1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



13 



be sent next summer, you to set your own 

 price. We would make you an offer for the 

 breeder ; but, even if you accepted, by the 

 time she arrived here through the mails she 

 might be almost worthless as a breeder, es- 

 pecially if she were getting to be old, and it 

 would not be wise to take chances on such a 

 queen. 



Yes, sir ; when one colony shows such mark- 

 ed superiority over 600 others in the same api- 

 ary it is indeed a rarity, and that queen is a 

 prize. I hope you will supply other breeders 

 with your stock as well as ourselves, for the 

 time is surely at hand when better honey- 

 queens rather than better colored ones should 

 be sought. — Ed.] 



TALL SECTIONS. 



How to Get Bees to Take the Honey out of Supers ; 

 Smoker-drippings, and the Remedy. 



BY J. E. CRANE. 



My Dear Ernest : — I have been wanting to 

 write you for a long time on several matters ; 

 and as this is the season of mince-meat, per- 

 haps it would be a good time. 



1. In regard to the use of separators with 

 projections, a year ago you thought you might 

 be able to introduce them this winter. I had 

 hoped that the past season I might be able to 

 prove very conclusively their value ; but the 

 season was one of the worst I have ever known, 

 my bees averaging but one pound of surplus 

 per colony ; yet these separators with projec- 

 tions have given very satisfactory results. I 

 think as large a proportion of sections were 

 sealed up and down the sides as I have had 

 for many years, although I did not get a sin- 

 gle clamp finished. Still, under the circum- 

 stances I think it would be better to leave the 

 matter for another year, when I shall be able, 

 I hope, to speak more positively as to their 

 value. 



2. On page 766, Oct. 15, Louis Moll speaks 

 of using sections 4^X5^ Xl^ ^s I had some 

 time suggested as being quite too thin. I 

 think I must have had in mind plain sections. 

 I made several thousand last winter 5X4^ X 

 IX plain, and they prove very satisfactory. I 

 have just weighed five such ; and although 

 not perfectly filled they averaged 14)^ ounces 

 in weight. A plain section \% thick is al- 

 most exactly the same as 15.^ with a bee-space. 



3. I see you and Dr. Miller have a good deal 

 of trouble in getting the bees to take the hon- 

 ey out of sections in a super. Now, the way 

 to do it is to uncap all that is capped, either 

 with knife or by scraping the cappings, and 

 laying the combs down flat instead of in a 

 natural position, then bees will quickly re- 

 move the honey. However, I think where 

 one has many unfinished combs the best way 

 is to uncap and put them into the extractor 

 and then give to the bees to clean up. 



4. In regard to the smoker dripping, I long 

 ago learned that, in the burning of wood, 

 either wet or dry, a large amount of water is 

 generated. A large part of dry wood is com- 

 posed of oxygen and hydrogen, and in com- 

 bustion these unite, forming water. If you 



lift a griddle of the kitchen stove soon after 

 starting a fire in cool weather you will find 

 the under side covered with moisture condens- 

 ed by the cold iron. We shall also find, 

 where a stovepipe extends a long distance, or 

 through cold rooms, a tendency to drip. The 

 dripping of smokers will be found much worse 

 in a cold day, or in a damp cloudy day, than 

 in clear warm weather. If you use dry fuel, 

 of course there will be less than when damp 

 fuel is used. So far so good. But this is not 

 a complete remedy. If the inside of the 

 smoker is well lined with soot it helps ; but 

 even this will sometimes fail. 



The only complete remedy, so far as I know, 

 or at least the most practical remedy, is to 

 make a hot fire in the smoker when trouble- 

 some, and then the heated air does not readily 

 condense on the inside of the smoker. A cu- 

 bic foot of air at 10° Fahrenheit will hold ^^ of 

 a grain of water in suspension. If the tem- 

 perature is increased to 30° it will hold 2 grains. 

 If raised to 70° it will hold 10 grains, and at 

 100° 19 grains, and at a temperature of 212° 

 many times this — if I remember correctly, sev- 

 eral ounces. The ability of the air to hold 

 moisture increases very rapidly as the temper- 

 ature rises. From this will readily be seen 

 the advantage in damp or cold weather of hav- 

 ing a decidedly hot draft through the smoker, 

 thus keeping the sides of the nozzle warm, 

 and the smoke and air hot enough to hold all 

 the moisture generated or given off in combus- 

 tion. 



In the Dec. 1st issue of Gleanings Dr. 

 Miller has a Straw relating to a new linden — 

 Tilia petiolaris, two weeks later than other 

 lindens. Does this mean that it is two weeks 

 later than the American or European linden ? 

 The American linden blooms about two weeks 

 later than the European. 

 gMiddlebury, Vt., Dec.;5. 



[I should be glad to hear more about these 

 big sections. They must look like great slabs 

 of honey. Better not send any of these around 

 in Danzenbaker's territory or he will be around 

 after you with a sharp stick, for his 4x5 would 

 have no show. 



I have tried laying combs flatwise on the 

 brood-frames, and I now remember that the 

 bees did take the honey out of them ; but as 

 it would be a great deal of work to take the 

 sections out of supers and lay them down, per- 

 haps the best way is to let the bees rob them 

 out, as explained in Straws in this issue.— Ed.] 



RAMBLE i8o. 



Rambler's Inventive Genius at Work; How he 



would use Hypnotism in place of Smokers 



for Bees. 



BY RAMBLER. 



" Well, Rambler," said the boss as we sat at 

 ease in his cabin, "you seem to be doing a 

 land-office business in the line of improve- 

 ments. Your head must be full of them. 

 Now suppose you tell us about the next thing 

 ■we may expect." 



