834 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



Nov. 



rangement, and pictured it in the first vol- 

 ume of the .4. B. /., page 89, 1861. This 

 was, however, used tor making the bees 

 build brood-combs straight and true. I be- 

 lieve your arrangement will do all you claim 

 for it. Peiforated wooden separators are, 

 liowever, in the market at about half a cent 

 each. Yours would be cheap enough at one 

 cent each. With their use, the section 

 might be made all of a size clear around, 

 and I think the arrangement was some 

 years ago used for that purpose. The ex- 

 pense of them has been, 1 believe, the great- 

 est objection to their use. I will explain to 

 oiu- readers, that each separator requires 3 

 long pieces of wood and 1(» short ones, 12 

 Wire nails being required to clinch them to 

 gether. 



TfiB HEDDON HONEY-fiOARD; PER- 

 FORATED ZINC, ETC. 



t)R. C. C. MIIil.ER TEI-LS US HOW TO RAISE EXTRA 

 yUEENS IN ANV HIVE, ETC. 



@N page 680 Bro. Heddon takes exception to my 

 answer to question ti8. The question refers 

 to contraction for extracted tioney, and to 

 the use of slatted honey-boards. Mr. Hed- 

 don thinks I must have misunderstood the 

 question. Too charitable a conclusion, Bro. H. I 

 understood the question perfectly, I think. Any 

 error in the answer arose from ignorance pure and 

 simple. First, as to the use of the 



HEDUON HONEY-BOARD. 



In your fling at the close of your article, Bro. H., 

 about opposing and afterward adopting improve- 

 ments (I wish you wouldn't make such flings), if 

 you mean me, "you're another." You know, I 

 think, that I always considered that honey-board of 

 vei-y great value, and that I always gave you full 

 credit for it. As I admitted in my answer, I had 

 had no experience in the use of honey-boards for 

 extracting. Since answering the question, I have 

 had experience with several colonies. More than a 

 year ago I got 40 queen-excluding honey-boards, 

 for the sake of making an experiment. They were 

 made without any bee-space, simply to separate 

 the upper and lower stories of a ten-frame Lang- 

 stroth hive. Like many another, the experiment 

 was given up as not feasible, and the excluders 

 were not used. This year 1 used them for the first; 

 and I must say, that, if I allowed swarming, and 

 worked for either comb or extracted honey, I nev- 

 er would be without slat honey-boards; and if for 

 extracting, they should be queen-excluding. For 

 comb honey, I have used the Heddon honey-boards 

 for years, and I have never seen the need of mak- 

 ing them queen-excluding, for not one section in a 

 thousand, I think, will be troubled by having the 

 iiueen enter, and the perforated zinc is objectiona- 

 bU' on account of expense and on account of the hin- 

 drance that I think it must be to the workers pass- 

 ing through. But with an upper story of combs 

 for extracting, the case is different. The queen is 

 about sure to go into the upper story; and it is so 

 much nicer to have that story at all times free 

 from brood. Then the advantage, of which Mr. 

 Heddon speaks, of preventing comb-building be" 

 tween the upper and lower frames, is no small 

 item. Indeed, it is worth while to use it for that 

 purpose alone, although it will prevent comb-build- 

 ing between the two stories, .just as well without 



the perforated zino. But for other reasons, I 

 should always want the zinc. The first use I made 

 of the queen-excluder -wha to preserve a lot of 

 brood-combs. Above the excluder I put four 

 stores of empty combs having one or two frames of 

 brood in the upper story. Thus several colonies, 

 weaker than the average, duritig .Inly and August, 

 took care of 40 or more empty combs each, keeping 

 them eotirely free from worms. I found it very 

 convenient to have an excluder on one or more of 

 the weaker colonies, having an empty story above, 

 and into this I could put, for safe keeping, any 

 frames of brood or honey that I wanted taken care 

 of a few hours or a few days. T found this very 

 convenient in forming or building up nuclei, or in 

 strengthening weak colonies. Taking frames of 

 brood from ditferent hives, as I found they could 

 be spared, ^ put them in one of these upper stories; 

 and then whene\er I wanted to use one I could 

 take it, bees and all, without looking for any queen. 

 Perhaps I ought to tell of 



A NEW MODE OF INCREASE 



that came to me in using one of these excluders. 

 Four stories were piled above the excluder, eleven 

 combs in each, empty, except two frames of brood, 

 these two frames being at the two sides of the up- 

 per stoi-y. It was a long way for the bees to travel 

 from this fifth story to the entrance, and I was not 

 surprised to find that some of the bees were using 

 as an entrance a hole in one corner of one of the 

 upper stories, where the joint had sprung apart. 

 Little attention was paid to them for five or six 

 weeks, when I went to takeaway the empty combs. 

 I found plenty of brood in the upper story, and a 

 queen which the bees had raised there. The old 

 queen was all right in the lower story, and I sep- 

 arated the two colonies by putting the upper one 

 in a regular hive, and placing it on the top of the 

 other, its entrance as near as I could conveniently 

 place it to the place of their accustomed en- 

 trance. To-day, Sept. 13, they are two strong colo- 

 nies. I had had some previous experience, nearly 

 in the same line; and although bees can not always 

 be depended on to raise a queen under similar con- 

 ditions, I think they will often, if not generally, do 

 it. Put a queen-excluder over a colony, on this put 

 a second story of combs for extracting, then a 

 third story of frames with one or more frames of 

 brood, and a hole they can use as an entrance, and, 

 in the majority of cases, I think you will find a 

 young queen laying in three or four weeks, with- 

 out having in the least Interfered with your crop of 

 extracted honey. C. C. Mii-t.er. 



Marengo, 111. 



Well done, old friend. So far as I can 

 see, the invention is indeed new and novel, 

 and fills the bill exactly, if you have a sur- 

 plus of extra combs, you can make every 

 colony, almost, raise queens, and still go on 

 with the ordinary duties of the hive. I did 

 pretty nearly the same thing years ago, and 

 so I know exactly how it works. 1 should 

 be a little afraid, if the matter were not 

 watched, however, that this extra entrance 

 might let in robbers. Suppose a big (low of 

 honey, however, should cause the bees to 

 till these extra combs all up solid with hon- 

 ey, and suppose, too, we want to raise comb 

 honey instead of extracted. 1 think it 

 might be arranged in the latter case ; but 

 this extra hive on top would have to be lift- 

 ed off and on in working for surplus. 



