1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



195 



nies that might have been profitable honey- 

 producers had the bee-keeper performed his 

 part in an intelligent manner. 



WHEN TO REMOVE BEES FROM THE CELLAR. 



The time of soft-maple bloom is usually 

 considered the right , time to remove bets 

 from the cellar. Begin operations in the aft- 

 ernoon of a cold cloudy doy, when the pros- 

 pect is good for continued cold for two or 

 three days. When a w arm day comes the 

 bees wdl fly out naturally, and, in the ab- 

 sence of any excitement, will mark their lo- 

 cation and return to their respective hives. 

 There will be no drifting, and, btst of all, no 

 robbing 



If bees are removed from the cellar on a 

 warm sunshiny day there is bound to be a 

 mixup, which is little less than a stampede 

 Bees wiM rush from the hives without mark- 

 ing their locations, and return to son e other 

 hive to which they may be attracted by an 

 unusual commotion, and thus some hives 

 will become jammed full while others will be 

 weakened to such an extent as to give them 

 a serious setback. Robbing is sure to be- 

 gin, and will cause more or less trouble and 

 vex tious losses until the honey-flow begins; 

 for a bee once a rubtier is always a robber, 

 and IS good for nothing else All this trou- 

 ble may bt- avoided by exercising a little tare 

 and starting r ght. 



When the bees are removed from the cel- 

 lar it is a good plan to spread burlap sacks 

 over the hiv e and push a telescope cap down 

 over the whole hive and let them severely 

 alone until settled warm weather. Nothing 

 is gained by spring tinkedng with bees ex- 

 cept to feed liberally any that may be short 

 of stores 



Birmingham, 0. 



[We particularly indorse our correspon- 

 dent's recommendation as io the kind of day 

 when bees should be taken out of the cellar. 

 Beginners who have bees to take out would 

 do well to fallow thebe directions carefully. 

 —Ed.] 



♦ ■ ^ ■ ♦ 



THE BEST PLACE FOR BAIT SECTIONS. 

 Comb vs. Extracted Honey. 



BY CHAS. D. WEST. 



Sin-^e my brother was killed (in July, 1907) 

 I have b en in the bee busmess with my 

 father. Mr. N. D. West. We are running 

 500 colonies, all for comb honey except 80, 

 which we run for extracted. We use an 

 eight-frame automatic extractor run by a 

 gasoline engine. We find it saves us time 

 and labor. The engine is also used to run 

 our saw. Un'ilwe bought the engine and 

 extractor we did our extracting by hand, and 



I our saw was run by horse power. The en- 

 gine is safer and more convenient. 

 In the Jan. 1st issue 1 read an artic'e by 

 H. E Crowther, on the best place to put bait 

 sections. If he will pardon me I will make 



WHERE TO PUT THE BAITS. 



I am inclined to think the center of the su- 



Eer is the btst place. We have also used 

 ait sections both ways, and obtain better 

 results in the cent»r. Bees usually begin 

 their work in the center of the brood-hive 

 where most of the eggs and brood are found. 

 If a hive is opened on a cool morning, most 

 of the bees will be clustered in the center of 

 the hive, where the brood is usually the 

 thickest If the cover is raised from the 

 supers on a cool morning, and the bees are 

 there, they will be in the center of the su- 

 per, even when no bait sections are used. 



The hive w e are using needs two supers 

 to cover the top; and by using the bait sec- 

 tions in the center it requires only half as 

 many. After the bees are up in the sec- 

 tions, and working well, they will stay there 

 as long as the honey flow is good and they 

 are kept strong. 



THORNS FOR SUPPORTING FOUNDATION. 



Mr. Crowther's idea of the short splints in 

 the top bar to prevent the foundation buck- 

 ling is a very good one. A few years ago, I 

 remembt-r, my father used long thorns in 

 the top and end bars to prevent buckling; 

 also to serve as supports to keep the founda- 

 tion from falling out while bting cairied 

 from one placp to another and while han- 

 dling. Since bee diseases have been in this 

 locality, we have discarded the use of the 

 thorns, and use foundation which is wired 

 vertically and horizontally. This keeps it 

 from buckling. The thorns sometimes both- 

 er about removing the combs when they are 

 to be made into wax or when they melt out. 



EXTRACTING SUPERS OVER EXCLUDFRS. 



Until the last three years, we have run, 

 for comb honey, about 500 colonies in tive 

 different apiaries The last three years we 

 have been running one apiary (our home 

 apiary) of 80 colonies, for extracted honey. 

 From this yard we get more honey with less 

 work. The production of extracted is not 

 only labor-saving but can be looked at from 

 the financial standpoint as w« 11. One hun- 

 dred good colonies run for extracted honey 

 will produce more pounds of honey than the 

 same number run for comb honey. The 

 past season we got more honey from 76 run 

 for extracted honey than from 100 which 

 were run for comb, about two miles distant. 



Excluders do not interfere with the stor- 

 ing of honey. As early in the spring as the 

 bees are strong enough we put on a super 

 of extracting- combs without the excluder, 

 and let the queen lay in the super as well as 

 in the brood-chamber if the combs above are 

 in proper condition. By this method there 

 are two hives of brood, which are better than 

 one. Of course, this super must be put on 

 in time. The queen, after the super is full 

 of brood, is put in the lower hive, with the 

 excluder between. The brood in the super 

 is allowed to hatch in time to help gather ihe 

 honey-flow which is to be on hand soon. By 

 using this plan the colonies will be a half 

 stronger in Dees. 



This is also a fine way for making increase. 



