96 



March, 1914. 



American Hee Journal 



fairly good honey season she proved 

 the position I have taken above. 



One more point on this subject. My 

 heavy yields of the last two seasons 

 were taken partly from the customary 

 stock of "untested queens," sent out 

 by the American Bee Journal, and 

 partly from the same grade, pur- 

 chased of J. M. Davis, Springhill, 

 Tenn. To judge from their Batis- 

 factory service they were properly 

 reared queens, but as far as I know, 

 nothing was said of "superior strain." 

 At least, no exorbitant prices were 

 charged for them; they can be pur- 

 chased at fair, living rates. 

 .The use of full sheets of foundation 

 and bottom starters in our sections, 

 as advised by Dr. Miller in some of 

 his former writings, is a long step 

 towards increasing the yield. Years 

 ago, before I owned an extractor and 

 produced comb honey exclusively, I 

 used foundation very sparingly. I 

 considered full sheets a great detri- 

 ment to the honey industry on ac- 

 count of the objectionable "back- 

 bone" feature. My impression was: 

 the more foundation used, the poorer 

 the grade of honey. This was un- 

 doubtedly true at that time. But 

 since foundation has reached the 

 high state of perfection of the pres- 

 ent day. the objection of years ago 

 has vanished. Tn fact, hv the use of 

 full sheets of "extra thin" in my sec- 

 tions. T have produced the nast season 

 as fine a quality of comb bonev as 

 ever was made on naturallv built 

 comb. It would have baffled the skill 

 of an expert to detect the difference. 



As I indicated at the outset of this 

 article, I have never been wholly 

 satisfied with the average yield of my 

 bees. To accomplish what the above 

 heading implies has been a vain at- 

 tempt on my part, until wifiin the 

 last two years T have perfected a 

 method, that not only doubles the 

 yield but in many instances more 

 than trebles it. Although T am not 

 through experimenting along this 

 line — there are still a number of 

 points to settle the coming season — 

 the results I obtained are so unpre- 

 cedented that I feel iiis'ified in cei- 

 sidering this new method a great ad- 

 vance on the honey production as 

 commonly practiced. There is noth- 

 ing, complicated or mysterious about 

 the whole system, it is simple, com- 

 mon sense management, that any 

 person with very little experience can 

 follow up and succeed. Outside of 

 the increased yield, many advantages 

 are brought about by this method of 

 which I will speak later on. 



The starting point of my discovery 

 if T am entitled to call it such, dates 

 back to five years ago. It was an in- 

 cident of an accidental nature, that 

 nroiiseii niy idesire for further' in- 

 vestigation. 



When the white clover flow of that 

 season was nicely under way, some of 

 my very strongest colonies had 

 filled their combs and were beginning 

 to cap in different places. It Is tny 

 rule to give more storage room at 



this stage, by way of equalizing. I 

 take from the center of each super 

 two of the heaviest combs and ex- 

 change them with two empty ones 

 from some of the weaker ones that 

 have not yet started storing. To 

 make this operation effective in two 

 ways, hitting two birds with one stone, 

 I take all the adhering bees with the 

 combs. This reduces these over-pop- 

 ulous colonies and helps to prevent 

 the swarming fever, while at the same 

 time it assists in building up the 

 others, and in many instances in- 

 duces them to start work in their su- 

 pers. 



The next day a neighboring bee- 

 keeper called on me for a bee talk, 

 and when the conversation turned to 

 extracted honey I invited him out 

 among the bees to explain to him my 

 recent manipulations by actual ob- 

 servation. When I took out one of 

 the combs I had exchanged for a 

 full one the day before. I found It 

 seemingly as heavy as the one I had 

 taken out, and for my own satisfac- 



tion I took out the other and found it 

 in practically the same condition. 

 That bees fill a set of empty combs in 

 a remarkably short time during a good 

 honey flow can be noticed almost any 

 day when producing extracted honey, 

 but this fact was never brought to 

 my notice in such a striking way as 

 at this time. 



When this friend had taken his de- 

 parture I examined all the hives I 

 had treated, as explained above, the 

 day before, and as far as I could as- 

 certain, all were in the same condi- 

 tion. To Investigate a little farther 

 I changed these same combs a second 

 time with exactly the same results on 

 the third day. I changed them again 

 the third day and the fourth day and 

 still these combs were being filled 

 without perceptible let up. By this 

 time I had no more empty combs to 

 exchange. All the weaker colonies 

 were beginning to work in their su- 

 pers and needed what empty combs 

 they had for their own use. To sub- 

 ply those needy colonies with more 



AiMARY OF E. H. Upson, at Usee, Ind. 



Another View of Mr. Up.son's Apiary. 



