1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



535 



for an honest living now ? what can I do, times 

 are so hard ? " I thought of last winter when 

 I went all over the city looking for work, and 

 I was met everywhere with " There's no open- 

 ing now. We have men laid off who will, of 

 course, be put to work before hiring new men. ' ' 



But the man was still talking. " He has 

 interested capitalists, and they are now pre- 

 paring to erect immense glass buildings, and 

 will have this honey-plant growing all winter ; 

 and by keeping up the proper temperature 

 the bees — why, they will think they are in 

 Cuba. The greatest trouble will be to control 

 the excitement of the bees and keep down 

 excessive swarming, so he says. And in the 

 summer they will also have an island (which 

 they have already leased ) planted with this 

 seed, and they will have hundreds of hives in 

 the center of the island." 



" Isn't it wonderful what science and money 

 can do ? " remarked the other man. 



Doolittle, what are we going to do about 

 this monopoly business? 



" Why, this expert," continued the talker, 

 "has it down so fine that he can give scientific 

 proof that there are just thirty-two bees in 

 each hive that do nothing but feed the king- 

 bee. He has sixty swarms right here in the 

 city now, and he can handle them just as we 

 would handle beans. It told all about the 

 whole business in the newspaper. I have the 

 paper at home, and will show it to you some 

 time." 



I saw that the conversation was about to 

 end; and as they arose from the table I asked, 

 " Who is this bee-man you speak of ? " 



"Oh! his name is Sleeper; he probably 

 knows more about bees than all the bee- 

 keepers in the country. You ought to read 

 the piece in the paper I've got about him. 

 He's an educated man, and has made a special 

 study of bees." 



I was foolish enough to try to argue with 

 him, and I soon found out that it was useless. 

 He seemed to be offended, and said, in an- 

 swer to my points, "Oh, well ! he proved it 

 in p'ain black and white, and he's an expert ; 

 there's none of them better than he is." 



Mr. Editor, don't you think you had better 

 advise bee-keepers to sell out at any price 

 before the value of bees drops to zero? You 

 might tell them that you know a man who is 

 foolish enough to give fifty cents per colony 

 for 100 colonies delivered, express prepaid, 

 pavable when he has the money to spare. 



Yes, sir ; I'm going to stay right here and 

 buck against these bee-capitalists with their 

 glass buildings. Even the fear of financial 

 death will not cure my bee-fever. I have just 

 ordered 500 more of my special fences from 

 the Root Co., and, unless too many colonies 

 spring-dwindle, I shall need more. I used 

 600 last year, and I am just that crazy that I 

 actually believe I can get much more surplus 

 with much less swarming with my own sec- 

 tion, which lies down like a brick on its edge. 

 A. I. Root well says that we all have our 

 notions. I am so notional that I will not use 

 slats under my sections. What do I use to 

 support them ? Why, nothing — simply noth- 

 ing ; the pressure of the fences against the 



sections is ample to support them a bee-space 

 above the brood-chamber. You see I use but 

 three sections to a fence. The section stands 

 4 inches high, h% long ( & K scant), and \% 

 thick. This will hold 10 ounces of white 

 clover, or 16)4 ounces of buckwheat honey. 



By the removal of the ^-inch slat, and by 

 laying the section on its side, I make my 

 surplus-arrangement so low and so close to 

 the brood that the bees would just as soon go 

 to work as to swarm. See? That is not all. 

 The bees are divided into only three clusters 

 to a fence, while in Root's Ideal super they 

 are divided into five clusters on each slat. I 

 tested ten Ideal supers last year, and I can 

 truthfully say that I could get two of my own 

 supers filled to one Ideal. It is but tair to 

 say, however, that I used 40 sections in each 

 ten-frame Ideal super, the sections being 1% 

 thick. The eight-frame Ideal super gave bet- 

 ter results. Just imagine how easy it must be 

 to get bees started in low brick sections ; then 

 imagine how easy it must be to coax them up 

 four inches higher when the proper time ar- 

 rives to tier up. 



These sections, which are broader than tall, 

 are packed solid to the wood with honey, R. 

 C. Aikin to the contrary notwithstanding. I 

 believe our editor has confessed that tall sec- 

 tions, unless filled with foundation, are apt to 

 be light in weight on account of the bees neg- 

 lecting the outside cells next to the wood. I 

 found this to be true. 



I have tried one Danzy hive. I like the 

 sections next to my own ; but there is too 

 much kindling-wood about the hive. As I 

 did not fill the sections full of foundation they 

 were light weight, and I could get but 10 cts. 

 per section for them while my own brought 

 12)4 cents each. I pack my sections in ship- 

 ping-cases with glass three inches high. It is 

 penny wisdom and pound folly to use a nar- 

 row strip of glass. Read that sentence twice, 

 and do not forget it. If you use tall sections, 

 use a higher glass. 



Mr. S. T. Pettit, you are next in order. 

 You have accomplished much, and you have 

 generously given us the fruit of your labor. 

 We thank you for what you have done, but 

 why do you stop ? Why not put " dividers " 

 in the brood-chamber and encourage the 

 maintenance of brood in the outside combs, 

 to the exclusion of honey, at a time when we 

 want all the honey above ? Would not this 

 also form a sort of ante-room for the comfort 

 of the bees on rainy days and at night ? and 

 would it not have a tendency to keep the bees 

 from getting that silly notion into their heads 

 that they are too numerous to live in one hive ? 

 Let's not give up this swarming business as 

 long as Doolittle doesn't know any better 

 than to waste time on it. Doolittle admits 

 that the Pettit divider is probably a good 

 thing for the purpose for which it was intend- 

 ed. This is encouraging. Now, Mr. Prttit, 

 see what you can accomplish with your divid- 

 ers in the brood-chamber. May be you can 

 get Mr. Doolittle thoroughly interested in 

 these things. You have put dollars in my 

 pocket ; may be you will in his. 



If the Root Co. have no machine that will 



