290 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 10, 1900. 



any. Those with old honey, especially if dark or candied, 

 just mark by an " X " or some simple pencil-mark on the top, 

 then when cleaning and casing- put them into culls or No. 2 

 grades. The baits often make two or three days to a week 

 of difference in the time that the colony will take to the 

 super, and that may make all the difference between swarm- 

 ing and not. Baits are of such importance in a weak flow, 

 and with the weaker colonies, that I would use them even 

 if the honey had to be extracted, the combs being dark or 

 otherwise off-grade. 



Once the super-work is begun, as soon as the first one 

 is one-fourth to three-fourths full, lift it and put a fresh one 

 under. Notice whether the flow is free or slow, and judge 

 about how soon the first super will be filled. I say filled, 

 not finisht. A super may be full, but not sealed, and when 

 full should be lifted and a new one put under. A colony 

 may, when strong and the flow free, fill two, or even three, 

 supers before the first is ready to come off. 



So I say, watch the rapidity of the flow, and how fast 

 the supers are being filled. If the gain is at the rate of five 

 or six pounds a day. a six-pound gain means about three to 

 four of honey ; six days would just about fill a super. If 

 the work is so rapid, do not wait until the first super is more 

 than one-fourth to one-half full before putting on the sec- 

 ond. With a much slower flow wait until the first is two- 

 thirds to three-fourths full. 



Sometimes it is best to put the fresh one on top of the 

 other. The flow may be slow and the weather very hot. If 

 the filling is going on tediouslike, and at the same time the 

 heat drives the bees out, put the fresh super on top, if there 

 seems to be probable need of another on at all. A colony 

 will pass thru the full one to the top to work if there is 

 need, yet the full super being below and nearest the brood- 

 chamber, they will complete it even if an emptj' is above. 

 Just how freely a colony will pass thru a full or nearly full 

 super to an empty above, depends on the strength of the 

 colony, the freeness of the flow, and the temperature. 



At the first end of the flow I take more risk of getting 

 too much room, particularly putting empty supers under 

 ones partly workt, because the tendency to the swarming- 

 fever is very much greater at that time, and I give the room 

 and put the partlj' workt super on top to stretch the colony 

 and relieve the brood-nest. After the flow has been on tiuo 

 weeks or more, the bees seem to forget about swarming and 

 push the honey-business, and then they will stand more 

 crowding than before. 



Another object in placing the empty super on top, is 

 that the other will be filled more compact and even. Should 

 we stretch the colony too much by putting empties under 

 partly filled, we are liable to get a lot of light-weight sec- 

 tions, and also poorU' attacht to the wood. A colony work- 

 ing up thru the nearly full one to an empty, will almost in- 

 variably finish that full one well, that is, fill the sections 

 />/«?«/>, if there is a flow sufficient to induce them to work 

 that upper one at all. They should be watcht, and as soon 

 as the lower super is filled ready to seal, raise it to the top 

 so they will not travel over it so much while sealing. Then, 

 too, the closer the sections are to the brood while being 

 sealed, the more likely to mix old, dark wax in the cap- 

 pings. Also, right at the top I suspect is the better place 

 to ripen the honey, because of the heat. 



When the flow is coming to a close, is the time to use 

 the greatest care about stretching too much, and having a 

 lot of unfinisht sections. The best we can do will usually 

 leave us quite a lot of unfinisht — such I use for baits the 

 next year. If by close watching I can judge of the flow, I 

 time the super arrangement so that the last super is workt 

 up thru the next to the last one put on, until the latter is 

 ready to seal, when it should be raised. If there is a time 

 that the colony will stand crowding, it is at the close of the 

 flow. Then is the time to disregard the lying out of the 

 bees, and crowd them so they will finish the last plump. 



Just at this stage is another place that a strong colony 

 shows its superiority. Having kept them pretty well 

 crowded the latter part of the flow, they naturally have the 

 brood-combs pretty well packt with honey, and the last few 

 days, when the flow is " tapering off," they will move up 

 some of the honey to make room for breeding, and so help 

 finish the sections. 



But how may we tell of the rapidity of the flow ? The 

 best way to do this is to keep a colony or two on scales, and 

 weigh daily. By so doing you come very near knowing 

 just to the day when the flow starts and stops, and its 

 variations. The ups and downs of the super-work will not 

 tally exactly with the scale tally. The scales will show 

 two, even three or more, days of nice gain before the supers 



do, and likewise the super work will continue proportion- 

 ately beyond the gain shown by the scale record. 



The nectar, when first brought in, is mostly retained in 

 the honey-sacs for ripening, being unloaded very unripe 

 only when the supply is so great they can not hold it all. 

 From the time in the morning that enough nectar is 

 brought in to load the sacs of the inside workers, all the 

 rest of the day the bees are carrying around their loads of 

 nectar. If it comes in too fast for them, they stick it in 

 wherever there is an empty cell, often putting small drops 

 here and there (everywhere) about the combs where there is 

 a little cup or cavity that will hold a drop, later gathering 

 it up and storing it regularly where wanted. Thus it hap- 

 pens that for one or two days, and to some extent for three 

 or four days, after the flow has practically ceast, the work 

 goes on in the sections. Honey in full cells down close to 

 the entrance, and in parts of the hive where it is in the way 

 of breeding and pollen storage, is removed to the sections. 

 Don't you see how you can soon make a cheap scale pay for 

 itself —one of the S2.S0 to $3.50 kind sold by supply dealers ? 



L,arimerCo., Colo. 



What Should Hives Be Placed On ? 



BY J. I,. STRONG. 



WHEN I first began bee-keeping, more than 30 years 

 ago, I thought two bricks good enough to set a hive 

 on — one under the front end of the old-style Lang- 

 stroth hive, and the other under the rear. The first was 

 laid flat on the ground, and the other on edge, to give the 

 required slant to keep the entrance dry. This did very well 

 for a few hives, but when I had 50 or more I wanted some- 

 thing better, so I tried stakes driven in the ground. To do 

 this quickly, and have the stakes just where j'ou want 

 them, make a frame large enough to go over the hive with- 

 out touchiiag. Drive a stake in each corner of the frame, 

 and you have a stand that is easily leveled, and will be good 

 until the stakes rot. The rotting of the stakes is the only 

 trouble with the plan. 



I next procured 100 tiles. Those with a piece broken 

 out of one end are just as good as any, and cost little or 

 nothing at the factory. I soon had 25 hives sitting on them, 

 with no great amount of work — much less than would be 

 required to replace the stakes when rotten for ten years, 

 unless more lasting wood was used than I have usually had. 



In the spring of 1899 I found some stakes broken off, 

 and having nothing suitable for stakes, I was looking for 

 something when I came across some long-neck bottles that 

 had been in the way for some time. The thought came to 

 me that they would be just what I was looking for. So I 

 put the long neck of the bottle in place of the rotten stake, 

 thus accomplishing a double purpose — getting rid of the 

 bottles and making a permanent stand for my hives. 



This pleased me so well that I began to wonder how I 

 could get as many as I would want. I accordingly offered a 

 boy five cents per dozen for long bottles. They began to 

 come in by the dozen in baskets, in little wagons and other 

 ways until I will have all I want, notwithstanding the fact 

 that I will put out 150 additional nuclei, and set them all on 

 bottles, as I think them the cheapest and best of anything 

 that I can get. 



In the spring of 1899 I found my bees in fair condition, 

 having wintered them in cellars. The season, tho late, was 

 quite favorable after April 10. They increast in bees and 

 brood, and gathered honey nicely until the latter part of 

 June, when the dry weather checkt the bloom, and honey 

 came in very slowU' for the balance of the season ; altho 

 there was enough gathered to keep robbet-bees from being 

 troublesome. 



My 100 colonies are now in fine condition, as nice and 

 clean as when they were put in Nov. 11, 1899, about two 

 weeks earlier than they are usually put in the cellar. 



QUBEN REARING AND FERTILIZ.\TION. 



Can queens be fertilized above a queen-excluding honey- 

 board while a queen is laying below ? 



In 1893 I procured Doolittle's " Scientific Queen-Rear- 

 ing," having been much interested in what had been pre- 

 viously publisht in the papers on that subject; and espe- 

 cially on the advantage of superseding a queen at p!easure, 

 without the trouble of hunting and destroying the old 

 queen below. But after repeated trials I have nothing but 

 failure to report. The bees would accept and build out the 

 cells in an upper story, and the queens hatcht as I expected 



