1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



435 



working against nature in these latter days, 

 caused by the contraction of the brood-cham- 

 ber being done by many of our leading api- 

 arists during the past score of years ; but I 

 believe this to be a wrong idea, for I found 

 much more brood and pollen in my comb 

 honey 25 or 30 years ago, before I ever con- 

 tracted any hive, than I have since, where no 

 queen-excluding honey-board was used. 



As time passed on, the thought originated 

 in some enterprising bee-keepers' head that 

 honey would sell better if stored in still small- 

 er boxes than those weighing 6 pounds, so we 

 soon had the 4-pound and next the 3-pound 

 box. This box was used in the same way as 

 its predecessors had been ; namely, with glass 

 sides, while it was made long enough to hold 

 only one comb, which comb was about 2% 

 inches thick when completed. With this box 

 I had very little success, for the bees seemed 

 very loath to work in it ; and when they did 

 so, they would frequently try to put in three 

 combs, which put it in very poor shape for 

 market. For this reason 1 decided that it 

 was not in accord with " nature " for the bees 

 to be cut up into so little clusters, and have 

 their comb as thick as 1% inches. Conse- 

 quently I went back to the six pound box 

 again, leaving it to others to work the smaller 

 ones as they pleased. 



When the two-pound sections with sepa- 

 rators were introduced I considered them as 

 being still worse than any preceding them, 

 for the bees were divided into still smaller 

 clusters than before, or at least that was the 

 way I reasoned. One night, while lying 

 awake thinking on the subject, I believed 

 that I saw the difference between this way of 

 using small boxes and the old way, where 

 glass was used on both sides of the box ; for 

 in using separators the bees were not, properly 

 speaking, divided into little clusters at all, 

 but virtually had one box of the size given by 

 the number of sections used in one tier, which 

 was generally nearly tw T ice the amount of one 

 six-pound box ; for as the tin separators did 

 not come within y% inch of either the bottom 

 or the top of the section, the bees and warmed 

 air could pass from one to the other just the 

 same as if no tin were there, to all intents and 

 purposes. But there was so small an entrance 

 that I feared this would be a hindrance to the 

 bees coming up in the sections to work to 

 advantage ; and in order to overcome this I 

 left the bottom off all the sections first used, 

 so that I might not meet with a partial failure, 

 as I had done with the three-pound box. My 

 yield of honey from colonies so fixed was 

 greater that fall than from the hives worked 

 in the old way, as an average ; but I found 

 that, in leaving the bottoms off the sections, I 

 had gotten into a job which I did not care to 

 go through with again ; and, besides, in using 

 the tin separators so narrow that Y% inch was 

 left both above and below them, I had a bad 

 job here also, for the bees bulged the combs 

 so badly at both bottom and top they could 

 not well be crated. 



Although still fearful that I might lessen 

 the yield of honey by putting on the bottoms 

 of the sections and widening the tin to the 



separators, yet I resolved to try ; so the next 

 season found me putting sections on a few 

 hives, very nearly the same as I use them now, 

 all the difference being that I then used a 

 two-pound s-ection, while I use the one-potmd 

 now. The rest of the apiary was worked with 

 the six-pound boxes as before. At the end of 

 that season I found that the colonies having 

 the sections with separators gave me the larg- 

 est yield again, and the combs in these sec- 

 tions were simply perfect, or as nearly so as 

 any we have seen pictured within the past 

 year, while many of those in the larger boxes 

 were far from being so. The entrance to the 

 sections also seemed ample, and by a little 

 figuring I soon saw that the fourth-inch space 

 between each section was greater as a whole 

 than the entrance given to tne six-pound box. 

 When the next season came, I worked about 

 half of my bees wHth sections and separators, 

 and the other half with the six-pound boxes, 

 thus using caution when starting out on some- 

 thing outside of the beaten path which I had 

 trodden in the past, as I alwajs think it ad- 

 visable to do. 



The result of that season proved the same 

 as that of the seasons before, so that I then 

 adopted sections entirely, and firmly believe 

 that such an arrangement does not incon- 

 venience the bees in the least, over what they 

 would be in a box of ihe same capacity with- 

 out separators, or with separators with any 

 kind of perforation in them. When the 

 queen-excluding honey-boards came before 

 the public I tried them slowly, as I did the 

 sections with separators, using more and more 

 each year, till, so far as I am enabled to de- 

 tect, I can say that none ot these things cause 

 any inconvenience to the bees, or in the least 

 decrease our crop of comb honey. Only in 

 this way of proving things can any one fully 

 say what is good and what is not. The old 

 injunction, "Prove all things, hold fast to 

 that which is good," is as valuable lo-c ay as 

 it ever was. 



BEE-PARA LYSIS. 



Dr. C. C. Miller: — I have some disease 

 amorg my bees that seems to be very bad. 

 Will )Oti please to gi\e advice through 

 Gleanings as to what it is ? They crawl or are 

 dragged out of the hive by the well bees, and 

 have a shiny appearance, as if dropped in 

 grease; a quiverii g motion: live a few hours, 

 b conie swollen, and die Is the disease con- 

 tagious? I have united it twice, and the well 

 hives became diseased. Would 3 ou recom- 

 mend burning the hive, bees, and combs ? I 

 have changed queens three times 



Dadeville, Mo.. May 8. R. D. McMurry. 



[Dr. Miller replies:] 



If you will lock up back numbers of Glean- 

 ings, and read what has been said about the 



