ILLINOIS STATE BEfi-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



97 



Mr. Baldridge: You would get a 

 good deal of drone-comb. 



Dr. Miller: I don't want any build- 

 ing down, because they would be 

 likely to build crosswise. 



Mr. Whitney'iS paper was then read 

 by Mr. York, as follows: 



Are Separators Essential to the Pro- 

 duction of Straight-Comb 

 Section Honey? 



Something like three years ago sub- 

 stantially this question was put to a 

 large number of recognized experts 

 by the editor of the The American IBee 

 Journal, and more than 90 per cent of 

 the answers were yes; that cratable 

 honey could not well be produced 

 without separators. It has been my 

 contention for a number of years that 

 straight sections could be produced 

 without separators, and I am grati- 

 fied to learn that this contention is 

 supported by so good authority as "W. 

 K. Morrison, a very close observer, 

 and one having a bee-keeping experi- 

 ence thought to be unsurpassed by 

 any other man in the United States, 

 and a man who is regarded as an au- 

 thority on any subject- about which he 

 speaks or writes. Also, I am pleased 

 to refer to such names as Messrs. J. 

 E. Hand, Rowland Sherburne and Leo 

 E. Gately, all of whom are extensive 

 and experienced honey-producers. 

 .Assuming that straight comb honey 

 can be produced in the surplus cham- 

 ber without separators, how to do it 

 presents itself for solution. My ear- 

 lier experiences in bee-keeping were 

 with the use of the standard 4%x4%x 

 1% and 2-inch two bee- way sections 

 without separators. There were more 

 or less (often more) uneven or bulged 

 sections. By experimenting (which 

 I'm quite given to) by cutting down 

 sections and fitting them into Langs- 

 troth sized frames, holding eight sec- 

 tions, and putting them into the brood- 

 chamber to one side with brood-frame 

 spacing, found them built down even 

 like brood-comb. This led me to 

 think that, if a narrower section with 

 a full sheet of foundation was used, 

 and a full force of bees, just as perfect 

 sections could be produced in the sur- 

 plus chamber without separators as 

 with; hence the adoption of the sev- 

 en-to-the-foot section, which has be- 

 come the standard in my yard, and 

 has been used with marked success 

 for the last ten years. 



The essentials to success are a sec- 

 tion not thicker than seven-to-the- 

 foot (the tall, thinner ones now in use 

 are fully as good, if not better), a 

 full sheet of foundation, a force of 

 bees sufficient to fill the super, a 

 temperature warm enough to permit ' 

 comb-building simultaneously in all 

 the sections. Right at this point as 1 

 look at it is the only objection of 

 any value that can be given against 

 the non-use of separators, and that is 

 that, in our northern latitude, there 

 are often chilly nights in June, at a 

 time when bees are the busiest at 

 comb-building, which causes them to 

 retire from the outside sections to 

 the center rows, when single-board ^ 

 hives are used, which sometimes re- 

 sults in having irregular sections. 

 But sections injured by brace-comb 

 when separators are used more than 

 ofCset the damage done by uneven 

 comb when not used. Later I Avill de- 

 scribe what I believe the ideal hive 

 for comb-honey production. 



I have experimented with plain 

 wood, fence and tin separators; were 

 I to use any I prefer the tin, though 

 they cost more, to either of the oth- 

 ers. They are practically everlast- 

 ing, easily cleaned, while the others 

 are frail, difficult to clean and mussy 

 generally. Never yet have I produced 

 a fence section of honey that I could 

 not discover a corrugated appear- 

 ance across the comb. Once I per- 

 forated several tin ^separators, punch- 

 ing four holes about four inches apart 

 in the form of a square, and one in 

 the center opposite of each section, 

 and while these were only large 

 enough for a bee to go through easily, 

 there were little projections opposite 

 of these places on each comb like the 

 round heads of little bolts. The sev- 

 eral experiments that I have been able 

 to make convince me that the only 

 perfect section of honey is that pro- 

 duced by the use of the plain sepa- ' 

 rator, or none at all. 



Separators retard the work of the 

 bees, which is another serious objec- 

 tion to their use. Every facility 

 should be given for access to the sur- 

 plus chamber compatible with the ul- 

 timate results to be attained. Inci- 

 dentally, this is an argument in favor 

 of the T-super over that of the sec- 

 tion-holder bottom. 



In support of my contention, I wish 

 to be permitted to quote extracts from 

 correspondence of the gentlemen 



