1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUBE. 



535 



MANUM IN THE APIARY "WITH HIS 

 MEN. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS IN REGARD TO WORKING 

 FOK COMB HONEY. 



(JULY 10.— "Good-morning, Scott. Here I am 

 aif again." 



»!jl " Yes, s-ir, I see; and I am very glad to see 

 *■* you. I have beeu looking for you Ihese two 

 or three days." 



SMOKING BEES WHEN THEY DON'T NEED IT. 



" Well, I have been very busy of late in my home 

 apiary of 60 colonies. I also have now over 1(>0 nu- 

 clei to look after, and it is no small job to look aft- 

 er them and keep them busy— or, in other words, 

 keep them supplied with queens or queen-cells, as 

 the case may be. T have to be very careful, and 

 not allow a young queen to get to laying too much 

 before shipping her, or she is not safe to ship in 

 that condition. I am having so many orders for 

 queens just now that it takes some time to cage 

 and mail them; and, besides, I have to look after 

 those two new hands pretty close. I sometimes 

 think I will never hire a boy who has never handled 

 beesbefoe. It makes it too hard for me during 

 the honey season; but I shall try to worry through 

 it this year. We will now go over the yard, to see 

 how well the sections are being filled. Here is a 

 clamp with every section capped over. You must 

 watch the sections now. Although you have tiered 

 up all around, they will finish up the top ones very 

 quick when there are only tw r o tiers. Where you 

 have three or four tiers they are liable to finish two 

 or three tiers at the same time, hence they will be 

 longer about it. We will remove this upper tier and 

 raise the lower one, and place empty ones under it. 



GETTING THE BEES OUT OF BOXES, ETC. 



Now set the two finished clamps down on the 

 ground in front of the hive, resting one end on the 

 alighting-board; set them up edgewise— there— so. 

 That is another advantage these small clamps have 

 over large ones, as there is no danger of their tip- 

 ping over. No.no! don't smoke them, as that will 

 cause the bees to bite holes in the cappings, and 

 spoil the looks of the honey. Just let them sit 

 there until the bees work out of them of their own 

 accord. There is no danger of robbing while the 

 bees are getting honey as fast as they are now. I 

 left out nearly a ton in this way once over night; 

 having taken it off after supper, the bees did not 

 all get out before dark, so I left it to carry in, in the 

 morning." 



" I should hardly have thought you would dare to 

 leave it out over night, for fear of robbers," says 

 Scott. 



"Oh! bees don't rob during a flow of honey, es- 

 pecially at night ; and as for the boys— to whom 

 I suppose you refer as the ' robbers '— I have no 

 fears. I have kept bees for 19 years in our village, 

 and I have never, to my knowledge, lost a single 

 pound of honey by night robbers. The boys under- 

 stand that it is not necessary to steal honey in this 

 section of Vermont. I have instructed all of my 

 men, as I did you early in the season, to offer every 

 person who visits the yards all the honey he wants 

 to eat; and if he objects to eating honey clear, of- 

 fer him a section to take home. In this way people 

 will not only refrain from disturbing the bees, but 

 they will usually speak well of the honey-bee, 

 whether they do of the bee-keeper or not." 



" How is your scale hive doing?" 



" Well, 18 lbs. is the best day yet— that was yes J 

 terday. I hardly think I shall get 33^4 lbs. this year, 

 in one day." 



" I don't know about that. You have a good 

 working colony in that hive; and if we get just the 

 right kind of weather when basswood gets at its 

 height they will come pretty near it. It wants a 

 hot sultry day, when the atmosphere is full of 

 moisture. Should we get such a day just at the 

 right time, I think you will beat the old record. It 

 is not every year that we have just the right 

 kind of weather at just the proper time to secure 

 such a record. But I am in hopes one of these days 

 —or years- to be able to report 50 lbs. from one col- 

 ony in one day." 



ONE REASON WHY SOME COLONIES DO NOT WORK 

 IN BOXES. 



"Scott, what is the matter with '26? I have just 

 been through that row, and 1 notice they are not 

 doing much in the boxes." 



" Well, sir, I don't know what the matter is. I 

 had noticed they were not doing well, yet they 

 seem to be working lively." 



"Have you looked them over lately, to discover 

 the trouble?" 



" No, sir; but I intended to to-day." 



" Well, I will look in and see if I can tell the cause. 

 Ah! I see; they are storing their honey in the 

 brood-combs. They have but little brood, and that 

 is not very compact in the comb. I think we have 

 an old queen here. There! you see, in this comb 

 there are but few eggs, and they are scattered 

 here and there all over the comb. That indicates a 

 played-out queen, and here are queen-cells. Where 

 is the record?" 



" I don't know. I must have lost it. Here is last 

 year's record." 



"All right; that reads, 'Swarmed, and queen 

 returned.' She was then two years old, hence 

 she must be three years old now, and therefore she 

 is exhausted. There is no use trying to winter a 

 two-year-old queen. They are too liable to fail 

 either in early spring or during the honey-flow, 

 With the amount of work I require of them, two 

 seasons' work is ail I can expect of any queen, to 

 make it profitable. We will hunt her up. There 

 she is! catch her and pinch off her head. You see 

 she is very clumsy and small, compared with a good 

 young queen. You may now uncap all the honey 

 they have in these brood-combs, and just at night 

 introduce a young laying queen; and my opinion 

 is, that you will soon see this honey change places, 

 and in its place you will in due time find brood. 

 Now, as you take off honey you may carry it into 

 the first room of the honey-house; and, at your 

 leisure, scrape off any brace-combs or propolis 

 there may be on the bottom or tops of the clamps, 

 and then store it in the plastered room to ripen. I 

 think the next time 1 come jou will have a load 

 for me, so I shall probably come with two horses 

 and take home a ton or more. You will then see 

 how I manage to haul my honey without getting 

 my horses stung." 



July 15.—" Hello, Edward! Your bees, I see, are 

 busy this morning. 1 came by the Hardscrabble 

 road this time; and as I got directly between the 

 apiary and the Hardscrabble ridge, where there are 

 so many basswoods, I surely thought at first there 

 was a swarm passing overhead, as they made such 

 a roaring. I stopped my horse and listened; and I 

 assure you it was sweet music to me. I could also 



