AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Topics ol Interest. 



Hot to Ds^iBty Conil]. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



There is a right and wrong way to do 

 almost everything, and the reason why 

 some men succeed well at a business 

 while others fail, is because the success- 

 ful ones take hold of the matter m the 



richt way. i 



Some bee-keepers do not seem to 

 succeed in using empty combs, when 

 hiving new swarms on them, and seem 

 to th'nk that those who recommend such 

 procedure arc nearly, if not quite, in- 

 sane. A correspondent writes : 



"l have abandoned hiving swarms 

 upon empty combs, as the bees w, 1 fi I 

 the combs with honey in a few days 

 filling them so full that the queens find 

 but IHtle room to lay ; then they loaf a 

 long time before commencing work in 

 the sections, and when they do finally 

 begin, it is in a slow, easy sort of way. 



As I have used empty combs to hive 

 prime swarms upon many tmies and 

 That with good results, it is evident that 

 there must be a right and a wrong way 

 to use empty combs, when working for 

 comb-honey with prime swarms. 



When a prime swarm leaves its oia 

 home, the queen going with such' swarm 

 is not in a condition for rapid egg- aying 

 until the swarm has been hived long 

 enough for the bees to get under full 

 headway building comb; as this is one 

 of the laws which governed them before 

 thev were domesticated by man, hence, 

 if a full hive of empty comb is given 

 such a swann, the first thing the bees 

 will do is to fill it with honey, no matter 

 how few or how many sections are given, 

 for the bees have room in this brood- 

 chamber for all of their immediate 



^ H wo extract from these combs we do 



not materially help the matter, except 



to giv(>. a little more room for the queen ; 



for after extracting, the first instinct of 



the bees is to fill those empty cells 



again, instead of leaving an empty lot 



of comb in the brood-chamber, to go to 



work in the sections. Thus wo secure 



onlv a little extracted-honey for our 



trouble, while two such extractings will 



effectually exclude all honey froin the 



sections ; and not to extract, is near y as 



bad, for aft..r once filling the combs in 



the brood-chamber, with sealed honey 



instead of brood, the bees are always 



loth to enter the sections ; for the i easoi 

 I first gave, which is, that they feel that 

 all their wants are well supplied. 



Now the trouble with my correspon- 

 dent was in giving the bees too many 

 combs. By so doing, the bees found 

 room to occupy all their forces "the 

 brood-chamber, while if only one-half or 

 one-third as many had been given, the 

 bees, not being able to cluster and work 

 on these combs, would have immediately 

 gone into the sections, and gone to work 

 !here. Having thus at once started n 

 the sections, the little honey stored n 

 the few combs below will be carried to 

 the sections as fast as tjiequeen needs 

 room for egg-laying, and the result with 

 me always is, that at the end of lo days 

 Som the time of hiving, the sections are 

 well filled with honey, and the combs be- 

 low are a solid mass of brood, except a 

 little pollen and honey in the extreme 

 upper corners of the frames. 



The oblect should be in all cases, 

 whether we use combs, f^f ™^^\f, J^""; 

 dation, or empty frames, to get the bees 

 to work in the sections immediately 

 upon being hived. I use six Gallup 

 Ses of comb (equal to five Langstroth 

 frames) for the very largest swarms, 

 while others have but four or five, ac- 

 cording to the size of the swarm to be 

 Sved, and in this way I always secure 

 good results. . 



One of the secrets of securing plenty 

 of comb-honey, is to have the sections 

 iust as near the brood as possible ; and 

 any plan which allows of one or more 

 inches of sealed honey between the 

 brood and the sections, at the beginning 

 of the honey harvest, is certainly de- 

 fective. f...i,noe 

 In hiving swarms on empty fiaines, 

 with the sections filled with foundation, 

 as our correspondent says he "O^ does 

 places his bees in th(^ right Position to 

 comply with the above secret, wh.l with 

 the hive full of empty comb the condi- 

 tion was exactly the revcTse. 



Another thing : While it is almost 



necessary to furnish a full sheet of comb 



foundation' for every section when a 



swarm is so hived, such foundation s 



often as good as thrown away while 



working with combs as I b^ve outlined 



for I have repeatedly had sections fi led 



and .'ompleted which contained only a 



small starter of natural comb, as Q'"^'!<'y 



as those filled with foundation standing 



by their side, while an ex^^";";f J'.'*" ?! 



these latter sections showc^d that sa a 



foundation had not been touched, except 



as th(^ bees addcnl their wax to it. Now, 



why was this? 



