THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



201 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Heddon's Houey Board. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



On page 156 of the Bee Jot^inal 

 for Miircli 8, Mr. Funk asks for a de- 

 scription of my lioney board. Not 

 quite liking your description of it, Mr. 

 Editor, please allow me to do so. 



" When I was a boy." away back In 

 the "dim vistas " of the past, discus- 

 sions about honey boards were in 

 order and operation through the 

 columns of the monthly Bee Jour- 

 nal. Some stoutly averred, and all 

 agreed, that honey boards between 

 boxes or upper sets of frames, and the 

 brood frames, were a great conveni- 

 ence, because they prevented the bees 

 from sticking the frames together. 



But some there were, who said that 

 the honey board isolated the surplus 

 department from the brood cliamber 

 to so great an extent tliat the bees 

 would not obtain as much surplus as 

 ■when these boards were not used. 

 But Mr. Langstroth, in his book and 

 specifications of his patent-claims 

 pretty plainly told us that bees would 

 put their surplus honey readily into 

 any department where tlie " heat and 

 odor" of the hive readily permeated. 

 Inspired with this welcome and rea- 

 sonable announcement, I set about 

 constrncting a honey board that I 

 thought best adapted to the principles 

 laid down. There is, sometimes, great 

 convenience in placing hives on top 

 of each other, with no board between. 

 A super constructed properly for so 

 doing must come down no lower than 

 the bottom of its frames ; then, when 

 set upon the lower story the bee space 

 above the lower frarries, is the only 

 and perfect bee space between the 2 

 sets of frames. Now, a flat honey 

 board would touch the upper set of 

 frames, whose bottom bars would be 

 glued fast to it. This fact caused me 

 to devise what I named my " sink 

 honey board." I will describe it as 

 nearly as I can : 



Suppose your hive and super is made 

 of Jg thick lumber. Make a frame the 

 size of the top of your hive, let the 

 material of this frame be, end pieces, 

 Mx% ; side pieces, M^M ; rabbet these 

 end pieces %x% on one corner ; nail 

 the side pieces to tlie end pieces, keep- 

 ing the % way of all pieces up and 

 down. Now, I will suppose you have 

 an 8 frame hive, (you ouglit to have, 

 and a Langstroth iframe at that), lay 

 this frame on your bench rabbeted 

 side up, have prepared fl pieces that 

 will reach lengthwise of the inside of 

 your frame, and rest into the rabbets 

 beside. They should be ?» thick, and 

 •wide enough so that when laid in and 

 nailed as follows the 8 spaces between 

 them will be just %, nail the first one 

 snug up to one of the side pieces, and 

 the last one snug up to the other side 

 piece ; nail the side piece to this slat 

 with one nail in the middle, on both 

 sides. Now, when all are laid in and 

 placed so that you have a board with 

 8 % spaces running lengthwise of it, 

 when you place it on your hive you 

 will see tliat each space comes ex- 

 actly over the middle of the top bar 



below. When you placed this honey 

 board upon yoiu- hive you turned it 

 over, and found that your slats were 

 % lower than tlie sides of the board, 

 so, now, if you place your super upon 

 it, though the frames of this super 

 come down flush with its bottom, 

 there will be a ^i space between them 

 and this '■ sink honey board." As the 

 slats of this board break the direct 

 opening between the lower and upper 

 stories, no bits of comb are built up 

 through, and the upper frames (wliich 

 should rest on a metal rabbet, but 

 have no metal corners) move up by 

 simply picking them up. No bees can 

 be crushed when replacing them, as 

 tlie lower space is always clear of all 

 pieces of comb. You see that with 

 this arrangement the heat and odor 

 of the brood chamber is in no way re- 

 tarded. 



I use the same board for sections, 

 only I add to it ^,;xj.2 inch cross pieces 

 (as needed, according to the length of 

 sections) so that the sections rest on 

 them just at their ends, and leave bee 

 space under all the rest of tlieir en- 

 tire length. These sections pick up 

 clean of all dropping bits of combs, 

 and hence remove readily, and come 

 off clean and nice. I have used this 

 board for comb and extracted honey 

 for more than ten years, and when I 

 say that they are in no way any detri- 

 ment to the amount of surplus honey 

 received, and are highly in favor of 

 its neatness and appearance (if comb), 

 and the convenience of the apiarist, I 

 have no fears but what the future 

 will verify the statement. 



Dowagiae, Mich. 



For the American Bee Journal, 



Over-Stocking and Marketing Honey. 



O. M. BLANTON. 



After the sale of 25 colonies, I com- 

 menced last spring with 315. Our in- 

 come up to October 15, was as fol- 

 lows : Extracted honey, 10,3.59 lbs., 

 $744.46 ; comb houey, 2,295 lbs., $331- 

 .97; beeswax, 64 lbs., $12.80. Total, 

 SI ,214.23. Add 25 colonies at five dol- 

 lars, $125. Total, $1,214.23. 



From the above you will perceive 

 that my comb honey sold for about 

 14J^ cts., and my extracted for about 

 7J.^c. My average yield per colony was 

 about 40 lbs., and average profits 

 about $3.45. I lost only 1 colony from 

 absconding, and increased to 326 col- 

 onies. A considerable amountof wax 

 was used for the barrels, and all irreg- 

 ular section combs, after being ex- 

 tracted, and pieces of drone comb cut 

 from the brood chamber, were tied in 

 Langstroth frames and placed in the 

 upjier story. 



I will now add in this report that of 

 my friend, G. C. Vaught. Mr. 

 Vaught's report is taken from the ac- 

 count of sales by his merchant, and 

 the entire yield is from 32 colonies : 

 Comb honey, 2.S77 lbs., $513.03; ex- 

 tracted honey, 200 lbs., $20.00. Total, 

 $533.03. His extracted lioney yield- 

 ing 10 cts. per lb., and comb honey 

 17 4-5 cts., average yield per colony, 

 96 lbs. Profit, $16.65. 



Mr. Vaught shipped all of his comb 

 honey to St. Louis, but sold his ex- 

 tracted at home. He lost 6 swarms 

 from absconding and increased to 40^ 

 colonies. After the loth of August he 

 did not extract honey from the lower 

 story. lie uses the same pattern of 

 hive that I do, and has only 2 colonies 

 of Italians. All of my apiary is 

 located within 2 acres in the town of 

 Greenville. 600 yards from the Missis- 

 sippi river. Mr. Vaught's is located 

 4 miles from the river in the country, 

 ;uid therefore can forage at all points 

 of the compass. 



The above reports do not show the 

 net earnings as the cost of labor and 

 packages must be deducted. Mr. V. 

 was fortunate in his merchant, as his 

 and my comb honey was of the same 

 quality and packed in similar cases 

 to mine, and sold at same time— his 

 tor 18c.. mine for 14c., by a merchant 

 near by. He sold some for as much 

 as 23 and 25c. 



From the above it is seen that an 

 locality can be over-stocked ; although. 

 300 colonies can be made profitable in 

 this county, especially in a good sea- 

 son. In the past season we suffered 

 from late frosts in the spring, and 

 severe drouth in June, J uly, and part 

 of August. 



Greenville, Miss. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



The "Call" of a "Strange Yisitor."^ 



DE. G. L.. TUtKEB, 



As Mr. G. M. Doolittle is reported 

 to be very ill, and., moreover, since he- 

 would doubtless ti eat the impertinent, 

 slurring, and disrespectful article of 

 Mr. Van Kirk, on page 167 of tlie Bee 

 Journal, with contempt, it may be 

 well for another to notice it. For 

 myself, I must deprecate such an 

 attack, and confess that I felt pained 

 upon reading it. It will not do, in 

 this manner especially, to Call in 

 question the honest statements of our 

 foremost apiarists who have so gener- 

 ously, freely, and without reserve,, 

 given to bee-keepers everywhere the 

 benefit of their various modes of man- 

 agement, which has contributed so 

 much to make modern bee-keeping 

 what it is to-day. They are not only 

 entitled to great credit and respect, 

 but we owe to them a debt of grati- 

 tude. Mr. Van Kirk can ill afford to 

 attack men who have done so much in 

 his behalf. 



Mr. Doolittle is not the only one 

 who has made " big reports," nor the- 

 only one among skilled and expe- 

 rienced apiarists to suffer serious 

 losses. As to reports, other bee-keep- 

 ers have made more astounding ones, 

 and yet others have suffered far 

 greater losses in wintering. 



Doubtless, if Mr. Van Kirk were tO' 

 go over the writings of other frequent, 

 contributors to the Bee Journal, h& 

 might find apparently conflicting: 

 statements, which, however, in the 

 presence of all the facts, could be 

 reconciled. But it would profit no 

 one. 



I do not care to go over Mr. Van 

 Kirk's article in detail. It is sutlicient 



