54 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



to be a detriment to the strength of 

 the colony, as the queen is bound to 

 lose time in her onward march from 

 cell to cell, when she is confronted 

 with these bars and spaces, and 

 thrown out of her natural path. I do 

 not believe that a hive is perfect in 

 its construction, that will not give the 

 queen full power of reproduction as 

 nature has endowed her. When this 

 very important item has been accom- 

 plished, we must also be prepared to 

 meet the needs of the most populous 

 colonies, by giving plenty of room at 

 home, and not allowing them to 

 vacate for the want of room. 



We will suppose that it is on the 

 eve of the honey flow, with the hives 

 boiling over with bees, and young ones 

 hatching by the thousands daily. We 

 must now look to the surplus depart- 

 ment, which every wide-awake api- 

 arist has in readiness for the harvest. 

 We must be prepared to have it gath- 

 ered in the most marketable shape in 

 comb form. To do this, we must 

 cater to the wants of the markets, 

 and see how the consumers desire 

 their honey prepared, and what style 

 of package receives the most ready 

 sales ; by consulting the markets we 

 see quotations are given in comb 

 form put up in one and two pound 

 sections, and occasionally in one-half 

 pound sections, but it is generally 

 conceded that the one and two pound 

 sections are the standards, and hence 

 the proper size for the markets ; other 

 sizes do not meet with general favor, 

 hence the need of adopting these sizes. 

 As it is an essential point to have 

 all of our comb honey put in nice, 

 marketable shape, a word or two upon 

 this subject will not be out of place. 

 I would have the surplus receptacles 

 easy of access, and so made that if 

 the strength of the colony demands, 

 we can use one, two, or as many tiers 

 as we please, and as fast as the sec- 

 tions are completed and fully sealed, 

 they can be easily and quickly re- 

 moved, and empty ones given in their 

 place. I would have each and every 

 section as it is taken, built in a man- 

 ner that will be marketable, and ad- 

 mit of crating for shipment. This 

 important item has led to many de- 

 vices, whereby we might accomplish 

 this end, chief among which is the 

 use of separators. 



This seems to come nearer accom- 

 plishing the object than any other 

 method, yet it has its opponents on 

 the ground that the separator is ob- 

 jectionable to the bees. They are 

 more reluctant to enter the sections, 

 and will not gather as much honey 

 with their use as they will without. 

 The separator also takes up valuable 

 room, making two bee-spaces between 

 each row of sections, where one bee- 

 space will accomplish the purpose 

 without separators. To do away with 

 them, some use full sheets of comb 

 foundation in the sections, and claim 

 a success ; while others claim that 

 more than starters in the sections is 

 a detriment to the honey, causing a 

 centre lining that destroys the finer 

 melting properties to the taste, there- 

 by damaging the market value. 



Another method by which the sec- 

 tions may be nice and evenly drawn 



out, without the use of separators, as 

 advocated and practiced by some, is 

 by giving the bees ready access to the 

 sections from all four sides of the 

 sections, having bee-spaces at the 

 sides as well as the top and bottom ; 

 but, as the " proof of the pudding is 

 in the eating thereof," we must await 

 future developments, and should we 

 succeed in getting our surplus honey 

 in proper shape without their use, we 

 shall have accomplished quite an item. 

 Viewing the subject from a finan- 

 cial stand-point, our hives should be 

 constructed on the principle of accom- 

 plishing the greatest results with the 

 least outlay of money and time. They 

 should be of as few parts as possible, 

 and so simple of construction that 

 they can be operated by the novice. 

 Should we adopt one-half of the de- 

 vices suggested by the bee-fraternity 

 at large, especially for the production 

 of comb honey, we should sliortly 

 have a veritable curiosity shop; 

 hence, to sum up, I will say that we 

 should adopt large brood-frames to 

 insure the very best results numer- 

 ically, and a hive that will accommo- 

 date ten frames, or contracted by the 

 use of division-boards to any number 

 less. The surplus department must 

 also be as easily expanded or con- 

 tracted to suit the strength of the 

 colony, and harvest the surplus in the 

 very best shape for market in one and 

 two pound sections. 



I have found from practical experi- 

 ence that the wintering of bees on 

 large combs has been much more suc- 

 cessful than on small ones, under the 

 same form of treatment in out-door 

 wintering, coming through to spring 

 stronger in numbers, building up 

 more rapidly, and in much finer con- 

 dition to meet the clover harvest. 



The foregoing ideas that I have 

 been free to express, have come 

 through no solicitations from others, 

 for certainly I have no "ax to grind,"' 

 but are my individual ideas, gained 

 from four years of experience in the 

 production of honey by modern im- 

 proved methods. If I am wrong in 

 any of my ideas, I will thank any one 

 to set me straight, and will cheerfully 

 stand correction. We live to learn, 

 and let us live conscious of the fact 

 that we can never attain to so high a 

 standard of perfection but that we 

 can be taught something from our 

 fellow-man. 



W. T. F. Petty said it was well to 

 disturb the queen a little to the con- 

 venience of the apiarist, even if it 

 should prove that the colonies should 

 not be quite as strong numerically, 

 which he doubted. 



Mr. Camm asked the dimensions of 

 the frame that he (Mr. Petty) uses, to 

 which Mr. P. replied, 18 1-6x4?^ 

 inches, with closed ends, and frames 

 spaced 1}^ inches from centre to cen- 

 tre. His hives are interchangeable, 

 using one, two or three sectional 

 brood-chambers. 



To a question as to the way of re- 

 moving the frames, should the bees 

 glue them, Mr. Petty answered by 

 asking the reason for removing them. 

 Mr. Wallace considered it essential 

 for removing and introducing queens. 



etc. Mr. Petty claimed that he could 

 find a queen in a sectional hive in 

 one-fourth the time that others could 

 in the large frame hives, by blowing 

 a little smoke in at the entrance, 

 when the queen would soon appear on 

 top of the frames, where she could be 

 easily captured. Mr. Petty uses 

 wedges in place of set-screws ; Mr. 

 Black said that set-screws were essen- 

 tial to overcome swelling and shrink- 

 age caused by variable weather. Mr. 

 Petty said that tight, secure lids 

 would avoid this difficulty. 



Mr. Camm said that he did not dis- 

 turd and handle bees as much as he 

 used to ; he had hives in which some 

 of the combs had not been disturbed 

 for years. He did not favor large 

 combs as much as he used to, and he 

 believed in interchangeable frames, 

 thus being able to take drone comb 

 from the orood-nest, and put above, 

 etc. He prefers for general use a 

 frame 12 inches long by 10 inches in 

 depth. 



Mr. Hambaugh considered it neces- 

 sary to have all combs readily mov- 

 able and interchangeable. It was es- 

 sentially necessary in the spring in 

 spreading brood, building up weak 

 colonies, etc. He believed that strong 

 colonies were the prime factor in 

 honey production, and that we should 

 labor to that end, and large combs 

 were an advantage over small ones in 

 this respect. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



President Camm, in his annual ad- 

 dress, spoke at length of the magni- 

 tude of bee-keeping ; of its growing 

 importance as an industry ; the sale 

 of comb foundation the past season, 

 of but one firm, aggregated 53,000 

 pounds, which was sufficient evidence 

 of the magnitude of the business. 

 He spoke of the necessity of finding 

 a market for our product, and favored 

 the idea of a union of beekeepers 

 with uniformity of prices, and plac- 

 ing a salesman upon the road to sell- 

 our product by sample. He said that 

 the bee-keepers had no time from 

 home duties to go upon the road. He 

 spoke of the great necessity of putting 

 our honey up in the most attractive 

 shapes, etc. 



THE USE or SEPARATOKS. 



Mr. Petty said that he had used 

 sections with full sheets of founda- 

 tion, but the results were unsatis- 

 factory. Some of the sections were 

 bulged, while others were not fully 

 drawn out. He had trouble with the 

 salesmen, by their not being easily 

 removed from the crate. Since using 

 separators he saw no perceptible dif- 

 ference in production, while the honey 

 was in far better shape for the mar- 

 ket. He wanted, when his name was 

 attached to a section of honey, for it 

 to stand on its merits. He uses broad 

 frames with wooden separators at- 

 tached thereto. 



Mr. Cullinan considered separators 

 a detriment, especially tin, as heat in 

 a cluster was necessary to the secre- 

 tion of wax, and tin is a non-conduc- 

 tor of heat. He thought a great deal 

 depended upon having the hives level. 



Mr. Hambaugh said ihat anything 

 put in the hive that would drive out 



