April, 1914. 



Itl 



American Vae Journal 



eluding the bees are placed in a shell 

 made ot any old % stuff 12 inches 

 wide inside and 12 inches deep, with- 

 out cover or bottom. Place the shell 

 containing the bees and combs, in 

 the center of the hive crossways, 

 bridge the space between the outer 

 and inner entrances, put on the top 

 story, cover the combs, and pour in 

 the chaff, working it down into the 

 spaces with the hand, and fill the 

 hive with packing within an inch of 

 the top; this space is for the circu- 

 lation of air under the cover which 

 keeps the packing dry. This method 

 provides for ZVs inches of packing on 

 each side, 2 inches at each end, and 

 7 inches on top, with a 3 inch space 

 under the combs, a very desirable 

 feature not found in any other win- 

 tering hive. If one of these colonies 

 is examined from below in the fore- 

 part of winter, the bees will usually 

 be found clustered en masse around 

 the bottom edges of the combs es- 

 pecially if the combs are as full of 

 stores as they should be. 



Such results as these, however, and 

 similar results along other lines, are 

 possible, only with a hive of sufficient 

 capacity for the development of cor- 

 rect principles. There are several 

 double wall chaff packed hives listed 

 in the different supply catalogues, at 

 prices ranging from $3. .50 to $6.00 but 

 none of them can compete with the 

 convertible hive for perfect winter 

 protection. It costs less to wake a 

 hive of this pattern than an ordinary 

 hive of equal capacity with none of 

 these advantages. The object of this 

 system is to simplify methods, and 

 minimize equipment, and if comb 

 honey is produced it should be in 

 double tier frames holding 8 sections 

 preferably alternated with clean white 

 extracting combs, for locations are 

 tew where exclusive section honey 

 production is advisable. 



Birmingham, Ohio. 



No. 2.-Doubling the Yield of 

 Surplus Honey 



BY G. C. GREINER. 



WITH the exception of the 4-day ex- 

 perience described in my former 

 article, no steps were taken to 

 apply the established principle to prac- 

 tical use that year. The season being 

 well advanced and no definite plans 

 for any change of management hav- 

 ing been formulated, I finished the 

 season of producing extracted honey 

 in the usual way. But my mtnd was 

 troubled. With the chance of great 

 possibilities constantly looming up 

 before my vision, I occupied my men- 

 tal faculties the rest of the season 

 and a good share of the following 

 winter in studying up and laying 

 plans for next season's operations. 



When spring opened and the time 

 for actual work in the apiary arrived, 

 I set aside a number of colonies for 

 experimental purposes, not only for 

 extracted honey, but for section-honey 

 also. As the demand for the latter 



had somewhat increased during the 

 last few seasons, I felt almost as 

 much interested in its production as 

 in my old staple-article of extracted 

 honey. The results of my limited ex- 

 periments of that season exceeded by 

 far all my expectations. The yields of 

 the few comb honey producing colo- 

 nies, which I had set aside for this 

 purpose, were in comparison to my 

 former yields so astonishing, that I 

 decided to manage my entire apiary 

 by that plan the next season. 



But alas! This world is full of 

 disappointments. The year of 1911 

 brought me that ever memorable foul- 

 brood campaign. Intead of conduct- 

 ing the continuation and completion 

 of my experiments started the year 

 before, I shook oft" 46 colonies Intro- 

 duced about thirty Italian queens and 

 annihiliated by fire and smoke the 

 entire contents ot those hives. Nearly 

 all the remainder of my yard was 

 more or less affected, but by the ap- 

 plication of less severe treatment and 

 the introduction of more Italian 

 queens I managed to save them and 

 even produced a little extracted honey. 



I hardly need to tell that nearly 

 all my energy, time and labor had to 

 be concentrated on the extermination 

 of the disease. la this, however, I 



succeeded so, that I had quite an 

 outfit of healthy colonies the next 

 spring upon which to try my new 

 method. The honey I produced that 

 summer, — the first season I applied 

 my theories to practical use, — 

 brought me per colony, spring count, 

 $23.94 after deducting the expenses 

 for sections, foundations, retail 

 packages and queens. Not bad for 

 a new method. 



This last season my honey crop did 

 not quite reach those figures, but it 

 averaged over $20.00 per colony. Al- 

 though I took some heavier yields 

 this year from some of my colonies 

 than the year before, quite a number 

 fell behind on account of my being 

 disappointed with my queens. About 

 50% of them arrived two weeks later 

 than I had ordered them and had 

 planned to use them. This delay in 

 receiving queens caused the same de- 

 lay in breeding-up, which brought the 

 working forces into service two weeks 

 too late for our short clover fiow. 



My new method, which the two last 

 seasons have proved a decided suc- 

 cess, is based on the following prin- 

 ciples: First, the more we allow and 

 compel our bees to ripen and cap 

 their honey during a honey-flow, the 

 less will be their yield in numbers of 



Sections in the Four Stages— Photographed by G. C. Gseiner. 



