May, 1915. 



167 



American lee Journal | 



cluder under the upper story. About 

 four days later the colonies are again 

 examined, and what queens are above 

 are found and put in the lower story. 

 In about si.x to eight days all cells in 

 these upper stories are destroyed. The 

 brood is then allowed to hatch and the 

 combs left to be filled with honey, or 

 brood is drawn from these upper 

 stones to build up weak colonies, it be- 

 ing warm weather by this time. At the 

 beginning of clover bloom, which is 

 usually about June 1 to 10 in my local- 

 ity, all colonies that contain a hive full 

 of bees are given a set of empty ex- 

 tracting combs above a queen excluder. 

 I find that by giving plenty of room 

 early, it retards swarming, if not pre- 

 venting it in many cases. The strong 

 colonies are then raised off their bot- 

 tom-boards about half an inch in front 

 to allow better ventilation. 



At the home yard I allow natural 

 swarming, the prime swarm being 

 hived on the old stand. If increase is 

 desired the old hive is moved to a new 

 location, but if no increase is desired 

 the bees are brushed from the combs, 

 all cells destroyed, and the brood piled 

 on weak colonies, or piled two or 

 three stories high on colonies having 

 young queens where it is allowed to 

 hatch, and the combs filled with honey 

 for winter feeding, or extracted if not 

 needed for feeding. 



At the out-yards I handle the swarm- 

 ing problem a little differently. When 

 the colonies get strong in bees and I 



think they are going to make prepara- 

 tions to swarm, I set the hive off its 

 bottom-board, putting a body filled 

 with full sheets of wired foundation in 

 its place. I then find the queen and 

 put her in this prepared hive on a 

 frame containing a little unsealed 

 brood. The hive of brood is then set 

 on this prepared hive above a queen 

 excluder. In eight davs all cells are 

 destroyed. By this plan I do not have 

 a great deal of swarming, but I have 

 not as yet found any way to prevent it 

 entirely. However, by having the 

 queen's wings clipped, I lose very few 

 swarms. 



When our main honey flow is on, as 

 soon as a colony gets its extracting 

 super about two-thirds full of honey I 

 r.iise this super up and put a super of 

 empty combs under the partly-filled 

 super, using eight combs in a ten- 

 frame super. By using eight instead of 

 ten combs, we get thick combs of 

 honey, which are a great satisfaction 

 when uncapping, besides not having 

 nearly as many frames to handle. As 

 soon as the upper stories of honey are 

 nearly all sealed over, we begin ex- 

 tracting. I aim to have an average of 

 from two to three sets of extracting 

 combs per colony,as we do not do any 

 extracting until the honey is thor- 

 oughly ripened and sealed over. We 

 now do all our e.xtracting at the home 

 yard where we have a power outfit, 

 steam, uncapping knife and capping 

 melter. I haul all the honey in from 

 the out-yards in a light auto truck. 



taking a load of empty combs out 

 when going for a load of honey. 



When we extract, our honey is run 

 from the extractor into a large tank 

 holding an average day's e.xtracting. 

 The next morning this tank of honey 

 is skimmed and drawn olT into tiO- 

 pound square cans. A sample bottle is 

 numbered and filled from each tank 

 drawn off, and all cases of cans from 

 each tank full of honey are numbered 

 to correspond to the number of the 

 sample bottle. By so doing we know 

 just what kind of honey is in any case 

 in the lot without opening a can, by 

 simply referring to the sample bottles. 

 Should there be any variation in color 

 or flavor, we melt some of each lot 

 when puting up cans and pails for our 

 retail trade, so that we have one stand- 

 ard uniform grade throughout the 

 season. 



Franksville, Wis. 



Beetles and Beekeeping 



BY roHN H. LOVELL. 



BEETLES cause much loss to fruit- 

 growers, florists and beekeepers. 

 The cherry weevil often destroys 

 the crop of plums and cherries, the 

 rose-chafer strips the rose bushes of 

 both flowers and foliage, while many 

 beetles consume pollen and nectar. In 

 New England I know of 234 species 

 which visit flowers; but fortunately for 

 bee culture this is only a small part of 



Fig. I.— Beetles which never visit flowers. Siae beetle, /-//<a«//j <-<■/-!•«.>-. i. Male. 2. Female, v Horned beetle, yz-if"""""- 

 coriiis. 4. Tiger beetle, CUindela beullata. 6. Prioiius laluollii. 5. Goldsmith beetle. Calalpa lanigcra. 



