ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 



33 



straight as a board, but so straight that 

 they may be crated, or pulled out of the 

 crate or case, without injury to combs. If a 

 man can secure nearly all straight combs, 

 and has a home market for the few bulged 

 sections, then separators are a useless 

 expense. 



If separators are to be used, then an- 

 other question arises; shall they be wood, 

 or tin? Fortunately, bee-keepers are 

 agreed upon this point. If they are to 

 be used loose, as in the T super, wood is 

 the material to use; if nailed fast to wide 

 frames, tin is preferable. If a wood sep- 

 arator is nailed fast, the shrinking and 

 swelling of the wood causes the separator 

 to curl sidewise, or it may split. If it be- 

 comes injured in anyway, there is the an- 

 noyance of its removal and the nailing 

 on of another. If a tin separator is not 



nailed fast at its ends, it takes advantage 

 of this freedom to bend a little here and 

 there, instead of keeping stretched out 

 straight, while a wood separator will not 

 bend in the direction of its length. 



Before closing, let me tell my readers 

 how they can nail tin separators on wide 

 frames and have the tin remain taut. 

 Nail two blocks upon the top of your 

 work bench at such a distance apart that 

 you can just " spring " in between them 

 the top and bottom bars of a wide frame 

 that is put together. This shortens the 

 distance between the end bars. While 

 held in this position, nail on the tin sep- 

 arator. Upon removing the frame from 

 between the blocks, the top and bottom 

 bars will straighten out, and, in so doing, 

 draw the tin as taut as a drum head. 



^'^:i''^^^m^4^^^f<:^ 



Increase, its Management and Control. 



£^ fNl^HERE are two classes of bee- 

 keepers who desire to prevent 

 increase in the number of their 

 colonies. The first and by far 

 the larger class, own only large home- 

 apiaries, and prefer surplus to increase. 

 This class can allow swarming if, by 

 some simple manipulation, the number of 

 colonies can be kept the same; and the 

 bees induced to devote their energies to 

 the storing of honey. The second class 

 are possessors of out-apiaries; and they 

 desire not only to prevent increase, but 

 to suppress swarming. This accomplish- 

 ed, the out-apiaries can be left alone, ex- 

 cept at stated intervals. 



In reply to the question, "Why do 

 bees swarm?" it has been replied that, 

 "It is natural." "It is their method of 

 increase " This may be true in part, 

 but it is not a satisfactory answer. I 



have never known a season to pass in 

 which all of the colonies of my apiary 

 either swarmed or didn't swarm. One 

 year I had seventy-five colonies. They 

 were worked for comb honey. Forty of 

 them swarmed; thirty-five didn't. It 

 would have been just as "natural," just 

 as much "according to nature" for one 

 colony to swarm as for another. In 

 Gleanings for 1889 there was quite a 

 length)- discussion in regard to the causes 

 that led to swarming. The chit of the 

 decision seemed to be that an undue pro- 

 portion of young or nurse bees to the 

 brood to be nursed was the prime cause 

 of swarming. If the brood nest be well 

 filled with brood, then for lack of other 

 room the bees begin storing honey in the 

 cells from which the bees are hatching, 

 the result is that soon there is but little 

 brood to care for compared to the num- 



