570 



's-'mm mmtrnmi^MM mmm jommnmiL. 



hausted. Reaching home on Aug. 2, 

 we found a swarm of bees hanging on 

 a tree, awaiting our arrival to care for 

 them. 



Bees, with us, did poorly until July 

 came in, and since they have been on 

 a boom. If the present prospect holds 

 out, we will have a fair crop of honey. 

 Cotton, peas and buckwheat are our 

 summer crop ; later comes sumac, 

 golden-rod, aster, and other fall 

 flowers. The aster especiallj' is a 

 never-failing crop here. 



Griffith, N. C, Aug. 4, 1890. 



COMB HONEY. 



management or Bees for Comb 

 Honey Production. 



Read at a Maine Convention 



BY CHAS. A. PRAY. 



I have used hives which take both 

 the Simplicity and the Gallup frame. 

 As to the size of the two frames, I 

 could not see any advantage one has 

 over the other, for I used them in bee- 

 houses, which, I think, are far morg 

 convenient than out-door hives at 

 present. 



All who have handled bees know, or 

 should know, that to get the most 

 honey, we want as many bees as pos- 

 sible at the lirst honey-flow, and to 

 prevent swarming as much as possible, 

 which this system, in a measure, will 

 overcome. In order to till our hives 

 with bees, we should see that they have 

 plenty of honej" in the hive, iu the 

 early spring. We should also stimu- 

 late them to brood-rearing bj' feeding, 

 by some of tlie mauj' ways familiar to 

 the apiarist. 



My Simplicity hives have ten frames. 

 The entrance to the hive is in one cor- 

 ner under the end of tlie frames, and is 

 six inches long bj' one-half inch wide. 

 I wish to have the ten frames full of 

 bees and hatching brood at the tin'ie of 

 the first honey-flow. My hives were so 

 arranged that when I put on sections, 

 the three frames to one side over the 

 entrance are not covered by the supers. 

 I now remove these other frames and 

 bees enough with them to take care of 

 the brood. These may be placed in 

 an emptj- hive, with frames from 

 other swarms, and may be given a 

 (jueen ; they will soon be read}' for the 

 sections, or they may be kept queen- 

 less until after the honey-flow is over, 

 and then be united with the old col- 

 onies. 



I place frames with narrow strips of 

 foundation in them in the space where 

 I have removed the frames of brood. 

 The bees will naturally begin to draw 

 this foundation out, as the hive is full 

 of brood, and no room for honey. As 



soon as thej- have comb enough iu 

 these frames, and begin to fill it with 

 lioney, I remove these frames, extract 

 the honey from them, cut out the 

 comb, and place the frames back. 

 Now this comb wliicli has been taken 

 from them, I cut in pieces the exact 

 size to fill the section. I use all the 

 comb I get during the season, which 

 will be quite a quantity, by placing it 

 in the sections, and putting them back 

 on the hives, to be mended up and 

 filled with honey for the surplus. If 

 they do not store comb enough in these 

 frames to keep the sections full, use 

 full sheets of foundation by all means. 

 The principle of this system is, that 

 by having plenty of room above in the 

 sections and at the side, over the en- 

 trance in these frames, we can control 

 swarming, and thereby get more 

 honey. I have run 200 colonies this 

 waj', with increase 'of only 5 swarms 

 by natural swarming. This has been 

 my experience in running bees for 

 comb honey in Colorado, by this sys- 

 tem, where I have produced 8 tons of 

 honey in one season. 



NEW YORK. 



Report as to tlie Sea§on and the 

 Honey Crop. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY C. V. LINDSEY. 



Since I commenced bee-keeping, 

 which was over 40 years ago, I have 

 never spared the time to report my 

 own or my neighbors' crops, but think- 

 ing that most of the reports published 

 in bee-papers misstate the amount of 

 this year's crop, also the losses of last 

 winter, I think that never since I com- 

 menced reading the reports, which 

 was some 17 years ago, have I felt so 

 inclined tovvards correcting erroneous 

 statements, especially of city dealers, 

 as at this time. 



I receive weekly prices from some 

 of the heaviest dealers in Bufi'alo, and 

 also from persons in other places, who 

 have learned my address somewhere, 

 as I always stamp all of my No. 1 

 honey, let it go where it will ; and I 

 have spent some time in gatliering 

 estimates, as the full and correct 

 amount of the crop cannot be com- 

 puted, as most bee-keepers have been 

 too busj" to harvest (from tlie liives, I 

 mean) the present crop. 



Commencing at home, I have secured 

 moi'e than an average crop ; others 

 near here report " light to fair." M. 

 Gillson, the next largest apiarist in 

 town, I'eports "fair." In towns east 

 of me, N. Huntington, E. L. Eighmy, 

 and Mr. Hurlburt report " light." At 

 Pearl Creek, Mr. Perkins says "fair." 

 Then iu Covington, Mr. Newman re- 



ports " very light ;" in Perry, Mr. 

 Benedict and Mr. Grisewood say 

 "light;" and iu Warsaw reports are 

 unfavorable. 



Now honey-dealers are misleading 

 their patrons by urging shipments, and 

 telling them the crop is heavy, I think, 

 and it should be corrected. 



The most of the above, report winter 

 losses from 10 to 75 per cent., es- 

 pecially those who wintered their bees 

 in cellars. Those who wintered bees 

 out-of-doors, well packed, sufi'ered but 

 little, and the bees came through 

 strong and healthy; but the spring 

 being late and backward, few swarms 

 issued before June 25, that being the 

 date of my first swarm. Then the 

 rush commenced, and continued for 

 three weeks. On July 13, the highest 

 was 14 swarms ; and they began to 

 decline, so that on July 18 closed the 

 busiest season I ever experienced, the 

 ba.sswood then being at its best, and 

 all hands started business in earnest. 



As I had become discouraged, I 

 started afresh, and mj' bees filled my 

 •' dishes" as fast as I could " set them 

 out," putting on 4,260 sections on June 

 25, and I continued as fast as other 

 business would allow. 



On July 26 I commenced taking oflf 

 honey, and found as many as 84 sec- 

 tions finished on a few of my best colo- 

 nies, and 56 on most of the rest, part 

 of them being new swarms, hived on 

 10 Langstroth frames on old stands. 



The prospect for a late crop is good, 

 but I think that tlie weather has most 

 to do with it, as there may be plenty, 

 and bad weather prevents the bees 

 from securing it. If the heart's-ease 

 and golden-rod yields enough to keep 

 the bees away from honej'-dew, or 

 "bug-juice," as some call it, who will 

 mourn ? 



Last 3-ear the late honey w-as fine, 

 and the hives were tilled without feed- 

 ing when preparing for winter. I 

 shook the bees from the combs of a 

 few uncertain colonies that had yielded 

 no surplus, and extracted the honey, 

 which was very fine. 



I packed most of my 122 colonies on 

 the summer stands, putting 29 into the 

 cellar under the living-rooms in the 

 house, on Dec. 12, and put them out 

 on April 16, seemingly as strong as 

 when put in ; but, lo ! the cold weather 

 proved too much, for most of them 

 dwindled to a handful or two. I 

 doubled some of them to save them, 

 but tliey never recovered to gather 

 over half as much as those left out. 



My 122 colonies were reduced to 

 121, spring count, but I doubled to 

 115, then increased to 158, and re- 

 turned about 100 swarms — some into 

 their own hives, and some into hives 

 casting swarms the day before. 

 Attica, N. Y., Aug. 11, 1890. 



