THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



35 



For the American Apicutturist. 

 PBODUCING COMB HONEY. 



C. \Y. Dayton. 



In tlie early clays of my beekeepins:, 

 I k-arned that u colony of bees would 

 yieUl more of extracted than of comb 

 honey. The reason for it was uncer- 

 tain. Some said it was because of the 

 time spent in building' the comb and of 

 the honey consumed. While tliis was 

 true on certain occasions it has been 

 fouud through practice to be largely 

 idle conjecture. 



There are many now who claim to 

 get as many pounds of comb honey 

 per colony as of extracted, yet tiiose 

 apiarists have not told us exactly liow 

 it is done, or in wiiat part of the man- 

 agement the failing ones erred. 



To better satisfy myself on this 

 point, I set apart twelve colonies of 

 equal strength for the purpose of ex- 

 periment. Six of the colonies were 

 run for extracted honey and six for 

 comb honey in one-pound sections. 



The coml) honey arrangement used 

 was the Heddon style without the 

 honey-boards and arranged so that the 

 bottom of the sections were a bee 

 space or three-sixteenths inch from the 

 brood-frames. The extracted arrange- 

 ment was an upper-story containing 

 eight frames, the same nundaer con- 

 tained by all of tlie brood-ciiarabers. 

 When the extracting stories were ad- 

 justed and two or three frames of 

 brood from the brood-nest were placed 

 in the upper story to cause its imme- 

 diate occupancy by the bees, the sec- 

 tions were tilled full of foundation and 

 were used without separators. 



It was soon ascertained that the dry 

 sections of foundation possessed no 

 special enticement to the bees, so the 

 only alternative was adopted, Avhich 

 was to keep the queen cells cut out un- 

 til the colony became so populous that 

 tlie bees occupied the sections for clus- 

 tering space. During this process of 

 forcing the bees into the surplus re- 

 ceptacles, I found that tlie extracting 

 colonies had immediately followed the 

 brood into tlie upper-stories, drawn 

 out the foundation and filled the whole 

 story with honey nearly ready for the 

 extractor so that I obtained one ex- 

 traction of about thirty or fortj' pounds 

 by the time the other colonies iiad got- 

 ten well at work on the foundation in 

 the sections. rr(nu tins time on, I 

 could see but little dillerence in the 



amount of comb or extracted honey 

 stored, and at the end of the har- 

 vest I took an average of sixty-two 

 pounds of comb honey and lOti pounds 

 of extracted per colony, the diflerence 

 not far exceeding the amount lost by 

 the bees failing to begin work in tlie 

 sections at the time of their adjustment. 

 I have repeatedly made experiments of 

 putting on upper-stories of empty 

 combs and they nearly always fell be- 

 hind those where some brood was 

 placed above to entice the bees. 



When our fixtures are so arranged 

 that the bees enter the sections in the 

 full capacity of the colony at the ear- 

 liest season, then we shall be able to 

 obtain nearly, if not quite as much 

 comb honey per colony as of extracted. 



Ilow those most successful comb 

 honey producers get the bees into the 

 sections I do not know, uidess it is by 

 using sections of comb and honey from 

 the year before, or, as Mr. Doolittle 

 does, fill a few of the sections with 

 brood. 



Oue thing I do know is that having 

 a quantity of bees loitering about the 

 brood-chamber, dreaming of swarming 

 until they are crowded into the sec- 

 tions, is one place where we lose. 



In a future article I will tell how I 

 manage at present. 



Bradford, Ohio. 



For the A merican Aplcidturist. 

 WINTERING. 



MRS. H. HILLS. 



In describing, on page 150, Vol. IV, 

 the manner in which my bees have al- 

 ways been packed for winter, both in 

 cellar and on summer-stands, I should 

 have added, that after the two inches 

 in thickness of chattdivision-boards are 

 placed clear aroniul the insides of the 

 hives, both at sides and ends, the Hill 

 device is placed over the frames, upper 

 story put on, and a cotton sheet, a 

 blanket, and chaff cushion, are packed 

 snugly over the bees. 



The first winter,— the disastrous one 

 of 1SS4-5, — all combs were spread, and 

 winter passages were cut in them. 

 The second winter, these passages 

 were omitted in half the hives, with 

 no dirterence in results. This season, 

 no winter passages have been cut, and 

 only half the colonies have the combs 



