.Iri.v. 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



461 



\\/ and 



c 



TALKS TO 



By H. 



lur 



HILE .luly 

 d All tr- 

 ust 

 the dead of win- 

 ter in Australia, 

 and New Zea- 

 land, for the ma- 

 jority of bee- 

 keepers in the 

 the northern 

 I'art of the United States and in Canada 

 these months tell the story of the year. The 

 time of the honey harvest is the culmination 

 of the beekeeper's hopes, the realization of 

 his ambitions, and the climax of his efforts. 



Frequently the secret of the difference 

 between success and failure lies in the at- 

 tention paid to small details. How often is 

 the fruit within our very grasp and we stum- 

 ble in the grasping of it. 



In Jun^e the comb-honey producer has had 

 his hands more than full in keeping the 

 l)ees contentedly at work in the sections and 

 curbing their feverish desire to swarm. 

 Swarms there will be in a comb-honey yard. 

 A beginner need not be discouraged if he 

 has considerable swarming, for the most 

 experienced comb-honey producer, in some 

 years at least, can not absolutely control the 

 bees' desire. 



Queen-excluders Unnecessary for Comb 

 Honey. 



Fortunately, few queens show much ten- 

 dency to enter comb-honey supers or to lay 



BEGINNERS 



H. Root 



1 



lU 



Extractor and btiainiii 



eggs in the sections. The section is abnor- 

 mally small for a brood-comb, and the queen 

 seems to realize this, hence the comb-honey 

 producer as a rule does not need to use a 

 queen-excluder between his brood-chamber 



and the supers. 

 An occasional 

 queen may show 

 a tendency to go 

 above, but it is 

 better to replace 

 that one queen 

 than go to the 

 expense of using 

 excluders on all 

 the colonies in the apiary. 



Pollen in Sections. 



Occasionally quite a few sections, other- 

 wise perfect, are ruined for market by the 

 presence of cells of pollen. If there is plen- 

 ty of brood to use up the pollen and if the 

 bees have plenty of room for the storage of 

 pollen in the brood-combs, they are not so 

 likely to store it in the sections, for they 

 prefer it as close to the brood as possible. 

 But if, thru neglect or mismanagement, the 

 bees have been storing a rush of honey in 

 the brood-combs, thus limiting the space for 

 brood-rearing and leaving no place for stor- 

 ing pollen close to the brood, some of the 

 pollen inevitably goes into the sections. Such 

 sections had better be sold locally, possibly 

 to friends or neighbors to whom the pres- 

 ence of the pollen can be explained. 

 When to Take oflf Comb-honey Supers. 



It is rarely wise except at the end of the 

 season to wait until the last section is com- 

 pletely capped over. Better get the supers 

 off when the sections are completely finished 

 with the exception of two or three at each 

 side. These can be placed as "baits" in 

 the next super to go on. Eemember that the 

 sooner a section of comb honey is taken off 

 the hive after it is completely sealed over, 

 the whiter and nicer it will be. If left on 

 too long it becomes what is called "travel 

 stained." Especially is this true when the 

 honey flow ceases. The bees seem to take 

 peculiar delight in walking all over the 

 comb honey and in depositing more or less 

 propolis here and there, giving it an unin- 

 viting varnished look. 



The Bee Escape-board. 



The beginner had better use a bee-escape 

 to get the bees out of comb-honey supers. 

 True, they may be smoked out, or jarred or 

 shaken out, but the bees when rudely dis- 

 turbed are more likely to uncap some of the 

 sections. Therefore, the more quietly they 

 can be got down off the honey the better. 

 Moreover, in trying to jar or shake bees 

 out of a super there is always some danger 

 of starting robbing. Always put the finish- 

 ed super on top of the others, then slide the 

 bee-escape under it. In this way the bees 

 will not be trapped out of the unfinished 

 supers. A fresh super of sections filled with 

 foundation may be put on before a finished 

 one is removed, except of course at the last 

 of the season. 



Taking Extracted Honey. 



The escape-board is not absolutely neces- 

 sary in freeing extracting combs of bees, 

 altho the new ventilated type of escape- 



