140 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



a great force of workers at a time 

 to be of practical use. And again, 

 the queen will be so much exhausted 

 tliat hiter on in the season she will 

 not lay so many eggs at a time 

 when they will hatch out non-pro- 

 ducing workers. We thus obviate 

 any necessity to limit the work of 

 the queen by cooping her up on 

 one or two combs as has been sug- 

 gested. Necessarily there will be 

 swarming; but I would ask, why 

 not let bees swarm ? For myself, 

 I would not give a fig for a non- 

 swarming hive. If hives are con- 

 structed for easy operation it is 

 rather desirable to have bees swarm, 

 as the ciioicest comb honey is al- 

 waj's obtained from the swarms. 



THE SECTIONS AND SUPERS. 



The most comb honey can be ob- 

 tained by using full sheets of foun- 

 dation in the sections and it no 

 doubt pays to use them, but there 

 is no denying the fact that the 

 nicest comb honey is made where 

 starters only are used. It is best 

 to use separators but not without 

 open side sections. I do not ad- 

 vise nor would I use separators 

 with closed side sections for better 

 I'esults are obtained "without them. 

 The sections should be so wide 

 that the bees will not be disposed 

 to store pollen in them. I use and 

 prefer a section 4^X4^ X Ig with 

 separators. Without separators 

 the 4^ X 4i X 7 to the foot sec- 

 tions are no doubt the best. A 

 section of less width if filled over 

 shallow brood cases, or even over a 

 contracted case of deep frames, is 

 very liable to contain more or less 

 bee-bread. And it is hai-dly need- 

 ful to add that no wise beekeeper 

 will ever put such honey on the 

 market, at least during warm 

 weather, as it may be infested by 

 moth worms. 



The supers should be adjusted 

 as soon as the colonies becomes 



strong in bees, and it is better that 

 they be adjusted at least a week 

 before the honej' flow begins. The 

 first supers put on the hives should 

 always contain one or more sec- 

 tions having one comb built the 

 previous season. These partly 

 filled sections should be put away 

 by every good beekeeper at the 

 close of the season with scrupulous 

 care as they aie A^ery valual)le. As 

 soon as the first case is half filled 

 with comb, if honey is coming in 

 fast, an empty super should be 

 placed beneath it and the tiering 

 should continue until three cases are 

 adjusted, if meantime the bees do 

 not swarm. By the time the third 

 case is read}' to tier up the upper 

 one will be fully sealed and ready 

 to take off". In none of the opera- 

 tions here described should the bees 

 be smoked unless the}' prove to be 

 intractable. Any bees that can- 

 not be handled during a honey 

 flow without smoke are undesirable 

 and should be superseded by a bet- 

 ter strain. The practice of man}'' 

 beekeepers of always smoking their 

 bees whenever the}' open a hive is 

 not a good one. It is far more 

 hurtful than molesting the brood- 

 chamber where it can be done with- 

 out the use of smoke. But as to 

 opening colonies for any needful 

 purpose I have not been able to 

 see that it ever did any harm, if 

 done with care. 



INVERTING BROOD-CHAMBERS. 



The practice of inverting brood 

 cases is no doubt one that has come 

 to stay. There is no other method 

 of placing the brood close up to the 

 sections with equal facility and ad- 

 vantage. It is, however, a question 

 of the proper depth of brood frames 

 as to the propriety of this meas- 

 ure. Cases of very shallow combs 

 may be interchanged with about 

 the same effect, but I desire 

 hei'e to enter an objection against 

 the use of very shallow brood 



