740 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



heavy expense; whereas the trial of two stories 

 of a sizo already in use would cost comparative- 

 ly nothing. 



With my present light, i/ queens will be in- 

 duced readily to occupy two stories, here's 

 something like what seems desirable, only with 

 two seasons of utter failure I know practically 

 little more about it than I did two years ago: 

 At the beginning of spring, give a story of 

 combs below with some honey, so that there 

 will be abundance of stores, and so that the 

 queen can occupy as many frames as she likes 

 of the sixteen. At the beginning of the honey- 

 hai'vest, whether the whole sixteen frames 

 shall be left, or whether the number be reduced 

 to 12, 10, or to a single story, is a question on 

 which I desire more light. In any case, at the 

 close of the white-honey harvest two stories 

 will be put or kept in use, remaining till per- 

 haps October, when one story will be taken 

 away till spring. If the hives were to remain 

 on the summer stands there would be no need 

 to take away one of the stories at any time 

 of the year, unless thought advisable to do so 

 during the harvest. 



I am veiy much afraid, however, that, with 

 such frames as I should like, and with the de- 

 sirable absence of burr and brace combs, the 

 queen would not readily go from one story to 

 another. Possibly that might be remedied by 

 some sort of ladder of comb from the first to the 

 second story, so the queen could go from one to 

 the other without setting her dainty feet down 

 upon wood. 



I shall read this article with much interest 

 when I see it in print, but I shall skip all but 

 the footnote. I shall also look with interest 

 for the kindly criticisms of others, for I very 

 well know that I'm talking on a subject about 

 which I know very little, but desire light very 

 much. 



Marengo, 111. 



FEW UNFINISHED SECTIONS I\ THE FALL. 

 HOW NOT TO HAVE THEM; BEES CLUSTER- 

 ING out; WHEN IT IS AND IS NOT A GOOD 

 STMPTOM. 



Question.— Nearly every fall I have half or 

 more of my sections in the unfinished or uncap- 

 ped state; and especially is this the case tlie 

 present fall, when nearly two-thirds of them 

 are unsalable on account of not being capped 

 over. Will you please tell us in Gleanings 

 how this may be obviated? 



Answer.—llow to manage our bees so as to 

 secure the greatest yield of comb honey is a 

 question of great importance to all those who 

 are engaged in producing such honey for mar- 



ket; hence we often have articles on this topic 

 giving us instructions regarding it. But comb 

 honey is of little value unless properly finished 

 or capped over; so that the thing which our 

 questioner puts before us of " how to manage 

 our bees so as to have few uncapped sections 

 in the fall "is a question of nearly as much 

 importance to us as the one spoken of above, 

 which has occupied the thoughts and writings 

 of very many. For years I was troubled by 

 having from one-fourth to one-half of the 

 combs in the sections not fully sealed at the 

 close of the honey-harvest, which were salable 

 only at a reduced price, if at all; but of late I 

 have but few of such, even in a poor season. 

 After experimenting for a year or two regard- 

 ing the matter, I became convinced that the 

 cause of the trouble was in giving the bees too 

 many sections; and especially conducive to 

 this was the plan of tiering up sections late in 

 the season. How often have I, years ago, 

 spoiled a promise of an abundant yield of comb 

 honey by tiering up four or five days before 

 the honey-harvest closed! To tier up sections 

 profitably requires considerable tact; and es- 

 pecially do we want a thorough knowledge of 

 the honey resources of the lield we occupy. I 

 often think that there is too much injudicious 

 talk in some of our papers in regard to not al- 

 lowing the bees under any circumstances to 

 cluster on the outside of the hive, the idea 

 being generally conveyed that, when bees thus 

 cluster out, they need more room. Now, it 

 depends upon when this clustering-out occurs, 

 whether more room is needed or not; and hence 

 I say "injudicious talk." If the clustering- 

 out occurs at the commencement, or in the 

 height of the honey harvest, then more room 

 should be given; while, if at the latter part of 

 the harvest, or in a time of honey-dearth, no 

 more room is needed; for more room at this 

 time results in the one case in many unfinished 

 sections, and in the other an absolute waste of 

 time used in enlarging the hive. To illustrate: 

 During some seasons we have but a few days 

 of honey secretion, and that often after the 

 flowers which produce the yield are rather past 

 their prime. At such times we often do not 

 have on the hive one-half of the capacity 

 which we would use in a good season, and for 

 this reason the bees begin to be crowded out. 

 Hoping that the weather may be good during 

 the rest of the time that the flowers are in 

 bloom we give double the room to our colonies, 

 only to have it turn bad weather again, thus 

 giving us only partly filled sections in the fall; 

 while, had we left them as they were, all would 

 have been finished. Well do I remember one 

 such season when, in time of basswood bloom, 

 we had bad weather up to the middle of the 

 bloom. At this time I had on each hive a sur- 

 plus capacity of about twenty pounds, when 

 all at once the yield of honey became abundant, 



