122 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 19, 1903. 



Wants Honey, Not Increase— Locality and Size of Hive. 



I have fifteen colonies of hybrid bees in 8-frame hives from 

 whicli I would like to take as much comb honey as possible 

 next season. 



1. Which do you think would be the better plan, to let 

 each colony swarm once, thus doubling the number, or pre- 

 vent swarming altogether? 



2. What do you consider the best method of keeping bees 

 from swarming? The plan I have followed was to keep cut- 



' ting out the queen-cells every six days. 



3. Do you think locality determines the size of hive to be 

 used? Some say the 8-frame hive is the best for this locality. 



Michigan. 



Answers. — 1. That depends on circumstances. In any 

 place you will probably get more honey if you do no increas- 

 ing, providing you start the season with all the colonies the 

 locality will support. If the locality will support more bees 

 than you have, you will still do better without increasing if 

 your harvest closes early. But if you have a good flow late 

 enough so that when a colony swarms both the swarm and the 

 mother colony will have time to build up strong for the late 

 flow,-then it will be better to have one swarm from eaeh\ colony. 



2. Perhaps the plan of making a shaken swarm is more 

 in favor just now than any other, especially when working for 

 comb honey. 



2. Not only locality, but the honey-flow, and the manage- 

 ment, make a difference as to whether an 8 or 10-frame hive is 

 better. 



Honey-Extractors — Frames— Supers-Foundation, Etc. 



1. I notice in a catalogue that the Cowan honey-extractor, 

 No. 15, is made for the Langstroth frame, of which the top- 

 bar is 18 J inches long and 9 J inches deep. My frame top-bar 

 is 18* inches long and C inches deep. Can I extract from this 

 frame in that size extractor? 



2. I am going to buy an extractor. Would you advise me 

 to buy a No. 15 Cowan? 



3. Do you think a frame of that size is a good extracting 

 frame ? 



4. Last year (1902) I was producing comb honey, and 

 my bees stored about 60 salable sections. Now, I want to 

 know how many supers, 8-frame, I ought to have ready? 



5. Does a frame of this size require wiring? 



6. How many pounds of foundation will it take to fill 200 

 frames of that size? 



7. How far from the bottom-bar ought it to be? 



8. How far from the end-bar? Oregon. 

 Answers. — 1. Yes. 



2. Unless you expect to use frames larger than the Langs- 

 troth I think you will find it will suit your purpose all right. 



3. Yes, 6 inches is a good depth for an extracting-frame. 



4. You do not give sufficient data upon which to base an 

 answer. If I understand you correctly, you had last year an 

 average of 60 salable one-pound sections per colony. But you 

 do not say whether that was an unusually small, unusually 

 large, or an average yield. If that is an average yield, the 

 probability is that you ought to have for each colony not 

 less than three extracting-supers containing frames such as 

 you describe. You should figure to have enough to meet the 

 needs of the best year. 



5. You can use a frame 6 inches deep without wiring, 

 but it will be better with it. 



6. That depends on the kind of foundation you use. If 

 you use light brood, it will take something like 17 pounds. 



7. About i inch. 



8. It may touch the end-bars, and at most should not be 

 more than i inch from them. 



Doolittle's Comb-Honey Management -Ripening Honey. 



I am studying Mr. Doolittle's book on ^ientific Queen- 

 Eearing." In the back part of it he tells how he does the 

 work to produce comb honey. I cannot understand all of it, 

 and it seems to me that he uses a different hive than we do, 

 perhaps. We use 8-frame Langstroth hives. 



1. Does he put only one super on a hive during the whole 

 honey-fiow? 



2. On page 126, what does he mean by shutting the bees 

 out of the side boxes? We could do nothing of the kind, as I 

 understand our hives. 



3. What does he do with his sections, to ripen the honey. 



and not have the moths get into it? As I understand him, 

 he takes away all the capped honey once a week, or oftener, if 

 needed. 



4. He says, raise the cases, sections and all. Does he 

 mean raise a section-holder full of sections? We use the 4 J 

 by 4i by U section. Any explanation that would make it 

 plain would be appreciated by me. 



6. Will honey ripen as well kept in a store-room as if kept 

 over a colony of bees? Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. If I am not mistaken, Mr. Doolittle, in his 

 excellent work, is speaking of the Gallup hive, which he for- 

 merly used chiefly if not entirely. I think he is speaking of 

 one super on a hive, using something like wide-frames in these, 

 but he also uses part of the lower story to receive these wide- 

 frames at each side. 



2. I suppose that when he speaks of shutting the bees out 

 of the side-boxes he means the spaces in the lower story at 

 each side of the brood-frames. Of course you could do noth- 

 ing of the kind with 8-frame Langstroth hives. 



3. He puts the sections in a honey-house with black walls 

 and roof, where they will be kept very hot by the heat of the 

 sun. As to wax- worms, with the kind of bees he has (an ex- 

 cellent strain of Italians) the likelihood is that he need pay 

 no attention to the moth or its larvse. Formerly, when he had 

 more black brood among his bees, I think he fumigated his 

 sections about every two weeks. 



4. Yes, he means raise a frame or ca.se full of sections 

 from the lower to the second story. 



If I have in any way misinterpreted our friend, Mr. Doo- 

 little, I hope he will set us straight. 



Wlien to Order ttueens— 8 vs. 10-Frame Hives. 



1. I desire to send for three Italian queens for spring or 

 summer. At what date ought I to order them sent to me? 



2. Please give the advantages and disadvantages of 8 and 

 10-frame hives, respectively, for use in Northern Illinois? I 

 find but little in text-books, to which I have access, on the 

 merits of 8 and 10-frame hives. 



3. Do you confine a queen to eight combs, or do you some- 

 times, in the spring, place one hive-body and combs on an- 

 other, and allow a queen to use 16 frames for brood-rearing, 

 or a larger number than 8 frames? 



4. Is it practical to allow a queen to occupy more than 10 

 frames for brood-rearing? If so, how is it managed? 



IlilNOIS. 



Answers. — 1. That question may be understood in two 

 ways. You may be asking as to the date when you shall order, 

 cr the date when you want them sent. In any ease you will do 

 well to order some time before you want the queens sent. If 

 you have "money to burn," and care nothing about price, then 

 put in your order right away for tested queens to be sent you 

 about the middle of May, or as early as you can have a good 

 place to put them. If you think it advisable to send for un- 

 tested queens, then order them to be sent about the middle of 

 June. It will be dilBcult for j'ou to get them before that, and 

 if they are reared much before that time there will be some 

 doubt about their being quite as good as later-reared queens. 

 If you don't mind sending a distance, j-ou may be able to get 

 them from the Sovith a month earlier. 



All this is on the supposition that you want to get all 

 the benefit from them this year that you can. But it would 

 have been still better, in order to get the best results from 

 them this year, if you had had them sent last July, August or 

 September. I would a little rather have a queen reared during 

 a good honey-flow, and it is easier to get them then at a fair 

 price. 



2. It takes less watching and manipulation to get and 

 keep a colony strong in a lO^frame hive, and to keep them 

 from starving. The smaller hives are lighter to handle, take 

 up less room, and sometimes a colony can be got to work 

 soonfr in a super if in the smaller hive. 



3. If I were not allowed in any case to give a second story 

 to give a queen room, I certainly should not think of using 

 8-frame hives. If possible, I should like alw.ays to have every 

 colony so strong before the harvest that it would need a 

 second story. 



4. It is managed by simply adding a second story below 

 just as soon as the first story is filled, or a little before that 

 time. Many a time 10 frames will not be enough, and 15 may^ 

 be needed. But when siipers are given, each colony is reduced 

 to one story. 



