American Hee Joarnall 





Now, I had to vary the plan some- 

 what. I did not have enough empty 

 combs for the brood-chamber so I gave 

 only 2 or 3 empty combs, tlien filled 

 out the 10-frames with full sheets of 

 wired foundation. I did not change 

 the hives, simply left the old hive on 

 its stand. 



Twenty large colonies were so treat- 

 ed, and none even tried to swarm, and 

 I received a large crop of honey in 

 spite of the fearful drouth here. I 

 can't say too much in favor of the above 

 method. It certainly was a complete 

 succei-s with me. The whole operation 

 is done at once, beautiful combs are 

 drawn out, and the swarming fever is 

 entirely satisfied. As the brood hatches 

 out in the third story, it is filled with 

 honey, and big results are obtained. 



Now, I want to warn of one thing — 

 be sure not to put up too young brood, 

 otherwise the bees will start queen- 

 cells. Three of my colonies did, but 

 when the flow let up the bees destroyed 

 the cells again themselves. None of 

 the other 17 colonies started queen- 

 cells. It certainly makes rousing big 

 colonies, and is the method I recom- 

 mend, and always shall use hereafter. 

 I wish to thank Mr. Allen for giving 

 this method to the readers of the 

 American Bee Journal. 



If we had a method like this to pre- 

 vent swarming when running for comb 

 honey, the swarming problem would 

 be solved. Cutting out queen-cells 

 once a week, giving large and deep en- 

 trances, top ventilation, and shading 

 the hives, work best with me when 

 running for comb honey. 



La Crescent, Minn. 



Something About Unfinished 

 Sections 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



No doubt the readers of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal will be somewhat sur- 

 prised when I tell them that later de- 

 velopments prove that Doolittle can 

 not always have his way in having few 

 unfinished sections at the close of the 

 honey harvest. I know I have been 

 telling in the past, how it was possible 

 to have very few, by a system of con- 

 densation rather than expansion, after 

 the middle of any of the blooms which 

 furnish us with our surplus honey. .'Vnd 

 I still say I believe that is the correct 

 plan to work on. 



As the latter half of any of our regu- 

 lar honey harvests come on, instead of 

 tiering up or putting supers of empty 

 sections between those supers which 

 are more or less completed and the 

 brood-chamber, the supposed or hoped- 

 for needed supers should be placed on 

 top of those in which the bees are at 

 work, for in this way, with good sea- 

 sons, the bees w^ill complete nearly all 

 the sections they commence work in. 

 But the past two or three seasons have 

 convinced me that there always must 

 be more or less unfinished sections 

 (occasionally more), no matter how 

 hard we work to have it otherwise, as 

 the fact has been pressed in upon me, 

 that, by a sudden and une.xpected end- 

 ing of the honey harvest through a 

 prolonged drouth, or by a long-con- 

 tinued spell of rainy weather, the flow 



will be cut off, which circumstances 

 can not be controlled by the bee-keeper. 

 This being true, and without a possible 

 remedy, after such a season in which 

 our harvest has been suddenly cut off 

 when wprk in the sections was at its 

 height, it becomes necessary that we 

 deal with the problem of what shall be 

 done with this uncompleted work. 



I used to be surprised at some of our 

 otherwise good, practical bee-keepers 

 recommending that all such sections 

 should be burned after cutting out the 

 combs and melting them into wax. 

 This always seemed to me to be bad 

 advice, bad economy, and very poor 

 judgment. If we are to make the most 

 out of bee-keeping for ourselves and 

 our families, it would seem to be wis- 

 dom to concede the fact that close, 

 economical management must play an 

 important part in the business, espe- 

 cially with the lower price of our prod- 

 uct as compared with most of the 

 things we have to buy. 



As I have written before, I consider 

 these partly-filled sections about the 

 "best stock in trade" there is in the 

 apiary, and with the part we need as 

 ■' bait-sections," better than money in 

 the bank. When, by experience, through 

 a term of nearly 40 years, I have found 

 that bees will enter the sections more 

 freely, and from a week to 10 days 

 sooner, where the super contains a 

 certain amount of drawn combs, I 

 want these sections, and want them too 

 badly to sanction the melting of the 

 combs and the burning of the sections ; 

 no matter if the sections are not quite 

 as new looking as are those put on 

 "fresh" and filled with foundation. 



There are several ways of turning 

 these unfinished sections into cash. 

 When the honey harvest is about clos- 

 ing, or drouth or rain has brought it to 

 an untimely end, so that the loss is be- 

 coming greater through discoloration 

 by what is known as "travel-stain," or 

 by the bees removing the honey from 

 the unsealed cells than is gained by a 

 little greater completion, the supers are 

 immediately put on the escape-boards 

 so as to rid them at once of the bees, 

 and as soon as this is accomplished, 

 they are taken off and the supers stored 

 in my honey-room, each super being 

 kept away from its fellow by a little 2- 

 inch-long by 1-inch-square block. As 

 this room has a paper roof directly 

 over it, with the roof and sides painted 

 a dark red, the sun so heats up the in- 

 terior that all the unsealed honey is 

 rapidly ripened by the hot, dry air be- 

 itig able to circulate through the whole 

 pile, and that which is sealed very 

 much improved as to quality. 



After being in this room for 2 or 3 

 weeks, the honey in the unsealed cells 

 become so ripe and thick that it will 

 not run out, no matter how roughly it 

 is handled, or turned " flat side " down ; 

 while that in the sealed cells is so 

 ripened that it will not candy in the 

 combs, as is often the case with comb 

 honey which is stored in a damp, cool 

 room. When thus ripened, the com- 

 pleted sections are graded and cased 

 ready for market, all being kept in this 

 room until disposed of. Those nearly 

 completed are also cased for market, 

 as when kept by themselves and cased 

 so that the outside gives a fair repre- 

 sentation of all which are in the case. 



such will bring as much, within 2 to :} 

 cents, as will the best. At least that 

 has been my experience during the 

 past 10 to 12 years. Before that, when 

 such sections were allowed to go in 

 promiscuously with the other, they 

 brought the price of the whole down 

 to where it was better not to send them 

 away at all. 



Those which are less finished, but 

 still valuable for the honey they con- 

 tain, have their combs cut out, and the 

 same put in what are here called 

 "wooden butter-dishes," when these, 

 holding about 2% pounds are sold to 

 those who come for honey, selling at 

 from 2.] to 30 cents for each dish, ac- 

 cording to the source from which the 

 honey was gathered, or its quality. In 

 this way we receive nearly as much as 

 is done from any of the crop, as the 

 sections and shipping-cases " cut no 

 figure," while the butter-dishes cost 

 little more than a couple of mills each. 



Those sections not as well filled, 

 which have more value for baits than 

 anything else, are treated in one of 

 two ways: If I do not have extracted 

 honey enough to supply the demand 

 coming for the same, the extractor is 

 gotten around, a fire built in tlie stove, 

 which, together with the heat from the' 

 sun, raises the temperature of the 

 room to 100 degrees or over, just in 

 accord with the thickness to which the 

 honey has ripened in these sections, 

 when, in the afternoon, after the heat 

 has tarried long enough so that the 

 honey will extract easily, that part of 

 the combs which is sealed is uncapped 

 and the whole extracted, bv putting 

 these sections in "section-holders," 

 made to hold a certain number, that 

 number being governed by the size of 

 the frame the extractor will receive. 



In this way it is no great trick to ex- 

 tract the honey from the sections, after 

 which they can be put out in hives, 

 piled one on top of the other, with an 

 entrance at the bottom large enough 

 to admit only one or two bees at a 

 time, when, in a few days, they will be 

 cleaned up ready for using as baits. 



If I think that from any reason there 

 may be some colonies of' bees the next 

 spring, which through the shortness or 

 the honey season the year before, of 

 from any other unforeseen circum- 

 stance will be short of stores, and I 

 have no reserved combs of honey to 

 feed them, I let these sections remain 

 as they are till I find out about this 

 matter. If needed the next spring by 

 certain individual colonies, the sec- 

 tions are uncapped and placed in a su- 

 per which is set over such colonies, 

 the top of the hive being covered over 

 with a "quilt," all except a little space 

 at one corner large enough to admit 4 

 or 5 bees going up at a time, when the 

 sections will be cleaned and the colony 

 fed at the same time, resulting to the 

 advantage of both the bees and their 

 keepers. 



If it so happens that no individual 

 colonies need stores in the spring, 

 then these left-over sections are put 

 into supers or hives and piled up one 

 on top of the other, making all secure 

 from bees except an entrance at the 

 bottom large enough to admit not 

 more than 2 bees at a time; when 

 work on them will be commenced, and 

 continue day after day till all the honey 



