1898 



GI.EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



301 



rear of the hive two inches. I had some old 

 oak fence-boards 6 inches wide that I cut the 

 right length, and I nse cheap pine %x4 inch 

 sheeting for the sides. The cut fully explains 

 itself. 



I have been studying the new fence, no-bee- 

 way sections, tall sections, etc., with great 



1 



interest. I think I might like a tall section 

 pretty well, but will not change my supers 

 this next season; but I don't think I want the 

 fence, or a>!y separators for that matter, as 

 about half of my last-year's crop (a ton) was 

 put up in a 4^4x4^x1^8 white-birch section 

 that I got of W. H. Norton, of Skowhegan, 

 Maine (I send you a sample of it to-day). I 

 used no separators, and will this j'ear use them 

 (sections) almost exclusively on 54 colonies. 

 There are veiy few crooked combs; the honey 

 is always white, and the bees will go up into 

 supers much quicker, and they are so much 

 quicker scraped. 



In the sample I sent you to-day you will 

 find one of the sides (it is a four-piece section ) 

 is marked A, and is cut away so as to leave 

 only a two-inch bearing, and I should like to 

 get some that way, as it will practically do 

 away with the pop-holes in the corners of 

 sections ; 12 sections of the above always 

 weigh more than 12 of the old 4'4^x4j4xl%i 

 and always look better. 



Mr. Marks says that hard wood is better 

 for sections, etc. I think he is right. Try 

 soft maple if you can't get the white birch. 

 The birch is tough, and would make a first- 



rate one-piece section. Find inclosed a rough 

 diagram of " proposed one-piece section." I 

 should like about 4000 this spring, as per 

 diagram. 



Please examine this new section carefully, 

 and say if you can make it in a one-piece 

 form; also if you can get the birch. 



Anderson, Ind., Jan. 20. 



[Your nail-supported frame is very much 

 like that shown on page 336 of Gleanings 

 for May 1, 1897, by Adrian Getaz. The litter 

 uses a nail to support the frame, as you do ; 

 otherwise his frame is the same as the Hoff- 

 man. You have combined the Marks metal- 

 spaced Hoffman and the nail of Getaz. In re- 

 gard to the last feature, I will say that, as I 

 said then, I personally have tested it, and have 

 found it wanting. It has too small a bearing 

 in the wood to support a frame filled with 

 honey ; and consequently the hole, by the 

 continual weight, is liable to assume an ^^^ 

 shape. This will result in having some of the 

 top-bars up to the required height and some 

 below, causing irregular bee-spaces. Then, 

 moreover, if the nails are not driven exactly 

 in the same position, or if they should be 

 , driven a little bit on a slant, it will result in 

 the same irregular bee-space. 



The metal-spaced Hoffman is all right ; and 

 I should not be surprised if it would some day 

 displace the regular style of Hoffman in use 

 to-day. Take that same frame, as illustrated 

 above, and let the top-bar project far enough 

 in the regular way to catch on to the rabbet 

 and yet leave a bee-space around it, and you 

 will have, in my judgment, an excellent 

 frame. 



I do not exactly see the need of supporting 

 the hive-stand on bricks. Who cares if the 

 bottom edges of the stand do rot a little? They 

 will even then last ten or fifteen or possibly 

 twenty years ; and four bricks to every hive 

 would make some little expense, especially if 

 one were to so equip several apiaries. The 

 scheme of raising the rear end of the hive up 

 is good. 



The section-blank shown is practically the 

 same as was first brought to the notice of the 

 bee keeping world by Walter S. Pouder, some 

 10 years ago (see Gleanings, page 514, 1888), 

 and later on by our irrepressible friend Fran- 

 cis Danzenbaker. The scheme of giving the 

 bees wide passageways from one section to 

 another is tiptop, and that is one of the rea- 

 sons, if not the principal one, why honey 

 seems to be better filled out in Danzenbaker 

 secions. 



Yes, hard wood may look nicer, but it is 

 much harder to cut, and would make sections 

 more expensive. 



Mr. Marks, by the way, believes that it is 

 almost a sin for the manufacturers of bee-sup- 

 plies to cut up basswood into section honey- 

 boxes, on the principle that it is folly to kill 

 the goose that lays the golden egg ; but, as I 

 have before pointed out, the amount of bass- 

 wood that bee-keepers annually use is a mere 

 drop in the bucket compared with the amount 

 used by furniture-manufacturers, basket-mak- 

 ers, and manufacturers of novelties in general. 

 —Ed.] 



