196 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



o^mctlomic 



BY E. D. TOWNSEND. 



MANY bee-keepers, having- a large 

 and successful experience with 

 natural swarming, getting good, pay- 

 ing crops of comb honey, seem to make 

 a failure of the brushed or shook- 

 swarm system; as we practice both 

 natural and shook-swarming, and can 

 see no difference in results, we pro- 

 bably can do no better, under the cir- 

 comstances, than to describe our meth- 

 od; and what is said will apply to 

 both natural and brushed swarms. 



IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES IN COMB 

 HONEY PRODUCTION. 



The first principle in the production 

 of comb honey is to so arrange the 

 super that it will be more attractive to 

 the bees than the hive proper. To il- 

 lustrate what is meant we will ar- 

 range a hive in the most likely way 

 not to get a crop of comb honey, and 

 then gradually change it around to 

 the most desirable condition. 



The first condition would be a 10- 

 frame Langstroth hive full of combs, 

 furnished with a super having only 

 half inch starters of foundation in 

 the sections. Results: Hive nearlj' full 

 of honey, and a little brood, founda- 

 tion partly gnawed out of the sections, 

 then, swarming. 



The next failure-plan would be to 

 substitute foundation for the combs. 

 Results, the same. Third, starters of 

 foundation in both brood-nest and 

 sections. Results: About 25 per 

 cent, of the swarms might make a 

 super of comb honey, each. 



The next progressive step would be 

 to use full sheets of foundation in the 

 sections, with starters only in brood- 

 frames; then, if the super could have 

 a section of drawn comb in each corner. 



and, in four days, if all of the combs 

 in the brood-nest, except five of the 

 most advanced ones, were removed, 

 and division boards or "dummies" 

 put in to shut off this unused space, 

 the principle would be the same as I 

 shall hereafter describe; only I shall 

 use the sectional hive to accomplish 

 this result. 



The reader will please bear in 

 mind that swarms hived in the full 

 10-frame hives, like the first four 

 mentioned, have all the room they 

 need without going into the sections, 

 that bees prefer to work in tlie brood- 

 frames, rather than in the sections, 

 that the first three were arranged in 

 the very best possible condition to get 

 all the work done in the brood-frames, 

 that in the fourth the attractions of 

 the brood-nest and super were about 

 equal, and, with fair management, a 

 fair crop of surplus honey ought to be 

 secured, that in the fifth a new condi- 

 tion is brought forth, viz, contraction 

 of the brood-nest, ih.n% Jorcing the bees 

 into the supers. With this new con- 

 dition our preference would be to have 

 things exactly opposite to the first 

 three; that is, we would place worker- 

 combs first, foundation second, and 

 starters last. 



The last named system is the one 

 we have adopted, only we think we 

 can get better results with the section- 

 al brood-nest, and, at the same time, 

 do the work very much better, and 

 more cheaply. 



At our first visit we put supers of 

 sections on all swarms that we think 

 will need more room during the next 

 week; as this visit is usually two or 

 three days before the season is sup- 

 posed to open. If we have everything 



