March, 1916. 



93 



American Hee Journal 



■<^ 



off the ground as they should be there 

 will be no ants under them. In fact, 

 the country is remarkably free from 

 enemies of the bee, the only one worth 

 mentioning being a large black spider 

 which occasionally gets into a hive 

 during the winter and spins a web to 

 catch bees, but he can't cause much 

 trouble. 



There are two periods when it is 

 most profitable to make increase. The 

 first is at the close of the tupelo. Two 

 or three frames of brood with adher- 

 ing bees can be taken from tach col- 

 ony and put in a hive on a new stand 

 together with a ripe cell. The hive can 

 be filled out with frames and they will 

 draw out a set of combs and store a 

 super of honey in the full flow. 



Then about Aug. 1 the extracting 

 stories can be set off on new stands 

 with what bees they contain and a 

 couple of frames of brood and a cell. 

 These will also fill a super of honey in 

 the fall. I have demonstrated the above 

 plans and know that it can be done. It 

 is possible to treble the number of col- 

 onies in one season and secure both 

 the spring and fall crops which are the 

 most valuable ones. 



Bordelonville, La. 



Displays as Advertising 



BY G. \V. JUDGE, 



MANY beekeepers complain that 

 they experience great difficulty 

 in disposing of their honey and 

 wax. This in many cases is the fault 

 of the beekeepers themselves; they 

 fail because they do not cultivate that 

 enterprising spirit which characterizes 

 the successful business man. 



The public generally is very ignorant 

 on the subject of honey and its uses, 

 and even in these enlightened days I 

 have repeatedly been asked how to 

 separate the honey from thewixofa 

 first-class section to render it fit for the 

 table. Honey is generally regarded 

 more as a luxury than as a food. This 

 being so it is to the advantage of the 

 honey producer to take every means in 

 his power to educate the public and so 

 encourage its consumption as an arti- 

 cle of daily diet. A good way of doing 

 this is to make displays of bees, honey, 

 honey products, etc., at local flower 

 and vegetable shows. The enclosed 

 photograph is of a display the writer 

 made a year or two since at an exhi- 

 bition of this kind. The observation 

 hive (seen on the left of the picture) 

 never fails to attract the attention of a 

 large number of visitors, and if the 

 exhibitor is present he should take 

 this opportunity to explain the habits 

 of the bee, and in particular the vir- 

 tues of honey as an article of food. 



In this display there was approxi- 

 mately 220 pounds of honey, wax, mead, 

 vinegar, cakes, etc., staged, and al- 

 though the photograph does not ren- 

 der the color of the honey and wax 

 accurately, it shows the manner in 

 which it was arranged. 



By putting up a first-class article in 

 suitable receptacles, one is able to 

 command the maximum price. Here 

 in England for years past I have al- 

 ways been able to dispose of much 

 more honey than I could produce at 

 one shilling (2.5 cents) per pound jar 

 of extracted, or section of comb honey. 



Dartford, England. 



HONEY EXHIBIT AT AN ENGLISH FLOWER SHOW 



Copyright 



Bee-I^epinc ^ For Women 



Conducted bv Miss Emma M. Wilson. Mareneo. III. 



Surplus Combs of Honey 



About this time of year, every woman 

 worthy of the name of beekeeper 

 should be doing some planning as to 

 how to do better for the coming sea 

 son. There are beekeepers — both 

 women and men — who can make no 

 improvement in one direction, having 

 for years made it a practice to save up 

 an extra lot of brood combs full of 

 sealed honey, ready to be used in the 

 fall or spring, wherever they will do 

 the most good by being given to the 

 bees. The probability is that the num- 

 ber of such is very small. Another 

 small number make partial provision, 

 leaving a large number with whom the 

 season closes with never a pound of 

 honey but what is in the brood-cham- 

 bers of their hives. 



With those who have large hives 

 this does not matter so much, for in 

 these the bees have enough room to 



store sufficient to last until they can 

 again gather in the following season. 

 Even then there may be advantage in 

 having combs of honey for the follow- 

 ing spring, for in most places the early 

 honey is more salable than the late. 

 Suppose we have a colony in a 10-frame 

 hive with just enoUi;h honey to keep 

 the bees from starving until the flow, 

 say of white clover, begins, the next 

 summer. But when that flow begins 

 there will be empty cells enough to 

 hold 10 pounds of honey or more, and 

 those empty cells will first be filled by 

 the bees before they do any storing in 

 supers. If, now, we can give the bees 

 two or three combs of dark honey 

 saved from the previous fall to replace 

 that many combs, they will commence 

 just so much sooner storing in supers, 

 giving us just so much more white sur- 

 plus. In effect we have disposed of 

 that dark honey at the price of light. 

 There is another reason for replac- 



