178 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



If he has a friend that he believes to 

 be competent, he is welcome to de- 

 scribe his capabilities. 



A System of Comb Honey Production. 



To the veterans there may be noth- 

 ing- new in what I am about to tell, 

 but the beg-inner may g^et some hints. 

 The system that I am about to describe 

 is one that I followed for years, hence 

 it will be practice instead of theory 

 that will be g-iven. 



When the j'ield comes on from white 

 clover, the brood nests become crowded, 

 and the bees begin to whiten the upper 

 edg-es of their combs with new wax, I 

 put on the supers with bait sections 

 saved over from the previous year. As 

 soon as the first super is from one-half 

 to two-thirds full, I raise it and put 

 under it another super with sections 

 full of foundation. When the super 

 last added is about half completed, I 

 raise both supers and put another next 

 the hive. Usuallj-, by the time the 

 third super is half full, the top one is 

 finished, or sufficiently so to be taken 

 off. I would remove it even if one or 

 two sections in each corner were not 

 quite complete. These partly finished 

 sections I would put into a super until 

 I had one full, when I would give it 

 back to the bees. With the Townsend 

 method described in the Extracted De- 

 partments there would probably be no 

 unfinished sections on the outside, be- 

 cause the outside combs would be ex- 

 tracting- combs. This method of tier- 

 ing- up is continued until the end of the 

 season. As the season draws to a 

 close, I am careful about g-iving too 

 much super-room. If I feel that a 

 colony oug-ht to have more room, I put 

 another super on top. The bees will 

 go on and complete the sections next 

 the hive, just about the same as though 

 the super had not been added on ton, 

 and, if the flow does continue, it will 

 overflow into this upper super. 



When a colon3' swarms it is hived in 

 a contracted brood nest, upon the old 



stand, and the supers transferred from 

 the old hive to the new. Onl}' five 

 Langstroth frames are used in the 

 brood nest, or only one section of the 

 Heddon hive, and starters only are used 

 in the frames, a queen excluder keep- 

 ing the queen out of the sections. If 

 such severe contraction causes swarm- 

 ing out, I give a full sized brood nest 

 for three or four days until the swarm- 

 ing fever has worn off, when the con- 

 traction is put in force. The old col- 

 on}' is placed by the side of the swarm 

 for a week and then moved to a new 

 location. Usuall}' this prevents after- 

 swarms, and helps to boom the colony 

 where the sections are. If the swarm 

 comes off early in the season, it is pos- 

 sible that the old colony will store 

 some surplus, otherwise it becomes a 

 most excellent colony for wintering, 

 having abundance of good stores, and 

 a young, vigorous queen. 



At the end of the sea.sou I unite the 

 colonies that have been contracted. In 

 this way, we get one colony of increase 

 from two colonies, get all of the white 

 honej' in the supers where it cnn be 

 sold at the highest price. I would like 

 to have my readers criticise this plan. 



■ »• Mfi-a'tPt 



The Pay and Powers of In'^pectors of 

 Apiaries. 



It is very seldom that I have occa- 

 sion to disagree with the American Bee- 

 Keeper, but I must take issue with it 

 to a certain extent in its upholding of 

 Governor Folk in his veto of Missouri's 

 foul brood bill. The Governor objected 

 to the powers to be conferred upon the 

 Inspector, allowing him to destro}' 

 colonies if he deemed it best; he also 

 hinted that $4.00 a day was pretty big 

 pay for such work. I agree with the 

 Bee-Keeper that "many of the men who 

 are itching for the post of Inspector 

 can not earn an}' where near $4.00 a 

 da}'," and I ahso agree that some of the 

 laws do not sufficientl}' safeguard the 

 appointment of a competent man for 



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