1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



747 



is useless to try to prevent colonies from swarm- 

 ing after they have already gotten the swarming 

 fever or have started cells. Such colonies are 

 shaken (shook swarming), and their combs used 

 for other purposes. 



In comb-honey production it is much more 

 difficult to manipulate the regular-depth L. hives. 

 Almost all the manipulations necessitate the han- 

 dling of combs, requiring a lot of labor and time. 

 I have found the shallow-hive system a time and 

 labor saver. An extra shallow super can be 

 placed on the colonies much earlier in the season 

 than a deep one. When the main honey-How 

 comes this which was used for additional breed- 

 ing room is filled with extracted honey. Just 

 before the swarming period, another shallow 

 story with empty combs is slipped in between the 

 two lower ones containing the brood-nest — a solid 

 mass of sealed brood generally — thus breaking 

 this up, and providing additional clustering and 

 breeding room. This prevents swarming with 

 us, and insures rousing colonies for the main 

 flow. The comb capacity is then equal to 24 L. 

 combs, all occupied. 



When the comb-honey supers are put on they 

 are placed under the upper shallow extracting- 

 super, which is now full. There is no sealed 

 honey, or very little, along the top-bars of the 

 brood-nest, above which bees are loath to store. 

 They are used to working above, and with a full 

 super on top they go to work with a vim to fill 

 up the empty space in the comb-honey super. 

 Much better work is done under these conditions, 

 and the colonies are such rousing ones that the 

 yield must be larger than that from those man- 

 aged on the plan generally followed. Further- 

 more, an extra super of extracted honey can be 

 counted on as just so much more profit. 



Fancies and 

 Fallacies 



By J. E. Crane 



The quotations of the price of honey and wax 

 in foreign markets is of decided interest to us, al- 

 though we may have no honey to ship to Liver- 

 pool or Paris. 



* 



Mr. Fritzche, you look very happy among 

 your bees, p. 288, and those sheds certainly look 

 very comfortable this cold windy spring weath- 

 er; but, say; "don't it nigh a'most" break your 

 back to work your hives under those sheds ? 

 * 



" Honey from combs not yet bred in can gen- 

 erally be distinguished easily by the taste from 

 that which is extracted from dark brood-combs " 

 — Stray Straws, p. 275. Perhaps one person in five 

 hundred can; but who ever heard of a buyer of 

 extracted honey finding fault because it was ex- 

 tracted from old combs ? 



That " buttermilk honey," page 277, reminds 

 one of some counterfeit bills in the Bureau of 

 Printing and Engraving at Washington, where a 

 bill is executed or printed, so to speak, with a 



pen; and the same amount of time and industry 

 in a legitimate way would have paid far better 

 even had the counterfeit bill been worth its face 

 value. 



* 



On page 275 V. Wuest is quoted as saying or 

 thinking " there is no proof that the nectar of 

 poisonous plants is harmful to bees." I was 

 told many years ago, while in California, that in 

 some parts of the State bee-keeping did not pay, 

 as the buckeye, when in bloom, poisoned the 

 bees. Plants that poison one class of animal life 

 are or may be harmless to another. Aconite is 

 very poisonous to man, but harmless to sheep; 

 and swine are said to thrive on rattlesnakes. 

 * 



On p. 349 Dr. Miller gives some advice to be- 

 ginners in the production of comb honey. I 

 can not tell how much it would have saved me 

 to have had some such advice when young in the 

 business. But say, doctor (I should not like to 

 hurt your feelings — no, not for a good-sized 

 doughnut), wouldn't it be better to advise begin- 

 ners to begin with such sections and separators 

 and bees as will give solid combs rather than to 

 have to bother with two pieces of foundation in 

 each section ? 



* 



Dr. Miller says, p. 336, that he does not want 

 to believe that bees are unusually long-lived just 

 because they are lazy. Well, he need not be- 

 lieve it. Men are not long-lived just because 

 they are lazy; and horses — don't you know some 

 that will work harder and live longer by far than 

 others .? Constitution, strength, longevity, play 

 quite as important a part with our bees as with 

 other races. Don't we all know of colonies with 

 a fair amount of bees and a sufficiently prolific 

 queen that will but little more than hold their 

 own during a season, while others no more pop- 

 ulous, with a queen to supply them with eggs, 

 will build up beyond our most sanguine expecta- 

 tions.? The last will increase while the first will 

 barely keep the same strength. How can we ac- 

 count for it, except far greater vigor and conse- 

 quent longevity.? It certainly is not in conse- 

 quence of laziness. 



* 



When yellow bees fail to winter well, Mr. Al- 

 exander advises that two combs of honey be taken 

 from their hives Sept. 1, to give the queen room 

 for brood. Now, in more than forty years I 

 have never known bees to be crowded for room 

 at this season. The surplus with me is practical- 

 ly all gathered in June and July, while Mr. Al- 

 exander's best flow of honey comes in August. 

 While his hives are crowded by September, 

 therefore, my own are sometimes almost in a 

 starving condition, and never need to have combs 

 removed to give room for brood. I believe Al- 

 len Latham's views on spring feeding, pages 358 

 and 359, as well as those that follow, are quite 

 right, and extracting honey in May should be 

 limited to those seasons when there is a great 

 abundance of honey coming in and the brood- 

 chamber crowded, when the extractor may be 

 used to advantage. I suspect that the greater 

 flow of honey at Delanson during the early sea- 

 son is the only reason for the difference of opin- 

 ion as to the advisability of extracting. 



