346 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



duced previous to that time, have carefully 

 adhered to them ? I am aware that but a 

 short time ago some leading bee-keepers 

 could find no merit in the " break-joint " 

 principle in the honey-board as a preven- 

 tive of brace-combs ; especially those which 

 annoy us by their attachment to the surplus 

 receptacles. I am also fully aware that any 

 bee-keeper that cannot find this practical 

 and useful feature must be nearly blind when 

 looking in that direction. If our experimen- 

 tal apiarist will use ten hives for this ex- 

 periment, placing the honey-boards squarely 

 upon five, and pushing them side-ways on 

 five others so that the spaces between the 

 slats of the honey board and those between 

 the top-bars of the brood-frames, range with 

 each other instead of breaking joints, he will 

 then be able to report to you the marked re- 

 sults, and they will be that the " break-joint " 

 principle prevents the attachment of almost 

 all brace-combs between the top of the hon- 

 ey-board and surplus receptacles and mate- 

 rially lessens the number of brace-combs 

 between the tops of the top-bars and under- 

 side of the honey-board, as well as between 

 the edges or sides of the top-bars and each 

 other. 



To sum up, a pine top-bar 'r wide and % 

 to 's deep, under a break-joint honey-board, 

 is the best arrangement for prevention of 

 brace-combs. This top-bar will not sag but 

 will cost very much more than the common 

 bar, both for material and labor. How is 

 this. Bro. Taylor ? 



DowAGiAC, Mich. Nov. 2S, 1898. 



[This matter of the prevention of burr and 

 brace combs and dispensing with the honey 

 board was largely discussed at the Chicago 

 convention. The use of V inch spaces be- 

 tween and above the top bars will i)racti- 

 cally prevent burr and brace comb-:, if we can 

 believe a large number of most excellent 

 bee-keepers, and I think we can. That this 

 space will entirely prevent the building of 

 these coml)s I believe no one asserted. The 

 honey board will. If you don't want any 

 brace or burr combs, use a honey board. If 

 you can put up with a few, then make your 

 top bars wide and deep and space them very 

 accurately to '4 inch. Although the self- 

 spacing frames and no honey board arrange- 

 ment is being boomed, I very much doubt if 

 this style of management will ever take with 

 the majority, and I believe that many of 

 those who are now adopting this method 



will eventually go back to the ordinary 

 Langstroth frames and a honey board. As 

 for myself , I want ?io burr combs attached 

 to the bottoms of the sections. I prefer to 

 go the expense of one cent a year for a honey 

 board to that of having any dripping and 

 daubing from broken burr combs, be they 

 ever so few. Below the honey board the 

 bees may build their braces and burrs to 

 their heart's content as I don't take the hon- 

 ey board off once a year on an average. 

 —Ed.] 



Medium Colonie8,[Store8 Well-Placed, Plenty 



of Protection ^and a Generous Entrance 



Winter Bees in Rhode Island. 



ARTHUR C. MILLER. 



<^||BN the Review for October Mr. Hasty 

 ffi) calls attention to the careless use of de- 

 •^ scriptive terms and the confusion caused 

 thereby. In the same number Mr. Aikin 

 calls " sealed covers" a " snare in cold cli- 

 mates." The term "sealed covers" has 

 been used to mean boards, perhaps, and en- 

 ameled mats and sundry other articles used 

 to cover the top of the hive and allowed to 

 become sealed down by the bees. If Mr. 

 Aikin means board covers not chaff protect- 

 ed, I agree with him, hut if he includes mats 

 chaff protected, I do not. 



Somewhat over ten years ago I l)egau ex- 

 perimenting on ways of prepnrinn bees for 

 winter, for if properly prepared the bees do 

 the rest. The experiments were on a fairly 

 large scale, the first one embracing over 

 forty colonies and as I was conducting the 

 experiments for my own pleasure I spared no 

 pains or expense. The results were very in- 

 teresting and in some cases quite surprising. 



To be uniformly successful I found it 

 necessary to have a medium colony, an 

 abundance of stores properly placed, an en- 

 ameled mat sealed down, the whole sur- 

 rounded with chaff or planer chips and a ten 

 inch entrance wide open. 



At first glance this seems like the ordinary 

 " colonies chaff packed," but let me mention 

 a few important features. First a weditoH 

 colony, neither very large nor very small : 

 second, an abundance of stores properly 

 placed : third, an enameled or non-porous 

 mat sealed down. It sounds easy and sim- 

 ple, but it took me years to do it every time 

 with my whole apiary. 



