1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



203 



even one good one. I have folded 1000 in 

 one hour many a time, without any ma- 

 chinery, and did not break one. 



Sections fresh from the manufacturer fold 

 without breakage. Old sections, when per- 

 fectly dry, give trouble. If placed in a cel- 

 lar for one or two weeks previous to being 

 folded, there is no trouble. A crate of dry 

 sections may be wrapped up in a blanket 

 wrung out of hot water, and all covered up 

 with an oilcloth. Thus leaving for a day or 

 two will prepare sections for the folding. 



Further, Mr. M. says: "When the heat of 

 the hive dries the wood, the corner shrinks 

 and pops apart, making the section unsala- 

 ble." Such a case, I venture to say, does 

 not happen, at least it never has with me, 

 in 35 years. The fact is, I have occasional- 

 ly slipped a broken-out side of a faulty cross- 

 grained section in its place after the section 

 had been put into the wide frame, which I 

 use in my comb-honey supers. The honey 

 itself has always held such a section in 

 shape perfectly, and even in such a case I 

 would not want to resort to a metal corner. 

 It would not be needed; besides, a metal 

 corner would be very objectionable in a sec- 

 tion for various reasons. 



Again, Mr. M. says that a comb-honey 

 super can not be unloaded without 10 per 

 cent breakage. I do not know what kind 

 of contrivance the super is Mr. M. refers to 

 or uses, but with almost any super sent out 

 by manufacturers, with the possible excep- 

 tion of the T super, there is no need of any 

 breakage at all, and yet one may handle 

 the filled sections rapidly. 



Mr. M. continues: "After the cleaning of 

 propolis, hundreds more are broken. ' ' I am 

 at a loss to understand what Mr. M. means. 

 I never had such an experience, 



The following is equally dark: "Then 

 when placing the sections in shipping-cases, 

 some of them are not square, and in press- 

 ing them in they are squared up. If the 

 corner holds, the honey is cracked; hence 

 the necessity of no-drip crates, etc." 



Now, all of this is wrong — altogether 

 wrong. A section which is not square would 

 not have been square if it had been fixed up 

 with metal corners. If not square after be- 

 ing filled with honey by the bees, it would 

 be foolhardiness to try to square it. Any 

 such section must be put into the shipping- 

 case as they are. They do not leak any 

 more than joerfectly square ones. There is 

 usually a Utile play in the shipping-cases 

 to allow for some inaccuracy or variableness, 

 and there should be. The no-drip sticks 

 and the corrugated paper are used to provide 

 for incidental minor leaks only, and safer 

 carriage. No comb should crack. A crack- 

 ed comb will make muss enough to soil 

 some of the sections, even with drip-sticks 

 under them. 



I have raised comb honey for 35 years. I 

 have made up a great many thousand sec- 

 tions with my own hands; but all the 

 broken sections which I ever had in these 

 years would not fill even one bushel basket, 

 and Mr. M, has several in one season. We 



use pine stumps for kindling; basswood 

 sections are not nearly as good, and cost a 

 great deal more. It will pay to use more 

 care to prevent breakage. The only time 

 we break sections is when we try to make 

 them up when too dry or when the timber 

 is at fault, either brashy or cross-grained. 



I imagine that kiln-dried timber is not so 

 well suited for sections or hives either. I 

 saw an otherwise fine lot of newly made-up 

 hives a short time ago made of timber al- 

 most ruined by thus being seasoned artifi- 

 cially. Possibly Mr. M. has had sections to 

 deal with made from such timber. 



Naples, N. Y. 



[The article by Mr. Maxwell, in our Aug. 

 15th issue, p. 534, should have had a footnote 

 correcting some of the mistatements; for 

 the breakages in sections can not be any 

 thing like that stated unless the sections 

 are very poorly made, or gross carelessness 

 is used in handling them. Your reply, how- 

 ever, covers the matter much better than 

 any thing we could have said; and, besides, 

 you have given a valuable suggestion about 

 putting sections in a cellar before folding. 



We do not think any manufacturer of 

 bee-supplies is now using kiln-dried lumber. 

 It was found years ago to be unsuitable. 



The metal-corner scheme of holding sec- 

 tions is old. If we are correct it was made 

 the subject of a patent some years ago; but 

 the idea never was and never will be prac- 

 ticable. While the corners could be stamp- 

 ed out cheap enough, it would cost altogeth- 

 er too much to attach them to the corners 

 of the sections. If one-piece sections would 

 not hold together it would be cheaper to use 

 nailed or dovetailed sections. — Ed.] 



ITALIANS VS. CARNIOLANS. 



Conditions in which Carniolans are Superior; 

 Better for Resisting Disease also. 



BY J. T, DUNN. 



In some parts of California, especially in 

 the orange and sage belts, where the main 

 flow comes during the swarming season, I 

 have seen Italian colonies swarm three 

 times, and the first swarm would swarm 

 once. I have also seen them swarm with 

 young queens, and with only four or five 

 frames of brood. I never had a colony of 

 Carniolans in the orange or sage belt, and 

 can not say whether they would swarm any 

 more than Italians; but after two seasons of 

 experience with the Carniolans on the San 

 Joaquin plains in the alfalfa and clover dis- 

 tricts, where the flow begins about June 1, 

 and lasts until Nov. 1, I would not want to 

 try them. In a location where the main 

 flow comes during the swarming season they 

 would breed heavily, and for that reason I 

 think excessive swarming would be the re- 

 sult. But in the alfalfa and clover districts, 

 where we have very little swarming, we are 

 compelled to make up our winter loss by di- 

 viding our strongest colonies in the spring. 



