April, 1908. 



"3 



American Vee Journal 



>^^^^ I 



wanted, begin to pick up and induce 

 others to do likewise. The second time 

 they come at the first call, and the 

 third time they are waiting for me. This 

 is about all the training they need, ex- 

 cept that I sprinkle a little wheat on 

 the first comb I offer them for in- 

 vestigation. Trying to pick the wheat 

 from the bottom of cells, they run across 

 some of the worms and after the first 

 taste, no farther education is necessary. 

 Every larva, large or small, is doomed 

 to certain annihilation. 



It is a great mistake, made by many, 

 to take off honey in the evening and set 

 the supers against the hives to give 

 the bees a chance to go back to their 

 hives. This is the most prolitic source 

 to stock up our sections with larvE. Sec- 

 tions of honey should never be exposed 

 in the evening or after dark, where those 

 tiny little millers, (and large ones, too) 

 can have access to them. They are just 

 as liable to visit the supers in our shops 

 and honey-houses as out-doors, and to 

 guard against all possible trouble, sec- 

 tions should be kept covered as near- 

 ly air tight as possible, wherever 

 they are stored. I remember, many 

 years ago, a bee-keeping friend, 

 at whose place we called, had a fine lot 

 of white clover sections, as he sup- 

 posed, which he offered us for sale. 

 On examination we found the whole lot, 

 consisting of several stacks of supers, 

 8 or 10 high, all matted together and 

 alive with worms of all sizes. He had 

 followed the above plan and was not 

 aware of the resulting consequence 

 until too late, for his honey was com- 

 pletely ruined. 



In keeping my extracting combs so 

 free from all attacks, I can hardly see 

 where my ounce of prevention comes 

 in. I use no extra precaution, except 

 that I keep them covered up just be- 

 fore and after dark. When my last 

 extracting is done, which is not later 

 than about Sept. i, in this locality, I 

 set all combs outdoors, near the bee- 

 yard, to let the bees clean them out. 

 They remain here in stacks generally 

 for several weeks, until I begin to pre- 

 pare things for winter, when they are 

 stored in the honey-house. During the 

 first few days, while the bees are to 

 work at them, I keep them uncovered 

 in the daytime, but toward sundown 

 they are all covered up. When they 

 are moved in the honey-house, they are 

 again snugly stacked and covered up, 

 and that is the last I see of them un- 

 til wanted the next season. With this 

 treatment I have not had a larva in them 

 for ID years or more. 



Outside of the combs spoken of, I 

 aim to keep on hand a few dozen sets 

 of combs as a reserve in case of need. 

 They are generally a miscellaneous lot, 

 consisting of brood-combs, extracting- 

 combs, drone-combs, perhaps some 

 frames of foundation, etc. I keep these 

 on open shelves, made of 2-inch slats 

 at one end of the honey-house. Being 

 exposed to the light and- always spaced, 

 or aimed to be, at proper distances, they 

 are never molested, unless some of them 

 get accidentally moved close together. 

 Of course, I serve these combs the same 

 as I do those out-doors, glance over 

 them occasionally. If no webs are in 

 sight, no trouble need be anticipated. 



Getting Ready for Surplus 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent wishes me to tell 

 the readers of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal how I get the bees ready for the 

 surplus honey harvest, and also how I 

 fix my supers of sections, and when 

 they should be put on the hives, all 01 

 which is something that every bee-keep- 

 er should know about, if success is to 

 be obtained in apiculture. 



The only thing which is likely to 

 baffle our efforts, is the getting of the 

 bees in readiness for the harvest, if 

 that harvest is to come from white 

 clover, for this plant blooms so early 

 in the season that it is often hard work 

 for the bees to be gotten in readiness 

 to secure the best results from the 

 bloom. Some of our best bee-keepers 

 advocate feeding the bees a little every 

 day to bring them up to "storing con- 

 dition" in time for the white clover; 

 a few even going so far as to recom- 

 mend extracting all the honey from the 

 combs and then feeding it back again, 

 after it is diluted witn water, seeming 

 to believe that a gain in brood can be 

 obtained in this way sufficient to pay 

 for all the extra work this makes. 



Now, during the 40 years of my bee- 

 keeping life, I have tried all of these, 

 various ways of feeding,, and for a few 

 years I thought it was just the thing 

 to do, but after a trial for several years 

 of feeding a part of the colonies and 

 leaving others without feeding, but al- 

 lowing them enough honey in their 

 combs so that they would feel rich _ in 

 stores all the time — rich beyond feeling 

 any need of scrimping — I have founa 

 that the latter come out equally well 

 with those fed every day (some years 

 even better), with all the work and' fus- 

 sing and feeders, required for the feed- 

 ing, done away with. 



It is no small job to feed 100 colonies 

 of bees for 6 weeks, no matter how 

 handy we may have things, nor how ex- 

 peditious we are able to work. It is 

 far easier to set combs of honey aside 

 during the honey harvest of the year 

 before, and then give these to the bees, 

 as they need, all at one time in the 

 spring, than it is to be feeding every 

 day for the necessary time required to 

 bring the bees up in good condition for 

 the harvest, for, after once beginning 

 to ieed, it is necessary to keep it up till 

 the flow commences, otherwise we lose 

 very much of what we have gained by 

 starting feeding. 



My plan is to know, just as soon as 

 possible after spring opens, that all col- 

 onies have stores enough to last them 

 till the willows and hard maples bloom, 

 at which time they generally obtain 

 enough honey to supply their wants for 

 a week or so, at the end of which, they 

 are given enough stores to last them 

 through till clover blooms, giving this 

 last by way of an extra story placed 

 over the brood-chamber, w-ith a queen- 

 excluder between. This not only in- 

 sures them plenty of stores, but pro- 

 vides room for the storing of any sur- 

 plus which may perchance come from 

 fruit bloom, and also gets the bees in 

 the habit of entering the upper story 

 or super so that when the super of 

 sections is put on they will enter them 



without hesitation, and at the same time 

 keeps them from contracting the swarm- 

 ing fever, which they are often liable 

 to do, where they are allowed only the 

 brood-chamber of the hive up to the 

 time the sections are put on. 



As to when the supers of sections 

 should be put on the hive, I have ex- 

 perimented very largely along this line, 

 and I now wait till the clover bloom 

 opens; and not only this, but till I 

 know that the bees are securing a little 

 more than a living from it ; for it is 

 useless to put on the sections until 

 there is something coming from the 

 fields to be stored in them; yes, often 

 much worse than useless, for if the 

 bees have nothing to do, they will often 

 tear or gnaw the foundation starters 

 • which you have put in the sections, till 

 they fall down or are past being of the 

 good service for which they are in- 

 tended. 



With me, it is very easy telling on 

 any pleasant day, by walking amongst 

 the hives, whether the bees are bring- 

 ing in little or much nectar; but to the 

 one who cannot thus tell, it is best to 

 open the hives of some colony, and as 

 soon as you see new honey sparkling 

 along the tops of the combs, it is time 

 for the sections. And, if you are an 

 enterprising apairist, you will have had 

 the supers of sections all in readiness 

 for the bees long before this, so that 

 when this first new honey is coming in 

 you can hustle the supers all on in one 

 day. 



Let me urge on every one, not to wait 

 about this preparation of the supers till 

 they know for certain that a harvest is 

 to be obtained, for, if this is so, the 

 best part of the harvest will often be 

 past before the supers are gotten on the 

 last hives. Always have the "dish right 

 side up to catch the honey," is a proverb 

 every apiarist should paste in his or 

 her hat. A few days' neglect of this 

 will often turn what might be a splendid 

 success into an almost entire failure. 



So far, everything that has been done 

 is perfectly applicable to the production 

 of either extracted or section honey ; but 

 believing that there is more profit in 

 comb honey in sections than there is in 

 extracted honey, I will tell how I fix 

 my supers of sections. 



My sections are all made and gotten 

 ready during the winter. After mak- 

 ing, each section is either filled with 

 extra-thin section foundation, has a 

 starter of this foundation put in it, or 

 else a starter of nice white comb at- 

 tached to the top of it. No one should 

 try to produce section honey without 

 putting a starter of some kind in the 

 top of each section to guide the bees so 

 that the combs will be built straight. If 

 comb is used, this should be cut in 

 pieces of a triangular shape, each of the 

 three sides being from i^ to 2 inches 

 long. 



As quite a few bee-keepers think it 

 pays to insert thin foundation, fastened 

 in frames, in hives 24 to 48 hours for 

 the bees to draw out the cells into 

 comb before using the foundation for 

 starters, they claiming that by so doing 

 the bees are gotten to work immediately 

 in the sections, I will tell how I fasten 

 these starters of comh in the sections: 



Procure a piece of band-iron about 

 2^4 to 25^ inches wide, heating the same 



