1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



715 



for just what the buyer said he wanted it for. Now, to right 

 all this, I must try to get up a bee-association. 



1. Will you tell me how such an association is conducted, 

 and what its good is? I do not know a thing about it, only 

 I imagine that as many people as are interested in bees meet 

 together and agree to sell their honey at one price, and get 

 their bee-fixtures at the same place in quantities. 



I have TO colonies of bees, and got nearly 6,200 pounds 

 of mostly alfalfa honey in the sections, and about 20 gallons I 

 extracted from partly-filled sections, and put back the supers 

 on the hives. I winter my bees on the summer stands, with 

 newspapers over the canvas that is next to the bees (or if I 

 leave on a super it would be next to the super), and I find 

 the bees winter best with all that space above. 



2. Last spring, early, I looked at my bees; they seemed In 

 fine condition, but much of the honey had candied. Later on 

 I found that they had a good many dead bees in front of the 

 hives, and all the honey gone from the brood-frames, or nearly 

 so. I fed them a little, and the blooms came, and I did not 

 lose a colony, but I had but one swarm. Will you please tell 

 me if the honey candied because the boy let the irrigating 

 water run under and around my hives so the ground was damp 

 much of the time ? 



3. And do the bees carry out the candied honey ? Is it of 

 no use to them '? 



I have always left the brood-chamber of the hive alone 

 without taking a single frame away in the winter. 



Excuse me for writing so much. My only excuse is that 

 it is not half as much as I would like to say. 



Delta, Colo. Spinster. 



Answers. — 1. Having a very kindly feeling toward spin- 

 sters, especially bee-keeping spinsters, I shall take pleasure 

 in answering your questions, and only wish you would send on 

 the rest that you held back. But I'm a little afraid 1 can't 

 be of very much service in answering your first question. I've 

 belonged to a number of bee-keepers' associations, but none 

 of them ever had anything to do with controlling the price at 

 which members sold their crops, neither had they anything 

 directly to do with purchasing supplies. I'm not sure whether 

 a combination of any kind would make much difference in the 

 matter of purchasing supplies, unless it would be for a num- 

 ber to unite together to get a lot of supplies at the same time 

 so as to save freight on large lots. Certainly it seems to me 

 you ought not to pay double price for goods, and if you will 

 look in the advertising columns you will find plenty of places 

 to buy supplies at lowest rates. Sometimes you can buy near 

 home at regular rates and save freight. 



I don't believe you can make it work to form a combina- 

 tion that shall agree not to sell below a certain price. Sup- 

 pose you agree that 12 cents is your price. You may hold on 

 to your honey, but if there's plenty of honey to supply the 

 market from other points, and if that is sold at 11 cents, you 

 must either come down to 11 or keep your honey. Still there 

 might be something done by organization, and all that's 

 necessary to do is to make a call through the bee-journals or 

 by letter, and get the bee-keepers together. But an associa- 

 tion has already been formed in your State, and after a good 

 deal of leafing over of the pages of this journal I find the as- 

 sociation held a convention last January in Denver. H. 

 Knight, of Littleton, was Secretary, and by writing him you 

 can probably find out all about it. 



As to the good of bee-keepers' associations, I think the 

 chief good is in the discussion of practical topics, and in the 

 meeting and getting acquainted with other bee-keepers. 



2. I hardly think the water about the hives had anything 

 to do with the granulation of the honey. 



3. The bees use the liquid part of the honey and carry out 



the dry grains. Possibly they may make some use of the 



grains sometimes. 



■ — I ■ 



A Super-Arrangement for Sections. 



in width to the sections used ; cnd-har the same, but thin 

 enough for a bee-space between their ends and the super wall; 

 top-bar projecting and resting on metal rabbets as the frames 

 in the brood-chamber ; bottom-bar hinged at one end, and 

 fastened at the other by some simple device. The great ob- 

 ject to be attained is to be able to shift the sections sitigly, or 

 grouped, with facility, and that, too, without taking off the 

 super or killing bees. 



1. To what extent, generally, are section combs bulged so 

 as to be beyond orating ? 



2. Will my supers have to be deeper for the holders men- 

 tioned, in order that the usual bee-space be between the top 

 of the brood-chamber and the super ? 



8. In your view, if there are no advantages in the super- 

 arrangement I have described, please say so. W. L. 



Answers. — 1. That's a hard question \p answer in a sin- 

 gle sentence. Among my sections you'll not find one that is 

 bulged so as to give trouble in crating, but then I use separa- 

 tors, and perhaps you refer to sections without separators. If 

 no separators are used, there's a great difference as to the 

 amount of bulging. Some claim there is hardly enough to 

 make it worth while to have separators, and some will have 

 one in every ten bulged. I think it makes a difference as to 

 the way the honey comes in. If it comes in a flood so that the 

 bees are busy at work all through the super, then the sections 

 will be evenly built without any separator. If, on the other 

 hand, honey comes in quite slowly, they will be slow about 

 working the outer sections, preferring to lengthen the cells in 

 the sections already started, and that will make bulging. I 

 think likely there will be less bulging if the bees are a little 

 crowded for room. 



2. Yes, if I understand you rightly, you'll have to add as 

 much to the depth of your super as you have added by the 

 thickness of the added top-bar. 



3. There's lots of fun in getting up some new invention, 

 and of two things equally good the one invented by yourself 

 will suit you best. So I think you may be pretty well suited 

 with the arrangement you mention. Indeed, it's pretty much 

 the same as the single-tier wide-frame, which has done ex- 

 cellent service, although I laid it aside for the T super. The 

 main, if not the only, difference, is the hinged bottom-bar. I 

 doubt if you'll like it so well after trying it. The expense and 

 bother will overbalance any advantage. If I were going back 

 to the wide-frame, I should have all solid, and have a space of 

 'A inch between the top-bar and the tops of the sections. Of 

 course that would make the frame and the super both H inch 

 deeper. 



Perhaps it's none of my business, so long as you haven't 

 asked me about it, but my experience in shifting sections about 

 from one place in the super to another doesn't make me favor 

 it greatly. Counting time and trouble, I'd rather let the bees 

 finish up a section just where they began it — all but a few of 

 the outside sections— and when only these are left unfinished 

 I'd take off the super, then fill up another super with the un- 

 finished sections from a number of supers, and give them 

 back to the bees to be finished. 



Watermelons for Bees. 



Are ripe watermelons good for bees ? G. B. 



Answer.— I know nothing about it from experience, for 

 in this region it would be a good deal cheaper to feed granu- 

 lated sugar ; but I've read of at least one man in Germany 

 feeding them to bees in large quantities. 



I wrote you a short time since of my intention to change 

 the internal arrangement of my supers. I will state further, 

 so you may understand what I wish to be answered, that I 

 wish a section-holder with top and bottom bars corresponding 



The IHcEvoy Foul Brood Treatment is 



given in Dr. Howard's pamphlet on "Foul Brood; Its Natural 

 History and Rational Treatment." It is the latest publication 

 on the subject, and should be in the hands of every bee-keeper. 

 Price, 25 cents ; or clubbed with the Bee Journal for one year 

 —both for $1.10. 



