1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEB CULTURE. 



767 



product for " tenderness and fine edible qual- 

 ities " that I have always been opposed to the 

 use of foundation in sections, except for 

 starters. It does nie good to find occasionally 

 a bee-keeping brother who thinks as I do on 

 this subject, and has the courage to say so in 

 public. I am pretty well satisfied that it pays 

 to use full sheets in sections in order to get 

 the combs well attached to the wood, and 

 sealed all around, and also to get a larger 

 yield generally; but it seems to me that the 

 one thing of greatest importance in the pro- 

 duction of section honey is not so much to 

 have the combs solidly attached and sealed 

 all around as to produce an article possessing 

 the finest edible qualities possible. 



The ardent writer who, some time ago, told 

 his brother bee-keepers who produce such 

 honey as was pictured on page 12S, Feb. lo, 

 top tier of plate, " they had better soak their 

 heads and brimstone their bees," has shot far 

 over the mark, and I very much doubt that 

 his honey is anywhere near the fine quality 

 that I like so well in the comb honey for my 

 table. I consider it immaterial whether the 

 comb is attached to the wood or not, if the 

 kind and the quality are right, the comb 

 delicate, and of a melting character. Once in 

 a while I have had whole supers filled with 

 fancy honey, sections all well filled, combs 

 built out squarely into the corners, and still 

 not attached to the wood except along the top, 

 and perhaps a brace or two at each corner. A 

 flake of such honey is indeed a beauty when 

 it appears on the table, for it need not be 

 mutilated by the knife in cutting it out. I do 

 not imply that it would be prudent to aim to 

 produce such honey, because it would not 

 carry well; but I believe it would attract just 

 as many buyers if we could get it into the 

 market. 



It had not occurred to Bro. Aikin that 

 worker comb in the finished product looks 

 any better than drone comb till he was told 

 by some one, and now, he confesses, he does 

 not know it yet. That, of course, is a matter 

 of taste ; but to the great majority of bee- 

 keepers and honey-consumers, worker-comb 

 honey looks nmch the prettier. I can detect 

 but little diiTerence in the edible qualities of 

 the two. No, I have not measured the thick- 

 ness of drone comb, and compared it with 

 that of the worker comb; but I have eaten 

 both kinds often ; and when they were built 

 out under the same conditions the difference 

 has appeared to me infinitely small. How- 

 ever this may be, I should be glad if I could 

 induce my bees to build more worker comb in 

 the sections. So many bee-keepers use full 

 sheets of foundation, and their product is so 

 very vmiform and well built out, that I have 

 been tempted many a time to do likewise. 

 This year I filled all my sections about half 

 full of extra-light section foundation, but with 

 a result I am any thing but plea.sed with. I 

 am sorry enough to have used so much foun- 

 dation. I have gained the point of more uni- 

 formity, but the gobbiness of the upper half 

 of each comb is beyond endurance. Wife 

 says, "Don't bring any more such fishbone 

 honey up to the house." No more founda- 



tion for me! However, this does not include 

 the new drawn foundation, which I have not 

 yet fully tested. From its fragility and deli- 

 cateness, I think it has a promising future 

 providing the price is not prohibitory. 



Aside from having our sections filled with 

 all worker comb, they may be made more 

 attractive by glassing them and then trimming 

 with colored paper. Before we adopted the 

 one-piece section, which is not well suited for 

 glassing, we did a great deal such work; and 

 when we wanted to do a very fancy job we 

 used paper lace in connection with the colored 

 paper, as shown in the accompanying drawing. 



Fig 4 



We almost always obtained a higher price for 

 such " fixed-up " honey; and the glass, being 

 sold as honey, paid for the work. The glass- 

 ing itself was a very simple operation. I 

 would say the sections we used were four- 

 piece nailed, the glass fitting in between top 

 and bottom pieces, which projected over the 

 sides ^'s inch on each side, or about the thick- 

 ness of the glass. We used common glue to 

 fasten on the glass. After being cleaned from 

 propolis the section was placed on the table 

 flat, dropping just a little glue on the edge 

 near each corner of the narrow sides ; the 

 glass was adjusted, and the section turned 

 over. However, it had to be laid on two little 

 sticks a trifle shorter than the glass was wide, 

 and about J4' inch thick. The object of this 

 was to have the weight of the box press the 

 glass tight against the wood. The other side 

 of the section was now treated in the same 

 way, placing a drop of glue near each corner, 

 and laying on the glass. Two more short 

 slicks were placed on top of the section, ready 

 to receive the next section. So they were 

 piled up eight or ten high with these sticks 

 between, and left so till the glue had harden- 

 ed. As glass varies in thickness sometimes, 

 we found it necessary to trim off any super- 

 fluous wood projecting over the glass with the 

 knife. The fjoxes were then ready to be given 

 the finish. Gum arable being colorless, we 

 found this to be the best for sticking the paper 

 to the glass and wood. 



With a suitable pinking iron we prepared 

 the necessary paper strips and cut them the 

 proper lengths to just go around the boxes. 

 We then bound the edges as sho.wn in the 

 illustration, making a very neat package. Of 



