THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW- 



Last spring I made about ninety more just 

 like them and liave watched them closely all 

 summer. In about three per cent, of them 

 I found little pieces of comb ; but I found 

 that 3-lG was loo close. The bees plugged 

 the bee-space in a good many. ^Vith a few 

 hives I used a tlivision board with live 

 frames, and then spaced the frames about ^4 

 inch apart, and there was very little wax in 

 the spaces. 



My two years experience with hives with- 

 out honey boards, has convinced me that 

 they can be dispensed with altogether. It is 

 much cheaper and nicer to handle bees wiien 

 no houi^y board is used, especially if queens 

 are being reared in full colonies, when it is 

 only necessary to remove the cloth and lift 

 out any frame. 



I took (ij.'SOO one pound sections this year, 

 and I don't think that I had 100 in all to 

 which any burr comb was attached. 



I prefer to take a small tool in the shape 

 of a hook, about 3-l() wide, and when the 

 bees till the space too much, draw it through, 

 rather than tear off honey boards. 



Sheffield, 111., 



Dec. 25, 1889. 



Removing Sections From Supers. — Open- 

 Side Sections. 



O. A. BUNCH. 



JR, W. Z. H.— On page 24 of the Feb- 

 ^(-|t) ruary Eeview for 1889, you say, if 

 you were using T supers you would 

 have the T tins nailed fast. Surely, 

 this is a mistaken idea. I made a lot of T 

 supers with the T tins nailed fast, and have 

 used them two seasons along with T supers 

 in which the T's are loose, and I like the 

 latter much better. My reason is this, when 

 we wish to remove the sections from a T 

 super having loose T tins we turn the crate 

 upside down over a box a little lai-ger than 

 the T super and drive the sections and T 

 tins all down at the same time, which causes 

 the sections to come out a great deal easier, 

 as there are only the sides and ends of 

 the super to hold the section with pro- 

 polis. 



In the same column, you say the case to 

 hold open-side sections is yet to be invented. 

 Now, as far as my experience goes, we need 

 no crate for open-side sections, unless it is 

 to raise a crop of propolis as well as honey. 

 I tried the open-side sections one year ago 

 last season, and want no more of them. 



Now about the honey boards. If we use a 

 slat bottom crate, something on the same 

 principle as a combined honey and shipping 

 crate, we might do without the honey board, 

 providing the brood chamber was not con- 

 tracted ; but with the T super, with or with- 

 out contraction, I should want a honey 

 board. As to top bars, I like them 7-8 wide 

 so I can shave the combs down to that 

 thickness for breeding purposes. I want no 

 deep top bars on account of space taken up 

 with wood that might better be comb. 



How would it do to have some number of 

 the Review devoted to buildings for the 



apiary and how they should be arranged; 

 such as honey house, shop, etc. ? 



This is not for print, but just a little talk 

 with W. Z. H. 



Lapaz, Ind., Jan. 3, 1889. 



We wrote and secured permission to pub- 

 lish the aljove, as it gives an opportunity for 

 explaining how sections may be very expe- 

 ditiously removed from T supers in which 

 the tins are nailed fast, or from the old 

 style Heddon surplus case. 



Take four pieces of 4x4 scantling as long 

 as the super is wide inside, or a tvijii' shorter, 

 and lay them side by side upon a board, 

 leaving a space between any two of them 

 large enough to allow a T tin, or one of the 

 divisions in a Heddon super, to freely i)ass 

 down. Nail the blocks fast to the board. 

 To remove the sections from a case, set it, 

 riuht side up, upon these blocks. It will be 

 seen that each row of sections rests upon one 

 of the pieces of scantling, but tiie case, and 

 its partitions, or nailed-fast T-tins, can be 

 pushed downwards, after first breaking the- 

 propolis with light taps from a hammer, and 

 the sections will l)e "left sitting so" upon 

 the pieces of scantling. We think this meth- 

 od preferable to inverting a super and driv- 

 ing out the sections, one row at a time. 



If our friend used open-side sections in 

 T supers, we wonder not at "bis decision. 

 For reasons, see Oliver Foster's article, in 

 December Review, for 1888: also editorial 

 upon sections, in the same issue. 



Migratory Bee-Keeping. — Something From a 

 Veteran. 



M. M. HALDEIDGE. 



jRIEND HUTCHINSON:— Hugh Ste- 

 venson, of St. Charles, Mo., is the 

 party I once wrote you about who has 

 had a deal of experience in migratory 

 bee-kef ping, both by rail and river, from 

 South to North, and vice versa. He had 

 charge of two car-loads of bees in 1880, for 

 Perrine, and came up with them from New 

 Orleans to St. Charles, Mo. About the 

 same time I came up from there with two 

 car-loads of bees — for Perrine. Since 1880 

 friend Stevenson has been back and forth 

 with bees several times. One A. T. Wil- 

 liams, of St. Charles, Mo., a bee-keeper of 

 considerable experience, was with Perrine 

 when he went down the Mississippi river to 

 New Orleans with bees in the fall of 1878. 



In reading the Review on Migratory Bee- 

 Keeping, I was somewhat surprised to notice 

 that you had nothing therein from F. Grabbe, 

 who now lives at Libertyville, Illinois, and 

 who had more to do with the Perrine enter- 



