1442 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



A CORNER OF DR. MILLKR^ HOME APIAR\ 



HONEV SUPERS. 



ence in deciding may make a notable diflPerence 

 in the amount of surplus honey stored. So for 

 years the appearance of the first white-clover 

 bloom has been the signal for putting on supers. 



" But don't the bees spoil empty sections when 

 they are not storing.?" Sure — plaster glue all 

 over the wood, sometimes varnish the foundation 

 with glue so that they refuse to accept it the fol- 

 lowing season, and sometimes gnaw the founda- 

 tion badly. But that's just after the close of the 

 harvest, not just before it begins. Bees use little 

 or no propolis early in the season; they're not 

 gluing up cracks, getting ready for winter; and 

 for some reason they don't gnaw foundation as 

 they do in the fall. (Don't they gnaw it in the 

 fall to use as bee-glue.^) 



Just when to clean off all supers is a different 

 thing. If the harvest would only shut off in an 

 unmistakable manner all at once! but it has a 

 trick of gradually tapering off, making it impos- 

 sible to tell just when surplus gathering ceases — 

 at least, that's the way often. One wants to leave 

 supers on just as long as the bees continue storing 

 in them. But how can one te\\} This year, 

 when I took all off, I found a few empty cells in 

 some sections. The bees had already done a lit- 

 tle carrying-down — not enough to make any im- 

 portant difference, but enough to show me that I 

 didn't know enough to guess the right time to 

 take off supers. 



Shall additional super room be given above or 

 below supers already on? and how many supers 

 shall be on at once.-' That picture of a corner of 

 the home apiary shows that I haven't settled 

 down to the plan of allowing the bees to confine 

 their attentions to only two supers at a time. 

 July 18 here's the condition of affairs in the home 

 apiary: 1 colony with 2 supers; 18 with 3 supers 

 each; 27 with 4; 31 with 5; 8 with 6. 



That makes the average a trifle more than A% 

 supers to each colony. If the inventory had been 

 taken at some other time I think the figures would 

 have been larger, for I know there were at one 

 time a very few colonies with 7 supers each. As 

 the years go by I think I incline to give more 

 and more room when a big flow is on. I 'm sure 



t)\VING THE STACKED-UP COMI 



I should have 

 lost heavily if 

 I had tried to 

 limit each col- 

 ony to two su- 

 pers each; and 

 there would 

 have been loss 

 — I think there 

 was loss in 

 some cases 

 where there 

 were only four 

 supers, as 

 shown by the 

 honey and 

 comb (espe- 

 cially comb) 

 jammed in be- 

 tween supers. 

 When bees 

 are badly 

 crowded,don't 

 they hold the 

 honey in their 

 sacs and turn a lot of it into wax.? 



Shall the empty super be given above or below.? 

 Sometimes one place, sometimes the other; and I 

 don't always know enough to say which — often- 

 er under; always under when there is a good flow 

 on with every prospect of a continuance. Well, 

 that hardly tells the truth either — at least the 

 whole truth. In many cases this year I gave an 

 empty super under, and at the same time an emp- 

 ty on top of all. I wouldn't do that except in a 

 good flow which promised to continue. But that 

 empty on top — mind you, always in a good flow 

 —can do no harm. The bees are too busy stor- 

 ing to do any mischief to the empty sections; the 

 super-room is kept just a bit cooler in a hot time, 

 and that upper super acts as a safety-valve in case 

 the bees should happen to need the room. 



I know there are good men who say, " Never 

 give an empty super under." Of course, I know 

 that hastens the finishing of the lower super or 

 supers. But it hastens because it crowds the 

 bees. It takes more crowding, too, to start stor- 

 ing in an upper than in an under super. And 

 that crowding has such a great bearing on the 

 swarming problem that I never want bees to feel 

 they are crowded for surplus room. I want them 

 to feel they have plenty of room — yes, abundance 

 of room; in short, I want them to feel they have 

 a surplus of surplus room. 



A STRONG ARGUMENT FOR PUTTING THE EMPTY 

 UNDER THE SUPER PARTLY FILLED. 



There's one item in this matter of putting emp- 

 ty supers above or below that I don't remember 

 ever to have seen mentioned in print; yet it has a 

 very important bearing. You know you like to 

 have the bees commence work in a super all over 

 at once, the work just as well advanced in the 

 four corners of the super as in the center. To 

 me the prettiest sight in a super I ever saw is a 

 set of sections exactly alike in advancement, 

 every section nearly filled, but not a cell yet seal- 

 ed. No, it isn't so pretty a sight to see the 24 

 sections all sealed with their snow-white cappings 

 — not to me; for the sight I've described pictures 

 a strong flow, a strong colony, and work of the 



