70 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



In shipping there is less breaking of the 

 comV) when it touches and is attached to the 

 top, side and bottom of the sections. 



I use only the ih x 4)4 x IJs in., or 1 lb. 



section, and not one in one hundred will 



contain a full pound where separators are 



used. ., ^, , 



I don't put on sections until the honey 



flow commences, when they will be immedi- 

 ately filled with bees, the secretion of wax 

 commenced, and all sections drawn out at 

 the same time, and not one section in one 

 hundred will be bulged. 



Instead of waiting until every section is 

 filled and capped, I remove them as fast as 

 completed, which I can more easily do if no 

 separators are used. 



Separators are unnecessary, expensive, 

 and as now used give the bees much labor 

 stopping cracks and crevices which they 

 make when placed between sections : besides 

 they give the bee-keeper more work clean- 

 ing sections. 



Sections made true and of the same thick- 

 ness and fitted close together in the supers 

 have but little propolis stuck to them, and 

 instead of traversing the fields and woods in 

 search of gum, the worker leaves the hive on 

 an errand of nectar gathering. 



What few combs are bulged or built across 

 and connecting two sections, are generally 

 the result of the breaking down of the 

 foundation. 



When I commenced using sections I also 

 used separators. For the past two seasons I 

 didn't use them, and don't tliink I shall 

 again, unless they would increase my small 

 crop of honey comb. I don't think they 



would. T iL- 1 T 



If I were again to use them I thmk 1 

 would remove them as soon as the starters 

 were drawn out and before the honey was 

 capped. This would make some work, but 

 where one keeps bees for profit, one must 

 labor as well as the bees. 

 MuBFEEESBOEO, Tenu. Jan. 24, 1891. 



Separators or Not 1 



E. P. GIBBS. 



iC FEW YEARS ago this was, to me, a 

 a) question of no small importance, 

 dearly did I learn the answer. I 

 used tin separators and wide frames, a la 

 Root, and was satisfied with the plan, ])ut at 

 that time tin was high, and I think the two 

 separators for one wide frame cost five 

 cents ; but I managed to buy what I had to 



have from one season to another until I had 

 150 colonies of bees. Now I wanted to make 

 200 hives, and the question arose, shall I 

 make the wide frames and use the tin, or 

 shall I use the case a la Heddon ? I had 

 made a few of these cases the season before, 

 about .W, and had been unable to get the 

 combs straight enough to pack, without 

 putting them into the shipping case just as 

 they came off the hive. But then I had used 

 the two-inch section, and friend Heddon 

 said it must be just seven to the foot. 



Now, I had a neighbor, a supply dealer, 

 and first-class apiarist, who was making the 

 Heddon hive for sale and using them in his 

 apiary. I consulted him in regard to the 

 matter. He said he got them just as straight 

 as he wanted them, by using the narrow sec- 

 tion, and thought I would have no trouble if 

 I would use the same width. He showed me 

 honey that he said was a fair sample of his 

 honey, and that was certainly straight and 

 nice. Now, I had other evidence that honey 

 could be secured perfectly straight without 

 the use of separators. Tliere was a young 

 man, somewhere in Michigan, by the name 

 of W. Z. Hutchinson. He wrote articles for 

 Gleanings, and he told what he knew about 

 getting comb honey without separators. 

 How you must not put on your surplus cases 

 until the hives were just boiling over with 

 bees and you could see the new white comb 

 on top of the frames. Then, and not till 

 then, should you put on your cases. Then 

 the bees would hop on to every starter at the 

 same time and bring them all down perfect- 

 ly straight and without a bulge in a single 

 comb. Then Mr. Heddon told us that it 

 was perfectly unnecessary to use separators 

 . in order to get straight honey in the sections ; 

 that by the use of "my honey case" and 

 that "break joint honey board of mine," 

 you can get them just as straight as you can 

 with separators. Now, I knew very well 

 that 1 had not got them in that way. But 

 then, I had used the wide section, and that 

 must have been where my trouble came in ; 

 for how could such noted apiarists be in the 

 wrong ? I must be a spooney, and as it les- 

 sened the cost of the hives fully one-fourth, 

 I concluded to make 400 more of the Heddon 

 cases, which I did, and used a part of them 

 that summer. But I also used first what tin 

 I had. 



Now, when I came to get the honey out of 

 those Heddon " cases of mine," it was with 

 veji-ation of sj>irit that I saw my supply 



