474 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



We make boxes and put two to four 

 frames in them, with starters of brood foun- 

 dation one or more inches wide. We prefer 

 to have the starters one inch wide, as then 

 there is no danger of their melting down 

 from the heat of the sun, as sometimes 

 happens to hives having full sheets of foun- 

 dation. We then take these boxes and put 

 them in apple-trees, or trees along the road- 

 sides, having first obtained permission of 

 the owner to do so. We set the boxes on a 

 limb and tie them with strings. The boxes 

 have an entrance like that of a real hive, 

 and we make several half-inch holes in the 

 ends, covering these over with wire cloth. 

 We prefer to set the entrance facing the 

 south or east, and to have old frames that 

 have the scent of bees on them. We start 

 out with a load of these boxes, and keep an 

 account in a book of the place where each 



one is set. The boxes are numbered from 

 1 up. One year we got 30 swarms in this 

 way, and 5 in one tree. I might say that 

 we had over 70 boxes out. 



In California last year one of my sons 

 caught 9 swarms in this way, and he found 

 5 more in a ledge of a rock, a distance of 

 150 feet inside. Some of these swarms wera 

 so far back from the face of the rock that 

 he had to make a knife with a long handle 

 to reach in to cut out the comb. This year 

 they are figuring on getting 200. As the 

 country becomes cleared up, and the trees 

 cut down, it is evident that there are not so 

 many holes in the trees for these stray 

 swarms to take possession of. Out of the 

 dozens of swarms that we have caught in 

 the past eight years, only one has developed 

 foul brood. 



Rochester, Mich. 



SEPARATORS USED ONLY WHILE SECTIONS ARE BEING FINISHED 



BY OTTO A. PARK 



In the A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture 

 I read that separators may be omitted if 

 common beeway sections are used, no wider 

 than the brood-frame — 1% inches from 

 center to center, with full sheets of founda- 

 tion fastened to all four sides of the sec- 

 tions. Combs would be built nearly as 

 straight as when separators are used ; but 

 beeway sections only 1% inches thick would 

 not hold a pound of honey; so it was up to 

 me to have some supers built with section- 

 holders to be self-spacing, and to have 

 sections made 1% inches wide on the long 

 side, and 1% on the short or narroAV side, 

 the same being only i/s cut out of each side. 

 When two sections came together it would 

 leave a beeway, and at the same time have 

 some protection for the comb when shipped. 

 In order to use them I had to put one fence 

 separator in the super first; then the eight 

 section-holders, with four sections in a hold- 

 er. This super was far ahead of any thing 

 I could find for it had a great many advan- 

 tages over the old. The bees would enter 

 them at once, and there was no need of any 

 separators until the combs were three- 

 fourths drawn out. Then one of the section- 

 holders was removed from the super, the 

 remaining holders spread apart, and a sep- 

 arator dropped in between each holder, 

 super springs being put in to hold them 

 together. 



It will be seen that, by the above plan, 

 the bees have no separators to begin with, 

 and this is why I could get combs built so 

 readily. If baits were used they were put 

 one in each holdei*. When putting in the 



separators the holder that was taken out to 

 make room for the separators was used for 

 bait in the next empty super that was usu- 

 ally put on at that time. If they were not 

 used as baits they were left in the holders; 

 and when there was enough to fill another 

 super it was given to a colony that could 

 use it. 



If I didn't use full sheets of foundation, 

 and wanted the bees to build combs full at 

 the bottom of the sections I would turn the 

 holders upside down, before the combs were 

 capped over too near the bottom. Every 

 one knows that sections are filled out much 

 fuller at the top than at the bottom; and 

 this turning the sections bottom side i;p was 

 just what was needed to fill the sections out 

 full at the bottom. 



I will admit that I have not tested this 

 plan as much as I shoiald like, the reason 

 being that, at the time I was raising comb 

 honey, I could get only 12 cts. a pound, 

 and could get that for my extracted. Last 

 season I got 15 cts. per lb. Would it pay 

 me to go to raising comb honey again? It 

 brought 16 cts. per lb. last season. 



Birmingham, Mich. 



[With a difference of only one cent be- 

 tween comb and extracted it would surely 

 pay you to keep on producing extracted 

 honey. 



It is just a question in our minds whether 

 the gain in the time the bees entered the 

 separatorlcss supers would make up for the 

 extra labor involved in going through the 

 yard to put in the separators later on. — 

 Ed.1 



