1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



473 



the workers than the brood-nest, and the bees 

 will immediately go up into the supers on 

 beintr hived. Our comb-honey super with 

 extractino[-combs at the sides makes an ideal 

 arran(2;ement for this very thing. 



It is plain to see that, it" most of the honey 

 being carried in is placed in the sections, 

 where it should be, the queen will not be 

 hurried to keep pace with the workers, con- 

 sequently nearly all-worker comb will be 

 built. Tlie brood-nest should be filled with 

 comb during the first 23 days after the swarm 

 is hived, for the queen must keep up with 

 the workers and lay in nearly every cell as 

 fast as it is drawn out, or the bees will begin 

 to store honey in the cells. When this con- 

 dition arrives, the bees, on the supposition 

 that the queen has reached her hmit, and 

 that the rest of the combs will be used for 

 storing honey, begin to build the storage 

 size or the drone-cells in the brood-nest. 

 This is likely to occur in about 23 days after 

 the swarm is hived; for by this time the 

 brood is beginning to hatch out in that part 

 of the hive where the laying began. From 

 this time on, the queen has nearly all she 

 can do to keep the cells filled with eggs where 

 the young bees are hatching. This means 

 that the comb-building part of the hive is 

 neglected, and that the bees build store or 

 drone comb to a great extent until the hive 

 is filled. 



It sometimes happens that avery late swarm 

 will issue; and since the season is nearing its 

 close, it is not possible for such a swarm to 

 build more than five combs before the honey 

 ceases coming in. We hive such swarms as 

 usual, and in about two days five of the 

 frames having the least combs built are re- 

 moved and a division-board placed up against 

 the remaining five frames, this five having 

 been shoved over to one side of the hive. If 

 a super is given such a swarm at the time of 

 hiving, it must be a nearly finished one, as 

 the bees will need most of their time to fin- 

 ish up the five combs in the brood-nest. If 

 one has two of such five-comb colonies they 

 can be united at the close of the season, so 

 that there will be none but full-sized colonies 

 to winter. A better plan than this for late 

 swarms, or for any small after-swarms that 

 one may have, is to hive them on full sets of 

 combs taken, possibly, from hives in which 

 colonies died tne previous winter. This is a 

 very good way to get such combs filled with 

 bees, out some swarms hived in this way may 

 need feeding for winter. 



There are artificial ways of handling bees 

 so that they will build good worker combs. 

 I refer to the plan of shaking the bees into 

 an empty hive, in the same way that a swarm 

 is hived. If a colony is divided into nuclei 

 of, say, two or three combs each, and each 

 nucleus given a young queen reared the 

 same year, such little colonies will build very 

 nice worker combs; but the beginner will 

 not be interested in this artificial way of 

 making increase, for he should stick to the 

 i;atural -swarming plan for his increase until 

 such time as he has had experience and made 

 a success of getting a crop of honey. In fact, 



there are many things to be learned before 

 a beginner should take up artificial ways of 

 making increase. 



It is just a question in my mind whether 

 there is a better or more profitable way of 

 making increase in the production of comb 

 honey than the natural-swarming method. 

 In extracted-honey production, when the 

 bees will not swarm enough to make up the 

 winter loss, then artificial swarming must be 

 resorted to. 



SOME CONDITIONS WHERE BEES BUILD MOST- 

 LY DRONE COMB. 



Any colony found rearing drone brood in 

 the brood-nest will, if a comb is removed 

 and an empty frame put in its place, build 

 drone comb. It can be depended upon, 

 moreover, that a colony of bees wintered 

 over, containing a queen reared the season 

 before, or one older, will build drone comb 

 until the time that it swarms. By this it can 

 be seen that it is necessary to replace any 

 combs, removed from a colony before it 

 swarms in. the spring or early summer, with 

 an empty comb or with a frame containing a 

 full sheet of foundation, or else drone comb 

 will be the result. To be sure that a colony 

 will build a large per cent of worker comb it 

 is necessary to remove all the brood and to 

 cause the bees of that colony to begin all 

 over again, as in the case of natural swarm- 

 ing; or, as mentioned before, the colony can 

 be broken up into nuclei, each nucleus con- 

 taining a young queen. 



Remus, Mich. 



POWER HONEY-EXTRACTORS. 



How to Change the Diameter of Pulleys if 

 the Speed is Not Right. 



BY E. M. GIBSON. 



Perhaps I can wrife something that will be 

 of benefit to Mr. R. V. Cox, page 363, June 

 15, as he seems to have trouble with his ex- 

 tracting machinery. If the belt slips, pul- 

 verize a small piece of resin and sprinkle on 

 it while the machine is in motion, and you 

 will have no further trouble in that direction; 

 and if the extractor does not run fast enough, 

 soak a piece of rawhide over night and sew 

 it around the pulley of the engine while wet. 

 Do a nice job of stitching, and have a smooth 

 piece of hide, and it will shrink on tight and 

 not slip. If one piece is not enough, put on 

 more. It is a particular job to sew it on and 

 get it smooth. The ends that meet should 

 be halved and blind stitched. Better remove 

 the pulley to do the work; and if you think 

 you can not do a good job of stitching, take 

 it to a harness or shoe maker. 



It was different with me, for my machine 

 ran too fast. I took off the small pulley of 

 one of my engines and put rawhide on the 

 engine-shaft. Then I put two thicknesses 

 of harness leather on tne pulley of the ex- 

 tractor of the other. One can see how hard 

 it is for manufacturers to please all of us. 

 My extractors s'art very quiclkly — much more 



