1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



679 



tracted in one-pound* tumblers at 30. We 

 have known all along that extracted was 

 creeping closer and closer to comb honey; 

 but we never ran across a case before where 

 it was actually in the lead. 



As a matter of information we should be 

 glad to have our subscribers report how 

 comb and extracted honey are retailing in 

 their markets. Send us a postal card, say- 

 ing comb honey is so much and extracted 

 so much in glass or tins. Bear in mind, 

 what we want to know is the retail or price 

 consumers have to pay, and not the whole- 

 sale. We know what the wholesale figures 

 are. 



Possibly the upward tendency on the part 

 of extracted honey, or, rather, perhaps we 

 should say, the tendency of prices on the 

 two kinds to creep more and more nearly to 

 a level, will explain why so many jiroducers 

 are changing from comb to extracted. But 

 a word of caution should be entered right 

 here. If producers continue to drop comb 

 honey for extracted, the price of comb will 

 be soaring, and extracted will be trying to 

 find a buyer. This is the inevitable law of 

 trade, and some producers may be sadder 

 and wiser if they make the change. At the 

 present time it is a comparatively easy mat- 

 ter to buy extracted honey in any quantity; 

 but a good quality of comb is hard to get at 

 any price. The supply is very limited. 

 The jobber or the commission man will tell 

 you so if he is honest. So far as we can as- 

 certain, one jobber is not disposed to sell 

 part of his stock of honey to another jobber, 

 because he knows he can dispose of all he 

 has to the smaller retail dealers. 



If any one knows of a large quantity of 

 comb honey of first quality that can be se- 

 cured, he will do well to communicate with 

 The A. I. Root Co. We will find him a buy- 

 er instanter. We suspect there is some 

 comb honey still left over in the hands of 

 producers. These producers will make a 

 big mistake if they hold much longer. Past 

 experience shows that after the holidays 

 there will be quite a quantity of comb hon- 

 ey seeking a buyer. 



A NEW OLD SCHEME FOR CONTEOLLING 

 SWAKMS. 



The reader's attention is particularly di- 

 rected to a scheme for controlling swarming 

 by the manipulation of an entrance-switch 

 in the bottom-board. We refer to the de- 

 vice by J. E. Hand, illustrated and describ- 

 ed on pages 692 and 693 of this issue. While 

 the idea of working two colonies side by 

 side, impoverishing the one and strengthen- 

 ing the other by shifting positions to cur- 

 tail swarming, is old, yet the detail of the 

 plan that our correspondent shows is very 

 unique. By merely shifting the entrance- 

 switch, the flying bees or the entire working 

 force can be directed either to one hive or 

 the other on the same bottom-board. In 

 doing this at intervals Mr. Hand is enabled 

 to break up all thought of swarming on the 

 part of the one colony that is preparing to 

 swarm; and the other, having received its 



working force, is thereby put in such a pros- 

 perous condition that it will go right on 

 storing honey in the supers. As we under- 

 stand it, it works something like this: The 

 colony on one side, under ordinary condi- 

 tions, becomes so prosperous that swarming- 

 cells are started, for we assume that the con- 

 dition is at the beginning or about in the 

 midst of a honey-flow. Just before the bees 

 have an opportunity to carry out their in- 

 tention of swarming, the entrance-switch is 

 turned, throwing all its entire field force in- 

 to the colony on the other side that is not 

 very strong, and has no notion of swarming. 

 The super or supers that were on the colony 

 that was proposing to swarm are transferred 

 to the other hive. The flying bees rush in- 

 to exactly the same entrance as they did be- 

 fore, and over exactly the same alighting- 

 board; but instead of going into the hive 

 where sw arming-cells are started, they are 

 forced in the opposite direction into the hive 

 where no preparations have been made. All 

 the working force of the colony about to 

 swarm having been transferred to the other 

 colony, the work in the super goes right on 

 just the same. In the mean time, the colo- 

 ny that has just been robbed of its field 

 bees has been so depleted in strength that 

 it destroys its cells and merely attempts to 

 hold its own. In the meantime, the colony 

 that has received that heavy force of bees 

 will probably, within a few days, begin to 

 build its own swarming-cells. Just before 

 it swarms, the switch-lever is shifted back 

 to the first position, when colony No. 1 re- 

 ceives all the flying bees and the supers. 

 So on the shifts are made back and forth, 

 thus preventing swarming, and getting the 

 force of two queens into one set of supers. 



Along last summer we visited Mr. Hand 

 and saw the actual working of the plan. He 

 had had no swarms in colonies worked on 

 that scheme, and apparently was getting a 

 good crop of honey. Our correspondent will 

 describe this system still further; but we 

 thought best, in the mean time, to describe 

 the basic principle, so that our readers will 

 understand a little better the new Hand 

 system of swarm control. 



The reader will naturally raise the ques- 

 tion whether the colony that receives the 

 large force of working bees will not, through 

 the operation, lose its queen. Mr. Hand 

 says not, unless conditions happen to be ab- 

 normal. In the height of the honey-flow, 

 bees are much more tolerant of their queens 

 than under other conditions. 



Our friend worked out this system over a 

 year ago, but he did not have an opportuni- 

 ty to try it until this summer. It is, per- 

 haps, too early to decide what its probable 

 future will be. Suffice it to say, there are 

 certain features of it that /ooA; attractive. 



The fact that one can use his regular hives, 

 whatever they may be, and provide only a 

 special bottom-board, is very much in favor 

 of the plan. The old bottom-board would 

 have to be discarded, and a double bottom- 

 board made on the lines shown in the photo- 

 graph on page 692. 



