1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



87 



reading Gleanings, I soon passed by old-fogyism 

 and superstition, and i am now slowly ascending to- 

 ward the hlU-lops of sclentiflc bee-keeping. 



After studying A B C, I began anew, by buying 

 some bees of a box-hive bee-lieeper, and transferred 

 to movable-frame hives in the season of 1881. My 

 bees did well, making nearly 100 lbs. per colony in 

 section boxes, which amount was thought almost in- 

 credible by the old-fashioned bee-keepers. In 1883 

 I concluded to Italianize, and bought several queens 

 of you, which I introduced safely, and now for re- 

 sults. The year 18f3 having arrived, and my bees 

 were mostly Italians, I now had a good chance to try 

 their superior qualities; and getting my section 

 boxes all in readiness, I put them on in good time. 

 I waited results, and I kept looking to see them go 

 to work ; they seemed to pay no attention whatever 

 to the section boxes, yet my common, or Gorman 

 bees, were at work drawing out the fdn., and doing 

 very well; and the Italians, though booming with 

 bees, were pajing no attention to the surplus de- 

 partment. 1 concluded to look and see wcat all this 

 meant; and looking over the brood-frames, here was 

 queen-cell after queen-cell; they were making great 

 prepflrations to swarm, just as though they had 

 every sf ction box full, and were crowded for room. 

 They would scarcely look up toward the sections. 



I concluded to stop their fun, and cut out every 

 appearance of a queen-cell, and, behold! the next 

 day they swarmed and left one hastily prepared 

 queen cell; but I was determined they should stay 

 in the hive, whether they would work or not. I took 

 the queen from them, and kept them from swarm- 

 ing; but they would not work in the sections, and 

 thus it was with all of them. I had one very weak 

 colony of the common bees that made more comb 

 honey than any three of the strong Italian colonies 

 I had. I think a cross between the Italians and Ger- 

 mans is best for all purposes. I sent to Frank Ben- 

 ton last fall, and gota Carniolan queen, and will give 

 it a trial next season. I am also going to get some 

 of Jas. Heddon. W. S. Vandrdff. 



Kirby, Gref^ne, Co., Pa , Jan. 9, 1881. 

 Friend V., is it not possible why you had 

 better success with the hybrids than with 

 the Italians is somewhat owing to your inex- 

 perience with the latter V i rather think 

 that an old hand at tiie business would have 

 made your Italians store honey in sections, 

 and stop fooling away their time in trying to 

 swarm.— We should be very glad indeed of a 

 report from your Carniolan queen. 



SEPARATORS OR NO SEPARATORS. 



FRIEND C. C. MILLER ALSO TELLS US SOMETHING 

 ABOUT THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF SUPERS. 



S TRIED several thousand sections last summer 

 in Heddon supers, and, of course, without 

 ' separators. Alth ugh I have not entirely set- 

 tled all about separators, I think I have learned 

 something. If I did not want to ship to a distant 

 market, I should never use separators. At the 

 Northwestern convention at Chicago, a large num- 

 ber said they succeeded without separators; but I 

 suspect the most of them worked only for a home 

 market. I tried some wooden separators. They are 

 cheaper than tin, audit may be the bees like them 

 better than tin; but the ones I used warped so as to 

 mai:e them objectionable. My experience leads me 



to the conclusion that a strong colony will make 

 straighter work without separators than a weak one ; 

 also, that during a full flow of the honey-harvest, 

 separators are less needed than when honey is com- 

 ing in slowly. 



HEDDON SUPERS. 



In some respects I like the Heddon supers very 

 much. They are ,<() much lighter to handle than the 

 wide-frame supers, being only half the weight, 

 whether full or empty. Then I can so easily and 

 quickly look at either the upper or lower part of the 

 super, and see the condition of the entire lot of sec- 

 tions, this being made much easier by the ?3-inch 

 space between the tops and bottoms of the sections. 

 On the other hand, the wide frames have closed top- 

 bars, and I can tell nothing about the sections with- 

 out lifting out the frame; and if I happen to want 

 to look at the frame on the south side of the super, 

 I must lift out, or move, six other frames before I 

 come to the south one. True, the wide frames might 

 be made open at the top; but they are not; and even 

 then, we could not see the sections in the lower part 

 of the frames. Infilling up the supers, Emma thinks 

 it is much nicer to put the sections directly into the 

 supers, and done with it, than to fill the wide frame 

 in the super. Another advantage of the Heddon 

 supers over the wide frames is, that in giving addi- 

 tional room it is not often desirable to give the en- 

 tire room of a oti-lb. super, and the Heddon super is 

 only half that size. Again, it is often the case. that 

 the upper half of a wide frame is finished, and the 

 lower hiilf partly uncapped. No separators can be 

 used with the Heddon super, unless a separator is 

 used for each scpurate section. Mr. Burrill, of 

 Michigan, talked of trying such separators, but I 

 don't know whether he ever tried them. When it 

 comes to taking out sections, Mr. Heddon claims a 

 great advantage in rapidity fur his super. My ex- 

 perience does not acrree with his. My boy, Charlie, 

 takes out, at his best, 980 sections per hour from the 

 wide frames. I don't know that I can take any 

 thing like half that number from the Heddon supers, 

 and I damage more sections in getting out of the 

 Heddon supers. However, practice might make a 

 great difference in this respect. A point in favor of 

 the Heddon supers is, that sections of different 

 widths can be used in them. The width of the wide 

 frame makes an invariable width for the section. 

 In the Heddon supers, during the past season I used 

 sections measuring in width l?^, Hz, IH. and 1 1-5 

 inches. When the sections came t<> be packed in 

 the shipping-cases, those from the wide frames 

 packed, oh so much nicer and easier ! But I think I 

 could do better another year in getting straight 

 sections without separators. 



To those who have been successful in using sepa- 

 rators, and contemplate throwing them all away 

 without any pi'cvious experience without them, my 

 advice is: don't. Try a few first, and feel your way 

 along. People are not all alike. I think it quite 

 possible some may d > best always to use separators. 

 Mr. Heddon, Mr. J. B. Hall, and others, have proved 

 that they can do without them. I don't know yet in 

 which class I belong. C. C. Millek, 172-251. 



Marengo, McHenry Co.. III., Jan. 14. 1881. 



JNIany thanks, friend Miller, for your arti- 

 cle on this subject that is now calling forth 

 so much anxious tliought. It occupied a 

 very prominent part of the discussions of 

 the convention at Columbus ; but I believe 

 the general decision was much like your 



