1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



363 



communication up and down, doubtless re- 

 sulting in a little better filling, as shown. 

 These sections were taken in a super with sec- 

 tion-holders having open tops (no top-bars), 

 and the separators 4*4 in. wide without slats. 

 The specimens of honey shown were not an 

 average, of course, but probably the best there 

 were to be found in that particular lot. I 

 have shown one or two specimens of honey in 

 plain sections, that were better than the aver- 

 age. But all such cuts are apt to be mislead- 

 ing to a certain class who gather the impres- 

 sion they will always get just such honey if it 

 is produced in such appliances. On the other 

 hand, there is another class, old practical bee- 

 keepers, who know it is not possible to secure 

 that degree of perfection, on the average, with 

 any appliances that were ever devised, or with 

 any strain of bees. 



I reiterate, as I have several times before, 

 that, under like conditions^ plain sections will 

 be filled no better than beeway sections ; and 

 if there are any of my remarks that can be 

 construed otherwise, I desire to repudiate 

 any such construction as emphatically as I 

 know how ; or, to put it another way, bee- 

 way sections may be made so that the condi- 

 tions, so far as freer communications are con- 

 cerned, will be precisely the same as the con- 

 ditions under which plain sections are sup- 

 posed to be filled. The illustration taken 

 from the Canadian Bee Journal shows a set of 

 sections that were produced under a part of 

 the conditions we desire to secure when pro- 

 ducing in plain sections. I do not believe that 

 combs in any ordinary one-piece section with 

 the old-style openings can be produced as per- 

 fect and as pretty as there shown. If any one 



FANCY COMB HONEY IN BEE-WAY SECTIONS. 



But it is, nevertheless, true that the design 

 of the fixtures has something to do with the 

 appearance of the honey. For instance, I be- 

 lieve that the full openings in the sections 

 above shown have a tendency to make more 

 even and fuller combs. The section shown on 

 page 82, Feb. 1, 1898, shows a nice comb in 

 the ordinary one piece section having the or- 

 dinary beeway. This narrowing-up of the 

 opening has a tendency to round or bevel the 

 combs at the corners as there shown. Partly 

 for this reason, and partly on other grounds, 

 there are many who prefer the four-piece sec- 

 tions with top and bottom-bar of the same 

 width throughout. 



A better beeway section, in my judgment, is 

 the one that is not only open full width, top 

 and bottom, but is open part way down and 

 up the sides. The demand for these seems to 

 be growing. The freer the lateral communi- 

 cation, the better will be the filling of the 

 section. With such a section, an ordinary 

 slatted separator without cleats ought to se- 

 cure just exactly as nice honey as in a plain 

 section with slatted separator with cleats. 



has ever accomplished the feat, let him have a 

 photo of them taken, at our expense, and I 

 will present it to the readers of our journal. 



' ' SUPPEY-DEAEING EDITORS. ' ' 

 The heading above is taken as a text from 

 an editorial paragraph by Doolittle, in the Pro- 

 gressive Bee-keeper. I did not refer to the 

 matter in the way of a reply, at the time, be- 

 cause I thought in view of the fact of our being 

 interested in supplies we should keep still ; 

 but as Mr. Hutchinson takes up the matter, 

 and discusses it a little further, perhaps I 

 ought to sa\ something in the way, not so 

 much as a defense as an explanation. 



Mr. Doolittle, in the first place, in the Pro- 

 gressive, raised a protest against certain so- 

 called "crazes" now going on in the bee- 

 papers ; that the pushing of plain sections and 

 separators was ill advised, and that they were 

 on a par with the reversible-frame excitement, 

 deep-cell comb foundation, etc. Mr. Hutch- 

 inson, in commenting on this, is of the opin- 

 ion that Mr. Doolittle's caution is timely. He 



