484 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Aug. 1 



inside fixtures and the supers. However, 

 the next spring the bees were in good condi- 

 tion. 

 Garrettsville, Ohio. 



HOW MANY SETS OF EXTRACTING-COMBS 

 ARE NEEDED PER COLONY? 



A Discussion of Some of the Plans in the Alex- 

 ander Book. 



BY HARRY LATHROP. 



Early this year I purchased the Alexander 

 book, and read it and reread it carefully. 

 On the whole I think it is one of the most 

 valuable books on practical bee-keeping that 

 I ever got hold of; but in some points it 

 needs severe criticism. His instructions re- 

 garding spring feeding, production of comb 

 honey by using the feeders to supplement 

 the flow from the fields by feeding back thin- 

 ned honey at night, and his directions for 

 making increase, are very valuable. On the 

 other hand, he advocates operating an api- 

 ary for the production of extracted honey 

 by the use of one extracting-super per colo- 

 ny. I have advocated abundance of store 

 combs and the tiering-up plan. I should 

 like to discuss this point because it does not 

 seem possible, in a white-clover locality, to 

 secure anywhere near the maximum yield 

 by Mr. Alexander's method — at least if well- 

 ripened honey is desired. Take the situa- 

 tion in my yard at present, for instance. 

 The colonies wintered well and got a fine 

 start in March and early part of April. Then 

 during the cold weather of April and May, 

 and on to the opening of white clover, I fed 

 carefully so that, when the white clover 

 came out in bloom, the colonies were strong 

 in bees with brood-chambers full of brood 

 and no honey. I promptly put on every 

 hive one set of extracting-combs. The hon- 

 ey, in such a case, comes in with a rush. 

 Now, I can tell unerringly just when a colo- 

 ny needs an additional set of combs by the 

 little bunch of bees that gather on the front 

 of the hive. As soon as I notice this I give 

 another super under the first and next to 

 the excluder. The first super is two-thirds 

 full, and the bees are beginning to =eal along 

 the tops of the combs. But that honey is 

 not ready to extract; it is not ripe, and if I 

 had no other set of combs to furnish room 

 I could not wait a week for the first super of 

 honey to be finished, without losing heavi- 

 ly. When the ujiper super is ready to ex- 

 tract, the lower one will be nearly full; and 

 the usual plan is to extract the upi)er one 

 and return the combs, placing them in turn 

 next to the brood-chamber. I have had a 

 long exjierience in manipulating these ex- 

 tracting-combs, and I must say experience 

 has taught me that I want plenty of them. 



Suppose a bee-keeper has a lot of colonies 

 with one super each, just about ready to ex- 

 tract. He goes to each hive and selects three 

 of the ripest combs and extracts them, think- 

 ing that this will give the bees room for a 



few days until he can get around to extract 

 the remaining combs. A few hives are treat- 

 ed differently, in that the whole set is ex- 

 tracted. Now, when he comes around the 

 next timehe finds that the bees that had a full 

 set of empty combs have filled them as full 

 as the others have filled their three combs, 

 thus showing a heavy loss on the part of the 

 latter. I have three sets of full-depth ex- 

 tracting-combs for each working colony. I 

 think I could get along with two, but would 

 never try to get along with one as did Mr. 

 Alexander. 



There are two things that Mr. Alexander 

 did that we don't do: he practically over- 

 stocked his field so that the honey would 

 not come in so fast, and he sold his honey 

 mostly in bulk to dealers in the city. I sell 

 mine direct to consumers — have worked up 

 a good reputation, and do not want to lose 

 it by extracting green honey, which I should 

 have to do if I tried to run an extracting- 

 yard with only set of store combs per colo- 

 ny, or else lose a large part of the crop. Mr. 

 Alexander's yield was mostly from buck- 

 wheat, of which we have very little. His 

 situation was diflferent from many, and most 

 of his advice is so valuable that, in some 

 other things, he might mislead any one with 

 a location similar to ours. There are a few 

 other men who advocate extracting honey 

 before it is ripe, and resorting to artificial 

 methods of ripening; but they are being vot- 

 ed down by a large majority of the i)ractical 

 honey-producers of the country. 



ALLOWING THE COLONIES TO REQUEEN 

 THEMSELVES. 



Another question I should like to touch 

 on: Mr. Alexander and some others advo- 

 cate purchasing or rearing queens for whole- 

 sale requeening. In our apiary we practice 

 clipping the queens each spring. AVhen 

 clipping-time comes we find that only about 

 ten per cent of the queens have clipped 

 wings. Does not this indicate that the 

 queens were superseded the previous au- 

 tumn? It is claimed that the best queens 

 are produced by superseding; then why buy 

 queens in order to avoid having queens over 

 two years old? Strange that some things 

 stand out as being of such great importance 

 to some practical men, which things do not 

 seem to be any part of the problem of suc- 

 cessful honey production to others. I like 

 to have young vigorous queens of good 

 breeding, and do purchase some fine queens 

 from the breeders of best reputation; but 

 when it comes to a good honey year, the 

 blacks and hybrids of the yard, especially 

 those persistent blacks, are right there with 

 the goods, producing as much honey as the 

 best-bred stock. 



liridgeport. Wis., .lune 23. 



Silverhull ahead of Japanese Buckwheat for Honey. 



Japanese buckwheat is not reijorted as the equal 

 of silverhull. 1 have sown silverhull with good re- 

 sults. The bees do not work on the Japanese. 1 

 intend to use the silverhull entirely. 



Lincolnville, Me. Fked Brewster. 



