June. 1919 



GI-EANTNGS IN BEE CULTURE 



S89 



liuiii'v tlie supois aro su[>plii'(l \\itli foiiiida- 

 tioii instead of comb, and tlierefoic iniich 

 more eonib-building is necessai'v than wiien 

 raising extracted honey. Much of this 

 comb-building is done during the night, and 

 can not proceed unless the supers are kept 

 warm. For this reason no ventilation should 

 be given between supers, and at the top 

 only with great reluctance. 



Giving More Boom. 



Aside from supplying with a good young 

 queen and plenty of ventilation, nothing is 

 more important in the prevention of swarm- 

 ing than giving sufficient room for the queen 

 to lay in the brood-chamber, and enough 

 room for the bees to store in the super. 



In the clover regions the honey flow visu- 

 ally starts about 10 days after the first 

 blossoms open. At that time little particles 

 of new wax will begin to appear along the 

 top-bars of the frames. This should be taken 

 as a signal for giving a super to all normal 

 colonies not already supplied. 



Production of Comb Honey. 



Since bees are sometimes reluctant about 

 entering the small section boxes of founda- 

 tion, comb-honey men have resorted to vari- 



Tlip qiieeii-cplls are the large ones at the left, some- 

 what resembling peanuts. 



ous systems for getting the bees started to 

 work above. Probably the best one for the 

 beginner, provided he is able to obtain a 

 few sections of drawn comb from a neigh- 

 boring beekeeper, is to place such sections 

 of comb in the center or at the sides of the 

 super. Even one at the center of each super 

 would be a great help. 



As soon as the first section-super is about 

 half filled, the second may be given, placing 

 it under the first. Again, when this is half 

 filled a third may be given in the same way 

 (beneath the other two). Continue to give oth- 

 er supers as needed. Ordinarily toward the 

 end of the honey flow no more supers should 

 be given, but the bees allowed to finish those 

 already begun. But if a colony becomes so 

 crowded for room at this time that it seems 



best to give still another super, it should be 

 phiced on top instead of next to the brood- 

 chamber. The bees will then be apt to 

 finish the other supers before doing much 

 work in the last one, and yet will have the 

 room if more room is really necessary. 



Until all danger of swarming is over, all 

 colonies, whether run for comb or extracted 

 honey, should be examined every seven or 

 eight days in order to keep them in normal 

 condition. It should be remembered that, 

 during a good flow, colonies store very rap- 

 idly, in some instances filling a shallow su- 

 per in three or four days. They should 

 never be allowed to become crowded, but 

 should be supplied with room a little ahead 

 of their actual needs. It is possible, never- 

 theless, to overdo the matter and give room 

 too rapidly. This does little harm in the 

 case of extracted honey; for if the end of 

 the extracted-honey season finds the bee- 

 keeper with partially sealed honey in his 

 extracting-combs he needs only to leave the 

 honey on the hive until it is ripe, and will 

 then be able to extract and sell it at as 

 high a price as tho entirely capped. But if 

 the comb-honey supers are given so rapidly 

 that the sections are unsealed at the close of 

 the flow, such honey must be sold at a low 

 price because of its unattractive appearance. 



On the other hand, there is also danger of 

 giving room too slowly, tho it is necessary 

 to keep comb-honey colonies in a more 

 crowded condition than extracted-honey 

 colonies; still, if too crowded, the colony will 

 build queen-cells in preparation for swarm- 

 ing. 



Now, for the beginner who naturally 

 wants a little increase and is willing to sac- 

 rifice a part of the honey crop in order to 

 obtain it, we feel inclined to advise him to 

 permit natural swarming and then hive in 

 the usual way as described later. However, 

 if he wishes to get more honey by keeping 

 the working force together, and wishes to 

 take the extra trouble, he may, perhaps, like 

 to try a plan of Dr. Miller, the best comb- 

 honey authority we know. 



When a swarm issues he cages the queen 

 and shoves her back into the entrance (from 

 which the swarm and she came and to which 

 the swarm will return) close against the bot- 

 tom-bars where the bees will take care of 

 her. Any time within the next 10 days he 

 removes the supers and puts the brood- 

 combs into an empty hive. In the now empty 

 hive on the stand he puts two combs of brood 

 next to one side with two or three dummies 

 or chaff division-boards crowded against 

 them, the rest of the hive being left vacant. 

 Above this are placed the supers and cover, 

 and above this a bottom-board, the hive of 

 brood and queen just removed, and another 

 cover over all. The old field bees will, of 

 course, enter what they believe to be their 

 old hive, will find themselves queenless, but 

 will continue storing in the supers. The old 

 queen in the upper hive will keep on laying, 

 but the colony will be so weakened by the 

 loss of field bees that the idea of swarming 



