230 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



amount of honey stored in the sec- 

 tions, and by delaying the start in tlie 

 new super, will sometimes actually in- 

 crease the number of sections left un- 

 finished. A modification of this plan 

 that I rather like is to place the new 

 super on top, and, if the bees occupy 

 it in numbers sufficient to show a 

 liklihood of good work in it, place it 

 below as usual. Twenty-four hours 

 is amply long enough to leave this 

 super on top, and, usually, a much 

 shorter time is sufficient to determine 

 whether the bees really need more 

 room or not. 



Now we will suppose that the end 

 of the season has come, and that, in 

 spite of our efforts, there are still a 

 number of uncompleted sections. The 

 first thing to do is to get them off the 

 hives as soon as possil)le and sorted 

 over so that you can see just how 

 many you have in the various stages 

 of completion. How many grades 

 you are to sort them into depends up- 

 on what use you are to make of the 

 unfinished ones. After sorting out all 

 that are marketable, I usually put the 

 rest into three classes. 



First, those that have no honey in 

 them. Second, those that are less 

 than half finished. In the third class 

 go all that are above this. 



The first are stored away carefully 

 so that no dust can get at them. The 

 supers containing the second class 

 are carefully piled up out of doors so 

 that the bees can get at them through 

 a small opening admitting only one 

 or two bees at a time. As soon as the 

 bees have al)Out all the honey out, 

 free access is given to the pile and they 

 are left until the bees are entirely 

 done with them, when they are stored 

 a-way for use the next season as bait 

 sections. 



The sections that are nearly finished 

 are completed by feeding back. Tiiis 

 is something that I think very few 



beekeepers are as well acquainted 

 with as they ought to be. Feeding 

 back to complete sections that are 

 nearly iinished can be made very prof- 

 itable. For the details of this, I 

 know of nothing that covers the sub- 

 ject so well or completely as what the 

 editor of The Review has written in 

 his '"Advanced Bee Culture." But 

 to cpiloniize the essentials, I will say 

 that to ni.ike a success of feeding back 

 one must have strong colonies of bees 

 that show an adaptability for this 

 work. Bees ditfer greatly in this re- 

 spect and you cannot always tell, with- 

 out experimenting, if any colony is 

 suited to this work. There 



must be a contracted hive, 

 with all the combs completely filled 

 with brood or honey. The honey 

 should be thinned considerably and 

 fed rapidly. I greatly prefer a feeder 

 made to go underneath the hive so 

 that all the work of handling the 

 honey is exactly the same as if the 

 bees were getting the honey from the 

 fields. Feeding back can be most sue 

 cessfully done when the Aveather is 

 hot. "\^'hen the honey flow is cut short 

 by cold weather, as has almost al- 

 ways been the case in my apiaries, it 

 is much more difficult to feed profit- 

 ably. Imt liy prompt work, even at 

 such a time, a handsome profit can be 

 made out of what would otherwise 

 )iut poorly pay for the labor. 



USE BEK ESCAPES. 



Getting bees out of the sections 

 sometimes presents quite a problem 

 when the honey flow is cut short by 

 cool weather. I take otf almost all 

 honey by nutans of bee escapes, using 

 a?i escape that I invented years ago 

 and called the "Utility." This is made 

 in a board, using two horizontal wire 

 cloth cones. While not quite so posi- 

 tive in its action as the Porter, it 

 is more rapid and works better in cool 



