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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 29, 190S 



your hive do it as quietly as you can, avoid- 

 ing any sudden 1ar — anything that will alarm 

 the bees and set them to running. This cau- 

 tion is more applicable to black bees than to 

 Italians. 



Remove the first frame, the one nearest you, 

 and glance at each side of the frame for the 

 queen. She is not very likely to be on the 

 first frame, although you will sometimes find 



wait an hour or so or till another day. Even 

 if the bees remain quiet, if you do not find 

 her upon the first or second time going over, 

 it may be economy to wait till another time, 

 when she may be found very promptly. There 

 are special ways of proceeding when a queen 

 must be found at once, as by sifting the bees 

 through an excluder, putting the combs in 

 pairs, etc., but I have given you just the 



TOP AND BOTTOM STARTERS IN A SECTION 



her there. Set this frame down outside the I 

 hive; this will give you room to handle the 

 rest of the frames easily. Lift out the next 

 frame and examine it, first looking over the 

 farther side of the frame, as the queen nat- 

 urally inclines to get away from the light. 

 Continue thus with all the frames, moving 

 them towards you as you return them. You 

 will most likely find her the first time going 

 over the frames, but if you miss her repeat 

 the process, unless you have been so unfortu- 

 nate as to start the bees running, in which 

 case you will do best to close the hive and 



every-day plan by which I find queens by the 

 hundreds. 



The bees will fill a section with almost any 

 kind of a starter, but after more experience 

 you will probably prefer to have the section 

 as full as possible of foundation. 



If comb honey is to be shipped to market it 

 is very desirable to have the comb well fast- 

 ened at the bottom of the section. In order 

 to secure this we use a bottom starter j'^-inch 

 deep and 3', wide. The top starter is SJi,' 

 inches deep and 3,'„ wide. The picture of a 

 section thus filled is shown herewith. 



tr 



K-. 



4- Some (Expert ©pinion ^- 



^'^ 



J 



What Proportion of Comb Sealed 

 Before Extracting? 



Ques. 27— What proportiuii of an extract- 

 ing comb is it advisable to Tiiive sealed before ex- 

 tracting f 



Mrs. J. M.NuLL (Mo.)— Fully three-fourths. 



S. T. Pettit (Ont.)— All, or very nearly so. 



Eugene Secor (Iowa) -Practically all of it. 



R. C. AiKiN (Colo.)— Three-fourths to all. 



Morgan Bros. (8. Dak.)— At least three- 

 fourths. 



L. Stachelhadsen (Tex.)— At least three- 

 fourths. 



Dr. J. P. H. Brown (Ga.)— I prefer to have 

 the combs sealed fully one-half. 



Dr. C. C. Miller (111.)— It probably pays 

 to have 95 percent of the surface sealed. 



Rev. M. Mahin (Ind.)— I prefer to have it 

 all sealed, or nearly all. The more the better. 



Wm. McEvoy (Ont.)— Three-fourths to all 

 from clover. All if from basswood or buck- 

 wheat. 



E. Whitcomb (Nebr.)— If you desire good, 

 well-ripened honey at least two-thirds of the 

 comb should be sealed. 



C. P. Dadant (111.)— Sealing has but little 

 to do with ripening. See whether the honey 

 is thick or thin, and act accordingly. 



N. E. France (Wis.)— That depends upon 

 the weather. As a rule, the more sealed the I 



better is the honey. Unripe honey is one of 

 the causes of low prices. 



Arthur C. Miller (R. I.)— Seven-eighths, 

 at least. But honeys and climates make a 

 great difference. 



Jas. a. Stone (111.)— About all, or the 

 honey will be thin and not keep well unless 

 ripened by ventilation in a warm, dry place. 



G. M. Doolittle (N. Y.)— The whole un- 

 less artificial evaporation is practiced. If left 

 on the hive 3 weeks after sealing the honey is 

 all the better. 



Prof. A. J. Cook (Calif.)— It is better that 

 it be pretty well capped over. That is always 

 safe. To market any but fully ripe honey is 

 always a mistake. 



C. Davenport (Minn.) —Two-thirds or 

 more, as a rule. But I have known combs to 

 be nearly all sealed when the honey was thin 

 and unfit to extract. 



Adrian Getaz (Tenn.)— Enough to make 

 sure that the whole is sufiicienily ripe. I 

 should guess not lest, than one-third under 

 ordinary circumstances. 



C. H. Dibbebn (11! )— In a warm, dry 

 time, when the honey is quite thick, I should 

 not care much if it was capped or not; while 

 in a wet time I should want it all capped. 



J. A. Green (Colo.)— I prefer to have it all 

 sealed. In a dry climate like that of Colo- 

 rado, good honey mav be secured without 

 waiting for it to be sealed, but I doubt if 

 much is gained by extracting sooner. 



R. L. Taylor (Mich.)— That depends. If 

 nectar is coming in rapidly it ought to bg 



mostly capped; if slowly, it may be good 

 honey before much capping is done. Some- 

 thing depends, too, upon the condition of the 

 nectar, owing to the degree of moisture in the 

 atmosphere. 



O. O. Poppleton (Fla.) — This depends. 

 Some honeys never get properly ripened even 

 if all sealed and left in the hive for months. 

 Other kinds are well ripened as soon as any is 

 sealed. As a usual thing, however, except in 

 extreme cases, at least ^l of the comb should 

 be sealed. More is better. 



P. H. Elwood (N. Y.)— The more the bet- 

 ter. You get the best quality for table use by 

 leaving it on until the end of the flow. When 

 it is not possible to do this extract when 

 fairly well ripened— it may be when bees have 

 just nicely commenced to seal, depending 

 largely upon the weather. 



E. D. Townsend (Mich.) — Our practice is 

 to keep adding upper stories as they are 

 needed clear through the season, then extract 

 10 days or 3 weeks after the season closes. In 

 this way we get say SO percent sealed before 

 extracting. Even with this late extracting 

 the sealed honey is very much superior to the 

 unsealed. 



J. M. Hambaugh (Calif.)— This depends 

 upon the kind of honey. Linden or basswood 

 honey should be sealed almost entire, while 

 clover, Spanish-needle and many other kinds 

 will not require so thorough sealing. The 

 sages herein California, and alfalfa in Nevada, 

 require but little sealing, at least that is my 

 experience. The condition of the atmosphere 

 plays an important part. 



E. S. LovESY (Utah) — If it is very thin it 

 is best to leave it on till it is capped and 

 ripened, but there are times when it is thick 

 and ripe when the bee-keeper doesn't need to 

 wait for it to be capped ; while it will improve 

 any and all honey to settle it in an open tank 

 before canning. Thin honey, which may 

 otherwise turn sour, will, as a rule, ripen all 

 right if left in an open tank for a month, then 

 the scum and all foreign matter should be 

 skimmed off before canning. 



G W. Demaree (Ky.) — It depends upon the 

 condition of the nectar when gathered by the 

 bees. If the weather conditions are such as 

 to favor the bees with good, " thick " nectar, 

 a strip unsealed at the bottom of a part of 

 the combs does not injure the quality of the 

 honey. A good judge of the quality of honey 

 need not make any mistake along this line. 

 In the past few days I opened a jar of honey 

 that was produced in the famous honey year, 

 1883— over 31 years ago — and it is as fine 

 honey as was ever spread on bread. 



E. E. Hasty (Ohio) — As a matter of choice 

 it would be advisable to have it all sealed. If 

 we extract mainly at the close of the season — 

 and also in mid-season if we use combs 

 enough, properly arranged — it is often pos- 

 sible to make a cheerful approximation to this 

 ideal. Under some circumstances honey 

 much less than half sealed may be nearly or 

 quite as good as any. Something must be 

 conceded to the impossibility of doing just 

 what we desire; but a proper system and 

 proper forethought would for the most part 

 keep us out of such impossibilities. One of 

 the worst things in connection with our craft 

 is the wide-spread disposition to stretch terms 

 and provisos and extract honey in a dread- 

 fully unfit condition. 



An Impromptu Sermon on Bees 



The Rev. Dr. Linklater, of Stroud Green, 

 who was the special preacher at Chaldron 

 Church on Sunday, was driven from the pul- 

 pit by a swarm of bees which had taken 

 possession of the nearest window. 



From the lectern Dr. Linklater addressed 

 the congregation on the subject of the in- 

 trusion of the bees, instead of preaching from 

 the te.xt he had selected. 



Let them preach the sermon, he said, 

 pointing to the bees. Watch them. They 

 want to escape to the fields and flowers, to 

 their home and honey, and the way is open, 

 and manifest to all who look on. There 15 

 the aperture — the window wide and open, 

 and nothing to prevent them escaping to the 



