1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



497 



In the fall of 1906 I boufrht a 60-lb. can of raspberry 

 honoy of W. Z. Hutchinson. It was very limpid, with 

 no trace of trranulation. We used it from the can for 

 a while, but for convenience a trood deal of it was put 

 into jelly-tumblers. These were kept, without partic- 

 ular desiirn, where it was very litrht. My wife said 

 one day she wondered that these tumblers of honey 

 did not trranulate. while that roTnaininu' in the can re- 

 sembled lard in appearance. It immediately occurred 

 to me that litrht would at least retard uranulation, and 

 I actually wrote an article to Mr. Hutchinson to that 

 effect; but fearintr my observations were not conclu- 

 sive I did not send the communication. But lookintj 

 it all over now, I am convinced there is a very close 

 connection between liyrht and the granulation of 

 honey. W. P. Root. 



Medina, Ohio. 



PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR BE- 

 GINNERS. 



A Modern Way of Transferring Without 

 Cutting Combs. 



BY E. D. TOWNSEND. 



In modern methods of transferring bees 

 from box hives, or from any undesirable 

 hives, for that matter, none of the old combs 

 are used in the new hive. With a good press, 

 nearly all the wax can be obtained from the 

 old combs, so that full sheets of foundation 

 may be substituted in the new hives; and, of 

 course, the combs drawn from such full sheets 

 of foundation are vastly better than old 

 patched-up pieces of combs taken from old 

 hives. 



During late years we have done none of 

 our transferring until the beginning of the 

 clover-honev flow in June. Mr. A. H. Guein- 

 sey, of Ionia, Mich., has successfully prac- 

 ticed for several years the following plan: 



At the opening of this clover-honey flow, 

 or as fast thereafter as the colonies to be 

 transferred get strong and have their hives 

 full of honey and brood, the cover is remov- 

 ed from a colony to be transferred, and a full 

 set of good combs placed in a hive-body and 

 set on top. The next step is to go to a colo- 

 ny that has brood in all stages, and select a 

 comb, perhaps half full of brood. This comb 

 should be one that the queen is laying in, 

 and also one on which cells are started, but 

 not yet occupied with eggs. The bees should 

 be shaken off this comb, care being taken to 

 see that the queen is left in her own hive. 

 This comb may now be exchanged for one of 

 the central combs in the new body that has 

 just been set over the hive containing the 

 colony to be transferred. After about three 

 days, in the warmest part of the day, care- 

 fully remove this comb of brood before men- 

 tioned and look for the queen. If she is not 

 found, look every day until she is found, and 

 then place a queen-excluder between the 

 two bodies, the queen being in the upper 

 story. In 21 days the lower body can be re- 

 moved free from brood, the sides knocked 

 off, and the honey and wax saved. 



P'ull sheets of comb foundation might be 

 substituted for the combs in the new hive, 

 as mentioned above, but the bees would be 

 slower in going up into the new body if this 

 were done, and more honey would be left in 

 the hive below. If the cover to the old hive 



is found nailed on when preparations are be- 

 ing made for transferring, the whole hive 

 can be inverted and the new body contain-, 

 ing the combg placed over it. 



This transferring may set the colony back 

 a little, but not very much after all, and it is 

 necessary to watch the transferred colony 

 with the rest and give super room when 

 needed. 



With the plan that I practice myself, I se- 

 cure a full crop of comb honey, although the 

 transferred colony may need some help along 

 the line of winter stores. My plan is as fol- 

 lows: A super is placed on the hive to be 

 transferred, just as on any other hive (if the 

 old hive has the cover nailed on, it is invert- 

 ed) . The colony is then left until it casts a 

 swarm, which is hived on the old stand where 

 the old box hive formerly stood, and the su- 

 pers of sections shifted to the new hive. The 

 old box hive may then be carried away to 

 another part of the yard. The actual trans- 

 ferring in this case is done 17 days later, at 

 which time the parent colony should have a 

 laying queen; and, since the queen before 

 the colony swarmed did not lay very much 

 during the last four days before the swarm 

 issued, there will not be much brood but 

 what is hatched at the end of these 17 days. 

 By this time it is, very likely, near the close 

 of the season, so that it does not pay to wait 

 for the few bees that might yet hatch from 

 the combs; and it is better to allow the young 

 bees already hatched to get to work in their 

 new quarters. A new hive filled with combs 

 or full sheets of foundation is placed where 

 the old box hive last stood, and the side of 

 the box pried off, the combs cut out, and the 

 bees brushed in front of the new hive. 



Last season some of the old combs left in the 

 box hive were run through a capping-melter, 

 and the honeyand wax separated much moie 

 quickly tlian we ever did it before. 



Colonies transferred so late, or late swarms 

 of any kind, ought to be hived on empty 

 combs when possible; but if there are no 

 combs, so that one must use foundation, no 

 more frames should be given than the bees 

 can finish before the close of the flow. There 

 was a reason for not leaving the foundation 

 in the hive during a dearth of honey, lor the 

 bees, having nothing else to do, seem to take 

 delight in gnawing it, for to them it is un- 

 natural. After a sheet of foundation has 

 been in the hive three weeks during a dearth 

 of honey it is almost ruined. 



Remus, Mich. 



[When it is desired to convert old combs 

 containing honey, or other chunk honey, in- 

 to cash, there is no cheaper way than to run 

 the combined product through a capping- 

 melter and separate the honey and wax at 

 one operation. If the work is done proper- 

 ly, neither the honey nor wax will be injur- 

 ed in the process, for the gate of the capping- 

 melter should be kept constantly open so 

 that the honeyand wax will run into another 

 receptacle, where cooling immediately tnkes 

 place. Honey subjected to a temperature 

 sufficient to melt wax, for a period of a few 

 moments, will not be in the least injured. 



