182 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



ting on of a shallow super of extract- 

 ing combs at the opening of the season. 

 Once more, at the Northern Michigan 

 convention, held at Central Lake, Mr. 

 Townsend explained the system to the 

 convention. Still, it seemed no better 

 to me than putting on a shallow ex- 

 tracting super first. Now, after read- 

 ing an article on the subject, that he 

 contributes to Gleanings, I can begin 

 to see what appear like advantages 

 over simply using an extracting super 

 first. Instead of calling attention to 

 those points, I think I had better copy 

 the article entire. Mr. Townsend 

 says: — 



I think I have something good for the 

 readers of Gleanings. It did not orig- 

 inate with me. so you see if I should 

 get enthusiastic before I am through, 

 and paint the idea a little ros3', I can 

 not be accused of lauding my own ideas. 

 The credit belongs to that veteran bee- 

 keeper, Mr. O. H. Townsend, of 

 Otsego, Mich., and was given to me 

 between sessions of our Michigan State 

 Convention at Grand Rapids, in Feb- 

 ruary. You know E. R., that, in pro- 

 ducing comb honej', if we give a super 

 of brand-new sections with full sheets 

 of foundation to a colony of bees at the 

 approach of the honey season, likely 

 enough they will sulk, or at the best do 

 only a little work in the sections, and then 

 swann. To overcome partly this tend- 

 ency in the bees not to go above, prob- 

 ably the majority use "bait sections." 

 dirty things of the previous season's 

 use. The honey in these dirty sections 

 is always of an inferior quality. The 

 argument that is usually presented in 

 favor of their use is that they cause the 

 bees to enter the sections so much more 

 readily that really thej' do not cost the 

 producer anything — that we get just as 

 much or more honey, exclusive of the 

 bait sections, so the bait sections really 

 cost us nothing; but I think most of 

 them eventually iind their way on the 

 market, though, and I am sure these 

 bait sections do not help the market 

 any, and are quite likely to cause less 

 consumption of comb honey. 



Perhaps the next most marked 

 system is Mrs. Barber's plan of giving 

 each colony a shallow super of drawn 

 comb to start them above. After they 

 are well started the drawn-comb super 

 is removed and a super of clean new 

 sections with full sheets of foundation 



is substitued. The bees being used to 

 working above do not hesitate about 

 going into the sections when substituted 

 for the combs. 



I now think the reader's mind is in 

 the right channel, so it will be easy to 

 convince him of the superiority of the 

 Townsend plan, which I am about to 

 describe. 



THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SUPER TO 

 PRODUCE BOTH COMB AND EXTRACT- 

 ED HONEY. 



In arranging the super, use two 

 super-springs to each super, one at 

 each end ; and when I speak of extract- 

 Ing-combs I mean those that are white 

 and nice — no brood ever raised in them. 

 The first super given each colony at 

 the approach of the honey-fiow is ar- 

 ranged with one shallow extracting 

 comb at each side, and one in the 

 center; the rest of the super is filled 

 with clean sections, with full sheets of 

 foundation; then when the super is 

 partly filled with honey, the usual time 

 for giving a second super, in fact, all 

 the supers given after the first, are 

 placed under the previous one, and are 

 always arranged with one comb at each 

 outside of the super. 



Now, when we guess we shall need 

 only one more super to hold the rest of 

 the honey-flow, a super of all drawn 

 combs is given oti top. 



Doesn't it begin to appear to you 

 that there are great possibilities for 

 this system in the future ? Mr. Town- ■ 

 send claims for this system much more 

 comb honey, and quite a quantity of the 

 finest grade of extracted per colony. 



The great point in favor of this system 

 is the stimulus the extracting-combs 

 give a colony, causing them to go above 

 immediately, as soon as there is just a 

 little hone}' in the field; thus the brood- 

 nest is kept in almost the same condi- 

 tion that is secured in the production of 

 extracted honey, this causing very 

 much less swarming, and keeps the 

 colon}' in that condition so essential to 

 the best results in honey production. 

 Then the bait-comb nuisance is done 

 awa}' with. This in itself is enough 

 to make it worth while to adopt this 

 new system. 



Mr. Townsend uses a closed-end ex- 

 tractlng-frame that fits his super. 

 Any one can figure out the size and 

 thickness of frame that will fit his 

 super; but we prefer 1^4 -Inch spacing 

 in our extracting operations, but of 

 course there are no separators used in 



