806 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



and whenever I go to visit Mr. Burt I find it 

 very convenient to sit down on a hive, munch 

 an apple, and talk bees. Many and many a 

 time have we lain down in the shade, facing 

 the entrance of some particular colony whose 

 bees were rolling in the mellifluous sweetness 

 — zip, zip — faster than one could count. It 

 was on one of these occasions that I had im- 

 pressed into me the great value of a wide and 

 deep entrance, because I saw how the bees 

 would make a swoop, and land clear to the 

 middle of the bottom- board, and very often 

 strike a cluster hanging down, without touch- 

 ing wood of any sort. In the same way with 

 Dr. Miller at his home apiary I watched the 

 incoming of the field-bees as they swooped 

 through the wide entrances clear on to the 

 cluster. 



I never enjoyed working with the bees very 

 much in the hot sun ; indeed, I have thought 

 they were very much crosser then than when 

 there is a comfortable shade over them, and a 

 good big wide entrance, so that a large pro- 

 portion of the bees do not have to be wasting 

 their time fanning in order to keep the brood- 

 nest down to the requisite temperature: and 

 did you ever think that small narrow en- 

 trances require more fanners — more workers 

 from the field, if you please — than the wide 

 ones? If you do not believe it, stop off at 

 Medina some time during the honey-flow and 

 we will take our bicycles and lie down under 

 the shade of those large trees at the Burt 

 yard. 



IMPROVEMENTS FOR 1900. 



Just now the members of the Root Co. are 

 studying how they can improve certain of 

 their standard supplies. Hives, supers, sec- 

 tions, etc., will be changed but very little ; 

 in fact, they will be practically the same as 

 last year. There will be a slight change in 

 the construction of the cover and a new com- 

 bined bottom and hive-stand, which will be 

 appreciated by our friends. The Daisy foun- 

 dation-fastener will be improved, and the 

 solar wax-extractors will be changed enough 

 so as to put the wax in marketable form as 

 soon as it is melted by old Sol. The large 

 honey-extractors, four and six frame, will 

 have the main journal ball-bearing. But this 

 will not be used on the smaller machines, as 

 there would hardly be gain enough in the 

 small size to warrant the expense. 



SQUARE VS. TAEE SECTIONS. 



A good deal has been said in our columns 

 in regard to the relative selling qualities of 

 the square and tall sections. When I visited 

 Mr. Vernon Burt once last summer I looked 

 over the honey he produced, both in square 

 and tall boxes. The sections were plain, and 

 were separatored off in the supers by fences. 

 Indeed, all the conditions, so far as colonies, 

 supers, and every thing else were concerned, 

 were as nearly identical as they could be made. 



It has been claimed, I believe, that tall 

 boxes would be better filled than square ones, 

 as if the mere matter of dimensions had some- 

 thing to do with the filling. While I never 



challenged the statement, I could never really 

 believe it ; but on this particular occasion 

 above referred to I took particular pains to 

 note whether tall boxes were any better filled 

 than the square ones. Selecting an average 

 lot from different supers, not the best ones, I 

 placed a row of four tall ones on top of a row 

 of four square ones. In the illustrations pro- 

 duced elsewhere on page 786 it will be noticed 

 that the filling is practically the same in both 

 lots; and it is just exactly what anyone of 

 common sense might expect, for the condi- 

 tions were as nearly identical as it is possible 

 to make them. 



But the reader will notice that I have the 

 same lot of sections put up in two different 

 ways. In Fig. 1, one lot is set beside the 

 other ; in Fig. 2 the tall ones are set on top of 

 the square ones. In the last named the con- 

 trast is not particularly striking ; but in the 

 first mentioned, Fig. 1, the contrast is quite 

 marked, for the tall boxes appear consider- 

 ably larger, notwithstanding they hold no 

 more honey in pounds and ounces than do 

 the sections right beside them. If the sections 

 are placed thus it is evident that the consumer 

 would pay more for the tall boxes than he 

 would for the others. The former look larger, 

 and to a great many, outside of the question 

 of bigness, they have a more pleasing propor- 

 tion. Sometimes I think the square sections 

 are fully as pretty as the others, and at other 

 times I have the opposite notion ; but after 

 the honey is cut out and put on the plate, the 

 square chunk is certainly more in keeping 

 with the general proportion of the plate than 

 the oblong one. If the tall section is more 

 pleasing in appearance to the average consum- 

 er, then that is reason why it should bring as 

 much or more money. There is no deception. 



It is admitted that comb honey has been 

 selling too low, even in the years of good sup- 

 ply. It is almost impossible to advance prices 

 on the same article ; but it is possible, by 

 changing the form of the package, to secure a 

 higher price. Then the old question arises : 

 If the consumer has been paying too low a 

 price for his honey, or, in other words, robbing 

 the producer, is it right for the latter to pur- 

 posely deceive him a little by making him 

 think he is getting a larger value for the larger 

 size of package? If we put the question in 

 exactly that form, there can be only one 

 answer ; but that statement of the proposition 

 is hardly a fair one. If there were no 4j£ sec- 

 tions produced, and the honey were in tall 

 boxes exclusively, which is the case in some 

 markets, then there is no fooling of consumer, 

 and no robbing on either side. If, as I said, 

 the tall section by itself is more pleasing, the 

 consumer buys it because he wants it. Tak- 

 ing it all in all, one would be exceedingly 

 unkind to declare that, because some one pre- 

 ferred and sold his honey in tall boxes, that 

 person was robbing the consumer. There is 

 such a thing as being finical, or overnice, in 

 points of this kind. In straining at a gnat we 

 might swallow a camel. 



Our sales for the past season show that, in 

 a few years at least, the tall sections will 

 forge well to the front. That astute bee-keep- 



