1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



259 



The Dadants can point with pride to the 

 fact that their assertions are not based on ex- 

 periments conducted on a small scale, but 

 upon the results of testing several large apia- 

 ries with large hives for a period of many years. 

 We can not doubt their word that they have 

 produced more honey in such hives. And 

 then the elder Dadant says this experience of 

 theirs is borne out by the bee-keepers of 

 France, who are largely following the Dadant 

 system. The results, then, summed up, seem 

 to be little or no swarming, very few winter 

 losses, and more honey. If these things are 

 facts, and the Dadants say they are, I do not 

 really see how argument can disprove it. 

 From the standpoint of a supply manufactur- 

 er, wish that they were not right ; but I get 

 a good deal of solid comfort out of the notion, 

 that almost amounts to a conviction, that two 

 eight-frame hives will accomplish the same 

 results, and yet permit of the advantage of 

 handling large hives in halves rather than in 

 a big unliftable whole. I say I get comfort 

 out of the thought, notwithstanding a kind of 

 lingering fear that those big brood-frames, 

 with their cards of brood, may make a differ- 

 ence in actual results. — Ed.] 



SECTION'S WITHOUT SEPARATORS. 



How to Produce Comb Honey Without Separators 

 or Fences. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



I received a letter from W. B. Ranson, pro- 

 testing in somewhat vigorous terms against 

 the use of so much paraphernalia in working 

 for comb honey, insisting that, if it was such a 

 gain to allow free passage in supers by the use 

 of fence separators, it would be a still greater 

 gain to dispense altogether with separators, 

 and that, if the same amount of brains that 

 had been used in trying to decide just how 

 such things should be made had been used in 

 trying to find out how to get straight sections 

 without any separators at all, we would now 

 be further on than we are. 



In support of his view, and drawing from 

 his own experience, he wrote: 



" In 1897 I ran for all comb honey, and used 

 a few bait-sections, and no separators; when I 

 cased up the honev I had 21 bulged sections 

 to the 1000. In 1898, for the honey I have 

 just finished casing I used bait-supers full of 

 old sections, with combs and honey. This 

 time I still used no separators, and had only 3 

 bulgers to the 1000. Now, doctor, if you will, 

 next season take some T supers, fill them 

 with sections open all around (four beeways), 

 and leave out separators, and let the bees have 

 free access from end to end and side to side, 

 level up your hives nicely, and when the bees 

 are working freely in bait-supers put those 

 supers on ; and if the honey-flow is on, the 

 combs will be built straight and nice. The 

 main point is to have the combs in all the sec- 

 tions built down at the same time, and this re- 

 quires plenty of bees and something to work 

 with." 



As few as 3 or even as few as 21 bulgers to 

 the thousand is more than I should expect to 

 reach if I discarded separators, even with four 

 beeways and every thing made level with a 

 spirit-level, leaving it a question whether Mr. 

 Ranson's locality and honey-flow might be en- 

 tirely different from mine, or whether there 

 was any thing in his management that cut 

 any figure in the case. A letter just received 

 from him makes me believe that his manage- 

 ment ma) r have much, if not all, to do with it. 

 I give his letter in full : 



COMB HONEY AT SWARMING TIME. 



Dr. C. C. Miller: — I promised you a letter 

 on this subject, and state my practice as fol- 

 lows: I feed, unite, and encourage in every 

 way, brood-rearing in earl)' spring to get the 

 bees to swarm early; and when they swarm I 

 take out the queen and let her bees return; 

 and in eight or ten days they swarm again, a 

 mammoth swarm with virgin queen. Now 

 this is my chance for big work in sections, so 

 I take a hive with starters in brood-frames, or 

 combs, if nice and white, and put on a queen- 

 excluder ; next put on a super with narrow 

 starters ; remove parent colony and place this 

 hive in its place ; take unfinished super from 

 the parent, and place on top ; put the guard 

 over the entrance, and run the swarm in 

 through the zinc; and if I find more than one 

 queen on zinc, let only the choice one go in, 

 and replace the guard at once to make sure 

 only one queen gets in. Now take the combs 

 from the parent, and brush all the bees off and 

 out of the hive ; let them also run in through 

 the zinc, and take another lot of queens from 

 the zinc, and let the guard remain, so as to 

 keep out any queen that remains in the grass. 

 Replace the combs of capped brood in the par- 

 ent hive and close with wire cloth, and place 

 it in some comfortable place to hatch out. If 

 any of those combs have large healthy-look- 

 ing queen-cells still unhatched, dequeen other 

 colonies and hang said combs in. In 24 or 48 

 hours I repeat the brushing, and let the rest of 

 the young bees go in ; and if I want more 

 queens I pick up the prettiest and put on those 

 old combs with remaining bees to hatch. On 

 the third day I remove the guard to let the 

 queen mate. 



Now I have a colony to fill the hive and two 

 supers with bees, and by brushing young bees 

 as before I can have them fill to the third and 

 fourth super — no fear of swarming again; and 

 if any honey is to be had, this is the colony to 

 find it. It is fun to see all the combs in sec- 

 tions built down at the same time, straight 

 and nice; no need of separators. I learn from 

 the bees that no colony in which a cell hatches 

 out a queen, and she takes her flight, and re- 

 turns, will swarm again that year, no matter 

 how populous. Now stick a pin here; and, 

 again, no swarm hived with a virgin queen 

 will build a drone-cell that year. 



Now you may set another peg. Therefore I 

 work to get all swarms hived with virgins, 

 and, as far as I can, have cells given in early 

 spring to prevent swarming. Early fertile 

 queens from the South in spring help to keep 

 down swarming in part only; but the cell giv- 

 en in spring is effectual. Any unhatched 



