224 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mab. 15. 



do at a certain time, no matter whether said 

 time is the most proi)itious or the most unpro- 

 pitious. The one who can set out a row of 

 small-fruit plants, and make all live in a time 

 of extreme drouth in midsummer, or the person 

 who can successfully transfer a colony of bees 

 in early spring, when robber-bees are prowling 

 around, is to be admired; yet unless there is 

 some urgent reason why a certain thing should 

 be done at a certain time, it is always best to 

 wait about doing any thing till that time when 

 every thing is the most conducive toward a 

 successful outcome. As I consider it, there are 

 two seasons of the year when bees can be trans- 

 ferred to the best advantage, the first being 

 during fruit-bloom, and the other 21 days after 

 a prime swarm has issued. During the first 

 part of fruit-bloom the scramble after new 

 honey is such that one is not liable to be an- 

 noyed with robber-bees, and at this time there 

 is very little honey in the combs to cut through 

 and make a sticky mess of every thing which is 

 used during the operation. Again, as the bees 

 are getting their first honey they are eager for 

 something to do inside the hive at night, hence 

 will repair all the mutilations of comb, fasten 

 the same in the frames, etc., much more readily 

 than at any other time. With all the above 

 being true, fruit-bloom brings the most aus- 

 picious time for transferring bees, but it has 

 this drawback: As a rule, the bees have got 

 under good headway rearing brood, and we 

 shall find the combs half or two-thirds filled 

 with the same, so that, in cutting them to fit 

 our frames, much brood must be sacrificed, as 

 well as displaced in the brood-nest, owing to 

 our not being able to secure all in the shape in 

 the new hive which it was in the old one. All 

 of this has a tendency toward a loss of bees; 

 and as all of the brood which is sacrificed at 

 this time would become bees of the right age to 

 do the best labor in the honey-harvest, had we 

 left the transferring till later on, we can see 

 that a loss must be made by doing our trans- 

 ferring at this time of the year, with all colo- 

 nies except those which have little brood In 

 their combs. For this reason I prefer to wait 

 till 21 days after the prime swarm went out. 

 At this time all of the brood will have hatched 

 from the combs, except perhaps a few drones, 

 and the young queen will have laid but a few 

 days, not long enough so that there will be 

 much but eggs in the combs, so that all we 

 have in our way now is the honey which the 

 combs may contain. As this comes at a time 

 of year when the bees are securing all of the 

 honey they want, and the weather is always 

 warm so that no brood or bees will become 

 chilled, we can now do our work right out in 

 the bee-yard, this making it more convenient. 

 Then should you desire to use the Heddon, or 

 modern plan of transferring, by driving out the 

 bees and hiving them in a hive filled with 

 comb foundation, this is just the time to do it, 



for the combs are free of brood, so only the one 

 operation is needed, and the old combs can be 

 cut out at once and placed in the solar wax- 

 extractor, doing this work right beside the wax- 

 extracior, so that in an hour or two you can 

 have both the honey and wax in shape to use, 

 thus saving time and delay which would result 

 at any other time of the year. 



HOW MUCH FOUNDATION SHOULD BE USED IN 

 SECTIONS ? 



Question. — As I wish soon to prepare my sec- 

 tions for the coming honey-harvest, I should 

 like to know just how much thin comb founda- 

 tion it is best to put in each one. Shall I put in 

 just a small triangular starter, or fill the section 

 full? 



Ansiver.—The answer to this question will 

 depend quite largely on two things. The first 

 and most important is, have we the necessary 

 means to procure all the foundation which will 

 be needed to fill our sections, without depriving 

 ourselves or family of some of the necessities or 

 comforts of life? If we have not, then my way 

 would be to use triangular starters, the same 

 having each of the three sides about two inches 

 long, in three-fourths of the sections I was to 

 use; and when the season opens, put in starters 

 of white new comb, which it is always easy to 

 find or produce during fruit-bloom in any api- 

 ary, in the remaining sections. In this way 

 little if any difl'erence as to the yield of honey 

 will be seen in an ordinarily good season, es- 

 pecially if the sections containing the starters 

 of comb are scattered uniformly among those 

 having the foundation starters. The differ- 

 ence when so working will be that the sections 

 will not contain all worker comb, nor present 

 quite so fine an appearance, nor the combs be 

 attached to the wood of the sections all around 

 quite so well, as where the foundation in full 

 sheets is used; still, very little difference will 

 be made in the selling price for the lack of the 

 full sheets of foundation. 



Again, if I thought it best to hive my new 

 swarms on frames filled with comb foundation, 

 so that wired frames filled with worker combs 

 would be a certain result, then I would use 

 only starters in the sections as above. When a 

 prime swarm issues, they go forth, as a rule, 

 with wax already secreted in their wax-pockets, 

 so that they may at once commence to build 

 combs in their new home; and if the new home 

 is already supplied with all the necessary 

 combs this wax is wasted, or, what is often the 

 case, worse than wasted, it being added to the 

 foundation already in the sections, so that, 

 instead of drawing out the side walls of the 

 foundation, they build with their own wax the 

 cells of the combs, thus leaving the foundation 

 in the sections the same as it left the mill. 

 This causes the grumbling about " fishbone " in 

 section honey, which we often hear- about. 

 Now, where I hive swarms on full combs, or 

 frames filled with foundation, I use only start- 



