18S6 



GLEANI>s'GS JN BEE CL LTL'KE. 



039 



over a clay, and the probabilities are that she 

 (lied in a few hours. In all other cases, 

 when a swarm issued, when a trap was at- 

 tached to the entrance, we were present, 

 and the queen, if she did not set back into 

 the hive, was put ])ack before or aftei- the 

 swarm returned. I can not say, therefore, 

 that the instance I have mentioned would 

 l)e an exception to the general rule, or 

 whether it might not occur more often. I 

 will try to experiment upon this point next 

 season." Eiixe?*t. 



Thanks for your suggestions, friend M. I 

 have for a long time been aware that bees 

 would not miss their location when two 

 hives were close together ; and the same idea 

 was once extensively used by making two 

 hives in one, with the entrances pointing in 

 opposite directions. In this case the thick- 

 ness of a single board is all that separates 

 one hive from another. I believe this plan 

 was abandoned, however, because it so often 

 liappeued we wanted to move one hive away 

 and leave the other in its place. The reason 

 why the hexagonal apiary was planned for 

 only one liive by itself was because I so often 

 found it convenient to be able to walk clear 

 around any hive. Since then, however, we 

 have seen bees make mistakes so much in the 

 hexagonal apiary, we feel like reconsidering 

 this plan. Only yesterday, y^ov. 24. it l)eing 

 a warm day, the bees started out of a good 

 many of the hives, and in a great many places 

 (|uite a little handful of l)ees were "cluster- 

 ing on the side of some other hive where 

 there was no entrance. After investigating a 

 little I found they were mistaking it for their 

 own hive, 14 feet away. Sometimes it does 

 not do any harm for bees to get into the 

 wrong hive during warm spells in winter ; 

 but there are times when it may not only re- 

 sult in balling (pieens, but in the loss of the 

 ([ueen. I should like to have the friends 

 tell us how general it is to find the bees mis- 

 taking their location where hives are made 

 exactly alike, as mentioned above. 



SEPARATORS OR NO SEPARATORS. 



KlilKND DOOI^TTLE AGKEES WITH THE A BC BOOK, 

 THAT WE CAN NOT DISCAKIi SEPAItATORS. 



■JT, S tlie time has now foiue to begin prepara- 

 "^ffb^ tions lor another season, the nialtei- of sep- 

 ^Ir arators or no sei)arators must come up for 

 '^^^ the decision of each one. Many chxim, and 

 have so claimed for the past iour or five 

 years, that separators aie useless, and, wishing' 

 not to appear "wedded to my fixtures,' I have 

 tried dispensing- with them in a part of my apiary, 

 and actually found that T could, by taking: yrcat 

 precaution, as to the hive being- level, the founda- 

 tion being- fastened to tlie sides and top of the sec- 

 tion securely, and by g-iving just tiu' right amount 

 of room, so that the lices would commence in all 

 at once, get cambs built true enough to crate, es- 

 pecially if care was taken in crating, so that 

 the "fat "side of one section was placed next to 

 the " lean " side of the one next to it; but when 

 it came to the glassing of them, that was out of the 

 (|uestion. To be sure, most markets do not desire 

 glass on the hone3'; but as a l"ew do, it makes 

 ^1 ver>' liandy to lia\(' our honey so we can ghiss it 



if we wish. While, as 1 said, I had succeeded by 

 using much precaution in getting a fair job done 

 without separators, yet I found tlutt this same pre- 

 caution cost me more than the separators; and 

 that, unless 1 used that precaution, the loss by 

 bulged and unevenly filled sections was still great- 

 er than the first. So I concluded that there was 

 nothing gained in trying to dispense with separa- 

 tors, but, on the contrary, such a trial would be 

 very likely to result in a loss, owing to the nicety 

 of the work reguired. Again, I found that T must 

 leave the case of sections on the hi\e till liiiished, 

 before they were disturbed; for if I added more 

 room, except by way of a full case, on the tiering- 

 up plan, I was sure of getting the combs so badly 

 bulged that 1 could do nothing with them, save to 

 j sell them as "chunk honey." 'riiis spoiled one of 

 j the best ideas 1 know of in beekeeping; namely, 

 I the putting-on of a small amount of surplus room 

 at tirst, and gradually increasing it as the bees 

 became strong, until the full capacity of the hive 

 was reached. I am eontident that this one idea ha.- 

 ! had much to do with the success I have attained 

 ! in producing comb honey; so if I dispensed witli 

 separators I lost quite a share of my success also, 

 and all for the sake of trying to do something that 

 somebodj- else said we must do; "for," said they, 

 "separators are rapidly becoming things of the 

 past." Once more, I could not take my sections 

 off once a week, as 1 had formerly done, while the 

 combs had a snowj- whiteness, which gave my 

 honey a good name in market, but must leave 

 them on the hive till the nice white comb was al! 

 travel-stained by the bees; for as sure as I took a 

 comb-out and put an empty section in its place, 

 the combs in the sections next to it would have 

 their cells so lengthened that they could not be 

 crated at all. Then each section must be tilled 

 with foundation, if 1 would succeed, no matter how 

 short I was of cash to jturchase it. To b«,' sure, 1 

 did succeed tolerably well b3" putting strips of 

 foundation two inches wide in the two outside 

 tier of sections; then I'^i inches wide in the next 

 two tier inside of them, then one inch wide next: 

 and in the center, two tier foundation, only •; inch 

 wide; but all this required a nicety that was much 

 greater than the use of separators demanded. 

 From the above it will be seen that I have given 

 the non-separator business a fair trial, and was at 

 last driven to the conclusion that, for me, separa- 

 tors are an actual necessity, if I would secure the 

 most comb honey in the best marketable shape. 



Not long ago I was reading, when (in 1881) the 

 (luestion was asked through one of our most promi- 

 nent bee-papers. " Will all bee-keepei'S agree that 

 it is more profitable to dispense with them (separa- 

 tors) than lo keep them!:'" to which one of our 

 noted writers replied, " It is not at all likely that a// 

 bee-keepers will, as some are so wedded to their 

 fixtures and methods that it would be almost im- 

 possible to induce them lo even tni some better 

 method;" and yet, if I am correctly informed, that 

 noted writer has left that " better method " (non- 

 separators) and gone back to using sepai-ators 

 again. Would it not have been just as well! to 

 have known for a certainty of that " potter meth- 

 od" before such a "hue and cry" was raised 

 against one of the best combinations (wide frames 

 with separators) which we have in the line of api- 

 eultural 1iel|)s. Some have tliought that separa- 

 tors cost them (■onsideralde of their crop of honey; 



