1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



127 



one has the time to carry it out: but it requires 

 time and close attention to all of the minute de- 

 tails connected with it. 



D(»OMTTI>I': S SUKPIA'S aki;ax(;ement. 



While I sometimes think that enough more 

 honey can be obtained to pay for all this exti'a 

 tniuble. yet of late I have adopted a somewhat 

 ditfeient plan whereby nearly if not quite as 

 ranch honey can be obtained with much less 

 work: and for want of a better name I have 

 called it •• the lateral plan." Befoi-e adopting 

 this lateral plan I obtained and tried nearly 

 all of the different cases and supei'S in use. and. 

 after a careful testing of the whole. I came to 

 the conclusion that, taking all things into con- 

 sideration, this had moi'e advantages and few- 

 er disadvantages than any of the others. That 

 the reader may know just how the wide frames 

 are used by this plan I have had an engraving 

 of them made, so as to save the talk necessary 

 in telling them what I wish to. 



My hives are all chatf hives, and I use on 

 each, when working for surplus honey, a queen - 

 excluding honey-board, which extends out over 

 the chaff at either side of the brood -chamber, 

 so that I can put on from three to ten of these 

 wide frames, just as I wish. On most of my 

 hives I place five wide frames at the beginning 

 of the season, fixed and held together as shown 

 in the lower part of the cut. The center wide 

 frame contains sections with combs left over 

 from the previous season, used as "'baif" sec- 

 tions: and as these go directly over the center 

 of the brood-nest, the bees go to work in them 

 at once as soon as there is any honey coming in 

 from the fields. As soon as the bees get well to 

 work in these five wide frames I load my wheel- 

 barrow with wide frames, having sections filled 

 with foundation, as shown in the center of the 

 engj-aving. and. airiving at a hive. I unwind 

 the string from around the flat-headed nail, 

 shown at the left of the lower part of the en- 

 graving, which allows the coil-wii'e sj)ring to 

 assume the shape yon see them at the top part 

 of the cut. when the wide fi-ames can be han- 

 dled as I please. Instead of handling tliem as 

 some do. putting the added wide frames be- 

 tween the others. I simply take off the side 

 board and add wide frames to each side to the 

 amount needed, when the side boards are 



placed back, the springs drawn to a strong ten- 

 sion, the strings wound a little more than one 

 turn around the nail-heads to hold them, when 

 I am ready to move on to the next hive. In a 

 week or so I start out in the same way again. 

 I now find from one to five frames of sections 

 finished, out of those put on at first, which are 

 taken off and the bees shaken off the four sec- 

 tions by taking hold of the ])rojecting ends of 

 the wide fi'ames. the same as they are shaken 

 off from a brood comb. The remaining wide 

 frames of unfinished sections are now drawn 

 together ovei" the center of the biood-nest. 

 when the necessary number of wide frames of 

 sections is added to each side. In this way I 

 keep working till the season begins to draw to- 

 ward a close, when, instead of adding more sec- 

 tions at the side, the unfinished ones are drawn 

 together, so that at the end of the season I 

 have no more unfinished sections than I wish 

 as bait-sections to commence the next year 

 with. In this way the bees are kept at work in 

 a natural manner, building their comb outward 

 all the while, and finishing their work at the 

 center, which has a tendency to reduce swarm- 

 ing, and give a greater yield of finished honey 

 than by any other method with which I am ac- 

 quainted. The iilan also allows of adjusting the 

 amount of suri)lus room to the wants or size of 

 the colony, so that no colony is discouraged by 

 too much surplus room being given at first, and 

 none ai'e crowded for want of room. It also 

 keei)s the wide frames drawn tight together at 

 all times, so that, as the lumps of propolis soft- 

 en with heat, which may be on the wide frames 

 or sections, the slack is always taken up: and 

 they can be tieied up by those who wish to 

 tier up. by sinii)ly making suitable slots in the 

 tops of th(> wide fi-ames. like those in the bot- 

 tom — reversed or handled as a whole, cost lit- 

 tle if any more than any good arrangement for 

 surplus comb honey: and as a whole it takes 

 no more time to prepare and manipulate them 

 and the sections than it does any other ./!rsf^ 

 rhiN.s arrangement: while the sections are kept 

 almost entirely free from propolis. If the read- 

 er will refer to the upper part of the cut he will 

 see how the propolis trouble is obviated on the 

 outside of the outside tier of sections, where the 

 gi'eatest annoyance comes by way of propolis, 

 where the outside sections are clamped against 

 any flat surface. A rubber band or a wire, or 

 even a string, can be made to answer in place 

 of the springs: but as they cost only 25 cents 

 per dozen, and are so much better than any 

 thing else, they are much the cheapest in the 

 end. I still use 114-pound sections, the same 

 being two inches wide, and glass all my sec- 

 tions. This will help the reader to tmderstand 

 the cut better. As long as these 114-lb. glassed 

 sections find a ready sale in our Eastern mar- 

 kets at the same i)rice as one-pound sections 

 ttnglassed. I shall continue to use them: but I 

 am always ready to acce])t any real improve- 

 ment as soon as 1 find it out. 



G. ]\L D()OI>ITTT,E. 



Borodino. N. Y.. Feb., 181tl. 



[Friend D.. you will, by your plan of work- 

 ing, get nicer honey than by the usual way of 

 letting the cases remain on the hive until they 

 are all sealed. But you will also have more 

 laboi'. I think, than by some of the other meth- 

 ods that do not give as nice a product. Then 

 the question is. "Does the extra price received 

 pay for the extra amount of work?"" For a 

 market that wants nice glassed sections, I am 

 inclined to think it does: and if yon can ar- 

 range things so as to maKe your way of taking 

 out all sections, as soon as finished, but little if 

 any expense, more than the other way. you cer- 

 tainlv are ahead. I believe the best results will 



