324 



THF BEE-KEEPERS' REVijijW, 



that he will feed back to his bees to put in 

 sections. The number of colonies that he 

 will employ for this, will, he thinks, take 

 about six weeks to complete the job. Mr. 

 Lane has had considerable experience along 

 this line, and as he is a close observer, and 

 keeps account of the smallest details, we 

 will try to get him to report results for the 

 November number of the Progressive. " 



When Bro. Leahy says there was a loss of 

 only 800 pouuds, he is, evidently, taking into 

 account the honey that was stored in the 

 brood nests. This is, of course, correct. 

 • I do not gather from the foregoing which 

 it was friend Flanagan used, partly finished 

 sections or those filled with foundation. As 

 near as I can make out, he used some of 

 both. But very little profit can be made in 

 "feeding back" unless there are partly 

 finished sections as a foundation. Sections 

 filled with undrawn foundation won't answer. 

 I can't explain why ; I simply know that too 

 large a proportion of extracted honey is re- 

 quired as compared with the amount need- 

 when partly finished sections are u^sed. 

 With plenty of these on hand, and the right 

 kind of bees, feeders and weather, there is 

 no question but what "feeding back" 

 may be followed with pleasure and profit. 



First comes the selection of colonies. 

 Blacks are first choice, with hybrids a close 

 second ; next come dark Italians. No great 

 success can be made with light colored bees. 

 The brood nest must be contracted to not 

 more than five L. Frames, and better results 

 are secured if only three frames are left in 

 the brood nest, but the strength of the colony 

 is likely to suffer if contraction is carried 

 to this extent and very long continued. As 

 the work progresses, the work of each colony 

 must be watched and the poor ones weeded 

 out. It may not be best to keep the feeders 

 always supplied with food. Sometimes it 

 may be advisable to leave a colony unfed 

 two or three days, especially if it has a 

 case of honey ready to cap. A colony that 

 soon becomes " cloyed " — simply lives out of 

 the feeder and does little work — may as well 

 be abandoned. Swarming is something I 

 have never had to contend with, neither 

 have I been troubled by the bees clogging 

 the brood nest with honey. I think the 

 reason in both instances is that I have 

 always selected colonies having queens of 

 the current year. I regard this point as 

 essential. 



It is important in securing a good yield 

 of comb honey that the bees be not crowd- 

 ed in the sections ; that they have plenty of 



room to the very last. More honey will be 

 secured, but the sections will not be crowd- 

 ed so full and the number of unfinished 

 sections will be greatly increased. I think, 

 however, that this course results in jast as 

 much finished honey, and perhaps more, 

 than is secured by the crowding plan, while 

 we have a large lot of unfinished sections 

 into the bargain. There are two courses 

 open for their disposal—" feeding back, " or 

 extracting the honey, letting the bees clean 

 them up and use them the next year at the 

 beginning of the honey flow. For the ordin- 

 ary bee-keeper the latter course is prefer- 

 able. The expert will find it profitable to 

 secure the completion of all that are as 

 much as one-half finished. Those less than 

 one half finished may be extracted and kept 

 over. Of course there are many other 

 points in " feeding back " that I cannot give 

 here, but I have gone into detail in the sub- 

 ject in the book Advanced Bee Cultuke. 



Feeding bees is one of the most neglected 

 branches of our pursuit, but, as the poor 

 years came and go with ever increasing 

 regularity it will probably be given more 

 attention. 



A Condensed View of Current 



Bee Writings. 



E. E. HASTY. 



In cahoots with the Roots — our friend 

 York. As we are inquisitive if not imper- 

 tinent folks we sneakingly wonder if Glean- 

 ings and the Old Reliable are henceforth 

 a voke of apicultural oxen, working on all- 

 pull-together principles. A journalistic 

 trust would doubtless be a temporary saving 

 of expenses ; but those of us who want to see 

 editorial competition, and the journals all 

 wide awake as a result of it, could hardly 

 think of anything more atrociously undesir- 

 able. 



Did you notice query !l!)2, on selling other 

 people's honey, in the American Bee Jour- 

 nal y I did. It seems to preach a sermon 

 with several different heads to it. The 2i?t 

 of tlie query is " put my name on it, and 

 make my customers believe it is from my 

 apiary, " when it isn't. And seven of the 

 respondents say yes. The first head of the 

 sermon is, how many generally sensible 

 men will fail to understand a plain question! 

 A little close inspection will convince a body 

 that not nearly all of these seven persons 



