180 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Junk 



PROBL.E.TI ON SECTION BOXES. 



l|OULD there not be an improvement made in 

 yi ij adiiisting- sections in the surplus chamber? 

 <^' When you g-et all your section frames placetl 







in, keyed and togKled up, you have, as it were, a 

 box . tin of sections. 1 1 is a box full of joints, which 

 are so many inlets fir air, and also just so many 

 traps for bees; poor little dears! 



Now I propose making- a box with solid sides and 

 ends, of thin stuff, and of proper dimensions; then 

 ] will space it olT and put in dividing tins; next, I 

 will nail on for the bottom just such strips as you 

 nail on the bottom of each frame; and lastly, 1 will 

 have a lid to shut down air tight. Now this hox for- 

 Hcctyinx, as I term it, can be easily hungor set in the 

 chamber, will be air tight (except the bottom) will 

 have no toggling, no stray lieces, and, better still, 

 no joints to crush bees. The sections can be set in 

 from the top, and a little instrument, like wire 

 tongs with short bent points, can be used for liftina: 

 them out. From top and bottom a "peep" can be 

 had at each section, giving one an almost exact 

 idea of the state of completion without removing 

 a single section. The most diffcult point for me 

 was to decide just how to adjust the tins, to be sim- 

 ple and effectual f but I l>eliuve that I now see it in 

 the right light. 



I, for one, will give them a trial, and if they prove 

 satisfactory, will, if desired, give theirconstruction 

 in detail. Will you not give them atrial and report? 



Kollersville, April tth, 1818. D. B. Baker. 



You have struck a;>on a point that has 

 troubles! me more thrin a little, friend B.. 

 and I liave walked around the stairway, and 

 rolled it over and over in my mind, "off and 

 on," for more than two-years; but, all things 

 considered, I do not see how we can have it 

 any simpler than it is. At one time 1 had a 

 ])lan so fully matured that I had even taken 

 steps to get out the lumber, and I was going 

 to dispense with frames not only for holding 

 the sections, but for the brood apnrtment 

 also, and see how cheaply a hive could be 

 c<instructed that would produce nice section 

 boxes of lioney, at a very small expense. 

 The case of sections we used in 1876 was 

 much on your plan, friend 13., and they do 

 very nicely, if they are all put on the hives 

 at once, and all taken oif at once ; but even 

 then some will be lilled sufficiently for mar- 

 ket, and some will not, and the amount of 

 labor and fuss t-o overhaul and sort the cases 

 is fearful, conspared with the way Ave have 

 them now. 



J^et us look into the matter ; we have de- 

 cided that we cannot dispense with the tin 

 separators, any way, and so we shall save 

 nothing on them by adopting any different 

 plan. We have also decided that the bees 

 must never have access to any part of the 

 outside of the sections, on account of the 

 propolis which so disfigures them and spoils 

 tlieir sale ; therefore, we must liave the bot- 

 tom bars to the two inch frames, as before. 

 It is true, we might have a thin board with 

 slots sawed in it something like the old style 

 lioney boards, but this would cost about as 

 much as the bottom bars, and would not be 

 likely to be near as accurate. It must be 

 remembered that the section boxes must 

 stand exactly over the bottom bar that pro- 

 tects them, or we shall have a bad spot of 

 ju-opolis, to say nothing of shutting up the 

 i)assageway, if they are a little on one side ; 

 also that it is next to imposi^ible to have 

 these )viatch exactly, unless each row of sec- 

 tions is held exactly in this position, inde- 

 pendently of the rest ; that is, the rest must 

 have no chance of crowding any one row of 



sections from its place, over its resi>ective 

 bottom bar. One summer I had quite a, 

 quantity of honey stored in common frames, 

 and one day, as I lifted out some of the 

 heavy white combs, I made the remark that 

 if I could get combs like that, built so they 

 couTd be separated into square cakes of 1 lb. 

 each, and still be lifted from the hives with 

 the facility of these combs, I should be con- 

 tent to produce comb honey. This wish 

 has been fully realized, and I very much 

 doubt Avhether we shall ever liave any easier 

 way of getting sections from the hive than 

 by lifting them out, in a suspended case or 

 frame, precisely as we lift out our brood 

 frames. To go back ; your box or case must 

 flave a cover to it, other than the cover to 

 your hive, and so, even if we do dispense 

 with the top bars, we must have some sub- 

 stitute for them also. This leaves us noth- 

 ing but the end bars, and we certainly can- 

 not get along without them, unless we at- 

 tach our separators to the sections them- 

 selves, or to the end of the hive. The form- 

 er plan has been used, but, if the sections 

 are to be handled, it is quite unsatisfactory; 

 the latter, mutilates the hives, besides it has 

 been well proven, that the bees build comb 

 better in sections double cased from the 

 weather than with only a single thickness of 

 lumber. If all this be true, we need just as 

 much lumber in your case as in the seven 

 broad frames; in the case, we can lift them 

 all at once, or each section singly ; with the 

 frames, we can lift them in sets of 8 each, 

 and 8 lbs. is about as much as one wants to 

 lift out of a bee hive at once, and be sure of 

 not killing a bee; with the case, you must 

 lift 56 lbs., and it is a very hard matter to 

 handle such a weight, without killing bees, 

 or, if you attempt to take them out and 

 put them back singly, you will i;nd it a te- 

 dious task indeed, to say nothing of the 

 slaughter of the little workers. All that 

 seems to be left to consider is cheapening 

 these 7 brood frames. Our price has been 

 4c each, but I really think they ought to be 

 made cheaper. As you have taken almost 

 all we could possibly make at that price, it 

 has not been much of an object for me to 

 think of lower prices, but I hope to be able 

 to do it by another season. Four cents each 

 for the frames would allow you 28c for your 

 case, and I hardly think you could make one 

 that would hold the separators and protect 

 the sections much cheaper. 



In the foregoing, I have said nothing of 

 the convenience of being able to hang this 

 frame of 8 sections in either the upper or 

 lower story ; this is a very important item, 

 as it allows us to get nice comb honey at 

 the side of the brood combs, or from a Aveak 

 colony in a one story hive. In putting up 

 j the sections, the girls lay them into the 

 ! frames as fast as clone ; Avhen a frame is 

 I tilled they hang it in a hive ; nnd when a 

 j hive is tilled, it is put in a pile with thewoth- 

 I ers. The work all goes on methodically, and 

 if it is stopped at any point, everything is 

 closed up, and out of the Avay. Your case of 

 56 sections Avith the loose separators, it 

 seems to me, is a much more complierrted 

 affair. I have used them both Avays for sev- 

 eral seasons. 



