July, I Hi: 



American ^Bec JournaJ ^^^^ 



voyage, to the relief of our patient sub- 

 scribers, some of whom were kind 



enough to praise this lengthy narra- 

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CENTRAL BUILDING AND OFFICE OF THE HONEY AND WAX RENDERING 



ESTABLISHMENT 



Contributed 



Articles-- 



Efficient Production of Ex- 

 tracted Honey 



BY G. W. BERCAW. 



THE following method of production 

 of extracted honey has been found 

 by us the most practical for Cali- 

 fornia. This plan may not work suc- 

 cessfully in colder countries, but it is 

 the best for our California climate. 



When the rainy season commences, 

 put a full depth super over the brood- 

 chamber, provided with full drawn 

 combs. This will be filled with brood 

 and honey as the case may be, as the 

 queen has access to both parts. 



About three weeks before the heavy 

 honey flow begins, when the hives are 

 boiling over with bees, raise the upper 

 story and put a queen-exciuder be- 

 tween the two bodies. Then take each 

 frame of this upper story and shake in 

 front of the hive or in some way make 

 sure that you have the queen in the 

 lower story below the excluder. When 

 the heavy flow comes on, the brood will 

 all be hatched out of this upper story, 

 and it will be filled with honey about 

 once in every ten days, as long as they 

 don't swarm and the honey flow contin- 

 ues. Perhaps it will not be all capped 

 over in this short time, for they will do 

 as nature has taught them and the cap- 

 ping depends upon the weather condi- 

 tions and the rapidity of evaporation. 

 If the capping is slow and honey ap- 

 pears to come in fast, give them an 

 additional story. 



When putting on the excluder it is a 

 good plan to examine the lower story 



for drone-comb and put it in the upper 

 story as much as possible. Notwith- 

 standing this, some drone-comb will be 

 built in the corners or other vacant 

 places in the brood-chamber. When 

 the drone-comb is removed it may be 

 replaced, if necessary with sheets of 

 comb foundation. This lies entirely 

 with the judgment of the apiarist. 



By following this method you get a 

 very strong colony of bees ?t the right 

 time, which is the solution of getting 

 a good crop of honey. But keep the 

 queen below at all hazards; there will 

 be room enough below from the brood- 

 nest to supply young bees, and the bees 

 will not crowd it with honey if there is 

 sufficient room above. 



If there are drones in the super they 

 may be allowed to escape by raising 

 the cover slightly, or they would die 

 and fall on the queen-excluder. These 

 drones may be needed where young 

 queens are mating more or less every 

 day. 



This plan of manipulation takes a 

 great deal of time if yards are large 

 and extensive, but if the beekeeper ex- 

 pects a crop, it is work, work all the 

 time. He gets out of it in proportion 

 to what he puts in, just the same as 

 any farmer gets from the soil in pro- 

 portion to his work. 



Her*", in California, there is very 

 little time but the bees can fly and our 

 crop extends over many months, 

 though some are more productive than 

 others. 



Queen-excluders should be used in 

 the production of extracted honey, as 

 this is the only way in which the queen 



may be kept away fr )m the supers. 

 Where brood of any age is allowed in 

 the extracting super, good, clean, edi- 

 ble honey cannot be expected. But the 

 excluders should not be kept on dur- 

 ing the winter months, so the queen 

 may have full access to the entire hive 

 until the proper time comes, the fol- 

 lowing spring, about 21 days before 

 the opening of the honey crop. Then 

 as fast as the young bees emerge, the 

 cells will be filled with honey. 



Your bees should be of good stock, 

 or you must make them so. Requeen 

 every two years, a proportion each 

 year, say in a yard of 200 colonies, re- 

 queen 100 each year. Rear your own 

 queens or purchase them. At all events 

 keep good, vigorous stock. We prefer 

 the 3-banded leather-colored Italians. 

 They are more or less immune to dis- 

 ease. 



I have written these fewlines, assum- 

 ing beekeeping on a commercial basis. 

 It will apply to large or small beekeep- 

 ers, even to those who have only from 

 25 to .50 colonies. 



Glendale, Calif. 



[The above method is certainly very 

 rational, and with modifications accord- 

 ing to climate, may be applied to our 

 eastern and central States.— Editor.] 



Smoke Introduction Not New 



BV MAJOR SHALLARD. 



IN your editorial for December, 19U, 

 you say you will postpone further 

 discussion on smoke introduction 

 until a season's work has given further 

 chances for experiment. The system 

 has passed the experimental stage, as I 

 have been using it for the last 30 years. 

 As far as I know I was the originator 

 of it, but perhaps some other fellow 

 will bob up and claim priority. 



It is a sure system based on a sound 

 theory, and I have no hesitation in re- 

 moving an old queen and dropping in 

 another at the same time no matter 

 how valuable the latter may be. If 

 you take an unbroken colt from the 

 bush, one that has never been handled, 

 and which would under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances kick the stufiing out of 

 anything, you can quiet it by tying 

 its head to its tail and running it 

 around a few times. The colt gets 

 giddy, "don't know where it is, "and you 

 can put it into a light buggy and drive 

 away quite safely. So it is with the 

 bees; they have a queen and you re- 

 mov;her and drop another into her 

 place. They immediately ball the new 

 one. You close the hive and drive the 

 smoke in at the entrance, and in a few 

 seconds they are too busy rubbing the 

 smoke out of their eyes to bother 

 about anything else. 



You get them into a state of not 

 knowing where they are, and when 

 conditions become normal again they 

 are so overjoyed to find they have a 

 queen that there is no desire to ball 

 her. Besides, the whole caboose, bees, 

 queen and hive smell alike. 



The system will not work with leaky 

 hives, as I had a lot of trouble two 

 years ago introducing into such hives. 

 The bees would boil out, and in one 

 case the queen boiled out, too; half the 

 bees from the Um, and the queen 



