48 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



March 



carelessly sets a T-super down ou some 

 rough surface, perhaps 3own into the 

 grass by the shade of a hive, and he 

 finds a dozen or more sections pushed 

 up partly — how trying it is for one in 

 the hurry of the work to get that 

 super back in shape. Even when a T- 

 super is filled with honey it must be 

 handled with greater care than any 

 other one on account of sections not 

 being protected from the bottom. 



As to the one-piece section getting 

 glued up worse than the four-piece 

 section, this is a most insignificant 

 matter. If Mr. Heddon will try no- 

 bee-way sections he will experience no 

 trouble in their becoming glued up 

 seriously, providing he uses wide- 

 fi'ame supers, which is the only super 

 I consider worth having in a large bee 

 yard where time is considered money. 

 Mr. Heddon also prefers a section of 

 hard wood. I have suggested soft 

 maple as a suitable timber for the pur- 

 pose, some years ago. I was prompted 

 to do so because I felt we ought to 

 save the linden for bee pasturage. Of 

 course hard timber does not soil as 

 easily as soft basswood and water 

 does not soak into hard wood easily, 

 but we have no occasion to wash our 

 sections in order to get them clean. So 

 far as that is concerned, basswood an- 

 swers the purpose very well. The 

 principal gluing always occurs along 

 the top-bars of our wide frames where 

 the bottom bars sag a little, thus form- 

 ing a gap between the tops of sections 

 and the top-bar of the wide frames. 

 For this reason I would now make bot- 

 tom-bars of frames fully as heavy as 

 top-bars, or make the frames shorter 

 so as to take only three sections in- 

 stead of four. The gluing with one- 

 piece sections could not possibly be 

 any worse than with four-piece sec- 

 tions, and the soiling would be slight 

 whether hard wood or soft wood was 

 used for sections. The reason why 

 there is so much difference between 

 bee-keepers on the same subjects may 

 be attributed to tile fact that the 

 notions of different men are unlike. 

 Some will get along with little imper- 

 fections in a certain line, others would 

 not; and then again other imperfec- 

 tions they will make a big fuss over 

 t!ie others would count naught. So it 

 happens that the majority of bee- 

 keepers put up with the Italian bee al- 



though they well know their coml> 

 honey is not to be compared with that 

 of the black or Carniolan bee. As G. 

 M. Doolittle says: "The honey the 

 Italians make is 'good enough,' " and 

 so I might say, soft wood sections are 

 good enough. As to one- and Tour-sec- 

 tions, I would give a little more for 

 the former rather than use latter, but 

 of course if the former cannot be ob- 

 tained I would not hesitate to use the 

 latter. 



Naples, N. Y., Dec. 15, 1903. 



♦-•-♦^ 



MANIPULATION. 



Variable Results from Different Methods and 

 Races of Bees. Characteristics Viewed from the 

 Standpoint of Sentiment and Science. 

 By Arthur C. Miller. 



IT WAS with some surprise that I 

 read Dr. Blanton's comments in 

 the January Bee-Keeper on the 

 Cyprian bees. In my own apiaries I 

 find them most tractable when proper- 

 ly handled. I say "properly handled" 

 because they do resent the treatment 

 generally given to bees. I handle 

 Cyprians as freely as Carniolans, do it 

 bare faced and bare handed and in 

 fact on account of their tractability 

 and beauty use them for show bees 

 and do not hesitate to show them to 

 visitors even when the latter are with- 

 out veil and gloves. 



But this article is not to extol the 

 merits of any race or strain of bees 

 but to treat of causes of trouble in 

 handling bees. Do any two persons 

 handle bees the same? I almost be- 

 lieve not. With smoker belobiug clouds 

 of pungent, suffocating vapor, one 

 operator will assail the hive like a 

 Chinese fanatic demolishing devils. 

 The poor bees are driven helter-skelter 

 first from the entrance and then from 

 the tops of the frames. By the time 

 the first frame is out the bees are in 

 a tremendous furor, rushing to and 

 fro in a vain endeavor to escape the 

 all-pervading smoke. And the operator 

 wonders why it is so hard to find the 

 queen! 



Try such treatment with Cyprians 

 and the poor misguided operator will 

 go onto the retired list for many a day. 

 Iry it with "Blacks" and they will de- 

 sert the hive and scatter to the four 

 winds — till some more convenient sea- 



