1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



221 



DANZENBAKER'S HONEY. 



Was that Shown in the Journals Taken from Se- 

 lected, or was it the Common Run ? 



BY F. DANZKNBAKER. 



Mr. Editor: — -A prolific writer for the jour- 

 nals desires to know if the four plain 4x5 sec- 

 tion of honey, Fig. 11, p. 920, Gleanings, 

 Dec. 15, was raised by myself, or " selects," 

 " from large lots of honey that I might have 

 bought of others." For his information, as 

 well as others', permit me to say they were 



HONEY IN DANZENBAKER BEEWAY SECTIONS (OLD STYLE). 



not selected with a thought of your engraving 

 thtm, as you know, but to demonstrate wheth- 

 er I could ship safely hundreds of miles by 

 express from Hamilton, N. C, to Medina, O., 

 half a dozen 4x5x1 Y%-va.. plain sections, in a 

 Danz. shipping-case Y% in. thick weighing 

 only 5 oz. The six sections were from the 

 firs super taken off. One-half of it was filled 

 wi.h Weed's drawn combs, the rest full sheets 

 of foundation. I believe the four sections 

 shown were the Weed drawn combs, as the 

 bees started in them at once, and they were 

 the first finished. 



Mr. C. D. Duvall and myself were working 

 together. We took off the first supers when 

 partly finished, and divided them up to get 

 bait combs for other supers. Finding 16 sec- 

 tions finished, fit to sell, in the first super, I 

 sent six of them to you to show you the de- 

 fective cells at the top of all the sections, 

 caused by having the top slat of the 1898 fence 

 3*8 in. too high; also that the cleats and open- 

 ings between the slats were correct, and the 

 fence was just right at the bottom, to have the 

 sections evenly filled out all round to the wood. 

 In comparison with the four sections shown 

 in Dec. 15th Glean- 

 ings, p. 920, Fig. 11,1 

 submit a half-tone en- 

 graving from a photo- 

 graph of 32 half-plain 

 4x5x7 to the foot 

 Danz. sections, made 

 at one time in a Danz. 

 super (furnished with 

 the 1897 N. fences), 

 by W. W. Lathrop, of 

 Bridgeport, Ct., who 

 is an amateur bee- 

 keeper, having bought 

 his first bee-hive in 

 1897. 



He says: " These 32 

 sections were put on 

 the hive in September, 

 and taken off October 

 2," and he "had 172 

 sections of fall honey, 

 all of it just as good. ' ' 

 He had only three 

 colonies in the spring. 

 The entire 32 sec- 

 tions are filled alike 

 at top and bottom, 

 showing that the 1897 

 fence was the correct 

 width, although irreg- 

 ular spacing from t \ 

 to Y% inch caused a 

 slight ridging of a 

 few of the sections. 

 While the 1898 fences 

 were better spaced, 

 and show no ridges on 

 the surface of the hon- 

 ey, the top of the 

 fence was T \ inch too 

 high, causing a row 

 of open cells at the 

 top of the sections. 

 Happily this can be 

 remedied by dressing off a trifle at the top of 

 those now in use. 



These faults have been corrected in the M. 

 fences for 1899, and we believe all that are 

 now going out are as nearly perfect as it is pos- 

 sible to make them. But the bees will tell. 

 Washington, D. C. 



[I am glad to corroborate Mr. Danzenbaker's 

 statement. The honey he refers to, and which 

 was shown in our Dec. 15th issue, page 920, 

 was placed on that page without any comment 

 by myself. It was put in as an after-thought, 



