1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



257 



tliej' liad drawn out the conibs within about ;'« of an 

 inch of lliC separator, they would liave cupped it 

 over and g'one on to the next section. In tliis way 

 tlie honey of no section can protrude beyond tlie 

 edge of the section, and we have g'ained our tirst 

 two points. The combs are scant weight, and tliey 

 are straiglit, and we have almost gained our third 

 point; for, when the combs are straight, and do not 

 bulKe, there will be very little leaking. We can 

 guard against all leaking- it we will cut a piece of 

 newspaper an Inch larger than the bottom of our 

 shipping-crate, and place it in the bottom, allowing- 

 the edge to turn up all around about M to Jo inch. 



One more point about preventing- honey from 

 leaking-. Wlien lioney is tirst stored in the combs it 

 is tliin and watery. It needs to be ripened. The 

 water in it needs to be evaporated. Honey may be 

 ripened on the liive; but it it is white it is better to 

 remove it from the hive, because, if left on tlie hive, 

 the bees will run over it, and the yellow pollen will 

 fall off trom their legs, and soil the combs, and the 

 honey has to go for second quality, and be sold at 

 from one to two cents a pound less. If, however, 

 the houe3^ is of a dark color, or is produced in a re- 

 g-ion where no buckwheat or g-olaenrod exists, it 

 may be ripened on the hive. The reason why honey 

 should be removed trom tlie hive as soon as com- 

 pleted, if i-aised in a region where buckwheat ex- 

 ists, is that buckwheat lioney, if dark-colored, and 

 if only a few cells of dark Jioney are stored around 

 the edge, even of the section, it places the whole in 

 a second grade. When honey is removed from the 

 hive, never place it down cellar; that is the worst 

 thing you could do, because there is always more or 

 less moisture in a cellar. It you place your honey 

 down cellar, I will tell you what happens. The 

 honey takes on moisture; and as two particles can 

 not occupy the same space at tlie same time, the 

 cells are expanded, the capping bursts, the contents 

 of the cells become more watery, part of it oozes 

 out, a chemical process takes place, and, the tirst 

 you know, that noney is all over the floor. You 

 taste of it, and it is sour. I presume what I have 

 just related takes place in nine-tenths of the gro- 

 cery stores in the countrj'. Grocers are in the habit 

 of keeping their molasses, vegetables, and other 

 produce in the cellar, and naturally the honey goes 

 down there also, and it is damaged more or less ac- 

 cording to the length of time it has been subjected 

 to this process of taking on moisture. The custom- 

 er pays i!U to 'Za cents tor a comb of that stuff called 

 honey; they take it home; they taste potatoes, on- 

 ions, codtisu, and every thing usually kept in a gro- 

 cery cellar. That flue flavor that bee-keepers talk 

 about is gone, they don't like honey any way. Then 

 people talk about adulterated honey, and no won- 

 der. What shall we do V Kipen our honey above 

 ground, in some dry, clean, warm room where the 

 air is pure, so that what surplus moisture there is 

 will evaporate. If the weather is damp and rainy, 

 use a stove to dry the air, then our honey will thick- 

 en and preserve its flavor. When you sell a box of 

 honey, tell the party not to put tne honey in the 

 ice-box nor down cellar, but, rather, put it on the 

 pantry-shelf. If your customer is a grocer, give 

 him a few pointers in a friendly way. 



And now I come to the fourth point. The one- 

 pound is the standard. The pocketbook argument 

 should have its effect here. I'iist, if you use an odd 

 size you must expect to pay the supply-dealer from 

 50 cents to $1.00 extra per lUoO, because it is more 

 trouble to make odd sizes than regular sizes. Sec- 

 ond, you must expect to get less for your honey. 

 I will show you how much you would lose if you 

 Used a two-pound section. Suppose 2U00 one-pound 

 sections to cost at the factory $5.UU, you could not 

 expect to get lOOU two-pound sections for less than 

 *-i.uU; and supposing aUUU lbs. of honey to sell at If 

 cents a pound in one-pound sections, you could not 

 expect it to sell for more than W cents in two-pound 

 sections, in proof whereof i quote from the Minne- 

 apolis Journal, dated January 4, 1895. 



Hiiney.— The market is slow, and prices are steady. 

 Minnesota white clover, 14@15c; Wisconsin white 

 clover, I4@15; dark honey, 1(J@12; extracted honey, 

 7c; a-lb. combs, lo®14. 



Then we have saved Sl.UO on the cost of the sec- 

 tion.s, and we have lost $:JO.uO on the honey; $19.U0 

 would be a big Christmas present; but it would be 

 just like flnding it, to a bee-keeper who was in the 

 habit of using a :i-lb. section. 



I wish to touch briefly upon how to secure the 

 greatest amount of white honey. We hear so many 

 bee-keepers say every year that they did not get 

 any white honey, or very little white honey. The 



plan generally pursued by the ordinary bee-keeper 

 is to let his bees alone in the spring until they De- 

 gin to swarm; then he hives the new swarm, and, 

 after about two weeks, he puts on his surplus- 

 cases. A little knowledge of honey-producing 

 plants, and their time of blossoming, would change 

 all this; for, be it understood once for all, bees do 

 not make noney; they simply gather it, and store it 

 in the hive. In my locality the flrst surplus honey 

 comes from white clover, in May and June, followed 

 by a short spell of no honey at all, and then comes 

 the basswood the last of June and flrst of July, 

 liasswood bloom is all over from July luth to the 

 15th, and then comes another famine. In order to 

 get white honey in my locality, the bee-keeper must 

 have his bees in conuition to gather honey by the 

 middle of May. He must put on his surplus-cases 

 as soon as his bees begin to build brace-combs. It 

 is my practice to tier up as fast as possible, and 

 sometimes I have two or three surplus-cases nearly 

 tilled at swarming- time. As soon as a new swarm 

 issues I remove the old hive a little to one side, 

 placing it at right angles to the old stand. I place 

 the new hive exactly where the old one stood; place 

 the partly tilled settion-cases on tne new hive; and 

 in less than ten minutes after swarming, the cases 

 are again tilled with workers; each worker carries a 

 sackful of honey with her when the swarm issues, 

 and thirty or forty thousand bees can hold a con- 

 siderable amount of honey. I have weighed new 

 swarms that weigh eighteen to twenty pounds with- 

 out the hive— ill fact, before they haci been put into 

 the hive at all. i have no doubt that two-thirasof this 

 weight was the honey in the bees. With me, bees 

 swarm during white honey-flow; and by following 

 the method here described, no time is lost; they go 

 right on, and more cases may be added. Meantime 

 the old hive is moved nearer and nearer the new 

 hive, day by day, until they stand side by side and 

 very close. On the seventn day after swarming, in 

 the middle of the day when the most workers are in 

 the Held, quietly anu carefully pick up the old hive; 

 carry it quietly, and set it down softly at the great>- 

 est distance possible in the same yard, from its 

 former position. Notice the ettect. Almost instant- 

 ly you will see a swarm, as it were, collecting around 

 tne place where this liive had stood; they are the 

 workers returning from the field; their home is 

 gone; they are confused, and tiy aimlessly about 

 for a few seconds; they alight at the entrance of 

 the new hive; tiieir mother is the queen there 

 reigning; the bees have the same scent; they are 

 receivea, deposit their load, and go again to the 

 field for more honey. Likewise tne woi-kers that 

 were in the old hive which we moved so carefully 

 do not know their home has a new location; they 

 go forth, but return to the old location; they are 

 received, and a rousing swarm is the result. No 

 wonder the honey-sections fill up quickly, as there 

 are so many workers. But what happens at the 

 old hive in its new location ? Nearly all its working 

 force has been drained away to the new swarm. In 

 a day or two the new queen hatches. She has few 

 bees to hamper her actions; she makes a tour of 

 the hive, and murders her sleeping sister-queens, 

 yet unborn. She is monarch of all she surveys, and 

 there is none her right to dispute. You will not be 

 troubled with seconil swarms. No time has been 

 lost since white honey began to flow, and now we 

 have the whole working- force concentrated on com- 

 paratively few sections. If there is any white honey, 

 we get it. After a week or two we can put sections 

 on the old hive, and all our bees will be in shape for 

 dark or fall honey. W. H. Putnam. 



Kiver Falls, Wis. 



DRONE -TRAPS, SELF-HIVERS, AND NON- 

 SWARMERS. 



DRONE AND QUEEN TRAPS MOST PRACTICA- 

 BLE; "YOU PRESS THE BUTTON AND WE 

 DO THE rest" HIVER WILL NEVER 

 BE INVENTED. 



Bij C. H. Dibbern. 



A good deal has been said of late about how 

 best to manage our apiaries in the bee-keeping 

 of the future. It is generally admitted that, 



