3 18 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



One very strong- colony, that had not swarmed, 

 stored in the 24 days 150 lbs. of surplus, being 114 

 lbs. more than one other colony nearly as strong 

 that had built their comb and stored their honey in 

 section boxes with starters. So, now, I am more 

 than ever convinced of the value of store combs, 

 especially in a poor season. I had only 36 colonies, 

 as I had made sale of my bees two years before 

 that. D. E. Brubaker. 



Maxwell, Story Co.. la., March 29, 1889. 



P. S. 1 have taken the 3t> colonies out of the cel- 

 ar, without the loss of one. On the 20th of March 

 they were gathering pollen and honey from soft 

 maple. D. E. B. 



Friend B., had your communication come 

 ten \ears ago, when we were having hot 

 discussions in regard to the value of surplus 

 empty combs when working for extracted 

 honey, we should have hailed it with cheers, 

 and 1 do not know but that we might hail it 

 with cheers even yet. Certain parties, and 

 I think that Mr. Doolittle was among them, 

 took pretty strong grounds, to the effect 

 that surplus empty combs were of no par- 

 ticular value. It was at the time when we 

 were claiming great advantages for the ex- 

 tractor, and I believe most of our discus- 

 sions in the matter have generally closed 

 with a decision something like this : We 

 get perhaps a half more honey by using 

 the extractor; some have said twice as 

 much. Some of the older friends may re- 

 member that I insisted that a proper use of 

 the extractor would give two or three times 

 the number of pounds of honey, compared 

 with our best appliances for getting honey 

 in the comb. Now, in the above experi- 

 ment, although it is not very conclusive, it 

 looks very much as if four times as many 

 pounds were secured by the use of empty 

 combs. Of course, the circumstances were 

 peculiar; but if such a thing happens again, 

 what are empty combs worth? Had we bet- 

 ter trade them off for Ave or ten cents 

 apiece, or get still less by melting them up 

 into beeswax, or shall we stick to them, 

 keeping them, of course, nicely protected 

 until the time comes when they will, be 

 needed? 



UNFINISHED SECTIONS. 



WHEN Fir, LED, EQUAL TO THOSE FROM NEWLY 

 BUILT FOUNDATION. 



T MANAGE to get as many unfinished sections 

 ||f each year for use the next year as I can, and 

 W not interfere with the present crop. Let us 



■*• look at a few points. First, the sections: Some 

 advocate cutting out the comb and using the 

 section again. Now, the only objection to the use 

 of unfinished sections is the section itself. The sec- 

 tion gets brown, or tanned, and propolis gets in the 

 fiber of the wood, that is difficult to clean out. If I 

 could throw away the wood with convenience, I 

 would do so. I would never save the section for its 

 value. I manage to keep the .wood in fair condi- 

 tion, and have never had any one object to them 

 when filled with white honey. Next 



THE COMBS. 



If they are made nice and white one year, they 

 will be just as nice and white the next. If they 

 have any honey in them, extract it and let the bees 



clean them out and they can not be distinguished 

 from new combs when filled with white honey. In 

 fact, it may be whiter than a new comb, for I find 

 that sometimes they will not make quite as white 

 combs as at other times. I have seen them make 

 darker new comb by the side of white old combs. I 

 am very positive that no one can tell old combs 

 from new combs when they are ready for market, 

 by the looks of the combs alone. 



THE HONEY. 



The honey will be just as well ripened in the old 

 combs as in the new, or else the one who manages is 

 to blame, not the bees. G. M. Doolittle, in Glean- 

 ings for Feb. 1, 1888, has said all that is necessary 

 to say about ripening. Every one of those opposing 

 the use of old combs knows that, in a can of extract- 

 ed honey, the riper and heavier honey settles to the 

 bottom, while the greener and lighter rises to the 

 top. The same thing occurs in a cell of honey while 

 ripening. The riper settles to the bottom side of 

 the cell, and the thinner rises to the top of the cell. 

 If the cell is left as the bees make it, and not turned 

 topsy-turvy, the outer end is the higher, so that the 

 heavier honey goes to the lower and back end ; the 

 greener and lighter honey rises to the top and outer 

 end of the cell, so that bees can ripen it just as 

 thoroughly in old as in new combs. Reverse these 

 combs, new or old, and this action of honey is re- 

 versed. The thicker will come to the outer and 

 lower end, and the thinner will go to the higher and 

 inner end of the cell. I always keep the same edge 

 of the comb up when I put them back on the hive 

 that was up when they were made. I have no hon- 

 ey capped that is not well ripened, that I have dis- 

 covered. 



THE APPEARANCE Of THE SECTIONS. 



The old combs, when filled with honey, and cap- 

 ped over, have a rather better appearance than 

 new combs. The Dees will fill the sections out a 

 little fuller, and fasten the combs to the wood a 

 little better with old combs than with new. 1 have 

 had some experience and good opportunity to test 

 the matter, and there are few things I am more 

 positive of than that section honey is just as 

 good and of just as fine appearance, made on old 

 combs, as on new ones; and I am very positive that 

 no one can tell one from the other, except by the 

 wood of the section. I want to thank G. M. Doolit- 

 tle for stating the fact on page 79 of Gleanings for 

 1888, that the field bees do not place the nectar in 

 the cells themselves, but pass it to the nurse-bees 

 and those that do the housework, because I was 

 laughed at a year ago this last winter, and again 

 this last winter, at a bee-keepers' convention, for 

 making the same statement. Misery likes company, 

 you know. N. T. Phelps. 



Kingsville, Ohio, March 12, 1888. 



Friend P., we are glad to get this report, 

 but 1 do not gather from it that you have 

 carefully tried both ways ; that is, side by- 

 side with those mentioned. Have you placed 

 new sections with full sheets of foundation, 

 alongside of unfinished, to see which is filled 

 sooner, and which presents the better appear- 

 ance for the market ? Bern ember that so 

 good an authority as P. H. Elwood (and I 

 think he said that Capt. Hetherington had 

 so decided with him) says the honey they 

 produce from unfinished sections of the year 

 previous is usually or always sold as second, 

 rate. 



