372 



November, 1913. 



\ American Bee Joarnal 



without even a starter in them, the rest 

 of the hive being empty. Take A from 

 its stand and set B in its place. If 

 supers were on A. put them now on B, 

 and put tlie cover over all. On top of 

 this set A with its bottom-board, so 

 there will be no communication be- 

 tween the two hives, and put the caged 



queen in A. -> t-, c ,j 



Now what will happen? Ihe held 



bees will leave A for the fields just as 



if no change had been made, and when 



they come back they will enter the 

 sanie //«cf they have always entered, 

 only they will enter a different /iive, 

 for'they will now enter B. leaving A 

 without any field bees. After the queen 

 has started laying nicely in A, perhaps 

 4 to 6 days after the hive was put up, A 

 may again be put back in its old place. 

 The queen being now surrounded by a 

 strong force of friendly bees will not 

 likely be disturbed by the returning 

 field bees. 



BvR Western m Bee-Keeping 



Conducted by Wesley Foster, iioulder. Colo. 



A Visit to M. W. Harvey 



Early in August I visited one of the 

 apiaries of Mr. M. W. Harvey, of Mon- 

 trose. He was at work, and his auto- 

 mobile stood beside the honey house 

 covered with a canvas. This is char- 

 acteristic of Mr. Harvey. Everything 

 he has is well cared for. The apiary 

 contains about \W colonies, and is a 

 model of neatness. One trouble Mr. 

 Harvey was having along with nearly 

 all the' other Colorado bee men during 

 August, the bees were swarming, and 

 nothing would retard them seemingly. 

 Mr. Harvey said that seven out of 

 every ten colonies were preparing to 

 swarm. But he was pretty well pre- 

 pared for the emergency, for he had a 

 number of extra hives, full depth, and 

 nearly full of honey. When he came 

 to a hive that had queen cells well 

 along, so that there was little chance 

 that they would give up swarming, he 



would shake the swarm, or a good pro- 

 portion of them, into one of these ex- 

 tra hives of honey, and put the supers 

 from the old colony on top. The bees 

 would have to move a lot of that honey 

 upstairs into the comb-honey supers 

 to give the queen room to lay, and the 

 way they finished up the honey was a 

 sight to see. I know, for I tried a 

 number of them myself. I hived the 

 swarms, however, back on the old 

 stand into the extra hives, and put the 

 supers on top 



The old colony Mr. Harvey would 

 move awav and cut out the queen cells. 

 When he shook the swarm he would 

 run the queen in at the entrance. The 

 photograph given shows Mr. Harvey 

 looking for the queen. 



The Honey Marltet 



The buyers of western comb honey 

 have been fearful for several weeks 



lest the crop of comb honey should be 

 larger than reported. Each buyer has 

 delayed buying for fear he might pay 

 more than the market would be a little 

 later. This is right so far as each in- 

 dividual buyer's interest is concerned — 

 every man must protect himself. How- 

 ever, this principal has worked an in- 

 jury to the honey market this year, for 

 the comb honey crop in parts of the 

 West has been larger than usual, and 

 the buyers have bought less than usual. 

 Some buyers bought honey in Idaho 

 early at $.3.00 a case for comb honey, 

 which is considerable more than $3 00 

 a case at Colorado common points, 

 freight taken into consideration. Some 

 of them are sorry that they paid so 

 much, for thev can buy for less now 

 (Oct. 7). 



Several cars of comb honey were 

 shipped out at $3.00 and a little better, 

 for No. 1, from Colorado. Then the 

 price dropped lo cents a case, then it 

 went to $2 75, and some honey has been 

 sold at $2 50 a case for No. 1, I believe. 

 And this has happened with no appre- 

 ciable shading in price upon the main 

 honey markets. 



Several weeks ago one market re- 

 ported two cars of western comb honey 

 having arrived and the price had 

 dropped. Two cars of honey on such 

 a market should not appreciably affect 

 that market. 



A letter from a beekeeper who sells 

 in this same market, informs me that 

 he never saw it so bare of comb honey 

 at this time of year. He told me that 

 if he were in my place he would hold 

 comb honey until a little later. 



This holding off in buying comb 

 honey when the markets need it is very 

 injurious to the comb-honey business. 

 The producers and dealers should be 

 able to get together better, but both 

 seem to distrust the other, and as a 

 consequence we are likely to see large 

 quantities of granulated comb honey 

 on the markets next spring and early 

 summer. And this all because of faulty 

 methods of distribution. The crop is 

 not enough larger than in normal 

 years to cause any serious trouble. 

 However, there are small districts 

 where the production is twice as heavy, 

 and the producers get frightened and 

 cut prices, and the buyers get fright- 

 ened and refuse to buy. 



Partial View of M W. Harvey's Apiary in Montrose Co.. Colo. 



Disposing of Wet Extracting Combs 



It is poor policy to put out wet ex- 

 tracting combs for bees to clean up. 

 In the first place it is likely to induce 

 robbing, and in the second place it is 

 an easy way to spread foul brood if 

 there is any in the community. But if 

 we have American foul brood little 

 extracted should be produced any- 

 wav. How are we to get these combs 

 cleaned up in the fall ? By using care 

 it can be done. Carry out a few supers 

 full of the combs in the evening, first 

 contracting the entrances of those col- 

 onies selected to do this cleaning. 

 Only those that are strong should be 

 entrusted with this work. 



Place the supers on top and be certain 

 no bee can gain entrance through any 

 crack or hole. Any honey daubed on 

 the outside of the" extracting supers 

 should be carefully washed off. By 



