JUNE 15, 1913 



415 



By April the colonies begin to swarm if 

 let alone ; but prevention of natural swarm- 

 ing is g'reatly desired. I have adopted the 

 method of seeking the queen and removing 

 her on one frame of brood, taking out the 

 brood-nest and placing on the bottom-board 

 the super or full-deptli extracting story 

 (which is always empty in early spring). 

 The brood-nest witli the other seven frames 

 is placed above the honey-board. If no in- 

 crease is wanted I go back in eight or ten 

 days and destroy the queen-cells ; but when 

 increase is needed I merely leave an opening 

 under one end of the cover. In time I have 

 a fine Italian c^ueen at work, which was 

 raised by the bees. She sees to it that there 

 be no rivalry, by destroying all other cells. 



By August our colonies are of rousing 

 proportions with thousands of workers tear- 

 ing in and out of the entrances as if " jdos- 

 sessed," seeking nectar and pollen. 



Toward the middle of August the golden- 

 rod begins to bloom. In September the 

 swamp myrtle is showing its pretty minute 

 wliite blossoms on all sides, and in October 

 the extractor is brought into play and the 

 sui'plus made ready for the market. This 

 lioney granulates in from three to five 

 montlis. 



In handling surplus honey I have always 

 made it a practice to deal clirectly with the 

 consumer. I guarantee every drop of the 

 lioney sold, and frequently have customers 

 who take from two to three gallons at a 

 time and call for more latei'. Of recent 

 years little comb honey has been produced 

 in my apiary because of the swarming pro- 

 pensities thereby developed ; but another 

 year I shall be compelled to return in a 

 measure to such production because of in- 

 sistent demand for fancy comb products. 



Savannah, Ga. 



FEEDING BACK EXTRACTED HONEY FOR 

 FINISHING SECTIONS 



The Requirements for Success, such as the Ques- 

 tion of Bees and Queen, Weather, Feeders, etc. 



BY E. S. MILES 



Now and then there is a beekeeper who 

 reports success in feeding back; but per- 

 haps the majority do not find that the plan 

 works well at first. I myself was among the 

 latter class; but having studied the theory 

 of it thoroughly I was able to see some of 

 the causes of failure, and after several trials 

 was able to eliminate most of them, so that 

 now I consider the finishing of some of the 

 section honey by feeding back a part of the 

 regiilar program each summer. 



As there is a scarcity of section honey 

 now, as compared with the supply of ex- 



One of Scholl's shallow-story divisible-broodcliam- 

 ber hives. A veritable stack of bulk conib 

 honey. — See Beekeepiiuj in the Soutliwe-st. 



Iracted, it would seem that every thing tend- 

 ing toward helping the producer of comb 

 lioney would be in order. As to whether it 

 pays to feed back, I can not say positively. 

 I think it has paid me, yet it might not pay 

 another. It would depend upon how he is 

 managing his bees, number of stands, how 

 much his help costs, and what his time is 

 worth in other work. 



As to feeding for the purpose of getting 

 sections finished, the following points in the 

 order named as to importance must be con- 

 sidered. 



1. Character of bees and condition of 

 colony to be used. 



2. Kind of weather to be expected for the 

 purj^ose. 



3. Arrangement of sections in supers ; 

 supers on hives; kind and arrangement of 

 feeders. 



4. Preparation of feed and method of 

 feeding. 



The right kind of bees is absolutely neces- 

 sary as a foundation to success. As nearly 

 as I can tell, a colony that does first-class 

 work in sections in a honey flow will usually 

 though not alwaj'S be all right for this. I 

 always try those that have been the best 



