188.5 



c;Lea:s'ings i^' J5ee cLJ/ruuM 



OVERPRODUCTION OF HONEY. 



FRIEND POND GIVES US SOME THOUGHTS IN RE- 

 GARD TO THE SUBJECT. 



fRIEND DOOLITTLE criticises me a little on 

 page 700, Oct. Gleanings, as regards my 

 views on overproduction. Well, I don't in- 

 tend to take back any thing I have ever writ- 

 ten in regard to the matter, and I still think 

 the questions of overstocking or overproduction are 

 matters which need not trouble this generation, 

 and that the price of nice honey is no lower than 

 years ago. True it is, as friend D. shows, the price 

 of honey is some ten cents per lb. lower this year 

 than it was some ten years ago; so is flour much 

 lower in proportion than it was then, as compared 

 with the reduced price of honey ; and so goods of all 

 kinds are lower also. When 1 mentioned the price 

 of honey it was comparatively. I meant to l>e un- 

 derstood relatively also; and now when I compare 

 the present price of honey with the necessaries of 

 life, I find the argument strongly in favor of honey. 

 Now, the real question of supply and demand does 

 not govern the honey cpiestion at all. Producers of 

 honey are not salesmen, and consequently have no 

 real knowledge of the best ways and means of dis- 

 posing of their goods. Instead of makimj a market 

 for their surplus honey, and disposing of it in that 

 market, they all rush it into some large city, and, 

 of course, overstock that market at once. Compare 

 for a moment the crop of honey of the last ten 

 years with the number of people in this great coun- 

 try, and how much per capita will it show up? 

 There are thousands and thousands of people who 

 would gladly buy honey, if they could do so near 

 their homes, who never see an ounce from one 

 year's end to another. So I say again, this genera- 

 tion has no reason to worry itself about the matter 

 of overproduction of honey, or overstocking the 

 country with bees; and further, the crop of honey 

 as compared with the necessaries of life commands 

 as good a price now as it did years ago; and the 

 price obtained for it might be largely increased if 

 the bee-keepers would market their goods them- 

 selves, and not ship it all to the same central point, 

 and leave the disposing of it to the tender mercies 

 of the commission houses. .1. K. Pond, .Jr. 



Foxboro, Mass., Dec. :J1, 1884. 



EMPTY COMBS AND COMB HONEY. 



SECTIONS FILLED WITH FDN., AND EMPTY FRAMES 

 BELOW THEM, FOR NEW SWARMS. 



fRIEND W. Z. Hutchinson's article on page 803 

 of Gleanings for 1884, upon "foundation and 

 comb honey," was read by me with great in- 

 terest; for it touched upon some points of vi- 

 tal importance to the bee-keeping fraternity. 

 While in the main I consider his conclusions cor- 

 rect, yet I think some of them need a little explan- 

 ation before the apiarists of the United States will in- 

 dorse all that he says; and the object of this article 

 Will be to throw more light on the interesting sub- 

 ject of comb-building, and to tell why friend H. did 

 not succeed in securing a good yield of comb honey 

 from those swarms which were hived on empty 

 combs. In order to have w-hat I wish to say more 

 fully understood, I will begin at the close of friend 

 H.'s article, and explain it toward the beginning. 

 Thus we have first, "When the young queens began 



laying in the old colony, they shunned the frames 

 of drone-comb, even if they nerc in the center of 

 the hive." Here we have an assertion, with no 

 reason given to support it; and so I ask, "Why was 

 this so?" Because, when an old colony gets a 

 young laying queen, instinct teaches them that 

 they may expect this queen to meet all their re- 

 quirements of a mother-bee for the i"est of the sea- 

 son ; while di-ones are necessary only when a change 

 of mothers is contemplated by the bees. Hence no 

 eggs are deposited in drone-comb, and no drone- 

 comb built by such a colony, unless such comb is 

 built for store comb where honey is coming in rap- 

 idly. Taking advantage of this fact or explanation, 

 I manage to get one or two nice perfect worker- 

 combs built for future use while the bees are at 

 woi-k vigorously in the sections, by taking one or 

 two full combs out of the center of the brood-nest, 

 and inserting empty frames in their places. These 

 frames are filled, api)arently, without the cost of 

 any section honey, while it gives that energy to the 

 colony which friend Root speaks of, as always ac- 

 companying a colony which are building natural 

 comb. In this way a part of the combs which I use 

 are built, which combs are given in preceding years 

 to newly hived colonies, as will be explained fur- 

 ther along. I also place on such colonies having 

 young queens, all sections (if I have such) contain- 

 ing drone-comb, where they are filled without dan- 

 ger of drone-brood in them, while much drone- 

 brood in sections often confronts the apiarist, if 

 such sections are used over prime swarms. Befoi-e 

 I used this plan, and previous to the advent of thin 

 foundation for sections, I was often vexed upon 

 finding the sections placed upon prime swarms, 

 nearly half filled with drone-brood. In the above I 

 havegi\en how I get nice worker-combs built with- 

 out cost, and also how to keep brood out of sections, 

 which is done by using all sections containing 

 drone-comb over an old colony having a young lay- 

 ing queen, and having only sections of worker-comb 

 over all colonies having a queen a jear or more old. 

 The next point I wish to notice is where friend 

 H. says, "With me, newly hived swarms having lay- 

 ing queens do not build drone-comb." Here we 

 have another assertion (without reason given tell- 

 ing why) which is contrary to the experience of 

 nearly every person who ever hived a swarm of 

 bees. Only the past season I have seen, in neigh- 

 boring apiaries, hives filled nearly half full of 

 drone-comb when laying queens went out and were 

 hived with new swarms, and why they did not do so 

 with friend H. was simply because his bees were 

 managed differently, and upon a more correct prin- 

 ciple. The colonies above alluded to were hived in 

 a hive containing \'i Gallup frames, with no surplus 

 arrangement put on until a week after hiving, so 

 that it w as necessary that the bees do all their work 

 in the bodj' of the hive. All observing apiarists 

 know that, as the day of swarming draws near, the 

 queen ceases her pi-oliflcness, so as to be able to fly 

 and go with the swarm, so that, when swarming 

 does occur, said queen is scarcely larger than a vir- 

 gin queen. Nature has so ordained things for two 

 reasons; the first of which is, that the queen can 

 fly; and the second is, that the queen need not be 

 damaged by an over-accumulation of eggs before 

 there is time for the bees to construct comb in the 

 new home for her to deposit her eggs in; thus we 

 find that all good queens do not get get fully prolific 

 again until about a week has elapsed after the new 



