8o 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



March 



that more honey will be stored in the 

 brood chamber when same is furnished 

 with comb at the beginning. This is 

 desirable, for we don't care to bother 

 with feeding. Each colony must come 

 out of the campaign ready for winter, 

 though we may not obtain the greatest 

 possible amount of surplus. One of 

 my objects, anyway, is 'to obtain honey 

 for wintering, not only for the colonies 

 moved, but also such as were left in 

 the clover region and failed to get their 

 supply. Should I secure a surplus of 

 heavy buckwheat combs, containing 

 also pollen, I do not extract them, but 

 use them in exchanging heavy combs 

 filled with white honey from the colo- 

 nies left. While I don't think honey 

 extracted from the brood chamber is 

 of as fine flavor as honey obtained from 

 the clean combs of extracting supers, 

 still the article is good enough for ta- 

 ble use if we are not too exacting. It 

 is always of good body at the least, 

 and I find sale for it at a slightly re- 

 duced price. In order to obtain a good 

 lot of these heavy buckwheat combs, 

 I set apart a portion of the colonies 

 moved at the beginning. The hives 

 are not only filled with the brood 

 combs from the shaken colonies but 

 an extra set of them is given to each 

 over an excluder. While it may not 

 be necessary to make use of the ex- 

 cluder in this case I consider it safer 

 to do so. The combs are more apt 

 to be solidly filled with honey at the 

 close of the season. As the season ad- 

 vances it may even be necessary to 

 give an extra extracting super, should 

 the season be favorable. 



We must watch things and use our 

 best judgment. No two seasons are 

 exactly alike, and dififerent treatment 

 may be necessary in dififerent seasons. 

 I have found it profitable, for instance, 

 to shake a part of the tierdnip colonies 

 • — those which were not shaken at the 

 beginnmg of the buckwheat season — 

 about the time when the season was 

 nearly half over. This was done to 

 further decrease the stock. They were 

 shaken on half stories filled with comb 

 or with empty frames and run for 

 comb honey. Finally after the close of 

 the season their bees were used to 

 help up such colonies as proved too 

 light in bees for successful wintering. 

 They contained two pounds of bees 

 and were a welcome acquisition to col- 



onies that could not be expected to 

 winter when left on the summer stand. 

 This practice again gives us an oppor- 

 tunity to cull out undesirable or old 

 queens. It pre-supposes that the bee- 

 keeper has kept a record of his queens, 

 their age and qualities. 



Before settled cold weather comes 

 I make a practice of moving my bees 

 back to the home yard. I am trying 

 to winter a part of them in the out 

 yards according to the Arthur Miller 

 plan, wrapping up in tarred paper, upon 

 which I hope to report at some future 

 time. 



Naples, Ont., Co,, N. Y., Dec. 24, 1902, 



WAX PRODUCTION. 



Its Honey Cost, and Methods by Which it May 

 Be Ascertained. 



(Adrian Getaz), 



HOW many pounds of honey do the 

 bees use to produce one pound 

 of wax? 



That is the question which has been 

 agita,ted in the Revue Internationale 

 and in the Apiculteur for some time, 

 chiefly by Messrs. Sylviac and Alan- 

 jean. 



Experiments have also been made to 

 determine the ratio. All were made in 

 the same manner. A swarm either na- 

 tural Or artificial; I mean by "artificial"' 

 that which we would call "shaken 

 swarm," was weighed and hived. Three 

 days later, the combs built were cut 

 out and weighed. 



The assumption is that during these 

 three days, but little honey is brought 

 in, since there is no place to store it, 

 and it is supposed tha,t what may be 

 brought in, does not more than make 

 up for what the bees need to sustain 

 life. Therefore it may be assumed 

 ,that what honey they had in their stom- 

 achs when the swarm issued, represents 

 the quantity necessary to produce the 

 amount of wax found at the end of 

 three days. 



The correctness of the above as- 

 sumption has been contested. Quite a 

 discussion has also arisen as ,to whether 

 all the bees of the swarm took part in 

 the production of the wax or not, since 

 a portion of them are necessarily old 

 bees. To this it has been answered that 



