210 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



of all of the yellow races of bees is 

 that the bees from the parent col- 

 ony having cast a swarm when they 

 first fly from the combs or hive, 

 after it is set in a new location, 

 mark the spot from which they left, 

 the same as does a bee from a 

 swarm, and this is just the reason 

 that more bees should be taken 

 when the change cannot be made 

 while the swarm is in the air. 



2. After trying nearly all the 

 section-cases advertised in our bee 

 paper, and many not so advertised, 

 I have come to the conclusion that 

 inch-frames holding but one tier of 

 sections give the best results with 

 the least work, trouble and annoy- 

 ance. Wide frames, two or more 

 tiers of sections high to be used in 

 the upper story of a two story hive 

 do not work at all satisfactorily with 

 me, so I have discarded them en- 

 tirely. However, I find them very 

 handy when hiving very large 

 swarms, where one-inch frames of 

 sections are placed at each side of 

 the hive to take the place of dum- 

 mies in contracting the hive from 

 an eight-frame hive down to five 

 frames. Those wide frames are 

 hung in the hive with the separa- 

 tors toward the comes, and it is a 

 rare instance that I get either 

 brood or pollen in them. By tak- 

 ing this in connection with what I 

 say on page 182, it will be seen that 

 three-inch frames are only left at 

 the side for twenty-four days, when 

 they are taken out, generally tilled 

 with nice honey. If all are not so 

 filled, that portion of them is 

 placed on top in the one-tier wide 

 frames, when they are finished. 

 This makes some work but as such 

 are only used on very large swarms 

 but little of this changing of sec- 

 tions is required, as they are gen- 

 erally complete at the end of 

 twenty-four days, so that it is no 

 more work to handle wide frames 

 of sections than it would be dum- 

 mies. You ask about tiering up. 



I do not like tiering up, nor never 

 did, for by this plan I am liable to 

 have too many partly finished sec- 

 tions at the end of the season, es- 

 pecially should the season be a 

 little poorer than we expected. 

 However, the wide frames I use 

 can very easily be made so as to 

 tier up. A brief description of 

 what 1 prefer is as follows : make 

 wide frames to accommodate the 

 number of sections you desire, 

 consistent with top of your hive 

 and size of section. I use four 

 sections in a frame. Next make 

 two boards the same length and 

 height of the wide frames. Drive 

 a nail into each end of one of these 

 boards, letting it project one- fourth 

 inch and a large headed tack into 

 each end of the other, driving it 

 in so that by winding a string 

 around once or twice it will hold 

 the string as in a vice. Now pro- 

 cure some one-half inch wide rub- 

 ber bands (little coil wire springs 

 answer a full better purpose) at a 

 rubber store and cut them into 

 pieces two and one-half inches 

 long. Tie a short string by mak- 

 ing a slip-knot to one end of the 

 rubber and to the nail driven in 

 the first little board, and then tie 

 a longer string to the other end of 

 the rubber. I use one eighteen 

 inches long. Put your wide frames 

 on the hive two, three, five, seven 

 or ten as you wish, set one of the 

 little boards up on each side, draw 

 the rubber till a strong tension is 

 made, and wind around between 

 head of tack and board to fasten 

 when you have an arrangement 

 that you can enlarge or contract, 

 invert or tier up as you please, and 

 one which I consider superior to 

 anytliing yet brought before the 

 public in shape of a surplus ar- 

 rangement for comb honey. For 

 practical work I use it as follows : 

 when the honey reason opens I put 

 from two to five inch frames, on 

 cacli colony according to size, be- 



