S'or the American Bee Journal. 



Extracting Honey from Brood Combs. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Many suppose that something must 

 be done in time of box honey, to clear 

 the brood combs of honey to give the 

 queen room to lay, so as to keep up the 

 the population of the colony, reasoning 

 thus : that when bees are working in 

 boxes, as a necessity the brood combs- 

 must be crowded with honey, while the 

 truth is that when the bees are at work 

 nicely in the boxes, with a proper hive, 

 there is scarcely a pound of honey in 

 the brood combs. I say with a proper 

 hive, or brood chamber of a proper size. 

 In this there is a great secret of success. 

 Quinby gave, in his " Bee-Keeping Ex- 

 plained," 2,000 cubic inches as the right 

 size of the brood chamber, and told us 

 that there was an advantage in feeding 

 inferior honey in the spring, so as to 

 have the space in the brood chamber, 

 not occupied by the queen, filled with 

 poor honey, thus necessitating the put- 

 ting of the nice white clover honey in 

 the boxes. This is one way of arriving 

 at the same object that we do with a 

 brood chamber of about two-thirds the 

 size of the one used by Mr. Quinby. By 

 thus feeding, he gave the bees no place 

 to put their honey except in the boxes, 

 and thereby losing the use of this infe- 

 rior honey for half a year, besides hav- 

 ing the boxes separated from the brood 

 by some distance of sealed stores for the 

 bees to pass over, which was of course 

 a detriment; yet he got much more 

 honey in his boxes than he would other- 

 wise. My plan to accomplish this ob- 

 ject is to have a hive or brood chamber 

 of a size that an average queen will keep 

 filled with brood to the exclusion of 

 honey, thus keeping the boxes close to 

 the brood, and if any feeding is to be 

 done, do it in the fall. This is not all 

 talk. If you will try it, you will find 

 that the queen will keep the combs in a 

 hive of 1,350 cubic inches filled with 

 brood, and if any honey is to be had 

 from the fields, the bees will put it in 

 the boxes, as there is nowhere else to 

 store it. This is our secret of getting 

 box honey. Now, supposing Quinby 

 had, instead of feeding, extracted the 

 honey from the brood combs every week 

 or so, as some would have us believe we 

 should do to be successful, how much 

 honey do you think he would have ob- 

 tained in his boxes ? Not a pound. 

 Bees will not build comb in surplus 

 boxes so long as there is plenty of empty 

 <3omb close to the brood to store honey 

 in. Again, you may take a hive of 1 ,350 

 ■cubic inches, and fill it with frames 



which are full of sealed honey, and put 

 on your boxes. Have a strong colony 

 with a good prolific queen in it, and in 2 

 weeks' time you will have nearly all of 

 said honey in your boxes. Once more : 

 If you let a first swarm issue from a 

 hive, and keep them from swarming 

 again, by the time the young queen gets 

 fertilized every available cell in the 

 brood chamber will be filled with honey, 

 and still no start be made in the boxes ; 

 but just as soon as she commences to 

 lay, the bees will commence work in the 

 boxes ; and in 20 days, if you examine, 

 you will find scarcely a ceil of honey in 

 the brood combs, and as nice a lot of 

 brood as you ever saw. Now, we will 

 suppose that just as this queen was fer- 

 tilized you had extracted all that honey, 

 you would not have obtained a single 

 box of honey unless from fall flowers. 

 Therefore, if you want a large yield of 

 box honey, keep prolific queens, and 

 let the brood combs alone after the 

 boxes are placed on the hive. 

 Borodino, N. Y., December, 1879. 



For the American Bee Journal 



Something New about Honey-Dew. 



PROF. A. J. COOK. 



While at Cornell University, Ithaca, 

 New York, I became much interested 

 in some observations and investigations 

 made by Mr. Win. Trelease a very 

 talented young man connected with the 

 University, which entirely settles the 

 matter of honey-dew. Mr. Trelease 

 has not only tasted the nectar secreted 

 by the plants, but he has discovered 

 the glands which secrete the nectar. 

 These are often so large as to be easily 

 recognized by the unaided vision. Mr. 

 Trelease showed me the glands on 

 species of cassia, acassia, pasiflora — 

 the May-pop of Alabama — prunes, and 

 the cotton plant. On a fine acassia 

 growing in the botanical laboratory of 

 the University, I not only saw the gland, 

 but also the drop of nectar, which I 

 found sweet to the taste. I had the 

 pleasure, not only of seeing Mr. Tre- 

 lease's beautiful drawings, but also of 

 viewing the actual cross-sections under 

 the microscope. The usual dermal cells 

 are enlarged and lengthened at the 

 glands. The cell walls seem more thin, 

 while the enclosed protoplasm is much 

 more dense. These glands are on the peti- 

 oles of the leaves, on the ribs, or on the 

 blade of the leaves. On the Partridge 

 pea which has so often been noticed to 

 be swarming with bees, the glands are 

 large and numerous, and, Mr. T. says, 

 rich in nectar. Let us observe during the 

 coining season, whether the bees get all 



