THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



243 



queen could be found in tlio trai>. I decided 

 then what the trouble was — that she did not 

 lind the cone. There ou^'ht to be three 

 oonea, and they should be placed close to the 

 front, so that the queen in her upward 

 movements, while attempting to get out, 

 will certainly walk up through a cone. It is 

 just as convenient, and I think a little bet- 

 ter, to have the upper part of the front made 

 of wire cloth, and then have a small piece of 

 perforated zinc in the upper part of the 

 trap. By having the wire cloth form the 

 front it admits the light very close to the 

 cones. I would have the trap long enough 

 to extend clear across the front of the hive, 

 thus giving more ventilation and more open- 

 ings for the workers to pass through. 



Getting Colonies at Work in the Sections. 

 This is a little out of the season to be talk- 

 ing on this subject, but so many things must 

 be talked about at the time, or near the 

 time, when they have happened, or they will 

 be forgotten, that I now copy what E. R. 

 Root says on this subject in last Gleanings. 

 He doesn't give it the same heading as I 

 have given it: he is talking al>out the advan- 

 tages of big colonies (and they are an ad- 

 vantage, no mistake) and in one paragraph 

 he says: 



" I have noticed that a two-story eight- 

 frame Langstroth colony, run for extracted, 

 is just the sort of colony we need for pro- 

 ducing comb honey. Take off the upper 

 story with all its extractiug-combs, that the 

 bees have begun storing in, and place in its 

 stead one super containing full sheets of 

 foundation, and my I how the l>ees go to 

 work! If the colony is very populous it may 

 be wise to put on two supers. I am not 

 sure, but I am inclined to believe that a good 

 way to start bees to storing honey in supers 

 is to give them extracting-c(jmbs, and if the 

 season is a good one, take the super away 

 and give them supers iirepared for comb 

 honey. But the plan won't work a little bit 

 unless the hive i'' fairly ' tilling' over with 

 bees. The super that has tieen removed may 

 be given to an extracting colony to com- 

 plete." * 



There is no question that the putting on <jf 

 a super filled with extracting combs would 

 start the bees to work just ttie same as would 

 a super of sections filled with drawn comb, 

 and when the bees begin to store honey in 

 the supers it brings about a change in the 

 management of their business, so to speak. 

 The pressure upon the brood nest is relieved, 

 more brood is reared, and the honey is being 

 stored above. Let this go on for a few days, 



the length of time depending upon the yield, 

 strength of colony, etc., and then remove 

 the extracting combs and substitute sections 

 tilled with foundation, and that habit the 

 bees have formed of putting the honey into 

 the super is continued. Work is begun at 

 once on the foundation and honey stored, 

 and all that. It is quite likely that in those 

 instances where the bee keeper has no drawn 

 combs in sections in the spring, but has ex- 

 tracting combs, that it might pay him to 

 work this " racket." 



Feeding Back Extracted Honey. 

 In Gleanings for August 1.5, Mr. G. M. 

 Doolittle replies to a correspondent who 

 wishes to know if he can make a profit in 

 raising extracted honey and then feeding it 

 back to the bees to be stored in the sections. 

 He also wishes for instruction as to how the 

 honey ought to be fed. Mr. Doolittle replies 

 as follows: 



" The feeding of extracted honey in order 

 that comb honey may be obtained is some- 

 thing that has been tried by very many of 

 our best apiarists, and still remains an un- 

 solved problem with some of those who have 

 tried it. Some have reported success and 

 others a failure: but if I am correct, those 

 who consider the thing a failure far outnum- 

 ber those who consider it a success. From 

 my experience in the matter, I should say if 

 anyone must feed extracted honey to his 

 bees in order that comb honey may be pro- 

 duced, it should be fed in the spring, in 

 order to hasten brood-rearing, thus securing 

 multitudes of bees in time for the honey 

 harvest: then, by putting on the sections at 

 the right time, a large crop of comb honey 

 may be secured, if the flowers do not fail to 

 bloom or yield honey. My experience has 

 also led me to think that it is better to 

 secure the honey in the sections in the first 

 place, rather than have it stored in combs, 

 and then thrown out with the extractor that 

 we and the bees may go through with much 

 labor and stickiness to secure the same 

 thing which we might have secured without 

 all this trouble. The practice of feeding 

 back is on the principle of producing two 

 crops to get on^, and no one will argue that 

 such a course would pay in the long run. 

 Even under the most favorable circum- 

 stances, to finish nearly completed combs of 

 honey, I can not make it pay if I count my 

 time as anything. At the close of certain 

 seasons, when I would have a large number 

 of untitiishnd sections, many of which were 

 so nearly finished that a few ounces of honey 

 would apparently finish them, it seemed 

 that it might pay to feed a little extracted 

 honey to finish sncli: but after a careful 

 trial of the matter, covering a period of ten 

 or more yenrs, I fiiiallj gave it up as a bad 

 job, and have not fed back a pound of tioney 

 during the past six years. If anyone should 



