1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



918 



safe side. While the reduction is very slight, 

 it is sufiicient to give a little more wedging 

 room in the super. The slats, instead of being 

 % inch wide, are scant ^s — just enough to per- 

 mit of the whole fence, when put together, be- 

 ing narrower than the height of the section by 

 ^^ inch ; or, in other words, the top slat of the 

 '99 fence will drop down '4. inch, as shown in 

 A in Fig. 3, from the top edge of the section, 

 instead of coming up flush as before, as in 

 Figs. 4 and 1. There was no particular diffi- 

 culty with the fence of last .season ; but a few 

 reports seemed to indicate that there were 

 times when the bees would fill the space be- 

 tween the fence-slats and section with propolis. 



Fig. 4. 



This narrowing-up of the fence in Fig. 3 leaves a 

 continuous passageway across the top and bot- 

 tom edges of the fence — not f^ but /v wide, 

 nearly. The same object was sought to be ac- 

 complished in Fig. 4 of last year by shortening 

 the cleats so that the bees could pass back and 

 forth as' shown ; but a few reports went to show 

 that the bees would fill up this space over the 

 cleats with bee-glue, perhaps indicating that 

 they did not care to pass a space so cramped 

 as {~.i inch. 



SPACE BETWEEN THE SLATS — HOW WIDE 

 SHAIX IT BE? 



Last year we sent out a few of our fences 

 with the spaces less than ^., (the width of the 

 perforated zinc). When the bees could not 

 go through, we learned early in the season 

 that they were inclined to gnaw the space 

 wider ; and when ojice started to gnawing 

 they would keep it up till the space would be 

 widened to Y% or even yi. inch. This would, 

 of course, result in ridging the face of the 

 comb honey ; but before we had sent out 

 many with this narrow spacing we increased 

 the space to ]\y inch, and with this spacing we 

 had no unfavorable reports. We shall, as last 

 year, space the slats apart f^ inch ; but, un- 

 like last year, the minimum distance will be /o 

 instead of the maximum. If the distance is 

 more than i\, the honey is liable to be ridged. 

 And this brings me to the question of 



RIDGING OF COMB HONEY BEHIND FENCES. 



This seems to be confined to individual col- 

 onies, even when the space between the slats 

 is only about ^^g. But at this distance it is 

 very slight. To show you just how percepti- 

 ble it is, I picked out two samples of sections 

 from Mr. Morton's honey, for I observed that, 

 if one section in the case was ridged, all the 

 sections in that case would show somewhat of 

 the same fault, thus indicating that some bees 

 are more inclined to ridge than others. There 

 is only, I should say, one colony out of a hun- 

 dred that showed this tendency. Well, out 

 of one of these supers I selected two sections, 



brought them home, took them to our engrav- 

 ers, and had life-size engravings made from 

 "life" itself. As they are in halftone, they 

 show exactly how much ridging there is (see 

 Fig. 5). If you look sharp you can see where 

 it is ; but unless your attention were called to it 

 particularly you would not notice it. I had the 

 ijoxes made life-size so the slight defect could 

 be made to show up as plainly as possible. 



I will grant that I have seen comb honey 

 ridged very perceptibly, and badly too ; but 

 this excessive ridging was caused in every case 

 I investigated by the fact that the slats were 

 spaced too far apart — say }i, ; or that the slats 

 may have been spaced too close, so that the 

 bees began gnawing them, and continued to 

 gnaw them until they w'ere ^ or more. 



At this point I can not do better than to 

 stop and make an extract from a long letter 

 received frcm that careful and conservative 

 bee-keeper, J. E. Crane. I produce his letter 

 here, both because it indorses what I have said 

 above, and because it gives at the same time 

 some valuable suggestions. 



CONSTRUCTION OF FENCES. 



Friend Root: — I can only give you what I 

 think now is right, reserving the right to 

 change my opinion with more experience. 

 I will say I think you are quite right in drop- 

 ping the separator '4 inch below the top, or 

 just enough so bees can pass over the top of 

 the separator into the adjoining box and up 

 into the clamp above. I wondered you did 

 not do so last year. I believe, also, you are 

 quite right in thinking that the cleats must 

 be 3,4 or >4 inch wide. I feared that the width 

 you adopted last winter wovdd make trouble, 

 and so in making mine I made them but ^ 

 inch wide, and would have made them but 

 ]'l had not my clamps (or supers) varied a 

 little in width; so that, if cleats were but %, 

 some of them might not come in contact with 

 the edge of the sections ; and so, while the 

 bees have built their combs on to them — i. e., 

 some of them — a little, I do not remember 

 one that " bled " when broken apart from the 

 separator. I laid one or two apart for the 

 purpose of having them photographed, but 

 lost track of them. I presume that, if my 

 cleats had been % inch wide, some might 

 have bled. 



As to which is the more desirable — }'l or )i 

 inch — width for cleat, I do not feel so sure. 

 It might, perhaps, to some extent, be a matter 

 of taste. The !4-inch width would give a comb 

 almost perfect in form, while the s^'-inch cleat 

 would give, to my eye, a comb not nearly so 

 fine — in fact, a comb that would not grade 

 " Fancy " by the rules of the N. A. B. Associ- 

 ation; for you remember the combs, to grade 

 "Fancy," must be of ''■ even thitkness,^'' &u^ 

 such combs would be only about two-thirds as 

 thick near the sides as in the center away 

 from the wide cleat — thus: 



[Mr. Crane here drew a diagram like that 

 shown in Fig. 2.] 



I have, as I wrote you, used the past season 

 some 2000 plain sections with fence, and per- 

 haps 1500 old-style sections with projecting 

 edges, with fence also, the fence for these be- 



