94 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



April 



brood must be sacrified, as well as dis- 

 placed in the brood-nest, owing to our 

 not being able to secure all in the 

 shape in the new hive which it was in 

 the old one. All of this has a ten- 

 dency toward a loss of bees ; and all 

 of the brood which is sacrified at this 

 time would become bees of the right 

 age to do the best labor in the honey- 

 harvest, had we left the transferiug 

 till later on, we can see that a loss 

 must be made by doing our transfer- 

 iug at this time of the year, with all 

 colonies except those which have lit- 

 tle brood in their combs. For this 

 reason I prefer to wait till 21 days 

 after the prime swarm went out. At 

 this time all of the brood will have 

 hatched from the combs, except per- 

 haps a few drones, and the young 

 queen will have laid but a few days, 

 not long enough so that there will be 

 much but eggs in the combs, so that 

 all we have in our way now is the 

 honey which the combs may contain. 

 As this comes at a time of year when 

 the bees are securing all of the honey 

 they want, and the weather is always 

 warm so that no brood or bees will 

 become chilled, we can now do our 

 work right on in the bee-yard, this 

 making it more convenient. Then 

 should you desire to use the Heddon, 

 or modern plan of transferring, by 

 driving out the bees and hiving them 

 in a hive filled with comb foundation, 

 this is just the time to do it, for the 

 combs are free of brood, so only the 

 one operation is needed, and the old 

 combs can be cut out at once and 

 placed in the solar wax-extractor, 

 doing this work right beside the wax- 

 extractor, so that in an hour or two 

 you can have both the honey and 

 wax in shape to use, thus saving time 



and delay which would result at any 

 other time of the year. 



HOW MUCH FOUNDATION SHOULD BE USED 

 IN SECTIONS? 



Qnestion. — As I wish soon to pre- 

 pare my sections for the coming 

 honey-harvest, I should like to know 

 just how much thin comb foundation 

 it is best to put in each one. Shall I 

 put in just a small triangular staiter, 

 or fill the section full ? 



Answer. — The answer to this ques- 

 tion will depend quite largely on two 

 things. The first and most important 

 is, have we the necessary means to 

 procure all the foundation which will 

 be needed to fill our sections, without 

 depriving ourselves and family of 

 some of the necessities or comforts of 

 life ? If we have not, then my Avay 

 would be to use triangular starters, 

 the same having each of the three 

 sides about two inches long, in three- 

 fourths of the sections I was to use ; 

 and when the season opens, put in 

 starters of white new comb, which it 

 is always easy to find or produce dur- 

 ing fruit bloom in any apiary, in the 

 remaining sections. In this way lit- 

 tfe if any difference as to the yield of 

 honey will be seen in an ordinarily 

 good season, especially if the sections 

 containing the starters of comb are 

 scattered uniformly among those hav- 

 ing the foundation starters. The dif- 

 ference when so working will be that 

 the sections will not contain all work- 

 er comb, nor present quite so fine an 

 appearance, nor the combs be attach- 

 ed to the wood of the sections all 

 around quite so well, as where the 

 foundation in full sheets is used ; still 

 very little difference will be made in 

 the selling price for the lack of the 

 full sheets of foundation. 



