GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July, 1919 



colony just as rapidly as possible until each 

 has but one. Supers in which the bees have 

 just made a start are transferred to the top, 

 or stored until next year. If they con- 

 tain a little honey the bees are permitted to 

 clean them out, care being taken that the 

 room in the shop in which they are exposed 

 is partially darkened to prevent so many 

 bees working on the combs that they would 

 tear them down. Supers nearly completed 

 are taken off, the sections of honey sorted, 

 and the unfinished ones reassembled in su- 

 pers to be returned to the bees. The supers 

 are soon reduced to but one for each colony. 

 We leave a little room in this super for the 

 storage of incoming nectar, as the bees 

 finish their work more promptly if new work 

 is still in progress. 



The next step in concentrating the work 

 in the supers is the removal of all of them 

 again as soon as half or two-thirds of the 

 sections are sealed, sorting the sections as 

 before, then returning the unfinished ones 

 to the colonies that have been doing the 

 best work at finishing. This leaves one- 

 half or two-thirds of the colonies without 

 supers after the unfinished sections have 

 been returned; but no more comb-honey su- 

 pers are given to these even tho the honey 

 flow may continue another week. 



The extra hive bodies and brood-combs, 

 which were taken away when the first comb- 

 honey supers were given at the beginning 

 of the honey flow and tiered up on specially 

 prepared nuclei or weak colonies, are now 

 returned to the colonies from which all the 

 comb-honey supers have been removed. If 

 these hive bodies are completely filled with 

 honey, some of the combs are exchanged for 

 empty ones in order that there may be room. 

 We prefer to have the last few pounds of 

 honey stored in these combs rather than in 

 unfinished sections. Later all the comb- 

 honey supers are removed and the sections 

 sorted; but usually none are given back to 

 be finished now, for it is difficult to induce 

 the bees to finish and seal the last of the 

 unfinished sections as the honey flow is clos- 

 ing. We extract the honey from these few 

 remaining sections and put them on a few 

 hives overnight to be cleaned out by the 

 bees, after which they are stored away in 

 tightly covered supers for bait combs the 

 next spring. The colonies that were doing 

 this last finishing work are now given their 

 second hive body, with its store of honey, as 

 was done with those from which all comb- 

 honey supers were removed earlier. 



Last Honey Usually of Poor Quality. 



For some unaccountable reason the bees 

 usually leave a portion of the latest-gather- 

 ed honey unsealed, even when it is left 

 longer than it would seem necessary to ripen 

 it. Furthermore, this last-gathered honey 

 is usually not properly ripened, no matter 

 how long it is left on the hive. Honey that 

 is extracted from the sections that remain 

 unfinished at the last sorting is usually not 

 only thinner than it should be but is also 

 off in flavor. The same thing is noticeable 



in our locality in producing extracted honey. 

 The few pounds of late-gathered honey 

 which the bees refuse to seal remain of an 

 inferior grade even if left on the hive to 

 ripen another month. When this unsealed 

 honey is finally extracted separately it is 

 found to be inferior in density and flavor. 

 Care of Comb Honey. 



We formerly stored the finished supers of 

 comb honey in the honey room in piles, the 

 supers being separated from each other by 

 means of %-inch sticks placed between them 

 for ventilation according to the directions 

 usually given for storing the honey as it is 

 removed from the hives. In addition to this 

 we opened the windows freely during dry 

 weather, the theory being that the abun- 

 dance of ventilation would cause a further 

 ripening of the honey, thus improving its 

 quality. We found, however, that this treat- 

 ment sometimes causes a deterioration of 

 the honey rather than its improvement. If 

 the honey is left in such ventilated piles 

 until a cool spell of weather comes that lasts 

 long enough to cool the honey very much, 

 there is danger, when the weather warms up 

 again, that the cold honey with warmer air 

 circulating freely thru the sujjers may cause 

 a slight condensation of moisture on its 

 surface, which may be absorbed, causing 

 the honey to expand in the cells against the 

 capping. We have several times had many 

 supers of beautiful comb honey ruined in 

 this way when changes in temperature 

 would have been less injurious if there had 

 been no ventilation. 



On the other hand, if the late summer 

 and fall should be hot and dry, comb honey 

 exposed to the air in this way for any great 

 length of time loses so much of its aroma that 

 much of the delicate flavor of the finest clover 

 honey may be lost. When we realized these 

 drawbacks, we changed the method of stor- 

 ing the supers. We now pile them in solid 

 piles soon after they are brought into the 

 honey room, closing the top and bottom of 

 the pile tightly. The honey brought in dur- 

 ing the latter part of the honey flow is usu- 

 ally piled in tight piles at once. The propo- 

 lis on the edges of the supers in most cases 

 seals the cracks between them so that mois- 

 ture-laden air can not circulate among the 

 combs and the aroma is well retained until 

 the honey is finally cased for market. 

 The Useless Consumers. 



Various methods have been proposed to re- 

 duce the amount of brood reared too late for 

 the resulting bees to help gather the crop. 



In comb-honey production this problem is 

 fairly well solved by the bees themselves by 

 their tendency to restrict the queen during 

 the honey flow by crowding honey into the 

 brood-chamber. When producing extracted 

 honey, however, under our conditions bees 

 are inclined to overdo brood-rearing during 

 the latter part of the honey flow so that 

 millions of workers are reared that are not 

 used advantageously. 



We formerly moved our apiaries in Aug- 

 ust to a region affording a fall honey flow 



