March 29, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



195 



cheaper than quotations. One chap of this class lost 

 enough this year in that way to pay for a bee-journal for 7.S 

 years. 



Say, Mr. Editor, can't you think of some way to get 

 people who frequent saloons to take honey in place of 

 " booze ?" Great Scott ! what a market that would open up. 

 One man said that if I would bring around honey in a jug- 

 or beer-keg, "so as to look kinder nateral," I might sell 

 lots of it. He did not label his remark " sarkasm," as Josh 

 Billings did, but it sounded that way a bit. 



" Why is honey so seldom seen on restaurant tables ?" 

 I askt of the cashier where I took lunch. He was a roly- 

 poly Dutchman, and smiled at me in stupid tolerance. 

 Showing him a sample of as fine extracted honey as one 

 could ask for, and getting him to taste it, I actually im- 

 agined I had created a favorable impression. He took a 

 liberal taste, then smiled in his broad, stupid way, and 

 muttered, " Glooco — all glooco. Dot real honeey is in 

 leedle comb-cells — never coom loose like dot. Dey don't 

 got him oudt onct yet." I went away from there. Ivife is 

 so short to post up a// these poor human critters who never 

 heard of an extractor. 



That makes me think, Mr. Editor, that your lecturing 

 before the schools has been followed up by Mr. Hershiser, 

 of Buffalo, who was engaged by the school board to give a 

 series of lectures before different schools in that city. Why 

 can't you persuade that exceedingly modest lawyer bee- 

 keeper to write up that experience lor the benefit of a/l 

 bee-keepers ? He said : " Oh, I am not given to tooting my 

 own horn," when I askt him to tell us his methods, conclu- 

 sions and impressions of that way of educating the coming 

 citizen to eat honey. 



In a small grocery an old lady was the only occupant 

 that I saw, so I askt her if she kept honey in stock for sale. 

 She replied, "We do;" while a loud voice from behind a 

 pile of flour, in unmistakable Kilkenny accents, says, "/do." 

 He had plenty of honey on hand — that nice clear " honey " 

 in tumblers, with a piece of comb in it, which never granu- 

 lates, and sells cheap — and he knew it was pure honey, for 

 he went to his wholesaler and saw him take the honey right 

 out of the combs, and if I would go I could see them do it 

 every day in the year ! How does that strike you, Mr. Edi- 

 tor ? Extracting honey in a wholesale grocery house in 

 February, thermometer down to zero ! But I accepted the 

 gentleman's statement, and moved on, searching after more 

 advertisers in the same line. 



The pureJfood law may help out some if a determined 

 effort is made by somebody to enforce it ; but who is that 

 somebody ? And is it likely to prove a boomerang, by 

 frightening grocers into refusing to sell anybody's honey, 

 under any circumstances ? 



The problem of getting honey to the consumer at a 

 price which will make it a competitor of sugar and syrup, 

 has so many factors to it that a solution seems far in the 

 future, if it is ever accomplisht at all. 



NO. 4.— COMB HONEY PRODUCTION. 



Putting- on Supers — Clipping- Queens — Ag-e Limit 



— Controlling- Swarming-— Crowding- the 



Brood-Nest. 



BY R. C. AIKIN. 



WE have considered methods of encouraging breeding, 

 and of getting the brood in the best shape and posi- 

 tion in the hive. Following the lines indicated will 

 have each queen produce almost as many bees as she could 

 well do, tho there will almost always be a few colonies that 

 become so weak in winter as to be unable to build up to 

 good ones. If care has not been taken to supersede aged 

 and weak queens, such will cause a few additional weak 

 colonies. 



As the flow is just ready to begin, or has begun, the 

 colonies that are to store the surplus must be prepared and 

 supers put on. We have come to a time when we do not 

 care for very free laying by the queen, unless there be a 

 second flow. If the crop is to come from one flow, and that 

 only, no attention need be given to increasing brood when 

 once the flow has arrived, but instead turn all effort to get- 

 ting the most honey possible. 



Every colony that works in sections must be strong. I 

 would select those that are already strong enough to work 

 in supers, and give them their supers first. Those that are 

 almost strong enough I would help up by adding bees from 



a weaker one, taking from the weak one both brood and 

 bees, leaving only enough bees to care for brood as the 

 queen will lay. In selecting the brood to take, pick out 

 much ripe brood, or that which will give to the colony to 

 which it is to be added the greatest number of workers in 

 the shortest time. In this way unite and build up to super 

 strength as many as possible, the weak ones being left to 

 build up again to full colonies. 



I favor the practice of clipping the queens — I clip and 

 recommend it. That is a job best done in the spring, or 

 early enough to have done with it before the colonies be- 

 come very strong. Clipping serves us in several ways : It 

 gives the apiarist somewhat more liberty, for he can feel 

 that if he must be absent,awhile, and a swarm issues, it is 

 not lost (the loss of a queen at this time is unimportant ; it 

 occurs when there are hundreds of good young queens going 

 to waste ; it is practically no loss unless brood is wanted 

 for a later flow). As soon as a swarm issues provision is 

 made to let them hive themselves as the apiarist may wish, 

 and they will return and enter a hive much quicker, and 

 with much less labor, than if hived by taking from a tree' 

 or other clustering-place ; and also there is much advantage 

 in keeping track of the age of queens. 



It is almost impossible to know how old a queen is un- 

 less dipt. The practice of clipping gives the apiarist an 

 insight into the age limit and supersedure methods of the 

 bees, that he would scarcely get in any other way. Of 

 course, a record is a part of the system — should be of any 

 system. 



In the years gone by much has been written at times 

 about clipping queens and how it damaged them, of how 

 they were more apt to be superseded, etc. Now I have 

 handled hundreds upon hundreds, yes thousands, both dipt 

 and unclipt, practicing methods that required much close 

 inspection of the internal working of the colony, and surely 

 if clipping caused damage to queens and undue supersed- 

 ing, I ought to have found it out. I have found out much 

 about conditions that favor superseding, but those dipt do 

 service just as unclipt, and so long as they are good. 



Well-bred queens are good for two full years' work, and 

 the great majority for the third year. A queen hatcht in 

 the early part of the season, so that the year of her hatch- 

 ing she does much breeding, is aged and very uncertain her 

 third summer. Hatcht in mid or late summer she will com- 

 plete that year, all the next, and make a good colony for 

 the next honey season after that, when she ought to be 

 superseded. Don't expect a queen to do more than two 

 hard summers' service. Many will be good for longer, but 

 enough will not to make it unprofitable to risk keeping 

 longer. 



Having reacht the active season when supers are on the 

 strong, and those that have been helpt to proper strength, 

 the next great care is to keep the honey-gathering going, 

 and not too much swarming. Here comes the place that of 

 all the season requires skill, prompt and intelligent work. 

 If you have failed in getting the colony to proper strength, 

 you can partially remedy the matter by uniting, but if you 

 fail in handling the work properly in the storing of the sur- 

 plus, you have a poor product that can never be remedied. 

 To fail in getting strong colonies is to lessen the quantity 

 of the crop, and to fail in management when the harvest is 

 on is to damage the quality and lessen the price. 



As already taught in these articles, some things help to 

 keep down the swarming-fever, and having practiced these, 

 and natural conditions favor you besides, you should be 

 able to run for 10 days to 2 weeks of a flow with very few 

 swarms ; but if general conditions have been favorable to 

 swarming, you may expect wholesale swarming almost 

 simultaneous with the coming of the flow unless you have 

 striven against it. I am so successful now in the preven- 

 tive measures taught hereinbefore, that Tcan usually de- 

 pend upon a week to 10 days of a flow with a very few if any 

 swarms any season. 



I have never been in the basswood regions, nor experi- 

 enced more than a very limited flow from this source, but I 

 gather from reading that a basswood flow lasts only from 

 one to two weeks. Any honey-flow that is harvested in 

 two weeks' time ought to be, and can be, manage with very 

 little swarming. Flows lasting longer than two weeks are 

 more difficult to handle successfully. Remember this, pre- 

 vious management of the colony has much to do with control- 

 ling swarming, and to control swarming means much in 

 both quantity and finish of the honey. 



Never allow a colony to become crowded in the brood- 

 chamber. This may result from various causes. A colony 

 that has just enough bees to nicely handle the brood-cham- 

 ber and send out a reasonable field-force, will crowd the 



