808 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



The objections to the perforated 

 zinc for a queen-excluding honey- 

 board are, first, its cost; second, its 

 lack of rigidity. When first put on 

 it does very well ; but, of course, the 

 bees stick it down and connect it by 

 means of brace-combs, with the 

 frames below, and when it is removed 

 it Is liable to be bent or kinked so 

 that when again placed upon the hive 

 the bee-spaces above and below the 

 zinc are not perfect. Where the space 

 becomes too small, the bees stick the 

 zinc fast with propolis ; where the 

 ^pace is too small, they build brace- 

 combs. 



To make the Heddon honey-board 

 queen-excluding, 1 have placed the 

 slats five-thirty-seconds of an inch 

 apart, and such boards are a success ; 

 but the difficulty is in adjusting the 

 spaces to a nicety, and keeping the 

 slats in place. To overcome this dif- 

 ficulty, 1 have, during the past season, 

 used honey-boards of perforated 

 wood. Their construction is as fol- 

 lows : Take lumber 14-inch thick, 

 cut it into lengths as long as the hive, 

 and of such width that three pieces 

 will cover the top of the hive. With 

 a saw of such thickness that it will 

 cut a kerf flve-thirty-seconds of an 

 inch in width, cut slots into these 

 pieces of wood, something after the 

 manner of the perforated zinc. I 

 make the slots about 3 inches in 

 length, one inch apart, and they 

 "break joints '' as do the perforation 

 in the zinc. A frame of ^g-inch stuff 

 as large as the top of the hive, has 

 the inner corners of the end-pieces 

 rabbeted on one side, and into these 

 rabbets are placed the perforated 



Eieces, where they are fastened with 

 rads. This gives a honey-board 

 with a raised rim of about % of an 

 inch arouTid its edge, which allows a 

 bee-space below the sections. Such a 

 honey-board always preserves the 

 bee-spaces perfectly, and, as yet, no 

 queen has passed through them. 



The perforation in a zinc honey- 

 board need to be a trifle smaller, to 

 restrain the queen, than in one U of 

 an inch thick. 



After-using queen-excluding honey- 

 boards for two years, I am unable to 

 see that they lessen, or in any man- 

 ner affect the amount of surplus 

 honey secured, 



Kogersville,(^ ^Mich. 



For tbe American Bee JournaL 



That New Zealand Comb Foundation 



G. ELLIOTT. 



In the Bee Journal for Sept. .S, 

 1884, there is a letter from " Another 

 New Zealand Bee Keeper," and an 

 article copied from the New Zealand 

 and Australian Bee Journal about our 

 New Zealand comb foundation made 

 by Mr. Hopkins ; and as '• Another 

 New Zealand bee-keeper " wishes to 

 inform the readers of the Bee Jour- 

 nal that Dr. Dalziel had no grounds 

 for getting the foundation analyzed. 

 allow me to give my account of it, as 

 it was chiefly through me that the 

 Doctor acted as he did. 



Dr. Dalziel showed me some sam- 

 ples of comb foundation which he 

 had received from Chicago, and these 

 looked so very different compared 

 with the foundation which we were 

 getting from ilr. Hopkins. The color 

 was the same as that of the beeswax 

 which I iiad always obtained from my 

 own bees; the foundation of the cell- 

 walls was deep, thick and soft ; the 

 sheet was more pliable without break- 

 ing ; and, in fact, it was in every way 

 such a superior article that it looked 

 as if, with its use, there would be 

 none of the trouble which I, and all 

 the bee-keepers to whom I had spoken 

 on the subject, had had with Mr. 

 Hopkin's foundation, which was so 

 brittle, and sagged so much after 

 being put into tlje hive, that I con- 

 sidered the best thing that I could do 

 would be either to get my foundation 

 from America or possess a machine 

 and make my own. 



With this view, I inquired from a 

 traveler of Messrs. Porter & Co., im- 

 porting ironmongers, whether they 

 had any American bee-appliances. 

 He said that they had on hand a 

 honey-extractor, a machine for mak- 

 ing comb foundation, and wax to be 

 used with the machine, and he be- 

 lieved that there were some other im- 

 plements among them. I said that a 

 foundation machine was what I 

 wanted, chiefly, but I would use my 

 own beeswax. He said that the wax 

 which they had was much cheaper, as 

 it was a composition largely used in 

 America, but it was not pure bees- 

 wax. As he did not have these arti- 

 cles on his list, he did not know the 

 prices, so 1 asked him to inquire and 

 then let me know. 



A short time afterwards I saw him 

 again, and he told me the price of the 

 extractor and foundation machine, 

 but said that they had no more wax, 

 as it had all been sold and gone to the 

 Thames. I asked him who had 

 bought it, and he said, "I think that 

 it was Mr. Hopkins." He said that 

 it had been a sample lot sent over 

 with the machines. 



A few days after the^above inter- 

 view, as Dr. Dalziel was going into 

 Auckland, I asked him to call at Por- 

 ter's and look at the extractor and 

 foundation machines for me, to make 

 what inquiry he could about the com- 

 position wax, its price, etc., as the 

 traveler's statement might, perhaps, 

 account for the difference in the two 

 specimens of foundation. I believe 

 when the Doctor made the inquiry 

 about the wax, the employes at first 

 said that they had never had any wax; 

 but when he informed them of what 

 the traveler had told me, they said 

 that they remembered that such a 

 parcel did once pass through their 

 hands, but they could not remember 

 anything very definite about it. One 

 of them promised to examine the 

 books and ascertain all lie could about 

 it, bufif it was a sample lot, it was 

 very likely that there would not be 

 any entry of it. 



I afterwards saw the letter which 

 the Doctor received, stating that no 

 record of the parcel could be found ; 

 and we thought that, considering the 

 possible truth of the traveler's state- 



ment, and the evident difference in 

 the two lots of foundation, that there- 

 were good grounds tor suspecting th& 

 purity of Mr. Hopkin's comb founda- 

 tion. We agreed to have it analyzed 

 by Mr. Pond, of Auckland, and for- 

 ward the report to the ]S[ew Zealand 

 Bee Journal whatever the report 

 might be. 

 Auckland, N. Zealand, Nov. 8, 1884. 



[The foregoing explanation is given 

 in the Bee Journal as requested, 

 because it has twice decided (see 

 pages I0.5 and .571 ) that the sample of 

 beeswax sent here from New Zealand 

 was a " pure article." 



The trouble, no doubt, came from 

 the blundering of the traveling sales- 

 man of the importers, who called the 

 foundation mill •' a machine for mak- 

 ing artificial comb." Either he did 

 not know what he was talking about, 

 or the importers had obtained some 

 "parattine;" and in saying that 

 " spurious wax " or " parafiine " was 

 " a composition largely used in Amer- 

 ica" in tlie manufacture of comb 

 foundation, he was very far from the 

 truth. We are informed that an Ohio 

 manufacturer has been using some as 

 an experiment, and that is about all 

 that can be said about it. Now let 

 the matter rest. — Ed.] 



For the Americun Bee Journal. 



Whom Can 'We Believe? 



JOSHUA BULL. 



I believe that I have carefully read 

 every article that has appeared "in the 

 Bee Journal for over a year, es- 

 pecially every thing bearing upon ihe 

 vexed question of wintering bees ; 

 and I find so much diversity of opin- 

 ions, and apparently conflicting 

 theories advocated by those who 

 claim to be experts in bee-keeping, 

 that it is enough to confuse and be- 

 wilder those wno have had no experi- 

 ence in the business. How are we to 

 decide whether it is best to give our 

 bees honey or sugar for winter food, 

 upward or downward ventilation, to 

 place them in the cellar, in a reposi- 

 tory, or to leave them on the summer 

 stands ? One says. " Remove the bot- 

 tom-board and place the hive upon a 

 tray of dry sawdust;" while another 

 recommends a perpendicular column 

 of air underneath the hive. Now, 

 with all this diversity of teaching, 

 with so many different theories urged 

 upon us, how are we to know whom 

 to believe 'i* Why, it seems to me 

 that this wintering problem is about 

 as far from being settled as the ques 

 tiou of an " open sea aroiuid the North 

 Pole !" 



Are bees deficient in instinct ? I 

 was quite surprised when reading Mr. 

 lleddon's statement, on paM 501, 

 where he said, " I have found that the 

 judgment of man knew better than 

 their own instincts what was best for 



