470 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



June, 1917 



HEADS OF GiaiPn PP«a rDIFFER^ FIEL DS 



The Beekeeper Answers 



BY GRACE ALLEN 



What are the silvery streaks I see 

 Slanting across the mulberry tree? 



Spirits in tune with the rapture of things — 

 Bits of June that have taken wings. 



What are the drops of light I see 

 Drifting across the persimmon tree? 



Gallant crusaders to far-off things 



That yield but to faith -and unf earing wings. 



What are the flaming darts I see 

 Flashing across the magnolia tree? 



Wild wee lives that are drunk on things 

 Like June and clover hearts, beauty and 

 wings! 



Full Sheets of Comb I am a beginner and 

 Foundation or Only very enthusiastic, for 

 Starters I just love to work 



with bees. I started 

 with one colony last year, increased to four, 

 which have wintered well. 



Now I propose to produce bulk comb honey 

 in shallow 5% -inch frames, as I think bees 

 will store more in them tlian in the small 

 sections, and I can sell all I can produce of 

 this bulk honey, all grades, right at home at 

 15 cts. per lb., and that is all I can get for 

 the sections. Won 't the bees store more 

 honey in shallow extracting-frames than in 

 sections? 



Would you use full sheets of thin super 

 foundation in the shallow frames, or start- 

 ers? Do you really think it pays, financially, 

 to use foundation in these shallow frames? 



In Dr. Miller's answer to question 2 of C. 

 A. C, Lincoln, Del., page 204 for March, I 

 wish to know why he couldn 't modify the 

 answer somewhat and use a Hodgson venti- 

 lated escape-board with double escape, in- 

 stead of bottom-board under the top story, 

 and let the bees go down below thru the es- 

 cape, at will, after they emerge from the 

 cells. I have just finished reading his book, 

 '' Fifty Years Among the Bees," and I like 

 it well — think I have gotten a great deal of 

 information that just suits my locality. 



Shawsville, Va. W. W. Likens. 



Dr. Miller replies: 



It is quite generally agreed that more 

 honey can be obtained in the larger combs 

 than where the room is broken up into little 

 compartments, as with sections. If the price 

 is the same on each kind of honey, you are 

 very wise to let sections alone. 



We know that in most cases publishers of 

 bee journals are more or less interested in 

 the sale of comb foundation, and it is not 

 unnatural that they should lean toward the 



belief that it is a good thing to use a good 

 deal of it. One can hardly blame them. On 

 the other hand, can one blame the beginner 

 for using in his sections 1-inch starters in- 

 stead of filling them with foundation, thus 

 saving three-fourths of his outlay? 



Now, I am not interested in the use or sale 

 of foundation beyond the interest in it for 

 my own use. I wish I could reach the ear of 

 every beginner who uses foundation. At any 

 rate I ask the earnest attention of all who 

 read this. I have been producing comb 

 honey for a great many years. I have paid 

 out hundreds of dollars of good money for 

 foundation. If I had used inch starters I 

 could have saved three - fourths of that 

 money; for during all these years I have 

 filled the sections with foundation, using top 

 and bottom starters. But for every dollar 

 saved in that way I should have lost two. 

 That's putting it very conservatively. 



Let me tell you a little about it. Suppose 

 we have a strong colony in a heavy flow with 

 supers of sections on it. Let us put into it 

 side by side two sections, one filled with 

 foundation, the other having a narrow start- 

 er. The bees will at once begin work on 

 each, and it will not be many hours before 

 we find shallow cells drawn out, with a little 

 beginning of honey in many of them. In 

 the one section work will be begun in the 

 whole of the section, but in only a fourth of 

 it in the other; and not until comb is built 

 to fill the vacant space can work be done 

 in the whole of the section. What between, 

 the extra honej^ it takes to build that comb 

 and the delay caused in working in the whole 

 of the section, it is not hard to see that 

 there is lost in the crop a good deal more 

 than would pay for foundation to fill the 

 section full. 



There is another item of less importance, 

 but still worth considering. With sections 

 filled with foundation, the queen so seldom 

 goes up to lay in supers that it is not worth 

 while to use excluders. If narrow starters 

 are used, queen - excluders are absolutely 

 necessary, or the bees will build much drone 

 comb in the sections, making the comb not 

 quite so nice in appearance, and, what is 

 still worse, the queen will go up, and a lot 

 of drone brood will be in the sections. To 

 be sure j'ou might avoid this by having an 

 abundant supply of drone comb in the brood- 

 chamber, but that would be only making a 

 bad matter worse. 



Unless you are so i-ich that you can afford 

 the loss, don't fail to fill your sections 

 with foundation. Same thing with shallow 

 frames. 



It may be that it would work as well or 

 better to allow the bees to go down thrii 

 an escape-board, but in that case it is just 

 possible that the last of the brood might 

 not be so well cared for. But then I don't 

 know. C. C. Miller. 



