1877. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



211 



each for the sections, and you are not obliged 

 !to go to tliis expense even, until the first lot 

 lire tilied and ready to sell. 



I3 it not ii satisfaction to have every pound 

 •of your honey sold the very inanute you get 

 fit off the hives, and to have none standing 

 juoniid in the way, \Taiting for a purt^iiaser ? 

 ■Such my friends, is our situation at this very 

 nninute, and we look over the hives every 

 three or four daj^s, to get out the tinished 

 sections. 



If you are using the chaff hives, or if you 

 !u\ve only a few hives, or if honey is coming 

 wo slowly that only a small part of the sec- 

 tions are ready to remove, it will be your 

 better way to lift the frames, take out the 

 tilled sections and replace them with empty 

 nrnes. without brushing the bees (»ff at all. 

 If the sections are set down near the en- 

 trance, or if more convenient, on the top of 

 the frames you luu'e just extunined, tlie bees 

 will be neiu-ly all oif as soon as you are ready 

 to close the hive. It is a very easy matter 

 to take out the finished sections and leave 

 the others, when you once get the hang of 

 it. You can get out the first 2 inch frame 

 without killing a single bee, even if you do 

 not have one broo<l frame above, if you iue 

 careful. Stand this at one side of the hive 

 in the shade, or in an empty hive if robbers 

 are about much, and then i)roceed to lift out 

 the next one. Now there is a very conveni- 

 ent way of supporting a frame, while you 

 itre cutting out or inserting queen cells, re- 

 Buoving a queen for caging, clii)ping a 

 queen's wings, removing section boxes and 

 a variety of other purposes, and to be sure 

 to make it plain, I will give you a diagram. 



Let A B C D, represent the hive or the up- 

 per story of a hive ; the fi-ame of sections is 

 shown with one of the ends of the top bar* 

 resting in its usual place in the rabbet, while 

 the Ijottom biu- of the frame rests on the oi»- 

 posite rabbet. One advantage of this meth- 

 od of support is that the bees all or nearly 

 all, will run off down on to the frames beUnv 

 from the lower corner — shown by the dotted 



lines— and we thus avoid having them scat- 

 tered al)out on the ground. It is very plain, 

 that you have every facility in the world, 

 for getting out the upi)er corner sections, at 

 E ; if those adjoining it are finished, they 

 will come out ecpially as e;usy, and there will 

 be no danger of aiiy <»f the rest sliding out of 

 place while you are doing it, for they are 

 held seciuely by gravity ; when these are all 

 out and tlieir places supplied with empty 

 ones, you are ready to take those from the 

 other end in the same way. If the bottom 

 sections are all filled before the upi)er ones, 

 simply turn the frame upside down ; your 

 frame is held securely, and you have both 

 hands to work with. When done, put in 

 place of the trst removed, and so on luitil 

 the whole i.re finished. With the chaff 

 hives, nothing can work nicer, and in them 

 we find the sections in the u\>per tier filled 

 just about as soon as the lower, and the out- 

 side frames, just about as soon as the central 

 ones. The ^3 sections are none too much 

 for a sti'ong colony. We find very little ad- 

 vantage in using sections in the lower story, 

 so long cis plenty of room is given above. 

 Of course the side storing ones would be 

 filled very quickly, if we gave them iro room 

 above, Jnit Mith the L. frame, I am inclined 

 to think it will not be worth while to use 

 both side and top storing boxes at once. 



Of coui-se you will be methodical enough 

 to have your shipping case by your side when 

 removing sections, that you may put them 

 in their places as fast as they are removed. 

 We can not afford to handle things unnec- 

 essarily, to say nothing of having our work 

 scattered about, and in danger of being for- 

 gotten or tumbled down in the dirt. When 

 jou have your cases filled, tack on a ship- 

 ping tag, with ycnir oicn address on it, as 

 well as the address of your honey merchant, 

 and it is ready to go. We have at this date, 

 July rath, sent off a half ton, and all has 

 been delivered safely. 



As a section box 4i inches square, by 2 

 inches thick weighs just about one pound, 

 we think tliis size is going to take the pre- 

 cedence over all others. We have tried 

 them still smaller, but the bees seem loth to 

 put honey into anything very much less in 

 size ; some 2* inches square, were very well 

 filled, but it was only after they had filled 

 all the larger ones placed in the same hive. 



KEEP YOUR HOXEY CLEAN AND FREE 

 FROM STICKINESS. 



Do not take a single section from the hive 

 until every cell is sealed, and the honey 

 clean and dry. Each one should be as clean 



