THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



T19 



with a rush, just as the hives are full of 

 brood, there will be little dfficulty in 

 getting the bees to go into the sections. 

 Suppose, instead, that the season be- 

 gins with a light flow, and gradually in- 

 creases — no sudden jump, as there often 

 is at the opening of white clover — the 

 probabilities are that some of the col- 

 onies, many of them if they are light 

 Italians, will begin preparations for 

 swarming. Could the energies, thoughts 

 and aspirations of the bees have been 

 turned section-ward as soon as there 

 was sutlicient honey brought in to 

 more than supply the brood, it might 

 have made all of the difference between 

 a good crop and a very small one with 

 some of the colonies. There is no ques- 

 tion that Italians are very loth to store 

 honey far from the brood. They will 

 crowd the very last cell in the brood- 

 nest before thej' will build a cell in the 

 supers to hold the sur])lus. 



In my experience, nothing will so quick- 

 Iv and surelv lure the bees into the sec- 

 tions as will nice empty combs. As I 

 have often said, in my locality and with 

 my management, I often find a super 

 of unfinished combs, kept over from 

 the previous season, fully as valuable 

 as a super of finished combs of honey ; 

 simply because it will so quickly and 

 surely start the bees to working in 

 the sections. Of course, it is not neces- 

 sary to have every section contain a part- 

 Iv drawn comb, even two or three 

 .sections will start the bees to work, but 

 when no separators are used, and I use 

 none, the results are much more satis- 

 factory if every section contains a partly 

 drawn comb. 



Wliere a secitonal hive, like the Hed- 

 don, is u.sed, a transposition of the two 

 parts of the brood-nest lirings what was 

 the center of the brooil-nest up against 

 the supers, aud has a tendency to start 

 the bees to work in the sections. As I 

 have already intimated, black bees, or 

 those having a dash of black blood in 

 their veins, will much more readily store 

 their surplus away from the brood-nest. 



Contraction of the brood nest would, of 

 course, force the bees into the supers; 

 but this is something that I have prac- 

 ticed to a very limited extent; that is, 

 with old established colonies, and I have 

 not formed a very favorable opinion of 

 the practice. It might be all right with 

 large hives, but with the eight - frame 

 Langstroth I see little necessity for it. 



^')i'<«.^««a'« 



N.A.RROW SECTIONS. 



No one realizes so clearly as does an 

 editor how difficult it is to always know 

 to a certainty whether or not an item will 

 prove of interest, or the reverse. To ill- 

 ustrate: Some months ago, in making up 

 the pages of the Review, the matter in 

 type lacked three or four lines of filling 

 the required space. More to make it 

 come out right, than for anything else, I 

 set up three or four lines saying that I 

 had used 1000 sections only i >^ inches in 

 width; and that I liked them. Since then 

 I have received several inquiries regard- 

 ing the matter. I may say that last year 

 was not the first time that I have used 

 .sections of this width. When living at 

 Rogersville I used 4,000 of this width, 

 f^lie onh- objection to the use of this 

 width is the little extra expense and la- 

 bor. One advantage arising from their 

 use is the straightness and uniformity of 

 the combs. One and one-half inches from 

 center to center, is about the natural 

 width that bees build their combs when 

 no separators are used 1 and I used no sep- 

 arators); and perhaps this is the reason 

 why the bees are less inclined to bulge 

 the combs when sections of this width 

 are used, than is the case with wider sec- 

 tions. Thin combs, such as are built in 

 such narrow sections, are much quicker 

 filled and sealed than thicker combs. 

 Perhaps this does not always result in 

 more honey being stored in the aggre- 

 gate, but I think it does sometimes; es- 

 pecially if there is a copious flow of rath- 

 er thin honey, and the bees are slow in 

 capping it. If a colony is not very pop- 

 uUnis, and only a limited surplus room 

 can be given, it is sometimes quite an ad- 



