September, 1914. 



American l^ee Journal 



305 



a little over oO pounds of boiling water 

 is poured. A vigorous stirring with a 

 large stick will in a few minutes give 

 as good a feed as can be made. Best 

 results ire obtained by feeding the 

 syrup quite warm, especially if the 

 weather is chilly at the time. 



Systematic Requeening 



How I wish my bees were as sensible 

 as Dr. Miller's, page 27!'. He says: 

 " The bees usually requeen in good 

 time, if the matter is left to them." And 

 for that reason he does not do away with 

 2 year-old queens, if they appear to be 

 making good Sorry to say that I do 



not practice systematic requeening, 

 Out in my case quite a large percentage 

 of the colonies fail to replace i! year- 

 olds before they fail, and often act this 

 way just at the close of fruit bloom, and 

 this means a setback for the clover 

 harvest. 



[The answer criticized by Mr. Byer is 

 not by Dr. Miller, but by the junior 

 editor, as may be seen by the initials, 

 C. P. D. at the foot of the reply. The 

 question had been asked of me. Dr 

 Miller might have replied in a way 

 more suited to Mr. Byer's views. — 

 C. P. D.l 



think there will likely be trouble here 

 and also the rubber stamped sections 

 may be imperfectly stamped or the 

 leaking honey will absorb dust and 

 obliterate the marks. 



There is one thing good about the 

 stamping, and that is, the tops of the 

 sections have to be well scraped or the 

 stamp will not show. 



Conducted by Wesley Foster, Boulder. Colo, 



Supering 



With the slow flow we have had this 

 year, it has not been advisable at any 

 time to raise the first super until it was 

 three-fourths finished. And by that 

 time the second super would be half full, 

 in many cases. Then, changing places 

 and placing an empty super on top an- 

 swered the requirements of this season. 

 I had four supers on only one colony, 

 quite a number had three on, but the 

 great proportion had but one or two. 



The bee-escape method is the nicest 

 in removing comb honey, but smoking 

 the bees out, then removing the super 

 and jarring the remainder out on the 

 ground works fast and well if the bees 

 are not robbing. 1-ifteen cases an hour 

 can be easily taken ofT by the smoke 

 and jarring method, by one man. 



put in and these sections are then 

 stamped and the cover put on. 



By the use of the minimum weight 

 stamps it is not necessary to weigh 

 every section, but all doubtful ones 

 must be weighed. Until one becomes 

 sure of himself every section should 

 be weighed, for no section will be al- 

 lowed below the minimum stated. I 



Packing Comb Honey 



We have had a busy time in the 

 honey hou-ie these days. Two to five 

 girls have been busy cleaning the sec- 

 tions of comb honey, and it keeps one 

 person busy nailing shipping-cases and 

 another grading, stamping and pack- 

 ing the honey. One hundred cases of 

 honey is the most that has been put up 

 in one day. At this ra'e the work will 

 not last many days, as half of the bees 

 are run for extracted honey, and the 

 flow has not been so bountiful as last 

 year. Two of my apiaries will not av- 

 erage one case to the colony, while 

 two others will do better than that, 

 probably two cases to the colony, 

 though the flow is not over yet. 



In scraping the sections we find that 

 old silver plated knives, cut off with the 

 blade pointed and about half length, 

 make excellent tools. Paring knives 

 were used last year, but are not stifif 

 enough. The table knives are much 

 better. We pay the girls 5 cents a 

 case for scraping th; sections, and 

 they earn from $1.00 to $2.00 a day. 



Notes From ^ Ab r oad 



By C. P Dadant. 



New Net Weight Law on Section Honey 



With the enforcement of the new net 

 weight law there will doubtless be 

 some changes in the methods of comb- 

 honey production. If stamping the 

 net weight on a section has a tendency 

 to limit sales, the beemen will have to 

 put out a section holding 16 ounces 

 net weight in order to hold the trade. 

 It is doubt ul whether much more can 

 be secured for a lO-ounce section than 

 has been had for a 12;^ ounce one. 

 The public will no doubt get used to 

 the change, and after those who have 

 had the idea that whenever they bought 

 a section of honey they were buying a 

 pound get over their disillusionment 

 the trade will go along as formerly. 



For those who have been weighing 

 their sections in the past, the law 

 works little hardship. The time taken 

 to stamp the sections is not long. By 

 packing uniform weight sections in a 

 case the case may be filled full, if a 

 single tier case, and then the tops of 

 the sections may be stamped quickly 

 and the cover put on Where the dou- 

 ble tier case is used the lower tier is 

 put in and the tops of the sections are 

 then stamped, then the ends of the 

 case are stamped, and the top tier is 



We were barely installed in a room 

 in the Hotel St. Gotthard, in Zurich, 

 when we received the visit of Mr. 

 Spuhler, the translator into German of 

 Bertrand's " Conduite du Rucher." He 

 wanted to arrange to entertain us the 

 following day, which was Sunday, and 

 take us, in the afternoon, with a few 

 other beekeepers to an apiary in the 

 mountain above Zurich. We called 

 upon h'm at his home in the forenoon, 

 met his wife and daughter, saw his api- 

 ary, and took note of his honey extrac- 

 tor, of which we give a cut. This 

 honey extractor is as much better than 

 ours as their public roads are better 

 than ours. 



When we see the way in which they 

 build everything, houses, factories, 

 bridges, hives, bee houses and extrac- 

 tors, we think that if they came to see 

 us they would regard many things that 

 we have as shabby. But they don't 

 consider cost. This extractor costs 

 $28, in a country where labor is cheap. 

 It is reversible, and the baskets open 

 to put the comb in. The tin of the can 

 is more like boiler iron, for strength 

 than like .American tin. 



In the afternoon, they and several of 

 their friends called at the hotel in two 

 carriages and we went together through 

 the city and up the hill to another such 



view as can be found only in Swizer- 

 land. There we met the beekeeper 

 whom I have mentioned in the October 

 number of 1913, page 343, who gave me 

 the best possiblearguments in favor of 

 house apiaries. His bee-house is a 

 model, built on a cement floor and 

 foundation and roofed with tile, the 

 hives ranged like so many closets, on 

 one side, the extracting room and stor- 

 ing room on the other. No need of 

 wheelbarrow or truck to carry the 

 supers. One could not have things 

 handier unless he could manage to 

 have the bees bring the honev to the 

 extractor. For feeding also, in cool 

 or rainy weather, or at night, nothing 

 can be more convenient. Each hive 

 has an opening in the rear where the 

 food may be poured into a separate 

 partition of the feeder, where the bees 

 cannot go. 



But with all these conveniences, I 

 would not exchange our methods for 

 theirs. How could we produce our 

 large crops in such cramped quarters ? 

 We often have two supers on a colony 

 at one time, sometimes three and even 

 four or five. Our large crops would 

 be out of the question or we would 

 need i*normous buildings. Would it 

 be possible to combine the use of a 

 bee-house with the expansible hives 



