iVZ ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Ott. DoC. 



UNFINISHED SECTIONS. 



At the close of the honey harvest it will always be the case that 

 more or less of the sections will be unfinished, the number varying 

 greatly in ditferent years. It will happen some years that the season 

 will be so poor that none will be finished. Even in the best of years 

 there will be a considerable portion left unfinished, varying all the 

 way from those the bees have not started at all up to those that are 

 filled with honey but have a few cells unsealed. 



Those that have not been worked at all by the bees, having no 

 honey at all in them, may be put away until the next year, when they 

 can be used. Be very careful, however, that you do not make the 

 mistake of leaving such sections too long on the hives. When the 

 harvest is over they should come off at once, for the bees will only 

 daub bee-glue upon them, and sometimes to such an extent that 

 they will not accept them the following year. Indeed, some make 

 a practice of taking off all section® at the close of the clover and 

 linden harvest, so as to have none of the later and darker honey in 

 them, and so as to avoid the bee-glue that will be put on them while 

 the bees have nothing to do between the early and late harvests. If 

 a fall flow comes, sections can be again put on, or extracting-combs. 



Sections that are not entirely finished will, of course, do for the 

 table, and if to be sold, must be sold at a lower price. Any that are 

 less than half filled with honey should be fed to the bees. If you 

 set out a super of such sections where the bees can get at them, 

 they will promptly carry out the honey, but will be so eager in 

 squabbling over it that they will tear down the tender comb so 

 as to ruin it. Extracting-combs are not in the same danger unless 

 very new. To avoid having the sections ruined for future use, cover 

 them up so as to leave a passage for only one bee at a time to get at 

 them. Better set them five rods or more away from the apiary. 



These sections thus cleaned out by the bees will be valuable for 

 use thr next year, and one or more of them put in each super that 

 is first put on the hives will start the bees promptly at work. If 

 they are not cleaned out, the particles of honey remaining will candy 

 and affect the new honey that is put in them the next season. 



MOVING BEES. 



As ha.s been explained, bees mark their location, and when they 

 iTtnrn from a foraging expedition they find their place rather than 

 their hive. If you turn a hive around, so as to make the entrance 

 at the back instead of the front, it will trouble the boos very much. 

 They will light in clusters where they think the entrance ought to 

 be, and it will be some time before they find the entrance. If yon 



