IRISH GARDENING. 



195 



Bee-Keeping. 



By T. MaGUIRE, The Orchard, Enniskillen. 



Extraction — I. 



DURING the winter months bee-keepers make plans 

 for the summer. I think one plan that many 

 should turn their attention to this winter would 

 be the production of extracted honey, either partially or 

 altogfether. It has several advantages over section 

 honey — it is easier to work, is more economical. Once 

 the extractor and the requisite number of frames are 

 provided there is practicall}- no further expense ; the 

 labour is less ; swarminy is more easily controlled ; 

 queens are more easily reared ; more honey is produced ; 

 and last, but not least, the demand for extracted honey 

 is much greater than for sections, and the price not so 

 variable. True, sections generally fetch more per 

 pound than extracted honey, but the greater quantity 

 obtained of the latter^50 per cent, at least in normal 

 years — more than makes up the difference, whilst the 

 storage of sections during cold weather, if not sold early, 

 is a very serious trouble with most people. Extracted 

 honey can be tinned and marketed right off. Those, 

 therefore, who have four or more hives to work, and 

 particularly those who are at a distance from large 

 marketing centres, would be well advised to start 

 working for extracted honey. 



Extracting can be worked either with the ordinary 

 standard brood frames or with shallow frames, supers 

 or doubling boxes being provided to take whichever 

 size is selected. Any handy person can make a doubling 

 box in an hour, and any well-seasoned wood will do. It 

 is merely a brood-chamber without the second wall, a 

 projection at the top providing space for the ears of the 

 frame, which are kept in position by a slip at each side. 

 Hoop iron answers admirably, and has the advantage of 

 taking up so little space that the lift will fit comfortably 

 round it. The space between the combs of the super 

 and those of the brood-chamber may be half an inch in 

 case of standard frames, but with shallow frames should 

 not exceed a quarter inch, otherwise the combs will be 

 braced to the excluder. The supers are made to take 

 ten frames, and are usually occupied only by eight, the 

 spaces between being fitted with pieces of cork or wood 

 or some other device to prevent escape of bees. When 

 the combs are thus widely spaced they are drawn out 

 much more fully and filled more heavily, so that a 

 greater amount of honey is realised from the same 

 number of combs with less labour than with ordinary 

 spacing. When very thick honey is expected drone 

 combs are sometimes used with shallow frames, as they 

 are rather more easily extracted. All combs should, of 

 course, be properly wired, otherwise they will break 

 under the strain of extracting. 



Sections, if required, can be worked on top. Suppose 

 a crate of sections is put on first, when the big flow 

 comes the shallow frames are put beneath it, or if 

 standard frames are used the stock is " doubled " — that 

 is, the combs in the brood chamber are put in the super, 

 whilst the spare combs or new frames of foundation are 

 put in the brood chamber. If there are spare combs a 

 choice can be made of those used in the super ; none 

 containing a quantity of pollen should be put above ; the 

 ideal combs for the super are those completely filled 

 with sealed brood. The queen must be found and put 

 below, and an exclude placed over the brood chamber 

 to prevent her coming up again. Four or five days 

 after doing this it is necessary to examine the combs of 

 the super for queen cells ; they are generally started 

 when the queen is excluded below, and must be removed 

 unless they are suitable and required for queen rearing, 

 in which case they can be given to nuclei. 



{To he continued.) 



Answers to 

 Correspondents 



b I 



Size of Potato Sets (" Northern Grower"). — It is 

 generally considered that the larger the "set" the 

 more vigorous the resulting plant. The superiority 

 does not apparently lie in the extra amount of food 

 stored in the larger specimen. Experiments recently 

 carried out at Cambridge demonstrate this. Small and 

 large tubers were selected and the "flesh" scooped 

 away, leaving an equal amount to each "eye." The 

 " eyes " were first started under glass, and then planted 

 out. In every case the yield obtained was in proportion 

 to the size of the tubers used, the greatest being that 

 fi om the largest specimens. 



Propagating Goose- 

 berries (" Beginner"). 

 — An illustrated article 

 on this operation ap- 

 peared in our issue of 

 October, 1906. We re- 

 produce three of the 

 illustrations covering 

 your particular ques- 

 tion. A represents the 

 young growth as cut 

 from the bush, the lines 

 aa indicating where the 

 cuts should be made 

 with a sharp knife, and 

 b the buds or eyes 

 which must be removed 

 (five being allowed to 

 remain on the upper 

 portion). ^ is a cutting 

 prepared and ready for 

 insertion. In the case 

 of a shoot taken off 

 with a heel as shown 

 in C the heel {b) should 

 be trimmed off at a 

 joint, the tip removed 

 at a and partially dis- 

 budded as in b. 



Mulching Straw- 

 berry Beds ( " Fruit 

 Grower "). — Certainly. 

 After the autumnal 

 cultivation a mulch oi 

 strawy manure should 

 b e applied. Fro m 

 certain experiments 

 carried on for a series 

 of five years it was 

 found that mulching 

 i n early winter gave 

 every time a very con- 

 siderable increase of 



yield over the unmulched plots. As a proof that the in- 

 crease was the result of the strawy soil-covering rather 

 than the manurial matter washed into the soil, it was 

 found, first, that straw alone gives as good returns as 

 strawy manure, and, second, that in another plot that 

 received artificial fertilisers, but no mulch, the yield was 

 no better than on the untreated control plot. It should 

 be mentioned that these experiments were conducted 

 in one of the North-Eastern States of America, where, 

 perhaps, strawberries suffer more from lack of moisture 



