THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



71 



dealing friend, and asked him how he had 

 succeeded with the Heddon case that season. 

 He assured me that everything was lovely 

 with him, and he could not understand why 

 I had the trouble. " It must be that I put 

 on too many sections at onetime." (He 

 used an eight and 1 a ten-frame hive). 

 Well, as the saying is. 1 was just knocked 

 out. 



But in the fall I went to Chicago, and the 

 commission man that liad his honey had a 

 part of mine, and I got permission to look 

 through that honey that was so straight that 

 he had had no trouble in packing, and 

 imagine my surprise when I could not find 

 a single case from which I could take a sec- 

 tion from the center without scraping the 

 comb. I came home, made some more wide 

 frames, and put tin on them. I have not 

 used any more Heddon cases since then, 

 except to set hives on. They do very well 

 for that. 



Well, what did my supply dealing friend 

 do that winter ? He said to me: "Ed., I 

 think I will make some wide frames to hold 

 one tier of sections and tin them, and try 

 some of them next season." He did so. In 

 the fall I asked him, " How do you like your 

 wide frames with tin ? " The answer was, 

 ■' They are the boss.''' The next season he 

 cleaned out what is now known as the old 

 style Heddon case. 



The next thing I knew Mr. Heddon was 

 using wide frames and tin ; and now comes 

 the editor of the Review and says, "I think 

 perhaps I ought to use separators, if I 

 don't." 



I use separators because I can't get 

 straight combs without, and it is hard to 

 make me believe that any one else can. 

 Which shall it be, tin or wood ? So far as 

 the honey is concerned, I think it makes no 

 difference. I have seen as nice honey pro- 

 duced with one as with the other. The tin 

 is the thinest and takes less room out of the 

 surplus arrangement, and I think would be 

 the cheapest in the end, on account of its 

 indestructability. So far as to tin being a 

 good conductor of heat, and would conduct 

 the heat from the bees, I doubt whether this 

 would cut any figure, from the fact that 

 when the weather is so cold that the bees 

 would need the heat that they (tin sepera- 

 tors) would conduct awaj , it would be too 

 cool for the secretion of honey, and the bees 

 would be in a cluster in the lower part of 

 the hive. 



Now, Mr. Editor, the only objection that I 

 can see to the use of separators is their cost, 

 which in a large apiary is not triding, and I 

 would be glad to get along without them on 

 that account, but until there is some plan 

 hit upon that is better than anything that I 

 now know of, I shall continue to buy them 

 as I need them. 



Lyndon, 111. Jan. 81, 1891. 



Separators Needed Where the Honey Flow 

 Fluctuates. 



GEO. F. BOBBINS. 



[JRIEND H. — I want to touch briefly on 

 two items regarding the subject of 

 separators. If you i.ave no room for 

 it, just light your cigar with it. I prefer 

 separators. The pros and cons would be 

 pretty easily and equally balanced but for 

 two things. First — Although I have raised 

 much beautiful honey without separators, 

 yet I can, as a rule, secure more even comb 

 surfaces and equal weights by their use. 

 Swarms hived in contracted brood chambers 

 with empty sections on the hive and plenty 

 of room are prone to bulge the central row 

 or rows of sections. But the principal 

 trouble is due to the characteristics of my 

 locality and honey flow. Almost my only 

 source of surplus honey is clover, which 

 never comes in a prodigious shower, and 

 seldom stops very abruptly. But in regard 

 to the elements we might say literally, " It 

 never rains but it pours." We are apt to 

 have either a drouth or a flood, either one of 

 which will curtail the honey yield. A good 

 harvest here must last from six to eight 

 weeks. But it is very seldom that we ever 

 have an uninterrui)ted flow during that time. 

 One or two weeks, perhaps, after the har- 

 vest begins, and the bees get pretty well 

 started in the sections, we will have a week 

 of rain, which keeps the bees at home so 

 much of the time and dilutes the nectar so 

 much when they can get out, as to check the 

 flow considerably. Then about the time 

 farmers think that corn begins to suffer for 

 rain the income reaches its best, but let the 

 drouth continue for a week and again the 

 yield gradually diminishes. About the first 

 step then is to draw in the surface of the 

 combs. The next is to omit the outside sec- 

 tions and build on the central ones only. 

 Now, if a little more honey comes in a day 

 or two, if there are no separatoi s, they pro- 

 ceed to lengthen the unsealed cells of these 

 central combs. You see, separators are the 



