August, 19ir 



American Hae Journal 



of such a statement, however, I take 

 it that he has not tried it, in whicli 

 case it remains to be proven whether 

 or not it is an element of salvation 

 to the swarm. There have always 

 been two serious objections to all 

 self hivers; first, their principles do 

 not harmonize with the habits of bees, 

 and second there is too much equip- 

 ment for the amount of service rend- 

 ered, and in my opinion the swarm 

 saver is open to both these objec- 

 tions. With my limited knowledge of 

 bee nature I would expect such a wide 

 change in the position of the entrance 

 to demoralize the bees for two weeks 

 to the extent that many will join 

 other colonies and seriously affect the 

 honey crop. Furthermore if the queen 

 should succeed in reaching the top 

 story she would in all probability be 

 deserted by the bees, for they will 

 choose their brood and queen-cells in 

 preference to the queen. This is 

 abundantly demonstrated by the diffi- 

 culty of getting bees out of supers 

 with bee escapes when brood is pres- 

 ent. If these deductions are correct 

 the swarm saver simply cages the 

 queen and a few drones. An Alley 

 drone trap will do it better with 

 much less equipment and no disturb- 

 ance to the bees. 



It is not my purpose to under-rate 

 an invention of real merit, but ex- 

 perience along this line has taught me 

 the folly of employing excessive and 

 complicated equipment in the solution 

 of a simple problem. In 1911 we were 

 granted a patent on a simple device 

 to control swarming by shifting the 

 field bees into an empty hive placed 

 close up beside the parent colony. It 

 operated in harmony with the nature 

 and habits of bees; they entered the 

 new hive through their accustomed 

 entrance when the switch was thrown, 

 and finding their queen and a frame 

 of brood accepted the situation and 

 swarming was controlled by the turn- 

 ing of a switch, but we soon learned 

 that extra equipment means extra ex- 

 pense and extra manipulation all of 

 which increases the cost of honey pro- 

 duction. While that invention solved 

 the swarming problem with economy 

 of labor, there are greater problems 

 that it did not solve, and its doom was 

 sealed . It was then that we resolved 

 never to invent another method that 

 involved excessive equipment and 

 manipulation, for these are active 

 factors in operative costs. An im- 

 provement is of little value unless it 

 reduces o))erative costs. 



Birmingham, 0. 



Feeding Back Extracted Honey 



—Feeders, How and When 



to Use Them 



BY F. GREINER. 



Not many beekeepers believe in 

 and practice feeding back for the pur- 

 pose of producing comb honey. I 

 would not want to say that it pays 

 always or recommend unconditional- 



ly such a practice, and still when 

 conditions are right, weather favor- 

 able, etc., I feel that I can well afford 

 to feed back even the very best of ex- 

 tracted honey. It may be that others 

 are not situated as I am, and so do 

 not find the practice profitable. It 

 seems to be a fact: comb honey finds 

 a ready market; the demand for it Is 

 not fully supplied and when I turn 

 extracted honey into comb honey the 

 sale is guaranteed. When I have un- 

 ripe honey I can do nothing better 

 than to feed it back if it were for no 

 other purpose than to get it more 



ripened by the bees. One may thus by 

 feeding back, even ripe honey, obtain 

 a product of exceptionally heavy body 

 when such should be desired for some 

 purpose. A most favorable time for 

 feeding back is as soon as the flow 

 from clover ceases or begins to de- 

 crease. The colonies used for the 

 purpose should have distinguished 

 themselves during the season as comb 

 honey producers and should be placed 

 on a contracted brood-chamber. One 

 shallow brood-chamber of the section- 

 al hive I consider just right. If I 

 did not use such a hive I would con- 



BEST SEALED EDGE OF I HE SECTIONS N'E.\T TO THE ENDS OF FRAMES 



F. GKEI.NKk PLAN OF PLACING FEEDER IN HIVE BACK OF THE COLONY 



