THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



229 



most of the sections are completed. These 

 are taken to the house, and the filled sec- 

 tions are set to one side to be scraped and 

 cased; but the unfinished ones '"j^o back" 

 into the same or another super. There 

 may be one or perhaps a hundred or so of 

 supers with partly filled sections, and 

 these are all desij^nated as "gobacks." 

 They are either placed on top of other 

 supers that are being built out from foun- 

 dation, or upon colonies that seem to 

 show a special aptitude for finishing up 

 "gobacks." 



In looking over Dr. ^Miller's hive record 

 book I found there were certain colonies 

 that had produced so many filled sections 

 and finished up so many "gobacks." 

 These "gobacks" are are all ])laced on 

 the hives before the hoiiey-flow eeases; so 

 when the season is over, Dr. Miller has 

 nothing but No. i filled sections without 

 any unfinished ones, or practically none, 

 to be extracted, to be sold for less mone3', 

 or to be filled out after the honey-flow by 

 feeding back— a wasteful, laborious, and 

 disagreeable job, because all has to be 

 done during the robbing season. 



Of course, there is nothing particularly 

 new about placing unfinished sections on 

 the hives, to be filled out; but, if I mis- 

 take not, the general practice is to place 

 such sections on the colonies after the 

 honey-flow. 



Another interesting fact to me was that 

 some colonies are much better for finish- 

 ing "gobacks" than for filling sections 

 from the foundation — that is to say, when 

 work is apparently started or almost fin- 

 ished, those colonies show a special apti- 

 tude for cotnpletitii^ work, Vjut they are 

 not so much inclined to start on raw 

 foundation as some other colonies in the 

 j-ard. 



It seems that the Miller family has a 

 way of finding out the peculiarities of 

 each colony, and those peculiarities are 

 recorded in the record-ljook; and if the 

 queen is still in the hive next year, that 

 queen and her bees are devoted to a 

 special kind of work — it may be to filling 

 out "gobacks," to running for extracted 

 honey, if the honey is tiavel-stained, 

 water-soaked, or discolored, or to produc- 

 ing comb hone}' from foundation at the 

 start. The colony that is good both at 

 producing honey and finishing "gobacks" 

 is given light work, and :ts queen is used 

 for a breeder. 



Queer, is it not? that a prolific writer 

 like Dr. Miller should not have told us 

 about his "gobacks;" and yet I suspect 

 this matter is like a good many of the 

 other hundred and one tricks of the trade 

 that he knows, and supposes we all know. 



The word "goback" is suggestive, and 

 worth coining, and you may be sure it 

 will be used in the forthcoming edition 

 of our ABC book. 



This plan of the doctor's is one that I 

 have always practiced, and it certainly 

 greatly lessens the number of unfinished 

 sections that will be left at the end of 

 harvest. This is one of those cases that 

 illustrate so well the fact that we are in- 

 clined to suppose everybody knows what 

 we have known and practiced for years. 

 We feel that it isn't wortJi telling, be- 

 cause it would be no news. This shows 

 that it is a good thing for even editors to 

 travel about the country and visit bee- 

 keepers. Not only will they find new 

 things that the bee-keeper supposed were 

 old, but things always strike a stranger 

 differently than they do a man who has 

 been acquainted with them all of his life. 

 The stranger takes a different view of 

 things. He sees them in a different light 

 that may bring out valuable points that 

 had been unnoticed by the owner. 



I cannot close without saying a word or 

 two in regard to characteristics of differ- 

 ent colonies. It is exactly as the Miller 

 family has found it. Some colonies are 

 excellent honey gatherers, but poor comb 

 builders. Some build lots of burr combs. 

 Some cap their honey poirl)-. Some are 

 excellent comb builders, but may not be 

 very good at gathering honey. I work 

 exactly as the doctor does; that is, I note 

 down on the hive cover, or back of the 

 hive, each peculiarity as it is discovered. 

 I soon learn that there are some colonies 

 upon which it is worse than useless to 

 put on any "gobacks." Then there are 

 others that seem to be peculiarly adapted 

 to just this kind of work. 



CO.MB FOUNDATION. 



Tlie Tliickness of Us Different Parts, ;in(l the 

 Influence Upon the Finished Coinl>. 



Prof. C. P. Gillette, of the Colorado 

 .Agricultural College, has made what is 

 probably one of the most extensive and 



