160 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1. 



Dealers prefer the l^'i sectiou, whether the 4}^ 

 or tall, and bee-keepers must cater to the de- 

 mands of traders if they look for success In dis- 

 posing of their product. I find the 4)^x4;^ 

 section, 13{, glazed, filled, weighs a pound, and 

 the New York retail trade demands it. 



A firm to whom I applied for cartons for 1% 

 sections said to me, " Why don't you become an 

 advanced bee-keeper, and adopt the regular 1% 

 or m sections, so that you may obtain goods at 

 regular prices?" I thought they needed a push 

 toward progress. I take it that a man ready to 

 make improvements is the advanced man. 



Go on, dear brother, and may God strengthen 

 your hands in all good works. ''Take no heed 

 unto the morrow." I have been young and 

 now am old ; yet have I never seen the right- 

 eous forsaken nor his seed begging bread." 



B. F. Ondekdonk. 



Mountain View, N. J., Dec. 9. 



pettit's new system of taking comb 



HONEY. 



An article in Dec. 15th Gleanings, by S. T. 

 Pettit, with the above heading, was read by 

 me with interest, and solves a problem for me 

 over which I have pondered considerably. 

 During the past season I have been testing 10 

 hives invented by T. I. Dugdale, of West Gal- 

 way, N. Y., who formerly worked in the hive- 

 factory of J. H. Nellis, of Canajoharie. This 

 hive has the entrance in what might be called 

 the hive-stand, and causes the bees to enter the 

 surplus-apartment in the same way that Mr. 

 Pettit advocates. I have been troubled a great 

 deal to get the outer rows of sections on the 

 Dovetailed hives properly capped; but to my 

 surprise the outer rows of sections in the super 

 of the new hives, although it contained 44 one- 

 pound sections, a part of which extended be- 

 yond the 10 Langstroth frames, seemed to be 

 just as readily filled and capped as in the cen- 

 ter of the super. Why in such a large super 

 the outer row of sections should be capped so 

 much more readily than a super holding 24 sec- 

 tions, is made clear to me by Mr. Pettit's ex- 

 periment. 



I also wish to say that the article on " child- 

 training " is a valuable one, which all parents 

 will appreciate. Even a bear-story or a ro- 

 mance will give us a greater interest in our 

 bee-journals, as "variety is the spice of life." 

 Charles Stewart. 



Sammonsville, N. Y., Jan. 25. 



[The plan spoken of by Mr. Pettit can be 

 easily tried by any one who has the regular 

 Dovetailed hive. I hope others will try the 

 experiment, and report. It is by grasping at 

 things of this kind that we make progress. — 

 Ed.J 



not tall but square sections, 43^x43^. 



You ask what we think about tall and nar- 

 rower sections. My experience is that we want 

 nothing narrower than 7-to-foot sections, and 



nothing larger than 4>^x43^. This size and 

 width gives the best of satisfaction here. We 

 use two tin separators to super. Wider sec- 

 tions are not built so well to the bottom -bar, 

 and narrower sections are sometimes built very 

 frail to the sides of the section. Do you see 

 the point? Neither do we use starters more 

 than 1}4 inches deep, but full sheets of brood 

 foundation 'n hive-body, every time, and wired. 

 We want a section that weighs as nearly a 

 pound as can be. Honey is getting too cheap 

 to fool with }4 or ^^ lb. sections. Look out for 

 Colorado and New Mexico. High prices on 

 honey are over. H. F. Hagen. 



Rocky Ford, Col., Jan. 26. 



COMBS ON WIRED FRAMES. 



Tread somewhere in the current number of 

 Gleanings a report of some one, I have for- 

 gotten who, in regard to having natural combs 

 built on wired frames. I was somewhat inter- 

 ested in this, as I had been thinking about the 

 same thing myself. After thinking the matter 

 over I made soma experiments along this line 

 the latter part of the season after the hurry of 

 the honey season was over. I had anticipated 

 some trouble in having such combs built so that 

 the center or septum would come upon the 

 wire, or that the wire would be in the center of 

 the comb when it was finished. The result of 

 my experiments was very gratifying. They 

 were more perfect than I had even anticipated. 

 cOn thinking the matter over I had reasoned 

 that the bees would cluster upon the wires, 

 and that their first work would be commenced 

 upon the wires, thus forming the center or sep- 

 tum of the combs directly on the wires; and 

 the result of my experiments afterward proved 

 my reasoning to be correct. Although my ex- 

 periments were limited to but one colony, I am 

 satisfied that there are some gratifying possi- 

 bilities for bee-keepers in this direction, 

 c Of course, it will not be expected that combs 

 built in this manner will compare in perfection 

 with those built upon comb foundation; but in 

 these days of close competition bee-keepers are 

 looking for any methods that will economize 

 expense; and if perfectly natural combs can be 

 produced on wire it seems to me it must be a 

 step in the right direction. 



In this experiment I shook a colony of bees 

 into the hive on wire frames, and fed them 

 sugar syrup and diluted honey with a Board- 

 man entrance feeder. I continued the experi- 

 ment only far enough to satisfy myself as to its 

 results, having the combs only partly filled. 

 These combs I have preserved, and should be 

 pleased to send you a sample of them if desired, 

 as they will speak for themselves. Possibly 

 you might think best to photograph them and 

 present them to the readers of Gleanings. 



East Townsend, O. H. R. Boardman. 



[Yes, send them on and we will show them to 

 our readers.— Ed.] 



