182 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



syrup. If lliey had been fed a little sugar 

 syrup, I IVel sure tliey would not haye been 

 numbered among the dead. All other col- 

 onies, as I have said, were alive, though we 

 did liiid one case of dysentery where the col- 

 ony was reduced to a" mere handful of woe- 

 begone, forloin-looking bees. These we 

 gave to another colony, as they certainly 

 would not have lived much longer in the 

 condition they were in. Upon looking up 

 the record, we found that, on the 27th of 

 October, last year, they had been rearing 

 brood quite heavily. 



'•There," said I, "they exhausted their 

 vitality, and were in an unfit condition to 

 stand the rigors of winter, just because of 

 such late brood-rearing." I entertained 

 this opinion until Mr. Spafford informed me 

 there was another colony, under almost the 

 same conditions, which had lieen rearing 

 brood just as heavily, October 2od ; and yet 

 these bees were just as nice and healthy as 

 any one could wish to see at this time of 

 year, so that we can not say positively it 

 was the brood-rearing that resulted in dys- 

 entery to the other colony. It is possible 

 that the natural stores were such as to favor 

 brood-rearing, and were also unfit as a win- 

 ter food. 



SUGAR VERSUS NATURAL STORES. 



Our readers of a year ago last fall will re- 

 member that our bees had granulated-sugar 

 syrup only — no natural stores at all — every 

 one of the 200 colonies wintered through 

 successfully. Last fall, a large number of 

 colonies had natural stores, sufficient to 

 carry them through, and were therefore not 

 fed at all. Other colonies were entirely 

 destitute, and w^ere fed up on sugar syrup. 

 In our recent examination we found that 

 those colonies wdiich had been fed with su- 

 gar stores were in the nicest condition pos- 

 sible. They were bunched up in a semi- 

 dormant condition, such as w^e like to see 

 them in, and every thing about the hives was 

 clean and sweet. Some of the colonies wdiich 

 had natural stores only, showed more or less 

 signs of dysentery ; and those not showing 

 any indications of disease appeared restless, 

 and were all over the brood-nest. 



SEPARATORS FOR OPEN-SIDE SECTIONS. 



Some months ago one of our Australian 

 customers, I). R. McConnel, ordered some 

 separators made like the accompanying en- 

 graving. 



MC'CONKEl. S I'KKFOKA'l'KD SinWHATOK KHH OCKN- 

 SIDE SECTIONS. 



They are designed to go with open-side 

 sections, the teeth, or projections, reaching 

 from the top to the bottom of the sections. 

 The evident purpose of the holes is to give 

 the bees freer access to the comb honey, the 

 holes permitting them to pass back and 

 forth from one section to another, without 

 the necessity of going clear down under. 

 Mr. McConnel designed to have them nailed 



on single-tier wide frames, the tops and 

 bottom-bars of which were slotted out to cor- 

 respond with the opening in the sections. As 

 made in the cut they can be used only on 

 wide frames and can not be used in the T 

 supers or combined crate, on account of the 

 projecting side points. Theoretically, these 

 separators are a good thing ; but we can not 

 be sure that the extra expense will compen- 

 sate for whatever advantage there may be 

 in separators so made. For those, however, 

 who would like to try them on their half- 

 depth wide frames we can furnish them ■ 

 made of taggers' tin, like the engraving, for 

 i52..50 per 100 ; without the round perfora- 

 tions, but with the slots, for ^2.2o per 100. 

 By comparing prices of ordinary tin sepa- 

 nitors, you will see that they cost §;i.00 and 

 7-5 cents more respectively," than the com- 

 mon tin separators. 



Some of our old customers wn'll remember 

 that we have for some years back made what 

 we call perforated separators ; that is, hav- 

 ing three-eighths holes punched along at reg- 

 ular intervals. They differed from McCon- 

 nel's separators, in that they had no project- 

 ing side-points ; that is, where the tin pro- 

 jects beyond the regular width of the sepa- 

 rator, so as to cover the whole exposed side 

 of the section." 



Still another separator, and one designed 

 especially for open-side sections, has been 

 used by the English, and, to some extent, by 

 our American bee-keepers. By the former 

 they are called "slotted dividers." They 

 are something similar to the McConnel sep- 

 arator. Instead of the round perforations, 

 three transverse oblong slots are made In 

 the separator, so as to come directly opposite 

 to the open sides of the sections. These 

 transverse slots are designed to give the bees 

 freer passage from one section to another ; 

 answering the same purpose are also inden- 

 tations at the ends of the separators. On 

 page 869 for 1886 we illustrated something 

 very similar. 



CAN ORDINARY SEPARATORS BE USED 



WITH THE OPEN-SIDE SECTIONS IN 



THE T SUPER? 



The above question has been asked us by 

 a number of correspondents. At first we 

 thought they could not ; but a trial shows 

 us that they can, after the super is once 

 ready for the hive. The open sides form 

 projecting shoulders, and these projecting 

 shoulders sticking out make it exceedingly 

 diflicult to get the sections in and out of a 

 T super ; and, worse still, to get the sep- 

 arators in between, in the right place. As 

 the sections pass one another they are sure 

 to catch, and the separators almost won't go 

 where they " ort to," on account of the pro- 

 jecting shoulders. I have just tried it, and 

 I know. I had to fuss for a long time ; and 

 when I got things fixed up,— well, 1 felt 

 lidgetty and out of patience. I presume 

 that friend Foster, with his adjustable sec- 

 tion-case, obviates the dilficulties I have 

 just pointed out ; but for me to use them 

 in the T super, would certainly be intolera- 

 ble if I had to fill up enough T supers with 

 separators for the season's use. 



