1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



139 



gain to the bee-keeper. Thirty years of bee- 

 keeping life tells me that this is not mere fancy, 

 but facts which the success of the two plans 

 proves, as will also be obvious to all who have 

 closely watched the reports in our various bee- 

 papers during the past. If any reader, or the 

 questioner, has any doubts along this line let 

 him try the two plans side by side till he is 

 convinced. With the low prices of honey 

 seems to have come the idea of going back to 

 the old idea that "bees work for nothing and 

 board themselves," and so many bee-keepers 

 seem to think that all that should be required 

 of them may be summed up in the old saying 

 of " hold the dish to catch the porridge." To 

 the truly enthusiastic bee-keeper there is no 

 fun in such a plan as this. Pleasure conies 

 only through a love of our pursuit ; and if we 

 love it we are always interested enough to 

 make the labor/*?/;/ while we are doing it. Did 

 any one ever have any fun going fishing and 

 get it by swinging in a hammock in the shade ? 

 Did any one ever enjoy himself in the fox- 

 chase while silting beside the sitting-room 

 fire ? The love of fishing and of the fox-chase 

 is greater than that for hammock and fire, and 

 so the love for work with the bees must be 

 greater than the love for ease if we would suc- 

 ceed in our pursuit. 



MOTH-WORMS IN FENCE HONEY ; A POSSIBLE 

 OBJECTION. 



Mr. E. R. Root: — I have watched the dis- 

 cussion of the fence question with keen inter- 

 est, and I am thinking of making a trial of it. 

 Nearly all my honey in the past has been rais- 

 ed without separators of any kind. 



Will you please give me your opinion of the 

 following ? Will there not be great danger of 

 the tiny wax-moth working on the cappings 

 of fenced honey when it is crated up for ship- 

 ment? The combs coming as they do so near 

 together are, in my opinion, much more liable 

 to this damage, for I have noticed in crating 

 no separator honey that, where two combs 

 would touch, or nearly so, that would be ex- 

 actly where these little moths, too small to be 

 seen by the naked eye, would do their worst 

 work. Have not other California apiarists 

 brought up this question with you before ? 



I have much wished that I could try the 

 fences in connection with ordinary 7-to-foot 

 bee-entrance sections. Is this wholly out of 

 the question ? I do not like the idea of hav- 

 ing a crate of honey, when opened, showing 

 nothing but the wood parts of the sections. I 

 like to have the honey smiling up from be- 

 tween the sections as it shows in the ordinary 

 open-top section. Don't you? 



Will you kindly send me a quarter of one 

 of your fences ? I wish only the end posts 

 and the posts next to it, with the slats. This 

 will give me the measurements and the idea of 



it, to see how I can work them into my supers. 

 Also please send me a quarter of a no-beeway 

 section. These will be easily mailed, and will 

 do me as well as a whole section and fence. • 



I will give you an inflexible rule to help you 

 out in deciding what length the articles should 

 be in Gleanings. When you have a very 

 long article on an interesting subject, right to 

 the point, put it in; when you have a real 

 short one that is just as good, put that in; and 

 when you have a medium-length article that 

 is just as readable, give that the same chance 

 you did the others. G. K. Hubbard. 



Riverside, Cal., Jan. 24. 



[There may be something in the fact of hav- 

 ing two adjoining faces of honey so much 

 less than a bee-space apart ; but after all, we 

 hear but little about moth-worms nowadays 

 since the advent of Italian bees and their 

 crosses. I should, therefore, anticipate but 

 very little trouble from that source. So far 

 fence honey has been gobbled up too soon in 

 many markets to be damaged much by moth- 

 worms. 



It is entirely feasible to use a slat separator 

 with the old-style beeway section. Indeed, 

 we list in our catalog this year that sort of 

 separator. The accompanying illustration 

 shows how it may be used. It is constructed 

 the same as any fence, with the exception that 

 there are no cleats or projections on the bars ; 

 and the ends are bound together with a strip 

 of folded tin. These slat separators, as we 

 shall call them, may be used in any super us- 

 ing old-style separators and beeway sections. 



J*3*i 



Mr. J. E Crane used a good many such sep- 

 arators last season, and is of the opinion' that 

 the freer communication made better-filled 

 boxes; but at the same time he prefers the 

 plain sections and fence. 



As to the length of communications, and 

 which ones shall find a place, this is often a 

 hard matter to decide. What may be inter- 

 esting to the editor may not be so to the read- 

 er. After all, it is the readers' preferences 

 that we have in mind. I desire, therefore, as 

 far as possible, to keep in touch with our read- 

 ers and hope they will be free to criticise the 

 contents of Gleanings, as by that means I 

 can make a more interesting and readable 

 journal. — Ed.] 



HOW TO SECURE THE GREATEST INCREASE 

 FROM A SINGLE COLONY. 



On page 164, April, 1881, of Gleanings, is 

 this statement : " A friend in Michigan, with 

 hives and empty combs, once built a single 

 colony up so as to make 30 of it in a single 

 season." 



Will you kindly tell us how to proceed to 

 accomplish such results, or even half so many? 

 What would be the relative value of old combs 

 and full frames of wired foundation in build- 



