1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1583 



To those unacquainted with his method I 

 will state that he places one starter, the larg- 

 er one, at the top of the section after the 

 usual manner; at the bottom he sets another 

 that stands upright to the height of about 

 one-half inch. In the doctor's location this 

 plan may work to a charm, but with me it 

 is a failure. About half the sections would 

 be finished in the freakish way shown in the 

 accompanying photograph. 



It would seem that the bees working up- 

 ward would swing their comb off to one side 

 so as to allow the descending woi'kers to 

 take the other tack. Perhaps they believed 

 "in keeping to the right," as the law of the 

 road directs. At any rate, such sections are 

 undesirable. Aside from their odd and un- 

 sightly appearance, they also are often mar- 

 red by being broken, as the comb is too oft- 

 en fastened to the separator from which it 

 has to be torn asunder. 



Oakland, Cal. 



[Dr. Miller was asked to explain this dif- 

 ficulty if possible. His reply follows. — Ec] 



AN ODD RESULT FOLLOWING THE USE OE BOTTOM STARTEKS. 



Dr. Miller believes that the space between the two starters in this case was 

 too great, thus accounting for the separate combs. 



As the bottom-starter in sections is my 

 "baby," I am very thankful for the oppor- 

 tunity of saying how failures might happen. 

 I have not seen the photo from which the 

 photo-engraving in this number was made, 

 but I have seen two others taken by Mr. 

 Pryal, which I have studied with much in- 

 terest, and from them I think I can make a 

 pretty fair diagnosis. 



Mr. Pryal says, "In the doctor's location 



this plan may work to a charm, but with me 

 it is a failure," and the pictures show it to 

 be a very dismal failure. The only thing I 

 can think of that should make any difference 

 between his locality and mine is that he is in 

 a warmer locality, and the higher the tem- 

 perature the softer the wax becomes, and so 

 the more likely a bottom-starter would be to 

 topple over. But the bees have a way of 

 equalizing the temperature in the hive, so 

 that the heat in the super will be no greater 

 on the hottest day than in a cooler one, so I 

 don't believe temperature is the culprit. I 

 am very strong in the belief that the plan 

 will work in one locality as well as in anoth- 

 er, and that the next time Mr. Pryal tries it 

 he will find it "works to a charm" in like 

 manner as it does here. 



The importance of having a section well 

 built down to the bottom-bar — and that's 

 what a bottom-starter accomplishes — is so 

 great that it is well worth while to canvas 

 the different things from which failure might 

 I'esult. It is easy to see that with a bottom- 

 starter cut I deep, and 

 standing up ^- inch after 

 being fastened in, if the 

 foundation were ^ inch in 

 thickness it could not pos- 

 sibly topple over, but if 

 thin enough it would most 

 certainly topple over with 

 its own weight. Whether 

 "extra thin" foundation 

 would stand up always 

 I'm not sure. I use "thin 

 super," and it works all 

 right. 



One person, after con- 

 sidering the case, suggest- 

 ed that either the top or 

 bottom starter had not 

 been put in the center of 

 the section. That could 

 allow the upper and the 

 lower force of workers to 

 pass without meeting, but 

 even a novice would hard- 

 ly fail to put starters in 

 centrally, and Mr. Pryal 

 is no novice. 



To another, who had 

 had experience in putting 

 in thousands of such start- 

 ers, I submitted the case, 

 and asked, "What's the 

 trouble?" 



Promptly came the an- 

 swer, "Plain case; the 

 hives were not level. We 

 level our stands with a spirit-level. Of 

 course, if the hive leans over to one side, 

 the upper starter will lean over just as 

 much, and will not meet the lower starter." 

 "I don't think that's the right answer," 

 said I. "Unless I amgreatly mistaken, Mr. 

 Pryal doesn't do things slovenly, but always 

 has things in apple-pie order. Now please 

 look at tnis picture again. J^ook at the cap- 

 ping in that section just a little below the 



