THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



35 



"Shall they be of wood or tin? " If loose 

 separators are to be used , wood ; if fixed, tin. 



"How shall they be adjusted?" Doesn't 

 that depend altogether on the place in which 

 they are to be used ? 



You say, " If the honey flow comes on 

 with a rush, etc., there is little need of sepa- 

 rators." I have an impression that another 

 item bears heavily on the case. If the bees 

 are somewhat crowded for room, I suspect 

 they will make pretty straight work with- 

 out separators. For this reason those who 

 favor natural swarming, are likely to have 

 straighter work without separators, than 

 those who try to discourage swarming by 

 giving plenty of room. 



Please remember that in the answers I 

 have given to your questions I have answer- 

 ed only for myself. But I have had much 

 experience with and without separators. At 

 first I didn't need any separators, because I 

 could haul in a wagon directly to my cus- 

 tomers all the honey I had to sell. After I 

 had for some time used separators, the suc- 

 cess of others without, by means of the old 

 Heddon super, induced me to try it. I saw 

 sections raised by Heddon himself, and, 

 with the self-same appliances, I was quite 

 sanguine of success. But I didn't succeed — 

 much to my regret. I suspect an important 

 reason was that friend Heddon allowed his 

 bees to swarm and didn't mind crowding 

 them, while I gave each colony about one 

 more super than he did. Even with the 

 best success that any have had without sei)- 

 arators, I suspect that more time must be 

 spent, when packing, to get all in straight 

 than I should like to spend. 



" Is there any objection to the u.-e of sep- 

 arators, aside from their cost ? " Well, sep- 

 arators may not lessen the yield, but they 

 don't make it anymore, and I'm afraid the 

 Ijees will do just a little worse for liaviug a 

 lot of wood or tin in their way. Another 

 thing is, that, compared with a nice, straight 

 section raised without separators, one raised 

 with them has a " lean " look, as Heddon 

 says" 



When you bring together from different 

 places a lot of sectious not quite finished, 

 if no separators have been used you'll have 

 a sad job. If you've never tried it, just think 

 of the pleasure it will be to take the same lot 

 if they have been separatored, every one of 

 them as straight as a board. Well, let me 

 tell you, that's nicer in theory than in prac- 

 tice. For some reason, they never work quite 



so well as if left just where the l)ees started 

 them. 



The reason you give why wood is not good 

 on wide frames — because it is split or injured 

 —is not the principal one. I have used tin in 

 T supers, and many wood on wide frames, 

 and in neither case would they keep straight. 

 That's the objection. Put a tin separator in 

 a T super, and not being fastened at either 

 end it makes use of its freedom to bend a 

 little here and there, instead of keeping 

 stretched out straight, and every now and 

 then you'll find one end of your separator on 

 the inside of your section. The wood sepa- 

 rator will not bend in the direction of its 

 length. 



Put a wood separator on a wide frame, 

 and as it is constantly shrinking and swell- 

 ing, the nails, trying to keep it in one place, 

 will make it curl sidewise. Wood separa- 

 tors should not have even a suspicion of a 

 knot in them. They'll curl if they have. 



There you go again about tin conducting 

 heat. Of course no heat will be conducted 

 out of the cluster if no separator is outside 

 of the cluster. But every bit of the separa- 

 tor that's outside of the cluster, not merely 

 the edge but the full broadside, will be con- 

 stantly dissipating heat just so long as the 

 heat of the cluster is greater than that of 

 the surrounding air. Just think how it will 

 be on a cold night with a tin separator in the 

 cluster. One end of the separator, or rather 

 each end, will not be entirely surrounded by 

 bees, at least, I think I never knew it so. 

 Tliis projecting end will be cold, and tlie 

 bees will draw awa> from it, leaving more 

 exposed, and, in turn, the bees will leave 

 that, until, if the niglit is cold enough, I 

 don't believe a bee will be left on the sepa- 

 rator. 



Bro. H., your experience differs from 

 mine. I have "seen the necessity for a 

 stronger joint" than the common sciuare 

 joint. I've had plenty of nails started and 

 sides or ends of hives warped so that the 

 bee space was made smaller or larger. Nei- 

 ther was it because the heart side was in. 

 But my hivis are not painted. Then I like 

 the Dovetailed corner because it keeps the 

 hive more rigidly square when the bottom 

 board is not fastened on. It's very much 

 easier to put it together just right. I think 

 that a pretty big item. No matter how 

 much care you take with the square joint, 

 something will be just a little out, and if any 

 pieces are warped, the difficulty is increased, 



