T*ul>lisli<?<l W&elalyr, at J^l.OO per annum. 



Sample Oopy sent on j\jjplioation. 



36th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., FEB. 20, 1896. 



No. 8. 





Building Worker-Combs vs. FouadatioH. 



BY G. M. DOOI.ITTLE. 



A correspondent writes that he has seen somewhere in the 

 bee-papers that I secure worker-combs by having them built 

 in nucleus colonies, instead of buying comb foundation, and 

 that he wishes I would tell something about it in the American 

 Bee Journal, as he feels too poor to buy much foundation, as 

 his bees have done little toward furnishing him anything to 

 buy it with during the past three years. 



As I have hundreds of nice, straight worker-combs, built 

 in small colonies during the past, I will willingly give all the 

 help I can, for I often think I can thus secure combs at a cost 

 not exceeding one-half what foundation would cost me. 



The colonies used in building combs are generally those 

 left after uniting two weak colonies, just before the honey har- 

 vest, so as to make one strong one from the two, this strong 

 one giving a good yield of honey, while the part left from the 

 one giving strength to the united colony, is that which builds 

 the combs. 



In uniting, all the bees from hive No. 1 are taken to No. 

 2, except those which adhere to the frame which the queen is 

 on and the sides of the hive, so that hive No. 1 only contains 

 one comb of brood, the queen, and the bees which adhere to 

 the hive. An empty comb is now inserted by the side of the 

 only comb left, and a division-board adjusted to make a hive 

 holding just two combs. When the bees from the united col- 

 ony fly, the old bees taken on the frames of comb placed in No. 

 2 return to No. 1, so that wc have the two combs there, well 

 crowded with bees. This causes the queen to lay rapidly in 

 the empty comb given, which will be filled with eggs in two or 

 three days, at which time I put an empty frame between the 

 two full ones, as this little colony has no desire to swarm — or 

 for anything else, save to increase its number of worker-bees 

 as fast as possible— they go right to work and fill this frame 

 with as nice and straight worker-comb as ever was made where 

 foundation is used ; and this, too, when colonies having no 

 such desire, will be doing comparatively nothing at gathering 

 honey, or anything else. 



In about a week this comb is completed, when it is taken 

 out and given to some colony that needs just such a frame of 

 comb and brood, while another empty frame is given which is 

 again taken out when filled, and thus we keep on to the end of 

 the season, when several of these little colonies are united, so 

 as to form one good colony for winter. The extra queens are 

 sold or used in replacing poor ones. 



In this way I have gotten as high as 15 beautiful worker- 

 combs built by one of these little colonies in one season, and 

 all done by the bees which hatched from the two combs they 

 had to start with. 



Another way to make this little colony profitable is to use 

 it as above till I get ready to take away the first comb built, 



when, instead of taking it away I spread the three combs 

 apart and put two empty frames between them. In aboutten 

 days these will be filled, when two more empty frames are put 

 in, which will usually be filled with worker-comb, but not al- 

 ways ; for by this time they begin to get strong, when some 

 drone-comb may be built in the lower corners. When they 

 will not build worker-comb any longer, the hive is filled up 

 with worker-comb built by other little colonies, so that in the 

 fall I have a nice colony for wintering. 



If I do not wish to build the colony up for wintering as 

 above, or it gets ahead too fast, so it will be likely to swarm 

 and thus spoil my plans, I take all but one of its combs away 

 from it, being sure that the queen is left with the bees, also 

 leaving a comb that is completely filled with young brood, so 

 the bees will feel their need of looking out for worker-brood 

 again, when I insert four empty frames — two on either side of 

 the comb of brood left — when I get four nice combs again. 

 The secret of securing worker-comb built is in placing the bees 

 in such shape tha1i they will have no desire to swarm, but, on 

 the contrary, will feel poor, and look ahead to the supplying 

 of a force of worker-bees that they may be able to gather sus- 

 tenance for winter. 



As the united colony will give far more comb honey than 

 would either or both of the colonies if left separate, it will be 

 seen that we have made a gain in honey by this mode of pro- 

 cedure, and the combs we get are entire gain. Had we wished 

 to work for extracted honey instead of comb honey, we proba- 

 bly could have gotten more honey by allowing the two colonies 

 to have remained separate, still, in this case it would be 

 doubtful whether the two separate would have accumulated 

 much more than the united colony. 



There is now and then a colony which will think they 

 need some drone-comb under the circumstances given by the 

 last plan, and if it is found that they are building drone-comb 

 in either of the four frames, take away their frame of brood 

 and put a comb containing more or less drone-brood, in its 

 place, when they will cease to build anything but worker-comb. 



In these days when we are buying dollars, it is necessary 

 that we take advantage of all the little kinks in bee-culture 

 which will save us anything, for the times are against the pro- 

 ducers of wealth, and in favor of our money-kings. It takes 

 10 pounds of honey now to buy a dollar, while 314 pounds of 

 the same honey would buy the same dollar in the early 70's. 

 Therefore it behooves us to make the best possible use of the 

 dollars we buy, and not spend them for anything which we 

 can produce at a less cost than the purchase price would be. 



Borodino. N. Y. 



Keeping Empty Combs from Moths. 



BY C. DAVENPORT. 



Some time ago Mr. Demaree wanted different ones to give 

 their plan of keeping empty combs from being damaged by 

 moth-worms. I will describe the way I do this, and since I 

 have followed this plan it has been but very little trouble for 

 me to prevent moths from damaging empty combs, or those 

 filled or partly filled with honey, in spite of the fact that 

 moths are very bad and destructive during warm weather in 

 this locality. To me, moths seem to have very strange and 

 mysterious ways, and I don't know but those we have here 

 are different from those in other places, for I believe it has 

 often been said that if empty combs that are free of moth- 

 eggs, as well as moths, are put into a room or box in which 



