THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



159 



EXTRACTED. 



STARTING BEES IN THE SECTIONS. 



B.iit-Sections Versus Plenty of Drawn Cumlis 

 in ilie Supers. 



Many bee-keepers seem to think that 

 the use of a bait-section, or one drawn 

 comb, in the super is ex ictly as gjol as 

 the gi\in^ of a fall S'lpar of drawn combs. 

 There are reasons why it is not, and Mr. 

 F. L. Thompson gives these reasons in 

 the following article that I copy from the 

 Progressive Bee -Keeper. 



Dr. Miller does not see why a bait sec- 

 tion would not be as good as a super of 

 shallow extracting-frames, to get the 

 bees to work above. He seems to think 

 there is but one consideration, that of 

 having bees upstairs; and if they once do 

 that, little or much, that is all there is to 

 it. Rut by having oi)porluiiily for roi/sid- 

 ^/'iZ/^i/^' honey to besiored iuunediatcly up- 

 stairs, the queen wdl nut be impeded in 

 her work below, and the result will be 

 more brood below than if that same first 

 honey was all stored below except what 

 little could be put in the bait comb. The 

 effect, therefore, IS right in line with the 

 plan of forcing the bees U]) by taking care 

 to have full brood-combs below when the 

 first luney comes; and it is right in line 

 with the universal experience that the 

 bees put less honey in the brood-chaml)er 

 when run for extracted honey tlian when 

 run for comb honey. With a bait comb, 

 on the other hand, even if the bees do 

 work right along in the super after start- 

 ing on the bait, several days will elapse 

 while mure or less honey is being stored 

 in the brood-chamber, because there are 

 nut drawn cells, or the cells are not drawn 

 enough, to hold it above; and it will stay 

 there, and there will l)e that much less 

 honey upstairs. I tried this plan of .start- 

 ing the comb honev hives with supers of 

 shallow extracting fr.imes several years 

 ago, the last year I had bees of my own 

 near Denver before they evaporated f the 

 onlvea.son I have not tried it since), and 

 it was easy to see there was more honev 

 upstairs ( consquently less downstairs 1 

 the first few days, as well as subsequently, 

 than in the colonies with a single bait 

 comb apiece. 



But in this locality I don't see any par- 

 ticular necessity for extracting those 

 combs. If one does not wish to raise 

 both comb and extracted honey, why, let 

 him not extract. Xotliing will be lost. 

 After tiering with a section super, which 

 in strong colonies should not be very long 

 after the bees are well at work in the 

 shallow combs, and after the drawing out 

 of the foundation of the secticjus is well 

 underway, the super of. shallow combs 

 niaj' be removed before they are all cajj- 

 ped, and stored away until about the ist 

 of September, then used to catch those 

 tedious driblets that come at the close of 

 the season. ( No danger of that unsealed 

 honey deteriorating in tlii.s climate. ) 

 Then they will be just right for putting 

 on next season about the middle of May, 

 and relieve one of a great deal of work 

 and anxiety (for there is no fruit bloom 

 honey to speak of ) on the short-storage 

 question. The supers for those coml)s 

 need not be factory-made, so long as 

 chinks are avoided. 



QUEEN BUYERS. 



How They Sometimes Misjudge the Breeders. 



Bee keepers who are accustomed to 

 seeing queens in their own apiary are 

 quite likely to be disappointed when they 

 begin buying queens and having them 

 come by mail. A queen sent oy mail is 

 quite likely to be small and insignificant 

 looking as compired with a queen that is 

 laying in a full colony. Not only is the 

 shippel-queen stn dler, but there is a 

 dinginess about her that is in striking 

 contrast with the bright, fresh colors of 

 the queen at home on the combs. Time 

 and again has some purchaser who failed 

 to introduce the queen sent him, written 

 and said "I am satisfied the queen you 

 sent me was nothing but a virgin." It is 

 such things as these that stir up that 

 veteran breeder, Henry Alley, to write as 

 follows to the American Bee Journal: — 



Once in awhile some bee-keeper who 

 has purchased a queen and has liad bad 

 luck in introducing her, and bad luck in 

 other ways, feels like giving vent to his 

 disappointment, and so he sits down and 

 writes to some of the bee-papers and gives 



