154 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



"Where shall partly filled sections be kept? 

 also brood-frames filled with honeyP 

 There are at the present time several 

 hundred of untilled sections in our apiary. 

 Just where to keep them has puzzled us 

 for some time. They will be placed on 

 strong colonies and tiered up about six 

 sections or cases high, and protected 

 from the weather. Tlie bees in a strong 

 colony will preserve the combs from the 

 moth and also keep the uncapped honey 

 from souring in at least 2.o0 sections. 

 Possibly, the bees may remove the honey 

 from all the combs; if they do, so much 

 the better. Later in the season, if there 

 is a good flow of honey, the cases can be 

 replaced again on the best colonies. The 

 advantage of this plan is this : 



If a set of i-ections is left on each hive 

 the combs will be badly discolored by so 

 much travelling over them and the bees 

 clustering upon them. By the way, I 

 hardly think the combs are discolored by 

 the bees travelling over them, nor can I ex- 

 plain just what does give the white combs 

 a yellowish cast; yet it does not seem to 

 me that the bees do it with their feet. 

 When tiered up, as suggested above, but 

 few bees will be in any one of the sections 

 at any one time. 



Keeping brood-combs. 

 Just at this time I have quite a quantity 

 of brood -combs tilled with new honey, 

 but all the cells are not capped. The un- 

 capped honey is likely to sour and the 

 moth liable to attack them on account of 

 the i)ollen in some of the cells. I know of 

 no better way to preserve them than to put 

 the combs in hives having no bottoms and 

 tiering them up on strong colonies the 

 same as advised to do with the sections, 

 say about three combs high. These combs 

 are some that will be used later in the 

 season, either to feed some of the stocks 

 that have not quite honey enough to win- 

 ter, or to form new colonies. However, 

 used, thej- must be protected from the 

 moth and the weather during dog-days. 

 If the colony is a strong one on which the 

 combs are placed, much of the uncapped 

 honey will be capped, though the bees 

 will be iu no hurry about doing it. 



Do bees know a stranger? 

 " Won't these bees sting a stranger? 

 They are flying all around my head but I 

 don't see any ai)Out yours," is the remark 

 nearly all visitors make who go among the 

 hives in the Bay State Apiary. Yes, bees 

 will sting some strangers, but not because 

 they are strangers, but because the dress 



of a stranger is new and seems strange to 

 them. Then again, nearly every person 

 who visits our apiary wears a felt hat and 

 most all wear dark, woolen clothes. The 

 material of the hat and clothes is some- 

 what fuzzy, and the coloring in the liat 

 has a smell about it that bees do not like. 



The beekeeper when he goes into the 

 apiary usually wears a certain suit. Most 

 of theiu wear a straw hat and are in 

 their shirt-sleeves. Bees will get accus- 

 tomed to such an object moving around 

 among the hives. While they do not recog- 

 nize one person from another they seem 

 to know a straw hat from a felt hat. When 

 going into the apiary with a dark hat on I 

 am quite sure to get a dig from some bee, 

 and if I do not retreat at once half a dozen 

 bees will be flying about my head. I then 

 go for the old straw hat, and when the 

 bees see that they say, " all right, friend, 

 pass," and there is no more trouble from 

 stings. 



Never attempt, if the weather Is hot, to 

 handle bees with anything on your head 

 but a straw hat. 



Honey-boards and contraction- 

 No honey-boards or queen-excluders of 

 any kind have been used on any hive in 

 the Bay State apiary the present season 

 between the brood-chamber and the sec- 

 tion cases above. Not one section has 

 been spoiled by the queen depositing her 

 eggs in them, and not one of our hives 

 has been used on the " contraction " sys- 

 tem of obtaining comb honey ; all the hives 

 have the same number of frames and combs 

 they had in the winter. I do not believe 

 that there is a beekeeper in America who 

 practises contraction and queen-excluding 

 who has raised more comb honey to the 

 colony in the same time than has been 

 done in our apiary the present season and 

 by those who use the Bay State liive. 



The editor of the lieview criticised our 

 remarks on the subject given in the Api- 

 cui.TUKisT, some time ago of honey- 

 boards and queen-excluders and wanted 

 to know how we would keep the queen 

 out of the sections if we contracted'? We 

 do not contract, my friend. A much better 

 system is in use in the Bay State apiary; 

 nor do we have and never did have any 

 sections spoiled l)y the queen entering 

 tliem, and I venttire to say that we can 

 get as much honey to the colony by our 

 method as can be raised by the "contrac- 

 tion" system. By our method, when the 

 season is over, our coloniesare strong, all 

 have plenty of bees and brood and a good 

 queen. Why is not a frame, well- tilled 

 with honey and brood as good a dum- 



