852 



GLEANINGS LN liEE CULTUJtk 



Nov 



zinc honey-board, examine the brood-nest to see if 

 they need stores, and how much; if none, they are 

 then provided with the chaff cushion and are ready 

 tor winter. 



The crates of sections are then taken to the hon- 

 ey-house and emptied; the salable ones are put 

 away, and the rest that contain honey are uncapped 

 and set back in the crate. Those containing no 

 honey are crated up by themselves, and put away 

 for another season. The process is continued ail 

 through th«? apiary, with this exception: Whenever 

 1 find a colony lacking- in stores they are given 

 enough of these unfinished uncapped sections to 

 make up the deficiency, and T have never failed to 

 have it all carried down, and the combs left bright 

 and clean as new dollars, and in readiness for an- 

 other season. It is a little slow and tedious; but 

 tvheil you get through you have a big job off your 

 hands, all at one effort. I find you may leave the 

 sections on untouched until December, and the 

 bees will not carry the honey down— many of them 

 not even the uncapped ones; but by i-emoving, as I 

 suggest, they will not only remove the honey from 

 those you uncap. bUt from all the rest; and I ven- 

 ture the assertion, that at this writing there is not 

 a pound of honey in unfinished sections in my apia- 

 ry; and a glance at the beautiful bright combs 

 would convince any one that they are too valuable 

 to melt up and burn. Geo. E. Hilton. 



Fremont, Mich., Oct. 25. 1887. 



Fiiend 11., you liiive j?Lven us an excellent 

 suggestion, any way; and since you men- 

 tion it, I wonder your plan has not been 

 thought o£ and used before. May be it has. 

 Even if it is tedious, it is worth something 

 to me to know that my implements and ma- 

 terials for next season's work are all nice 

 and clean, and put away in good order. I 

 feel a good deal as my wife does when I 

 urge her to come down to the garden or 

 carp-pond, without waiting to wash up the 

 supper-dishes. She says, "How in the 

 world can I enjoy myse'lf, and have a good 

 time, when I know that the supper-table is 

 all in disorder?" 



THE COMBINATION SYSTEM. 



SOMK IMPORTANT FACTS AND NOVEL SUGGES- 

 TIONS FROM J. A. GREEN. 



"JIP Lli bee-keepers know that bees will begin 

 2|\fe> work sooner on empty combs than when 

 ^P they are obliged to build. This is particular- 

 '*^^*- ly the case when the honey-flow begins 

 gradually. Very often, colonies provided 

 with combs will make quite a show in the surplus 

 apartment before those obliged to build their 

 combs have made a start. It is of great impor- 

 tance that they should begin to put honey in the 

 surplus apartment at the very first of the honey 

 season. They seem to work better afterward when 

 their first honey goes above; and they are not 

 nearly so likely to fill the brood-combs with honey, 

 and so crowd out the queen. 



To get the bees started above as soon as possible, 

 I have for several years placed, on a few of the 

 hives which 1 intended to run for comb honey, a 

 set of extracting-corabs. As soon as the bees w»r re 

 well at work in these combs they were taken away 

 from them, and sections put on, in which the bees 



went to work readily. The combs were piled up on 

 hives to be run for extracted honey. 



As the hohfey-yield drew near its close in the 

 fall, instead of putting new sections on comb-honey 

 hives, all sections were taken from a part, and ex- 

 tracting-combs given them. The unfinished sec- 

 tions were placed on other hives to be finished. 



As I said, I have practiced this to some extent for 

 several years; but it was not until within the past 

 two years, when 1 began to use zinc honey-boards, 

 that I realized that by their use it was possible to 

 carry out the principle into a complete working- 

 system. Some experiments with shallow combs 

 helped me to come to this conclusion. 



In brief, then, my combination system for pro- 

 ducing comb and extracted honey is this: Place a 

 set of extracting-combs over each colony at the be- 

 ginning of the honey season. For several reasons 

 it is better that they should be shallow— say six 

 inches deep. Hiive a queen-excluding honey-board 

 between these combs and the brood-chamber. As 

 soon as the bees are well at work storing honey, re- 

 move the combs from about five-sixths of the hives, 

 more or less, and substitute sections,fpiling the 

 cases of partly filled combs over the remaining 

 hives. The colonies over which these combs are 

 placed are to ripen the hone.y and finish filling 

 them. Italians are best for this work. 



Toward the close of the season, reverse this pro- 

 cess. Take all the sections away from a part of 

 your colonies, replacing them with combs and 

 making other bees complete partly finished sec- 

 tions instead of giving them new ones. 



The advantages of this system are: First, getting 

 the bees started, without loss of time, at the be- 

 ginning of the season. Second, producing a supe- 

 rior article of extracted honey. Third, getting rid 

 of a large part of the annoyance and expense of 

 unfinished sections in the fall. 



With regard to the second advantage, while it is 

 perhaps possible to ripen honey artificially so as to 

 produce a good article, I am firmly persuaded that, 

 in general practice, the bees can do it better and 

 cheaper than we can. I think there is no way by 

 which a really good article of extracted honey can 

 be produced as cheaply as by giving the bees plen- 

 ty of room to store it, and then plenty of time to 

 ripen it. 



Now let me answer in advance some of the ob- 

 jections that may be made to the system: 



It might bo said, that it is too much bother, too 

 much manipulation. With hives that are adapted 

 to it, the manipulations are simple and require lit- 

 tle time. All surplus cases, whether for comb or 

 extracted honey, should be easily and quickly in- 

 terchangeable. You are sure the queen is in the 

 brood-chamber, where she belongs. A few shakes 

 will remove nearly all the bees. If desired, the 

 cases may be placed under a tent or in a screen- 

 house until all have left them, though I have nev- 

 er found that the few bees remaining did any 

 harm. Remember, all this work is done when hon- 

 ey is coming in. 



Will not the change from combs to sections make 

 the bees swarm? All I can say to this is, that my 

 bees do not do so. Even if it should have that ef- 

 fect, I am not sure that it would be any disadvan- 

 tage. The swarms would come early, and it is from 

 early swarms, properly managed, that we get the 

 most honey. Try it and report. .1. A. Green. 



Oayton. III., Oct. 24, 1887. 



