HONEY-COMB. 



271 



HONEY -DEW. 



worker comb, and when they will build 

 worker and drone comb both. 



It is a fact that bees under certain conditions 

 build almost all worlier comb; and it is also true 

 that, under other conditions, a great deal of unde- 

 sirable drone comb is built. For instance, a new 

 medium-sized swarm, placed in a hive of a size that 

 maj' be filled with combs and brood in about 23 days 

 or less, ought to build worker comb mainly, though 

 fome of the last combs built may contain a few 

 drone-cells. The secret seems to be in having just 

 the rig-ht number of workers and just the right 

 amount of honey coming in, so that the bees will 

 draw out the combs no faster than the queen can 

 occupy them with brood. As long as this condition 

 lasts we should expect the bees to build worker 

 combs. From this we see that, in order to get good 

 results in comb-building from a natural swarm, this 

 swarm should be of just the right size, and there 

 should be a honey-How of, say, three or four pounds 

 a day. 



We will suppose a large swarm is hived during a 

 period when honey is coming in freely. At this time 

 there is too much honey coming in for the best re- 

 sults in comb-building in the brood-nest, if the whole 

 force of workers is compelled to do all their work in 

 the brood-nest. The remedy is to put most of the 

 workers at work in the supers. Most beginners fail 

 in doing this; but the principle is to make the sur- 

 plus receptacles more inviting to the workers than 

 the brood-nest, and the bees will immediately go up 

 into the supers on being hived. Our comb-honey 

 super with extracting-combs at the sides makes an 

 ideal arrangement for this very thing. 



It is plain to see that, if most of the honey being 

 carried in is placed in the sections, where it should 

 be, the queen will not be hurried to keep pace with 

 the workers, consequently all-worker comb will be 

 liuilt. The brood-nest sliould be filled with comb 

 during the first 33 days after the swarm is hived; for 

 the queen must keep up with the workers and lay 

 in nearly every cell as fast as it is drawn out, or the 

 bees will begin to store honey in the cells. When 

 tills condition arrives, the bees, on the supposition 

 that the (lueen has reached her li mi t,and that the rest 

 of the combs will be used for storing honey, begin to 

 ba Id the storage size or the drone-cells in the brood- 

 nest. This Is likely to occur in about 23 days afiei' 

 the swarm is hived; for by this time the brood is be- 

 ginning to hatch out in that part of the hive where 

 the laying began. From this time on, the queen has 

 nearly all she can do to keep the cells filled with 

 eggs where the young bees are hatching. This 

 means that the comb-fcuilding part of the hive is 

 neglected, and that the bees build store or drone 

 comb to a great extent until the hive is filled. 



It sometimes happens that a very late swarm will 

 issue; and since the season is nearing its close, it is 

 not possible for such a swarm to build more than 

 five combs before the honey ceases coming in. Wv 

 hive such swarms as usual, and in about two da.\ s 

 five of the frames having the least combs built ai'c 

 removed and a division-board placed up against the 

 remaining five frames, this five having been shoved 

 over to one side of the hive. If a super is given such 

 a swarm at the time of hiving, it nuist be a nearly 

 finished one, as the bees will need most of the r time 

 to finish up the five combs in the brood-nest. If one 

 has two of such five-comb colonies they can be 

 united at the close of the season, so that there will 



be none but full- sized colonies to winter. A better 

 plan than this for late swarms, or for any small 

 after-swarms that one may have, is to hive them on 

 full sets of combs taken, possibly, from hives in 

 which colonies died the previous winter. This is a 

 very good way to get such combs filled with bees, 

 t)ut some swarms hived in this way may need feed- 

 ing for winter. 



There are artificial ways of handling bees so that 

 tliey will build good worker combs. 1 refer to the 

 plan of shaking the liees into an empty hive, in the 

 same way that a swarm is hived If a colony is di- 

 vided into nuclei of, say, two or three combs each, 

 and each nucleus given a young queen reared the 

 same year, such little colonies will build very nice 

 worker combs; but the beginner will not be inter- 

 ested in this artificial way of making increase, for 

 he should stick to the natural-swarming plan for his 

 increase until such time as he has haa experience 

 and made a success of getting a crop of honey. In 

 fact, there ai'e many things to be learned before a 

 beginner should take up artificial ways of making 

 increase. 



SOME CONDITIONS WHEHE BEES BUILD MOSTLY 

 DRONE COMB. 



Any colony found rearing drone brood in the 

 brood-nest will, if a comb is removed and an empty 

 frame put in its place, build drone comb. It can be 

 depended upon, moreover, that a colony of bees 

 wintered over, containing a queen reared the season 

 before, or one older, will build drone comb until the 

 time that it swarms. By this it can be seen that it 

 is necessary to replace any combs, removed from a 

 colony before it swarms in the spring or early sum- 

 mer, with an empty comb or with a frame contain- 

 ing a full sheet of foundation, or else drone comb 

 will be the result. To be sure that a colony will 

 build a large per cent of worker comb it is necessary 

 to remove all the brood and to cause the bees of that 

 colony to begin all over again, as in the case of nat- 

 ural swarming: or, as mentioned before, the colony 

 can be broken up into nuclei, each nucleus conlaii.- 

 ing a young queen. 



For the consideration of the thickness of 

 combs and how far to space them apart see 

 Frames, Self-spacing ; also Si'Achstg of 

 Frames ; also Comb Foundation. 



HOl^riiV-DEW. So named because it 

 was formerly supposed to come down from 

 the heavens in the form of a saccharine 

 spray, settling on the leaves of trees and 

 low-growing shrubbery. It is now known 

 to be almost, if not entirely, the product of 

 aphides, or plant-lice, and coccids, or scale in- 

 sects. These are sometimes found on the top- 

 most limbs of a tree, and the honey-dew 

 which they secrete is thrown out as a spray, 

 which falls on the lower limbs and on the 

 sidewalk* or grass. Observers, seeing the 

 leaves of the lower limbs of trees and the 

 grass covered with a sort of saccharine var- 

 nish, naturally came to tlie conclusion that 

 this substance was a real honey-dew, and 

 hence the name. 



* Sometimes the sidewalks in our vicinity, in July 

 and August, are spotted all over near the trees. 



