1876 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



129 



THICK COMBS, SECTION BOXES, ETC. 



M'AVE you tried tliick combs, say l?i inches thick, 

 for the extractor? I think they wouUl be just 



~ the thing we want, without being troubled with 



brood. "Would like to have some drone comb founda- 

 tions rather large so the bees will linish them, lam 

 an extractor man and all the comb lioney men in cre- 

 ation can not persuade me to believe that I am wrong. 

 You had better make up your mind that you will not 

 be deceived by dishonest comb honey men. 



n. S. Dkcktell, New Bufl'alo, Mich. 

 We have used tliick combs with the extract- 

 or, and have repeatedly advised them. At the 

 time we transferred our American hives to the 

 Lan£stroth, we saved all die drone comb and 

 put it in frames by itself, and have almost ev- 

 ery season found these drone combs ranch the 

 most convenient when we succeeded in pre- 

 venting the queen from using them. We can 

 senerally succeed in doiui? this by placing 

 them at a considerable distance apart, being 

 careful not to get them so distant at first, as to 

 allow them to build a small comb in between. 

 As the cells get lengthened we can put them 

 farther apart, and we last season had one such 

 comb weighing when filled, 11 lbs. With such 

 combs as these, the labor of extracting is very 

 much lessened, for the bees are brushed off 

 from them in much less time than they can 

 be from combs containing brood ; and we get 

 as much honey from one, as from three ordina- 

 ry combs in the brood apartment. To really 

 enjoy the work of extracting, one needs to have 

 a comb of this kind so heavy as to fairly make 

 the wrists ache to carry it, and then after the 

 uncapping is done, you feel that such a 

 flood of honey as pours into the barrel as you 

 commence to whirl it, is really worth while. 

 As j'ou carry them back to the hive after being 

 lightened of their contents, you must lie unim- 

 pressible indeed, if your countenance does not 

 soften into a smile when you consider what a 

 very easy matter it is to get the honey out of 

 the hives, and in the very shape in which it is 

 wanted for food. What do you suppose the 

 bees would do if they were furnished with 

 drone comb with cells nearly twice the ordina- 

 ry size ? Would they use them for honey when 

 crowded for room, and would there be any dan- 

 ger of the queens laying in them if she could 

 go down into them and turn around? Please 

 don't smile, any body, for just as sure as you 

 live we are about trying that very experiment, 

 so no one can patent it ? Do not fear friend B., 

 we shall always be with you in the extracting 

 business. 



I would like to know how wide to get out my lumber 

 lor sectioj; boxes, as I want as few as possible in each 

 box (that is sectiens) so as to be sure and have a single 

 comb in each. Do they need to be 1 Ji, 2, or '2J^ inch- 

 es? I have had bees make combs tlie whole size of 

 Langstroth box, but they can not be depended on. 



E. Stanhope, Pentwater, INIich. 



How thick will bees build combs of honey in boxes, 

 and build them regularly, that is, if pieces of comb are 

 put in for a start, how far from centre to centre must 

 they be, to prevent their building a strip of comb be- 

 tween them occasionally ? 



Chas. II. Rue. Manalapan, N. Y. 



A matter that is undecided. Section boxes 

 are used of all the widths j'^ou ' have named ; 



Harbison makes the narrowest we believe, and 

 we do not know his reasons for making them 

 only l-^ij. Doolittle and Wheeler, make them 

 about 1J?4 ; and Isham has the glasses in his 

 one comb boxes about 2 inches apart If yon 

 have them as far as 2>4, we think there would 

 be much likelihood of having two thin combs 

 built ; the foundations probably would correct 

 this. AVho will test it first v 



Bloomlngton, Ills-, Feb. ith, 1870. 

 1 want to try for box honey next summer. I have 

 the Qninby box, with four glass sides, top and bottom 

 wood. This is a nice box, but too expensive for this 

 countrj-. C. F. Muth, of Cincinnati, sent me a sample 

 of his box with two sides glass, balance wood; says he 

 can furnish them at 10 cts. each. This seems cheap 

 enough. But the box appears to be too small. Please 

 get all the information you can about honey boxes 

 and give us an article in Glkani.xgs entitlpd. All 

 ahntif honey boxes. Also please give us an article en- 

 titled, "All about glass honey jars and glass honey 

 tumblers with glass covers." Some of our grocery 

 men here have honey for sale, put' up in glass jars 

 with glass covers, holding about two pounds. About 

 three pieces of white comb capped over are put into a 

 jar first, and the jar is then filled with extracted hon- 

 ey or something like it. These jars of honey were bo't 

 of C. O. Perrine, Chicago, and are sold here at 75 cts. 

 each. Another 2 lb. glass jar, with a better and hand- 

 somer glass cover, filled with eomb and liquid honey, 

 same as the Perrine jar, is sold here for same price. 

 Hcney is put up in this jar by A. Kernberger, 231 W. 

 Randolph St., Chicago, and sold to our grocers. The 

 said A. Kernberger, puts up and sells honey both 

 comb and licjuid, in 1 lb. glass tumblers with glass cov- 

 ers. The glass covers for the Kernberger jar and 

 tumblers have a glass rim around the outer edge, 

 which (its down over the outside of the jar or tumbler 

 in a very neat manner. The questions are, where are 

 these jars made, and what do they cost ? 



May 'M.—Oi course the tin cases and separators arc 

 the principle expense in commencing with your sec- 

 tion boxes. Yet I understand that the tin cases and 

 separators can be used for bcveral years. 



I consider your section boxes and tin cases, etc., a 

 grand success, with or without comb foundations. I 

 will try comb foundations and natural comb. I would 

 suggest two kinds of boxes, one for comb foundations, 

 and one for natural comb. The upright pieces of the 

 box designed for natural comb, can be made solid 1 Ja 

 inches wide, the top and bottom pieces same as now, 

 and the wliolc put together with tongues and grooves, 

 same as present box, with less tongues in upright pie- 

 ces. This would make a stronger box with no cracks 

 for bees to till. John Ansley. 



The same point comes up here, that we have 

 in the lioop hive. If we make the section box- 

 es with the side pieces whole, we have got to 

 bring in a new piece ; new machinery will Ik; 

 needed for its mannfacture and additional 

 chances of error are incurred. As it is now, 

 we have only to learn to make one piece, and 

 when we can make that one piece just right, 

 the whole box is exact, and we can with little 

 expense or risk, arrange to make these simple 

 pieces with great rapidity, and at a very insig- 

 nificant cost. We think the space left for the 

 comb foundation will occasion no inconveni- 

 ence, but a test will soon determine. The tin 

 cases of course are to used over and over again, 

 and the wood frame is all that is to be sold 

 with the honey. 



