Because they want to sell 

 them, I suppose. What do you know 

 about that, Mr. Abbott? 



Mr. Abbott — I know we have some 

 we would like to get rid of. If the 

 Doctor wants to make any T-supers we 

 can furnish the tins. We have had 

 them a long time. 



Dr. Miller — I have some wide-frames 

 I might trade for them. [Laughter.] 



Advertising Honey. 



"What can bee-keepers do to adver- 

 tise honey?" 



Pres. York — Mr. Burdette is here, who 

 has had considerable experience in help- 

 ing other organizations advertise. 



Mr. Burdette — I was in charge of a 

 press bureau that has been tried by the 

 National Council of Horticulture, which 

 is an organization to which applications 

 have been sent by all of the trade as- 

 sociations of the seedsmen, florists and 



nursery men. The President of it is 

 Mr. J. C. Vaughan. Horticulture has 

 been taking quite a spurt in public in- 

 terest in the last 2 or 3 years, and Mr. 

 Vaughan conceived the idea of trying to 

 give it a little impetus by teaching the 

 public the value of shrubs and flowers, 

 and the National Council of Horticul- 

 ture has undertaken to supply the news- 

 papers throughout the country with ar- 

 ticles on horticulture — articles that 

 would deal with the subject in a purely 

 elementary way, and intended for 

 amateurs. They are trying to get people 

 to grow flowers and to plant shrubs in 

 their yards. We conducted an experi- 

 mental service a year ago for 10 weeks, 

 sent articles to 2500 newspapers all over 

 the country, and in most of those papers 

 the articles were printed. Mr. York 

 thought it would be possible to apply 

 the same system to arousing public in- 

 terest in honey. I do not see why it 

 would not be possible. Horticulture, of 

 course, appeals to more people perhaps 

 than honey would, as horticulture ap- 

 peals to more people than bee-keeping, 

 but still everybody can be induced to 

 eat honey, and if you put the advantages 

 of honey before them in the newspapers, 

 I should think it would help broaden 

 the market. I have outlined in a let- 

 ter to Mr. Y'ork a plan based on the ex- 

 perimental service that we conducted 

 for the National Council of Horticul- 

 ture, to send out to the newspapers about 

 4 articles every 2 weeks for a period of 

 20 weeks. That would be practically 

 the same amount that we distributed 

 along horticultural lines, except that it 

 would extend over a longer period, not 

 to give them so much matter at a time, 

 and by keeping a check on that, a check 

 of results, it would be very easy to de- 

 termine what its value would be to the 

 bee-keeper. We can find out just how 

 many newspapers use that matter, and 

 then the bee-keepers themselves could 

 tell what effect it had upon the public, 

 and it would be a very simple matter 

 to determine just how far that method 

 of publicity could be used to benefit the 

 bee-keepers. Mr. York asked me to come 

 here and explain this to you; it is pretty 

 hard to explain in detail, and I am sorry 

 I did not bring some of the clippings. 

 We had great success with the horti- 

 cultural matter. The Chicago Tribune 

 published all we sent. The Daily News 

 did also, and practically all the large 

 newspapers all over the country we sent 

 it to were glad to get it, and it seems 

 to me similar matter might be gotten up 

 about honey which could be used with 

 equal success. 



Mr. Taylor — I would like to ask a 

 question. You say you are highly suc- 

 cessful in this advertising. In what did 

 your success consist? 



Mr. Burdette — We succeeded in get- 

 ting the matter in the newspapers all 

 over the country. The seedsmen seem 

 to be of the opinion that it helped them 

 decidedly. 



Mr. Taylor — In what way did it help 

 them? 



Mr. Burdette — It helped them by in- 

 creasing the public demand for seeds 

 and shrubs. 



Mr. Taylor — Was it advertising seeds 

 or novelties? 



