1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



407 



very great disadvantage, because an ordina- 

 ry uncapping-knife could always be at hand 

 to take out these spots not touched by the 

 machine. 



The most serious objection to this uncap- 

 per is the fact that it would be impracticable 

 to use it on frames having self-spacing end- 

 bars or end-bars wider than the general sur- 

 face of the comb. Among the newer bee- 

 keepers of the country, Hoffmann frames 

 are used almost universally. The Ferguson 

 machine as here shown could not handle 

 such frames, and we do not see how it is pos- 

 to modify it so that it could, unless the combs 

 were made to pass through the knives the 

 other way to — that is, witTi the top and bot- 

 tom bar on a vertical line. We do not see 

 any reason why it may not be just as prac- 

 ticable to uncap combs through the narrow 

 way of the comb as the wide one. It would 

 raake the machine somewhat more expen- 

 sive, owing to the use of more cutting-knives. 

 In this connection it is proper to remark that 

 Mr. Simmins says he can nandle Hoffmann 

 frames in his machine. — Ed.] 



PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR BE- 

 GINNERS. 



How to Take Care of Swarms; Some 

 Timely Hints on Management During 

 the Opening of the Surplus-honey Sea- 

 son. 



BY E. D. TOWNSEND. 



It is time to put on the supers (the parts of 

 the hive that contain the surplus honey) by 

 the time the first clover bloom is seen. Five 

 days later, on opening the hives we may find 

 that the bees have done nothing in the sec- 

 tions, and we wonder whether they will ever 

 start. In three more days we possibly find 

 that they have still ^one no worK in the sec- 

 tions, so a super is lifted off and a comb of 

 brood lifted out. If we do this we perhaps 

 find that the bees are beginning to draw out 

 the cells near the brood, and tnat they are 

 placing new honey in these elongated cells. 

 A beginner, on seeing these, might think 

 that tne bees were going to fill the brood- 

 combs before working in the sections; but 

 in two more days we snail probably find that 

 they have begun storing in the bait-section. 

 This bait-section is one carried over from 

 the pre\ious season, placed in the center of 

 the super to get the bees to work in the sec- 

 tions. The new sections look nice and clean 

 beside this old dirty one; and no one would 

 think of using such an old piece of comb 

 were it not for the fact that the bees without 

 such bait are too slow to enter the supers. 



It is several years since I used bait-sections 

 in my comb-honey supers. Instead of these 

 I use afi extracting-comb in place of each out- 

 side row of sections. These extratting- 

 combs are much superior to the bait-sec- 

 tions, for there is not usually enough of 

 these left-over sections to provide as 

 much of a bait as these two extracting- 

 combs supply. The main reason for put- 



ting extracting-combs at the outside is to 

 start the bees working on that part of the 

 super that is usually finished last; namely, 

 the outsides and the corners. In this way the 

 whole super is finished nearly at once, and 

 the experienced bee-keeper knows that this 

 means comb honey of superior quality. The 

 editor says there is a growing demand for 

 comb-honey supers equipped with some ex- 

 tracting-combs, and I have never known of 

 a case where this plan was tried and aban- 

 doned. It prevents much of the swarming 

 so prevalent in comb-honey production, and 

 this means, of course, much more surplus 

 honey. I have managed a yard of about one 

 hundred colonies for the last two years, and 

 by following this plan I have had less than 

 twenty per cent of swarms. 



The second reason for placing extracting- 

 combs, which are to act as the bait-combs, 

 at the sides of the super is that the queen 

 rarely goes to the outside combs to lay eggs; 

 and this means that these extracting-combs 

 can be kept white and clean so they will not 

 darken the cappings of the sections next 

 to them. I use separators between all of the 

 sections, and also between the extracting- 

 combs and the sections nearest them. 



HANDLING SWARMG. 



The beginner is likely to have so many 

 swarms, due to the usual method of working 

 for comb honey and to his inexperience, that 

 but little surplus honey will be secured. 

 Generally speaking, the more swarms there 

 are, the smaller the surplus-honey crop will 

 be. 



The first step in preventing swarms is to 

 put the supers on a week or so before the 

 honey-flow opens, as mentioned before — not 

 because the bees actually need the extra 

 room, but to keep them from becoming 

 crowded so that they get the swarming fever. 



The next step is to give more super room 

 before the first supers are full. An empty 

 super ought to be given when the first one is 

 not more than half full. This second super 

 can be set on top, or the first one may be 

 lifted up and the empty one placed next the 

 hive. We set the empty supers on top of the 

 ones given at first; and when the bees get 

 nicely at work in them we change places and 

 put the second super under tne first one. 

 This means a little more work, but, in return, 

 rather better-filled sections are secured. 



The beginner is usually anxious to have 

 all the natural swarms possible in order to 

 increase the size of his apiary. A neighbor 

 of mine, who was too busy a farmer to take 

 care of bees, once had a dozen colonies at 

 the beginning of the season, and before he 

 knew what was happening a swarm issued 

 from first one colony and then another. The 

 result was that his bees swarmed so much 

 that practically no surplus honey was se- 

 cured. He hived every swarm, good or bad ; 

 and, since the season was only an ordinnry 

 one, some of the later swarms starved be- 

 fore the next spring. Finally, when the 

 honey-flow began the following year ihrre 

 were only about as many colonies as Here 

 were the year before, and the a:noa:;t of 



