444 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 24, 1906 



beneficial effect as chaff-packing— in fact, it makes a half- 

 chaff-hive of any single-wall structure. 



In queen-rearing time, when starting nuclei, the chaff- 

 division-board forms a very desirable adjunct to the hive. 



I always use full-sized hives for this purpose, and by the 

 use of this division-board I am enabled to divide a hive into 

 almost air-tight compartments of any size. 



La Salle, N. Y. 



# 



Using Unfinished Sections as " Baits " 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A CORRESPONDENT writes me thus: "Sav, Mr. Doo- 

 httle, will you tell us through the columns of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal something about using unfinished sec- 

 tions? I have a lot that are from one-fourth to two-thirds 

 full of honey, partially capped and somewhat candied. Would 

 it be right to p' these sections in the supers as 'baits,' at 

 this time of the \i_ar, now when I am preparing for next 

 season, then put them on the hives next summer when the 

 bees need them? Would the bees eat it out, or would they 

 fill in the new honey on top of that which was candied, and 

 then cap the whole over?" 



The above brings up one of the debatable questions in 

 apiculture, and one where the majority would be on the 

 side of not giving those sections to the bees unless the 

 combs of candied honey were cut out and these replaced with 

 starters or filled with new foundation. And even to this many 

 would object, claiming that it were better to throw away 

 the old sections and begin anew. But it is evident that the 

 correspondent wishes to use those sections with the comb in 

 them, and that he wishes to prepare his surplus arrange- 

 ments at this time of the year, so he will be in readiness for 

 the season when it comes next June. And as his mind and 

 desires run along the same path that I travel in, I am going 

 to take the minority side in this matter and tell him just 

 how I use such bait-sections, and, as far as I have ever been 

 able to see, with perfect success. 



In the first place, I count up the number of these unfin- 

 ished sections I may happen to have at the time I begin pre- 

 paring my supers for the next season, which is generally 

 from the first to the middle of January. My supers, as I 

 use them at present, hold 44 one-pound sections, there being 



II rows of 4 sections each in each super. I now divide the 

 number of unfinished sections I have, by 4, and that will 

 tell me how many rows I will have to use. I then divide 

 the number of rows, which this first division shows, by the 

 number of colonies I expect to have to run for comb honey 

 the coming season (as I wish the first super on each colony 

 to contain bait-sections, that the bees may be enticed into 

 the super as speedily as possible) ; when this last division 

 will tell me how many of these rows I will have for each 

 colony. To make the matter a little plainer: 



Say, I have 600 unfinished sections similar to those told 

 about by the correspondent. I divide these by 4, which 

 gives me 150 rows of 4 each to use. I have, or expect to 

 have, 50 colonies to run for comb honey at the beginning of 

 the honey season for 1906. I now divide the 150 rows by 

 the 50 colonies I expect to have for working in sections, 

 and this tells me that I will have 3 rows of 4 sections each 

 for each of the 50 colonies. I can now go to work intelli- 

 gently at preparing my supers for the coming season. In 

 filling up the super, I place one row of 4 of these bait-sections 

 next the side of the super, then 4 rows of 4 sections each 

 having starters of foundation in them ; or what I prefer still 

 more, these sections filled with extra thin foundation; 

 then another row of 4 of the bait-sections; then 4 rows 

 more of the sections filled with foundation ; and lastly. 

 at the opposite side of the super from where we com- 

 menced, the last 4 bait-sections. In this way I secure the 

 outside sections finished as quickly as any, except the mid- 

 dle row, which are baits, and the whole super is all fin- 

 ished when the time comes to take it from the hive. 



If I have less sections with baits, so that only 2 rows 

 of 4 each can be used for each hive, then I place these rows 

 thus: Put in first, next to one side of the super, 3 rows of 4 

 each, of sections with foundation, then one row of the 

 baits ; then 3 rows having foundation ; one row of baits ; 

 and the last 3 rows with foundation. In this way I coax the 

 bees to work as nearly equal all through the super as is pos- 

 sible, and have the earliest possible start made at the work. 



If this division of bait-sections gives me only one row 

 of 4 sections each, for each colony worked for section honey, 



then I put that row in the center of the super, so as to en- 

 tice the bees to work in the super as soon as may be ; but 

 with only so few baits as 4 sections, the outside rows of 

 sections will be slower in their completion than where we 

 have enough so that either 2 or 3 rows can be used. 



Now about the honey which is in those sections: Where 

 the cells are capped it is absolutely necessary that this cap- 

 ping be broken, if we wish the bees to remove it from the 

 comb. And we certainly wish it removed, especially where 

 it is candied, or of a different color from that which the 

 bees will bring in from the fields in summer. And all of 

 my experience proves that where honey is capped and the 

 cappings broken from any cause, the bees will always re- 

 move all the honey the cell contains before any more honey 

 is placed in that cell, whether the honey is candied or other- 

 wise. I used to think differently, but the score of trials try- 

 ing to have the bees recap a few cells on any sections which 

 I had chanced to mar or break the cappings in preparing 

 such finished sections for market, have convinced me that 

 they will not repair such carelessness of mine, till the cells 

 are emptied, cleaned, and refilled again. 



And the reason is not long sought for. The cell must be 

 dry and polished in order that the honey placed therein be 

 made to assume that concave shape necessary for keeping it 

 in place, and anything that happens to cause any other shape 

 will start the honey to running to an extent which makes 

 it impossible for the bees to overcome, the disaster short 

 of its entire removal, and a beginning anew, again, with that 

 cell. Hence, it will be seen at once, that whether it be the 

 bee-keeper, the candying of the honey in the cells, or any 

 other cause, which brings to pass any other position of the 

 liquid in the cell except the one necessary for it to stay 

 in place, the whole must be removed, the cell cleaned and 

 dried, and work commenced anew, before the cell will hold 

 honey again in the position which the bees desire. 



Therefore, I claim that all this talk about a few grains 

 of candied honey sticking to cells, being the sowing of seed 

 to produce the further candying of any honey that is placed 

 in that cell, cannot be aught but fallacious. And I practice 

 what I preach, each year getting my supers ready, baits and 

 all (the same being partially filled with honey, just as the 

 bees left them at the end of the past season), with no other 

 precaution, save the knowledge that the capping to all sealed 

 cells are broken ; and I have yet to see wherein this mode of 

 procedure is not as good as having these combs emptied in 

 the fall, except the dripping of the honey to a certain ex- 

 tent, from the cells having the broken cappings. Where the 

 honey is candied in these cells there is scarcely any leakage, 

 and no great amount, in any case, if broken as slightly as 

 possible, by passing a knife flatwise over the cappings. But 

 it is best to put a sheet of paper between each super having 

 such baits in them, so that all drip, if there happens to be 

 any, is held on this paper rather than running down over the 

 sections below. Borodino, N. Y. 



[This article was received and should have appeared 

 several months ago. But on account of a press of other mat- 

 ter it has been deferred. We trust that it is still in time 

 to be of some use for the coming honey season. — Editor.] 



A*± 



Queenless Bees in Queen-Rearing 



BY HENRY ALLEY. 



ON page 251, and under the head, "How Can We Rear 

 Better Queens?" is an article from A. K. Ferris. I read 

 this article with much interest, as all such questions have 

 attracted my attention for the past 45 years. The first point 

 that Mr. Ferris tries to make, namely, the selection of the 

 breeding queen, is not new to me, as I had that very thing 

 under consideration more that 40 years ago. But here is 

 something new : 



"Do not breed from a queen whose bees will allow brood 

 to starve with capped honey in the hive." Can any reader 

 of this paper say that he ever had an experience of that kind? 

 I not only would not use such a mother for a breeder, but 

 would quickly pinch the head of such a worthless queen. 

 If Mr. Ferris has had such a queen as that in his apiary, 

 would it not interest all the readers to know whether she 

 was reared in a colony that had cast a swarm, or by queen- 

 less bees, or what the conditions were that could produce 

 such a queen? 



I have been a bee-keeper nearly half a century, but 



