1504 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



of the seven-to-the-foot section, as it was call- 

 ed, the same becoming quite popular. It 

 was claimed that honey could be produced 

 in these sections without the use of separa- 

 tors; and, although only i inch thinner than 

 the two-inch section, yet honey that was pro- 

 duced in these sections, without separators, 

 could be crated very well; it is true that there 

 would be an occasional section that could not 

 be crated, and it required considerable time 

 to match the fat sides with the lean ones. 



Some went still further and used a section 

 still thinner; and, although it was a notice- 

 able fact that, with every decrease in the 

 thickness of the section, the necessity for 

 the use of separators was correspondingly 

 lessened. Such thin sections were not consid- 

 ered practical, from the fact that they were 

 too light in weight, the bee-keeping public 

 choosing to pursue the phantom of the one- 

 pound section that really never did and per- 

 haps never will exist, in preference to pro- 

 ducing a thin section of honey to sell by the 

 piece that could have been produced without 

 the use of separators, and for ever do away 

 with the weighing 

 of sections. For 

 these reasons the 

 demand seemed to 

 settle down to the 

 4JXl^ section to be 

 used with separa- 

 tors. 



At the present 

 time there seems 

 to be a demand for 

 a section that is 

 thinner and of larg- 

 er comb surface, 

 that will weigh, 

 when filled with 

 honey, about the 

 same as the 4J 

 thick section. The 

 advantages claim- 

 ed for such a sec- 

 tion are that it pre- 

 sents a larger sur- 

 face, and, there- 

 fore, appeals to the 

 eye as well as to 

 the pocketbook of 

 the prospective purchaser; in short, it is a 

 better seller because it looks bigger in com- 

 parison with the square thick section. Ad- 

 mitting that this is true, if there were no 4^ 

 square sections with which to make the com- 

 parison the difference would not be noticed, 

 therefore the argument that appeals the 

 strongest to the producer of honey in favor 

 of the thin section of greater comb surface, 

 is the fact as stated by Mr. Morrison, that, if 

 they are thin enough, no separators will be 

 required to produce honey with combs per- 

 fectly straight and even. I consider this the 

 best argument in favor of the thin section 

 that has yet appeared. 



The question that arises at this time is, 

 "Are separators a hindrance to the bees?" 

 While it is claimed upon seemingly good au- 

 thority that as many pounds of honey can be 



This illustration, which appeared originally in the 

 Strand Magazi/ie, shows five swarms of Apis Tiidicu hang- 

 ing on a store front in Kandy, Ceylon. This seems to be 

 a favorite spot for swarms, as they come regularly. The 

 swarms shown had hung for two months when the photo 

 was secured. 



produced with separators as without them, 

 and while this may be true to a certain ex- 

 tent during a long continuous honey-flow, 

 yet there is, during a short sharp honey-flow, 

 a noticeable hesitancy on the part of the bees 

 to build comb between separators. I believe 

 that bee-keepers, as a rule, have come to ac- 

 cept the use of separators as a kind of nec- 

 essary evil that we are obliged to tolerate in 

 order to have our combs built straight and 

 even. Separators are an expensive luxury 

 in more ways than one. In the first place, 

 they cost money, and not only take up valu- 

 able room in the super, and valuable time to 

 handle them, but they are a positive hin- 

 drance to the rapid building of comb by 

 breaking the cluster up into thin slices, for 

 it is a noticeable fact that bees will build 

 combs more readily when they can cluster 

 in a compact body; and the larger the cluster 

 the faster will the comb grow. It is claimed 

 for the fence separator a better filling of the 

 sections as the result of free passage for the 

 bees through the fences between the slots, 

 and also that the woven-wire separators af- 

 ford a still better 

 means of passage 

 for the bees, and 

 therefore that sec- 

 tions of honey built 

 between these sep- 

 aratoi's will be still 

 better filled than 

 will those that are 

 built between the 

 fences. Admitting 

 that this is true, 

 which we can not 

 deny, yet does not 

 this have a tenden- 

 cy to prove that, 

 without any sepa- 

 rators at all, the 

 sections would be 

 still better filled? 

 Even admitting, for 

 the sake of argu 

 ment, that just as 

 many pounds of 

 honey can be pro- 

 duced with sepa- 

 rators as without 

 them, if straight and even combs of honey 

 can be secured without them, what excuse 

 have we to offer for their use? The proof 

 of the pudding is in the eating; and we are 

 interested enough in this matter to give it a 

 thorough trial the coming season: and we 

 have decided upon the 4iX5fXl| section, 

 because three sections of this size will just 

 fill one of our brood-frames. 



The accompanying illustration will show 

 our non-separator super which takes the 4J 

 square section as well as the 4jx5f, and it 

 will also take our brood-frames and extract- 

 ing-frames. This will greatly simplify our 

 utensils for honey-production, since every 

 brood- chamber is also a section-super as well 

 as an extracting-super, and our brood-frames 

 and extracting- frames are also section-frames. 

 The illustration also shows a brood-frame 



