March, 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



177 



TALKS TO BEGINNERS 



By lona Fowls 



LAST month we 

 J arranged for 

 the purchase 

 of colonies. This 

 month it will be 

 necessary to de- 

 cide whether to 

 produce comb 

 honey or ex- 

 tra c te d ; and, 



having settled this important question, to 

 order our needed supplies. 



Coml) Honey or Extracted. 



During the war we urged all our readers 

 to produce extracted rather than comb hon- 

 ey, simply because the world was starving 

 for more sweets, and we knew that more ex- 

 tracted honey could be produced per colony. 

 But now under the changed conditions we 

 would advise all experienced beekeepers 

 who have been producing comb honey in the 

 past to return to their pre-war practice of 

 raising comb honey. We believe there will 

 be good money in it the coming year; and 

 yet this applies only to the experienced 

 beekeeper — not to the beginner. The latter 

 would do well to confine himself entirely to 

 extraeted-honey production until he becomes 

 sufficiently skilled to take up the expert 

 work of producing comb honey. 



Aside from the extractor, the comb and 

 the extracted-honey outfits do not differ 

 materially in price the first year; and in 

 succeeding years the advantage is all in 

 favor of the extraeted-honey outfit; for the 

 same combs in which the bees store honey 

 the first year may be used repeatedly year 

 after year, while the sections in which comb 

 honey is stored must be replaced at con- 

 siderable cost every season. 



Now, comb is made of wax, which is a 

 secretion from certain glands of the bees; 

 and for the production of a pound of wax 

 it is probably necessary for the bees to con- 

 sume from five to fifteen pounds of honey 

 which might otherwise be sold as surplus. 

 (Surplus is honey which the bees produce in 

 excess of their winter needs.) Therefore, 

 besides the extra cost of supplies the bee- 

 keeper loses considerably from the fact that 

 bees run for comb honey are compelled each 

 year to build all the comb in which they 

 store their surplus honey. Such comb would 

 quite likely contain as much as three pounds 

 of wax and might therefore require 15 or 

 more pounds of honey for its construction. 



As previously mentioned, comb-honey pro- 

 duction requires far more skill in order to 

 produce a good crop, and at the same time 

 keep down swarming. The section boxes are 

 so much smaller than the combs the bees 

 naturally build, that bees do not enter them 

 as readily as they do the large combs used 

 in extracted-honey production. Therefore 

 it is sometimes necessary to use certain in- 

 ducements to get the bees started in sec- 

 tion-supers. Also, the extracted-honey man 

 finds that giving an abundance of room 

 helps greatly in the prevention of swarming, 

 while the comb-honey man is compelled to 



3 



keep his colo- 

 nies more crowd- 

 ed; for other- 

 wise the end of 

 the season will 

 find him with a 

 lot of unfinished 

 sections on his 

 hands. Extract- 

 ing - combs of 

 ri])e honey one-third or more unsealed will, 

 when extracted, result in first-class honey. 

 Sections one-third sealed must be sold at a 

 low price. 



Furthermore, extracted honey may be pro- 

 duced in many localities and in many sea- 

 sons when comb honey would be an absolute 

 failure; for, in order that any quantity of 

 comb be built, it is necessary that the 

 nights be warm, as it is during the warm 

 nights that most of the wax is secreted and 

 the combs built. 



Oftentimes a beginner is able to find a 

 larger beekeeper in his own locality who 

 will be willing to do his extracting for a 

 small sum. We have found that even one 

 cent a pound is a good proposition on both 

 sides. If one prefers the fun of doing his 

 own extracting (and there is a real pleasure 

 in it), he will be able to purchase a two- 

 frame extractor at a moderate price. And 

 this size will be quite large enough for some 

 time to come. And when he later decides 

 to go into the business a little heavier it 

 will, doubtless, be possible to sell the small 

 extractor and purchase a larger one, either 

 new or second-hand. 



Our advice, then, to the beginner is to 

 use extracting-combs rather than sections, 

 either producing chunk honey or, prefera- 

 bly, extracted. Because of the troublesome 

 delays that arc sure to occur later on, March 

 is none to early to place one's order; and 

 we strongly recommend that the supplies be 

 ordered today. 



Extracted Honey Outfit. 

 The smallest practical outfit for extract- 

 ed-honey production should consist of a 

 complete hive with fixtures and supers — a 

 bee-brush, bee-hat, smoker, hive-tool, queen- 

 excluder, bee-escape board, uncapping-knife, 

 and a honey-extractor. This provides for 

 only one colony of bees. It would be dis- 

 tinctly to the beginner 's advantage to dou- 

 ble or triple the number of bee-escape 

 boards, queen-excluders, supers, and hives 

 with contained fixtures; for with two or 

 three colonies he would have a chance for 

 comparison, and, we believe, would learn 

 beekeeping much faster. 



A single-walled hive exactly identical 

 with the deep super may be used, but in this 

 case it will be necessary to provide also a 

 winter packing case if the colony is to be 

 wintered outside. Therefore we consider 

 the double-walled hive much more practical 

 for the beginner, and, accordingly, recom- 

 mend the double-walled ten-frame hive 

 equipped with ten frames containing full 

 sheets of foundation, metal telescope cover. 



