October, 1915. 



American Hee Journal 



them around, we seriously think of 

 doing so. Why ? Because on a hot 

 summer afternoon the heat is intoler- 

 able to the bees, and they are driven 

 away from the entrances often to the 

 back and underneath the hives. 



The apiary is in too hot a spot to 

 start with, as the swamp shown shel- 

 ters the bees on the southwest, west, 

 north, and northeast, leaving only an 

 opening to the direct south. As a re- 

 sult, little wind reaches the spot, and 

 while it is ideal for bees in many ways, 

 it is too hot during summer. I think 

 if we face the hives south it will im- 

 prove matters, as the sun will not be 

 ■' blazing in " at the entrances all after- 

 noon. 



The other picture shows another 

 apiary of ours, picture taken last spring, 

 just when bees were being unpacked. 

 Some of the packing cases will be no- 

 ticed piled two deep at the end of the 

 yard. This yard is sheltered on all 

 sides with timber and high land. It. 

 like the other yard, is an ideal location, 

 but is also very hot at times. Shelter 

 like this is, in my opinion, much better 

 than a board fence. At both the api- 

 aries shown here there is damp ground 

 at the bottom of the yard, and bees can 

 get all the water they need in early 

 spring without leaving the shelter of 

 the timber. This is a valuable factor. 

 Many apiaries are kept back in cool 

 spring weather because great numbers 

 of bees are lost while out aft r water. 

 Often, at that time of the year, the sun 

 will come out brightly and the bees 

 will be tempted to take the long trip 

 for water ; in a moment the sun goes 

 under a cloud and stays there long 

 enough to chill them so that they never 

 get back to the hives. 



I have learned the value of near-by 

 water by having bees where it was not 

 handy — results showing the difference 

 are always in evidence. 



[Our experience coincides with that 

 of Mr. Byer. At two different times 

 in past years we had occasion to handle 

 yards in which the hives faced due 

 north. The results in the winter were 

 disastrous. Mild winter days were of 

 no avail to them, and the long confine- 

 ment and cold exposure killed them. 

 Perhaps these were colder winters 



CASHEI, APIARY OF J. L. BYER 



ANOTHER BYER APIARY PROTECTED FROM THE WIND BY WOODS 



ON ALL SIDES 



than common. But we have no desire 

 to repeat the experiment. It is quite 

 probable that quadruple cases give a 

 different result. — Editor.] 



Contributed 



Articles^ 



Extracting Combs vs. Sections 



BY l)R. C. C. MILLER. 



IT is said that a great deal more honey 

 can be obtained in extracting combs 

 than in sections. Taken as a gen- 

 eral statement, this is true, emphatically 

 true. But there is danger that it may 

 bf carried too far, especially by begin- 

 ners. In too many cases the beginner 

 has an idea that in some way not 

 clearly understood there is a magical 

 attraction for bees in an extracting 

 comb even if there be no comb in the 



case, but merely a frame filled with 

 foundation intended as an extracting 

 comb ; and that on the other hand the 

 bees have a certain aversion to a sec- 

 tion, no matter what may be in the 

 section. 



Nor is this idea entirely confined to 

 beginners. Not many years ago a plan 

 had a certain vogue, which was as fol- 

 lows : " When the harvest begins, give 

 the colony a super of extracting 

 combs, and when the bees have filled 

 these to a certain extent put a super of 

 sections under the extracting combs. 

 The bees will at once begin work on 



the sections, and the result will be that 

 you will get just as many sections as if 

 you had not given the extracting super, 

 and the extracted honey will be so 

 much extra." The idea of getting 

 something for nothing is generally an 

 appealing thing, and when this plan 

 was endorsed by experienced beekeep- 

 ers it is no wonder that that super of 

 extracted honey free gratis for nothing 

 appealed strongly to beginners. But 

 latterly we hear nothing of the plan. 



Let us see if we cannot get right 

 down to the bottom of the case. A 

 frame intended for an extracting super 

 has no more attraction for bees than a 

 section ioi/<-ss there is something at- 

 tractive contained in the frame. That 

 something is comb — drawn comb — and 

 drawn comb is just as attractive in a 

 section as in a full-sized frame. A 

 frame in an extracting super may be 

 filled with foundation, with drawn 

 comb, or with starters of either. The 

 same may be said of a section. When 

 an extracting super is given it gener- 

 ally contains drawn combs, and when 

 a section super is given it generally 

 contains foundation ; so it is true in 



