132 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



comb (as our questioner says his are), just ac- 

 cording to the size of the little colony, after I 

 have taken their combs away. In all cases I see 

 that each one has a frame well filled with hon- 

 ey; for should storms or cloudy, windy weather 

 come on at this time they would build no comb 

 of any amount, and might starve; while with 

 the frame of honey they will go right on con- 

 verting that honey into comb, storm or no 

 storm. If the right number of frames are giv- 

 en to suit the size of the little colony they will 

 fill them quickly, especially when honey is 

 coming in from the fields, and each comb will 

 be filled with brood as fast as built. If not too 

 strong they will generally build comb of the 

 worker size of cell till the brood begins to hatch 

 from the eggs first laid in the newly built 

 combs by the queen; but as soon as many bees 

 hatch they will change to the drone size of 

 cells; or if the little colony is quite strong in 

 bees they may change the size of cells sooner 

 than this. Hence as soon as the first frames I 

 gave them are filled with comb I look to see 

 about how many bees they have; and if they 

 are still well stocked with bees, or are in a shape 

 where I may expect that they may change the 

 size of cell before they reach the bottoms of the 

 frames with worker comb (should I spread 

 those apart which they already have and insert 

 other empty or partially filled frames), I take 

 out the combs they have already built, and 

 thus put them in the same condition they were 

 when I first started. But they will not build 

 combs quite as freely this time as they did be- 

 fore, unless there can be some young bees 

 hatching; so, if I can conveniently, I give them 

 a comb containing mostly honey and a little 

 brood (if they have such a comb it is left with 

 them, which is more often the case than other- 

 wise) from some other colony, when they are 

 ready to work the same as before. In this way 

 a colony can be kept building worker comb all 

 summer, or till the bees are nearly used up 

 from old age, the colony becoming so small as 

 to be unable to build comb to any advantage, 

 under any circumstances. But if just the right 

 amount of brood is left, or given them, so that 

 they stay in about the same condition, they 

 will build worker comb all summer by the 

 apiarist supplying honey or feed when none is 

 coming from the fields. If not so strong but 

 that I think they will still continue to build 

 worker comb, instead of taking the brood 

 away I spread the frames of combs (now built) 

 apart, and insert one or more empty frames be- 

 tween, when these will generally be filled with 

 worker comb before enough young bees hatch 

 for them to change the size of cell. But this 

 is always to be kept in mind, whenever you 

 find them building drone comb: The combs 

 they then have, all except the one mostly filled 

 with honey, are to be taken away so that they 

 may feel their need of worker brood again, 



when they will build cells of the worker size 

 once more. I have had hundreds of frames 

 built full of worker comb in this way, hun- 

 dreds completed, as our questioner proposes to 

 do, and hundreds " patched," where I had cut 

 out small pieces of drone comb, which had got- 

 ten in in one way or another. If any one wish- 

 es a mutilated comb to be fixed so it will be a 

 surprise to him just give it to one of these little 

 colonies and see what nice work they can do at 

 " patching " with all worker comb. 



AN EXPLANATION WANTED. 



Question.— On page 17, Jan. 1, you speak of 

 the merits of a tall section over a squar-^" one; 

 and one of these is, that " they bring from two to 

 three cents per pound more in market." Am I to 

 understand that the "pleasing appearance" of 

 these taller sections causes people to pay that 

 much more for honey in such sections than 

 they would for honey in the square form of sec- 

 tion ? 



^?ist<;er-.— Well, no, not just that, although I 

 think a pleasing appearance often decides the 

 difference in price of from one to three cents a 

 pound on section honey. If you will turn 

 again to page 17 you will see that I did not say 

 that a section 3Xx5^xl% would sell for two to 

 three cents more per pound than would the 

 4^^x434^ section; but that "why I prefer them 

 to the larger size is that they bring from two 

 to three cents per pound more in the market." 

 What was the larger size spoken of, in that 

 connection ? The second line at the beginning 

 of the paragraph will tell the reader. That 

 says "sections varying in size from half a 

 pound to two pounds." This makes it plain 

 that I was not comparing the sections I now 

 use with the 4J|^x43ii, or square section, when I 

 spoke of the price. Now I wish to say that I 

 was opposed to the change from the " prize " 

 or two-pound section to the one-pound or 4)^x 

 4)^ section, and have always claimed that, had 

 bee-keepers held steadily to the prize section, 

 no consumer would ever have demanded any 

 other, and the price for those sections would not 

 have been lower to-day than it now is for pound 

 sections. Bee-keepers made themselves nearly 

 double the work as regards setting up, putting 

 in foundation, scraping off propolis, and han- 

 dling sections for a given number of pounds, 

 when they pushed the i}4x-iJ4 sections to the 

 exclusion of the prize section; and the only 

 reason which I could ever see for this was a de- 

 sire to compete with one another. But, no 

 matter how it came, it was done. I held on to 

 the prize section as long as it sold in market 

 for as much as the 4i^x4J^ did, less from one to 

 one and one-half cents per pound, for I consid- 

 ered that, taking all things into consideration, 

 the prize section paid as well as the other till a 

 lower price than IX cts. per pound was reach- 

 ed. After that was reached I changed to the 

 pound section, as given on page 17; and be- 



