T 



oe (4)ee- 



\eepeps' J\eVieCu 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to tlqe Interests of Hoqey Producers. 



$L00 A YEAR, 



W. Z. HUTCHiriSOI^l, EditoP & Pfop. 



VOL IV, FLINT, MICHIGAN, FEB. 10, 1891. NO. 2. 



The special topie of this issue is 



"Separators." 



That of the next issue ujill be 



"Protection for Siqgle- Walled 

 Hives," 



The Inflaence That Separators Have on the 

 Honey Market. 



J. A. GBEEN. 



MAM glad to see you admit that it would 

 be better if separators were generally 

 used, and I hope yet to see you admit 

 that it would be better for your own interests 

 if you used them yourself. 



I freely admit that when the circumstances 

 are all favorable, the sections will be filled 

 with comb so straight and even that separa- 

 tors seem altogether unnecessary. The 

 trouble is that circumstances are not always 

 favorable. Some colonies never build 

 straight combs. Sometimes the hive gets a 

 little out of plumb. Honey may come in 

 slowly or unevenly, or there may not be bees 

 enough to fill the super. All these things 

 and others tend to produce crooked and 

 bulged combs. 



Then the supers may be partly full of 

 finished sections with honey coming in so 

 slowly that we want to remove them before 

 they become travel stained. Even during a 



good honey flow the outer rows of sections 

 are usually finished much later than the 

 inner ones and it is better not to wait until 

 they are finished. 



Without separators there is always apt to 

 be trouble unless all the sections in each row 

 in the super are alike, and this is especially 

 the case when some work has been done on 

 them. If it is near the end of the honey 

 flow the best way to dispose of these partly 

 finished sections is to place all of them on 

 a few of your best colonies. 



When this is done, if separators are not 

 used, the greatest care in arranging them 

 will hardly prevent crooked and bulged 

 combs. 



Suppose you have secured a crop of honey 

 without separators and are ready to ship it 

 to market, let us say, to be sold on commis- 

 sion. It will take more care and time to 

 scrape off the propolis and pack it in cases, 

 and you are much more likely to injure it in 

 doing so. It is more likely to be broken out 

 of the sections in shipment because there is 

 a greater weight of honey with very little 

 more fastening. I like to use separators in 

 the shipping cases as well as in the supers. 

 Then if one comb should break out it does 

 not injure those adjoining. 



This I consider very important. It does 

 not cost much and several times it has saved 

 me a great deal of loss. Of course, it is 

 impossible to use these unless the honey was 

 built between separators. 



When your honey has reached the com 

 mission store and is stacked up in a tall pile 



