1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



129 



Since the outbreak of the war, I hear 

 from home that honey sells for $2.00 

 per pound. Clean wax is made into 

 cakes selling at about 53 cents a pound 

 and is used in making candles for the 

 churches. A colony of bees sells for 

 about $4.00. 



The Carniolan bee is in color silver 

 or light gray. It is a little larger than 

 the Italian, and is very gentle. Carnio- 

 lan bees are very prolific, are good 

 honey gatherers, and do not propolize 

 as much as other bees. They cap their 

 honey clean and white and are good 

 resisters against moths and disease. 



Carniola has a Beekeepers' Associa- 

 tion which meets yearly and there are 

 many subordinate associations, one for 

 each township, which meet every Sat- 

 urday. There are about 900 members 

 in the head association. All the adver- 

 tising matter is published in their 

 monthly magazine, "The Carniola Bee- 

 keeper," the editor of which is Francis 

 Rojina, my father. The estimated num- 

 ber of colonies in Carniola for the 

 year 1910, was over 53,000 ; in all Austria 

 over 2,000,000, with a pro luct of more 

 than $9,000,000. 



From earliest boyhood I watched and 

 helped my father with his apiary of 500 

 colonies, and he took me on many of 

 his lecture trips and to the National 

 Bee Association meetings. The hap- 

 piest days were those with father on 

 his trips into the deep woods on the 

 mountain sides where he visited and 

 bought the purest Carniolan bees. The 

 best queens were carried home in 

 small cages that were strapped to our 

 backs. 



To me the Carniolan bees are the 

 best. The only fault the American 

 beekeepers have to find with them is 

 their swarming, and this is caused by 

 using too small hives. As soon as they 

 are transferred to hives that can be 

 enlarged, giving the queen room to 

 satisfy her breeding capacity, she loses 

 her inclination for swarming without 

 losing her prolificneas. 



University Farm, St. Paul, Minn. 



The Advantages of Full Sheets 



and Bottom Starters in 



Sections 



BY G. C. GREINEE. 



MANY years ago, when the use of 

 foundation in sections was be- 

 coming more and more general, 

 and our more experienced beekeepers 

 began to advocate its use as a means 

 of insuring increased surplus yield, 

 whereby the honey industry would be 

 materially advanced, I could not see it 

 in that light. I did not doubt that the 

 yield of surplus could be increased by 

 the liberal use of foundation, but I 

 feared that its unrestricted use in sec- 

 tions, on account of its "backbone 

 feature," would eventually have a det- 

 rimental effect on the honey market. 



To produce a first-class article of 

 table honey, I imagined bees had to 

 manufacture it themselves from the 

 start, and to retain my reputation of 

 furnishing my customers the best that 

 could be got I used foundation for 

 many years very sparingly, not more 

 than one-inch starters, or perhaps l^-i 

 inches at the most. I do not remember 

 the exact circumstances that impressed 

 that idea upon my mind, but I think my 



experience during those early days, 

 when comparing naturally built combs 

 with those built on foundation, seemed 

 to decide in favor of the former. At 

 all events that notion, and from my 

 present view point I can call it nothing 

 else, has cost me tons of honey during 

 the past decades. 



As time passed on, super foundation, 

 thin and extra thin, continued being 

 advertised right along ; our most promi- 

 nent beekeepers advocated its use year 

 after year, and as much as I watched 

 the effects on the honey market, I did 

 not hear of any serious harm being 

 done by its use. On the contrary, its 

 advantages of producing heavier yields 

 became more and more recognized by 

 the progressive beekeeper. 



At last, having the success of others 

 daily before my eyes, I decided to set 

 aside my prejudice and adopt the use 

 of foundation in sections as part of my 

 management. But I still believed that 

 the quality of honey would deteriorate 

 in the same proportion as the amount 

 of foundation increased. For a num- 

 ber of years I increased my one-inch 

 starters to two inches, and as I could 

 see no bad effects by the change, but 

 thought I could notice a slight gain in 

 the yield of surplus, I launched out on 

 the use of full sheets in sections. 



Since I have inaugurated my method 

 of doubling the yield of surplus honey 

 and control swarming, I am trying in 

 every way to give my bees all possible ad- 



what surprised at their backwardness, 

 and to ascertain the cause, if possible, 

 I drew out one of their center broad 

 frames. I was still more surprised to 

 find them as shown by Fig. 1 of the 

 accompanying drawing. They had be- 

 gun to work from the bottom starter 

 upwards, and had reached about half 

 way towards the top. 



Examining frames from other supers, 

 I found them in endless variations as 

 indicated by Fig. 2 ; they were working 

 from both ends of the sections at the 

 same time. I cannot positively say 

 that bottom starters alone made all 

 this difference, but it indicates very 

 forcibly that they are a great help to 

 the comb-honey producer. 



Later on, when I gathered up the 

 last supers at and after the end of the 

 honey flow, I found all sections, even 

 the lightest, that had been supplied 

 with bottom-starters, invariably like 

 Fig. 3, while others, where for experi- 

 mental purposes no bottom-starters 

 had been provided, were like Fig. 4. 

 If there were no gain in regard to 

 heavier yield, the difference between 

 Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 alone would amply 

 pay the beekeeper for time and labor 

 to install bottom-starters. 



As an illustration of how easily we 

 are led astray or deceived by wrong 

 impressions, I will relate a little inci- 

 dent that transpired last summer. 



When preparing my section supers 



^./. 



Zj^.Z. 



J Jo. 6. 



J^.f. 



MANNER IN WHICH BEES CLUSTER WHILE DRAWING OUT FOUNDATION- 



IN SECTIONS 



vantage for uninterrupted super work. 

 Full sheets in the sections are a great 

 help; no beekeeper can afford to pro- 

 duce comb honey (or extracted, either) 

 without them ; but they do not go far 

 enough. To make a complete job of 

 our work, we must add bottom starters 

 in all our sections. Under certain con- 

 ditions they do not add materiallyto the 

 yield, at least not so that it can be 

 readily noticed, but they are the means 

 of having all combs solidly attached to 

 the bottom, and that has more to do 

 with safe shipping than being attached 

 to the sides. 



Some of our beekeeping friends do 

 not consider bottom starters of suffi- 

 cient benefit to pay for the time and 

 labor it requires to install them, but I 

 consider them a paying investment. 

 During the season of 1912, when I used 

 them the first time systematically, I 

 watched them very closely when the 

 white clover flow began. After nearly 

 all colonies had taken possession of 

 their sections, I found one in particu- 

 lar where no bees could be seen from 

 above. It being one of my better colo- 

 nies, or as good as any, I was some- 



for the campaign, I accidentally over 

 looked inserting two sections into 

 one of the broad frames. The space 

 thus left was built out by the bees. 

 Although there was no guide, from all 

 appearance they did a model job, ex- 

 cept that it was drone-comb. It being 

 all natural, new comb, I expected that 

 it would be far superior to the general 

 grade of our section honey made on 

 foundation, and to enjoy the treat, I 

 reserved it for our own table. But im- 

 agine our surprise. Instead of finding 

 a nice brittle article that would melt 

 in the mouth, we found a tough sticky 

 mess, every mouthful a fair sample of 

 the toughest chewing gum taken from 

 the penny-in-the-slot machine. It re- 

 minded me of our transferring days in 

 the seventies, when we used to cut 

 choice (?) pieces from veteran box- 

 hives combs and considered them " de- 

 licious morsels.'' 



This little episode removed the last 

 vestige of the prejudice I still harbored 

 and converted me into a thoroughly 

 convinced full sheet and bottom-starter 

 advocate. 



La Salle, N. Y. 



