330 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Beekeeping in the SouthAvest 



Louis Scholl, New Braunfels, Texas. 



As the season advances and the trees and 

 the grasses and weeds begin to turn gi-een, 

 and we keep time to the hum of the bees, 

 we find many a beautiful picture before us 

 that is worth taking. In this day of easy 

 picture-taking, much pleasure can be de- 

 rived from snapping the numerous things 

 that have helped us to make certain work 

 much more easy. Who will take pictures 

 of interesting things this season, and send 

 proofs to us for publication, together with 

 a few notes to accompany them? 



OLD COMBS AND BULK COMB HONEY. 



The following question was sent by a 

 western subscriber for our reply : 



I have 200 shallow extracting-supers filled with 

 drawn comb made from full sheets of medium brood 

 foundation, having been worked above excluders. 

 These are all wired. What I want to know is wheth- 

 er they will make good bulk comb honey by putting 

 them on the hives this spring and letting the bees 

 tiU and cap them. So far as the wires are concerned 

 I think I can pull them out when the combs are 

 finished. But I am not aware whether or not these 

 old combs will be tender enough to make a merchant- 

 able grade of comb. They have been used only two 

 seasons, and are clean and in good condition. 



I note also in Gleanings, Nov. 15, your remarks 

 as to sizes of containers of bulk comb honey. As to 

 the 12 and 6 pounds cans, will you kindly advise me 

 where to buy them, and whether or not you get the 

 cases for these with the cans, or do you buy the 

 cases elsewhere ? The factories from which I have 

 quotations quote the cans alone, and make no refer- 

 ence to cases. 



Extracting combs several seasons old 

 should not -be used under any circumstances 

 for bulk comb honey, even if they are nice 

 and clean, and especially not if they are 

 built from medium brood foundation. For 

 bulk comb honey nothing should be used that 

 is not strictly newly built comb honey, and 

 in all respects as nice and tender as your 

 section comb honey that you are now pro- 

 ducing. Notliing inferior to this should be 

 put up as bulk comb honey. It is strange 

 that the idea prevails in the minds of some 

 beekeepers that almost any thing can be 

 used for bulk comb honey ; but it should be 

 understood that bulk comb honey as produc- 

 ed in Texas, where this product as it is put 

 up here originated, is nothing but what 

 strictly section comb honey would be, pro- 

 duced in shallow frames, cut out and packed 

 in nice clean cans, etc., of regtxlar or stand- 

 ard size packages. 



In our methods of manipulating the colo- 

 nies for best results in comb-honey produc- 

 tion we make use of shallow extracting- 

 supers on all our colonies for producing 

 bulk comb honey. These are left on the 

 liives during the winter, and provide extra 

 breeding room in the early spring in addi- 

 tion to the brood-chamber below. This in- 



sures extraordinarily rousing colonies of 

 bees for the honej^-flows later. As the first 

 flow comes on, these extracting-supei's are al- 

 ready partly full of honey from the scat- 

 tered sources during the spring, and all the 

 honey that was not used during the early 

 breeding season. As the flow begins, these 

 are raised ; and the new supei-s, filled with 

 full sheets of tliin surplus foundation in the 

 frames, are slipped in between them and 

 tlie brood-chambers. The bees go to work 

 at once, and seem to try to fill the empty 

 space with a vim that can not otherwise be 

 obtained. After tliis the usual method of 

 tiering u^d supers is practiced as needed 

 during the honey-flows, exactly the same as 

 in section-honey production. You will find, 

 therefore, that the 200 supers with combs 

 are a valuable investment, readj- to be put 

 on the hives in the spring to catch the early 

 scattering honey. The extracted honey will 

 be needed, and more than you will be able 

 to produce in these supers. 



These same supers will come in handy at 

 the end of the honey-flows, to catch the 

 scattering honey as the flows close. By 

 having the honey extracted from these supers 

 they are ready to go in the hives as soon as 

 it is too late to give any more supers with 

 foundation. Much honey is gained by this 

 practice, both in the early spring and after 

 the honey-flows, and the colonies are in bet- 

 ter condition to give larger yields than when 

 the old methods are practiced. Besides, we 

 need much extracted honey, and we produce 

 some of it at a time when it would not be 

 profitable to produce bulk comb honey. The 

 200 shallow supers with combs ai^e worth a 

 great deal more, therefore, if used as sug- 

 gested, than if they could have been used for 

 bulk comb honej- ; and if shallow supers are 

 used in this way on all colonies (especially 

 if our number of colonies is large), the extra 

 profit obtained amounts to an enormous 

 item. 



We have not bought any of our honey- 

 cans without the cases, more because it has 

 been more convenient to buy them with the 

 cases ; and then because we have not had the 

 time nor the facilities to make our own 

 cases. We understand that some beekeep- 

 ers buy the cans in bulk, and gain by mak- 

 ing their own cases. Here in Texas there 

 are a number of dealers in honey-cans from 

 whom we get our supply usually. Many 

 car lots of these honey-cans are used in 

 this State each year. Arrangements can be 

 made direct with some of the can companies, 

 especially if a carload of cans can be used 

 at one place. 



