1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



641 



ey-flow. This is one of the best systems I have 

 heard of to be used for this purpose in connection 

 with the queen-excluder, for, aside from the ad- 

 vantage gained by allowing the queen unlimited 

 breeding-room during the early part of the sea- 

 son, all of the advantages of the excluder are se- 

 cured in extracting-time, for the brood lifted 

 above with the second story will all be hatched 

 and the combs filled with honey long before ex- 

 tracting-time, for Mr. Coveyou does not extract 

 until late in August — perhaps 30 days after the 

 close of the raspberry flow. 



Before putting on any upper stories Mr. Cove- 

 you clijjs his queens, for he works three yards 

 practically alone with the exception of extra help 

 made use of at extracting-time, or when some ex- 

 tra work, is to be done. By having his queens 

 clipped, and by being with the bees every day 

 during the swarming or honey season, he can hive 

 any swarms that may issue. It is obvious that, 

 if the queens had not been clipped, the swarms 

 would have gone to the woods and been lost. If 

 a swarm should issue when he is working at some 

 other yard, and returns to the hive, he is very 

 likely to reach this yard by the next day; and 

 when they come out again, as they almost assur- 

 edly will, he can hive them. 



PUTTING ON EXTRA SUPERS. 



Knowing by experience that bees will enter up- 

 per stories without any hesitancy when placed on 

 top of the hive or on top of any story that may 

 be already on the hive, and as our extracting is 

 not done until after the white-honey season is 

 over, we have no lifting of full stories except at 

 extracting-time. We put on the third story, 

 when the second one is about two-thirds full, or 

 at least before all the empty comb-room is used. 

 However, no set rule can be given as to the prop- 

 er time for putting on extra supers, as there is a 

 difference in the colonies in this respect. Some 

 bees will work in a few combs and begin to cap 

 those started first, while those combs at the out- 

 side of the super will not be in use at all. In 

 such a case it would be folly to put on another 

 super as long as this condition continues. Other 

 colonies will fill every available cell with honey 

 before commencing to draw out the combs or to 

 cap the cells. Such a colony will need more ex- 

 tra comb-room than the one first mentioned, for 

 in the first case the bees seem to be more adapted 

 to working wax and drawing out combs. It is 

 well to humor these dispositions, and not compel 

 the bees mentioned in the last case to draw out the 

 combs to the full capacity of the space allowed. 

 They should, instead, be given additional comb- 

 room as they are able to use it, and they will 

 store much more honey than if compelled against 

 their will to draw out cells to the full depth at 

 once. 



At extracting-time, if one wishes to make two 

 grades of his extracted honey all of the partly 

 filled and unsealed combs will be in the top sto- 

 ries if the plan just outlined is followed, and 

 these can then be taken off and extracted by 

 themselves. I believe this to be the ideal way, 

 for the first-given supers are filled out more fully 

 and capped more evenly than if they were lifted 

 up and the empty one placed beneath them next 

 to the brood-chamber. Then with this latter 

 plan of lifting the full supers up and putting the 

 empty supers next to the hive one is likely to 



give additional room faster than the bees really 

 need it, with the result that the honey is capped 

 over when the combs are thin, and even when 

 some of the outside combs may not be entirely 

 finished. 



Putting empty stories on top is probably the 

 only practical way to manage when a queen ex- 

 cluder is not used between the hive and the su- 

 pers. If the extra supers are added intelligently 

 when the season is near the end, by giving the 

 colony only what storage room it will need, the 

 queen will thus be crowded down into the hive 

 below, leaving the supers nearly free from brood. 

 In order to follow this method one should bear 

 in mind that it is part of the system, in that the 

 amount of brood in the upper story is to be cur- 

 tailed toward the close of the season, as ex- 

 plained, and then the honey left on the hive a 

 week or two after the close of the season, to allow 

 it to cure thoroughly. Incidentally, the brood 

 that may be left in the upper stories has thus 

 hatched out before extracting. 



The old orthodox plan of placing the empty 

 super above the queen-excluder and under the 

 partly filled one is still practiced by the majority 

 of Michigan bee-keepers; and when the first one 

 is about two-thirds full it is lifted up and an emp- 

 ty one placed beneath. This plan is continued 

 clear through the season, the advantage claimed 

 for this system of extra work being that, by lift- 

 ing up the full stories and placing the empty 

 ones next to the brood-chamber, the bees are 

 stimulated to greater activity by this dividing of 

 the hive when placing the empty combs next to 

 the brood-chamber. Now, while I admit that it 

 may be advisable to put an empty comb-honey su- 

 per next to the brood-chamber, after a long expe- 

 rience I fail to see where the advantage is in the 

 production of extracted honey, and where there is 

 any gain in lifting up heavy upper stories during 

 the honey season, especially when the extracting 

 is all done at one time. 



THE USE OF AN EXCLUDER TO PREVENT BROOD IN 



THE SUPERS, AND HOW BY THEM A WHITER 



HONEY IS SECURED. 



Before leaving this subject I would say that, if 

 one does much extracting during the honey-flow, 

 or in the case of a beginner who has had but lit- 

 tle experience, I would advise the use of an ex- 

 cluder, for there must be no unsealed brood in 

 the extracting-combs or the honey obtained will 

 not be of good quality. The very sight of these 

 young grubs floating on top of the honey would 

 be enough to condemn the plan of trying to 

 manage without an excluder. If a visitor should 

 happen to come in, those grubs would, of course, 

 be called worms, and it would not help the sale 

 if it should get out that the honey is "wormy." 

 Then there is the food provided for the larvas, 

 some of which is thrown out with the honey, and 

 this surely makes the honey of a poorer quality. 

 My advice, therefore, is to use an excluder under 

 such circumstances until you learn a better way. 



Remus, Mich. 



[Since it takes considerable skill to produce ex- 

 tracted honey without excluders, any one who 

 has not worked out a successful system for keep- 

 ing the queens down had better use the exclud- 

 ers to be on the safe side. It is not often that a 

 queen gives much trouble by going into comb- 

 honey supers. — Ed.] 



