.so 



GLEANiNGS IN BEE CULTUPIE. 



Feb. 



before ; imiuely, your suggestion that it 

 would be a little over three colonies to each 

 acre. I think I could make an acre of buck- 

 wheat, alsike clover, or even raspberries, 

 support three colonies of bees, so they could 

 have enough for winter and have a fair sur- 

 plus. But in my opinion that is just about 

 all we may expect an acre to do. We will 

 suppose that each of the three colonies 

 should furnish its owner .50 lbs. of honey, 

 worth 10 cts. a pound ; how far will fJo.OO go 

 toward putting in a crop to cover an acre V 

 and yet even this is away beyond what the 

 country at large affords. Those who are 

 contemplating raising crops for honey alone, 

 I hope will consider tlie above. 



-Now, I hope that no one will understand 

 that I estimate three colonies of bees can be 

 kept for every acre of bee -pasturage. If 

 every acre contained clover, buckwheat, 

 raspberries, basswood. or something equiva- 

 lent, perhaps we might risk three colonies 

 of bees to every acre of land. But in most 

 localities the country at large would not 

 average more than about one acre in ten 

 that would yield a fair crop of honey ; and I 

 think we had better not figure more than a 

 single colony of bees for this one acre in 

 ten. At this rate we might have 64 colo- 

 nies of bees on every square mile of territo- 

 ry. Some square miles will support more 

 and some less. Now, as bees work success- 

 fully, say a mile and a half from home, any 

 fair locality may possibly prosper with 4")2 

 colonies in tlie home apiary. 



OPEN-SIDE SECTIONS. 



FRIEND HEDDON OB.IECTS, AM) SAYS IT WILL NOT 

 PAY. 



'HEN I tell you that I have always consider- 

 ed the open-side-sectioii notion a wliini. 

 you may judge my surprise at flnding you 

 at least partially taking sides with it, on 

 pa^e 45. I will try to tell you why I lie- 

 lieve that Mrs. Harrison, Mr. Hutchinson, and my- 

 self, whom you consider the only opposers to the 

 open sides, will come out at the top of the heap. 

 "We believe we are sure of our premises, in our own 

 locations at least. To begin with, it has always 

 been our experience that, when we had properly 

 constructed hives and supers, the bees would go in- 

 to the rows of sections and All them with honey 

 just as soon as there was any honey in the flowers. 

 This has been the case with all colonies that were 

 of normal strength. Now, what more can they do 

 with open-side sections? Our objections to them 

 are these: It costs more to make them; they afl'ord 

 more places for glue and bits of comb, and are 

 more difficult to clean up for market, i'ou know 

 that the old-style Heddon surplus case has a board 

 partition, and if used in this case tbe open sides 

 would aflford no communication. You further 

 know, that this style of surplus case has given as 

 good or better returns in comb honey than where 

 it was produced in large frames with communica- 

 tions all around and about. I once asked Mr. Ed. .1. 

 Oatman how small he thought we would be com- 

 pelled to make sections in order to decrease the 

 amount of honey stored, per colony. He replied 

 that he didn't know, but pr(>sumed the size of a 

 thimble. He said, so far as he had ever gone in 



that direction, which was as small as half-pound 

 sections, he saw no decrease in the amount stored. 

 Mr. W. H. Shirley experimented with f^-pound sec- 

 tions, and found no lessening of surplus honey per 

 colonj'. You will remember how the pound section 

 was objected to as being so small as to divide the 

 surplus cases into too smnll apartments; but re- 

 peated experiments proved that scare to be only 

 fallacy. I found I cfnild get more surplus honey in 

 ])ound sections, because I could better practice the 

 tiering syst'em, not requiring the bees to go so far 

 from the brood-chamber to make their beginning 

 in the top of the sections. I do not know just how 

 we would go at it to make the four-piece dovetailed 

 sections open on all sides, and we are radically op- 

 posed to one-piece sections, unless you can make 

 the openings at top and bottom go clear through 

 to the extreme sides. 



I believe it was myself who first suggested round- 

 ing that naughty corner that was previously left 

 on the upper and lower piece of all one-piece sec- 

 tions. Well, it is better rounded than square, but 

 it now leaves an acute angle for bees to fill with 

 glue. The quotation given by friend Dadant, on 

 page 45, at the top of left-hand column, we have 

 seen, and saw the same ideas years ago; but, nev- 

 ertheless, the facts still remain that we want the 

 hives of such size and shape as will give the most 

 honey in the neatest and most attractive form, with 

 the least labor; and I don't believe for a moment 

 that opening the sides of the sections will result in 

 one ounce more of honey. I am ' sorry if friend 

 Dadant can not get as much honey in pound sec- 

 tions as in larger ones, and very glad that we can, 

 and more too, because, as your readers all well 

 know, they are just what the market demands 

 most of the time; and the variation from this is 

 half-pound sections. W^e experimented quite large- 

 ly, at repeated intervals, with half-pound vs. pound 

 sections, all of which we made the same height, and 

 we got every bit as much honey in half-pound as in 

 pound sections; and there is nothing in bee culture 

 of which we feel surer, than that we can always do 

 it; that opening the sides of the sections would aid 

 us in no way whatever, and be a serious drawback 

 as above stated. The quotation already referred to 

 from Oliver Foster certainly favors flat brood- 

 chambers, and you will remember how, for year 

 after year, the same cry that we now hear from Mr. 

 Dadant was set up against shallow brood-cham- 

 bers. But experience overcomes all theory. 



Please place me on record as saying that I be- 

 lieve there are not one-fiftieth as many open-side 

 as closed-side sections now in use, although they 

 have been before the public several years; and 

 further, that ten years from to-day there will be no 

 greater proportion of them than there is now. 



James Heddon. 



Dowagiac, Mich.. .Ian. 31, 1888. 



I am very much obliged indeed, old friend, 

 to you for having made such an excellent 

 argument for your side of the question ; but, 

 if I mistake not, the Dadants, and quite a 

 good many other honey-raisers, will make a 

 pretty stoiit claim for the other side of the 

 question. Is it not a little strange, that not 

 more people have gone into the business of 

 supplying half-pound sections, if it is true, 

 as yoii say. we can get just as much honey 

 in that way? In fact, we have had so few 

 half-pound sections in the market that there 



