168 



THE BEE-KEEPER'S REVIEW 



crop of clover honey for the season, as I 

 have explained in a former letter. The 

 management is about as follows: 



The wheel-barrow is placed in a con- 

 venient position near the hive, the cover 

 of the hive removed, and the bees given 

 a smoking that sends them down out of 

 the top story of sealed honey. That is, 

 the bees are smoked off the honey in the 

 top story; then, as fast as nearly free of 

 bees, the upper stories are lifted off and 

 placed upon the wheel-barrow. There 

 is no trouble in smoking bees from a 

 story of all sealed honey, but where the 

 trouble comes is in trying to get them ofT 

 combs of unsealed honey. This is how 

 he accomplished it: 



The bees are smoked as usual, and 

 many of them go down through the 

 excluder, but quite a goodly number will 

 stop for a load of honey when they come 

 to the unsealed portion at the bottom, 

 and, as we do not have time to wait for 

 them to fill themselves, as time is too 

 valuable at harvesting-time, the combs 

 of honey are crowded over to one side, 

 leaving a wide space next the side of the 

 hive. Now, with a Coggshall brush we 

 sweep the bees off from the side of the 

 hive-body, and the side of the comb of 

 honey next the hive. Then the comb is 

 slid over next the hive-side, leaving a 

 wide opening between the first and 

 second comb to be freed of bees. We 

 then sweep the bees off from both of 

 these combs on the side next the wide 

 opening, and so on; clear across the 

 super. A little smoke is blowed over the 

 combs as we proceed, being careful not 

 to drive smoke clear down through the 

 excluder, thus causing the bees below to 

 stampede, and perhaps try to get back 

 into the story we are freeing of bees. 



The bees, once off the combs of honey, 

 scamper down through' the excluder, so 

 there are only a few left on the .combs 

 when wheeled to the honey house. The 

 number of bees carried into the honey 

 house with this management, in harvest- 

 ing the crop mentioned, amounted to 

 about the quantity of two natural swarms. 



THE SECRET OF PREVENTING ROBBING AT 

 EXTRACTING-TIME. 



The secret of preventing robbing when 

 removing honey from the hives, and dur- 

 ing extracting of the same, is to prevent 

 a single bee from going home with a load 

 of stolen honey. With no combs lifted 

 from the hives in the yard-work, as ex- 

 plained above, there is no possible chance 

 for robbers to get started at this part of 

 the proceedings; hence, if they are 

 tempted to rob, it must be from some 

 cause directly traceable to the extracting 

 house. 



DONT LET ANY BEES ESCAPE FROM THE 

 HONEY HOUSE. 



For several years we have been in the 

 habit of stopping up our honey house bee 

 escapes during extracting time, then 

 opening them after getting through, thus 

 allowing the bees that were carried in to 

 escape. This worked well as far as the 

 extracting-time was concerned, but if 

 there was a particle of a chance for 

 robbers to get into the honey house, this 

 practice seemed to encourage it. It was 

 noticed that while no robbers would 

 seem to get into the extracting house 

 during the extracting, soon after the 

 escapes were opened, and bees had gone 

 home loaded with honey, a terrible "to- 

 do" would soon be on; and if there was a 

 particle of a chance, robbers would find 

 their way into the house. Sometimes 

 the loss of mature bees by entering the 

 honey house for "stolen sweets," after 

 extracting was over, would be more than 

 all we had carried in on the combs. 

 Knowing this, no bees are allowed to 

 escape from the honey house of their 

 own volition, but, each night, or, better 

 still, when through extracting at a yard, 

 and the bees are clustered near each 

 window, as at swarming time, the cluster 

 is given a little smoke, then, with the 

 Coggshall brush, the cluster is loosened 

 and allowed to drop into a tin pail, or 

 other receptacle, in which they are 

 carried out inio the yard and emptied 

 near some colony weak in bees. Handled 



