Dec. 10, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



793 



but, take the country at large, and farmers, perhaps espec- 

 ially bee-keeping farmers, are an intelligent lot, and would 

 not hesitate at an expense that would double or treble their 

 income. 



Your suggestion that they would so hesitate, reminds 

 me of the story of the old farmer in Pennsylvania (I do not 

 vouch for the truth of the story, for I am a Pennsylvanian 

 by birth, and have no little respect for the shrewdness of 

 some of those old Germans). Oil was discovered upon the 

 old gentleman's land, and a speculator visited him promptly 

 to buy the land, offering him $25.00 an acre for it. The 

 answer was, " Why, dot land — I pay $50.00 acre for it, and 

 it wort' more now." Then the speculator made a graphic 

 picture of the possibilities in that oil-well. Other wells had 

 yielded so and so, and the prospect was that this well would 

 exceed any previous record — a hundred thousand barrels, 

 costing a dollar each, would be wanted in a short time to 

 contain the oil — was the farmer willing to stand the ex- 

 pense? "A hunnert tousand dollar! mine cracious I no; 

 I not got so mooch money in de world ; dot oil-well break 

 me all up ; you can have dot land for twenty-five dollars; 

 dot was better as to pay hunnert tousand dollar ven I don't 

 got hunnert tousand dollar." 



Perhaps the best proof that the thought of expense does 

 not keep farmers from adopting movable-comb hives is the 

 fact that it has not kept them from it. Thousands of farm- 

 ers are using the best hives, and in many, if not most, 

 localities box-hives have entirely disappeared. Very likely 

 the chief reason that some in this country are still using 

 box-hives, arises from the fact that they are not yet informed 

 as to the advantages of any other than box-hives. 



I still must thank you for your interesting bit of read- 

 ing, and hope we may have more from your pen. 



McHenry Co., 111. 



[ Our Bee-Heepin$ Sisters ) 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Putting- Back Supers After Extracting-. 



Mr. Dadant's article, with the above caption, appeals 

 to my interest because I have this year had the experience 

 of J. S. Haag paralleled in my own apiary. The bees re- 

 fused to clean out the extracted-combs, sealed over empty 

 cells, and, as pointed out by Mr. Dadant, they occupied 

 these supers sometimes, as it seemed, in full force. 



Mr, Dadant advises the use of the enamel cloth between 

 stories, or the perforated zinc. As it happened, I had some 

 10-frame hives covered with the enamel cloths, and the 8- 

 frame hives either had, or had not, perforated zinc between 

 the stories. The zinc seemed to make little difference about 

 their occupying the upper story, and in at least one case I 

 know that the queen was above the zinc after laying had 

 ceased. 



The 10-frame hives had their cloths because I did not at 

 first think of giving them frames to clean, thinking they 

 had less need than the 8-frame hives. However, I did, in 

 two cases, give them combs, and in both they made a thor- 

 ough clean, and they were the only ones that did. 



In my case, the extracting and putting back was after 

 the harvest was over, for that ceased suddenly this fall with 

 a hard freeze about the middle of September. 



Now, I did what Mr. Dadant would not under any con- 

 sideration do— I gave the bees the combs to clean in the 

 open air. 



It is some years since I got a kink from R. C. Aikin, in 

 the Bee Journal, in regard to open-air feeding. Up till that 

 time I had considered it something to be deprecated en- 

 tirely, but after he told how to feed, I find it the most practi- 

 cable way of giving a general feed. The main thing is, 

 when you are feeding, give plenty, and arrange so that all 

 the bees can have easy access. I have never found it to 

 lead to robbing. 



Now, it is but a few days since I gave the bees a num- 

 ber of combs to clean up. On no consideration would I like 

 to store them away just as they come from the extractor. 

 Apart from the danger of souring the next crop, they are 

 mussy and disagreeable to handle. As a rule, my bees 

 clean them up nicely in the upper stories, and that is the 



way I prefer to have it done. They mend any that may 

 have been broken, a^d they are so clean that it is a pleas- 

 ure to store them away. 



This year, as I have said, things were different. But 

 we have some warm days here, even at this ssason of the 

 year. On one of these I took a dozen or more of combs 

 fresh from the extractor, and put them out-of-doors where 

 the bees soon found them, and while they were pleasantly 

 engaged with these I went to the hives for more — the ones 

 they had refused to clean. 



There is this to be said about an open-air feed — it puts 

 the bees in a good humor, and any manipulations that have 

 to be made with them are much more easily accomplished 

 than when there is nothing of the kind going on. 



Going to a hive, I had to take off the upper story with 

 its combs full of bees, remove the excluder, put back the 

 upper hive-body, shake the bees from the combs, and put 

 these out with the others being cleaned up. Putting them 

 out that way I did not need to be particular to shake off 

 every bee as I otherwise would. Then, that hive is ready 

 for its cloth, quilt and cushion, which I will admit it should 

 have had earlier. Repeat the process until you think there is 

 enough, and, take my word for it, the clean-up will surprise 

 you. 



There is much of human nature about a bee. Those 

 combs, while in the hive, were regarded as a possession, but 

 when out in the open they recognize the fact that it is a 

 free-for-all scramble, and that those that work the hardest 

 will get the most. 



And a bee can not resist a display of honey, no matter 

 how well its hive is stocked with that article— even as chil- 

 dren with money in their pockets will scramble for pennies 

 at a Fourth of July shower, or a Rockefeller pile up the 

 millions, " for the good of the oil business." It's nature. 



Custer Co., Nebr., Nov. 12. Mrs. A. L,. Amos. 



Your experience tallies with ours. There is no way in 

 which you can feel so perfectly sure that the work of clean- 

 ing combs will be thoroughly done as by letting the bees 

 have access to them outside their hives, so they feel that 

 they are getting an accession to their wealth. 



Where they will do the work properly on the hives, of 

 course that is much the better way. 



Your 10-framc colonies made better work than the colo- 

 nies in smaller hives, quite possibly for the reason that 

 they had more vacant space in the brood-chamber. 



You say that feeding in the open air puts bees in a good 

 humor. That's true, while the feed lasts, but when the 

 supply stops, look out 1 



The danger of starting robbing by feeding in the open 

 air is one that should be considered, but, really, is it as 

 serious as sometimes represented ? Is it true that a bee 

 once guilty of robbing never returns to an honest life after- 

 wards ? It is true that when bees are fed in the open air 

 they will try to force an entrance into cracks of hives all 

 over the apiary as soon as the supply ceases, but did you 

 never see exactly the same state of affairs when there was a 

 sudden stop of the flow of nectar in the fields ? Repeated 

 opportunities for observation on this point seem to show 

 that there is no more danger of robbing after out-door feed- 

 ing stops than there is after the stoppage of the natural 

 flow. 



Mr. Dadant wisely calls attention to the danger of hav- 

 ing combs torn to pieces by the bees in their eagerness to 

 get at the exposed sweets, especially if combs are new and 

 tender, and you meet the case by giving enough for all and 

 having it easy of access. That's the plan of the late B. 

 Taylor, and is all right when you can do so. But sometimes 

 you do not have enough for all, and then you must take a 

 directly opposite course— in place of the Taylor plan using 

 the Miller plan, and instead of making the honey to be 

 emptied easy of access, making it so difficult of access that 

 there will not be enough bees crowding upon one single 

 spot to tear the combs. This is accomplished by piling the 

 combs in supers or hive-bodies and leaving an entrance 

 only large enough for a single bee— perhaps more than one 

 entrance if there are enough combs With this plan there 

 is less danger of robbing, but it requires more time, and the 

 combs should be left until the bees cease giving them at- 

 tention. 



Amerikanlsche Bienenzucht, by Hans Buschbauer, is 

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