AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



717 



CONDUCTED BY 



MRS. JENNIE ATCHLEY, 



Beeville, Texas. 



PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING. 



liessoii No. 3. 



(Continued from page 654.) 



This lesson is likely coming before its 

 time, but many are now anxious to get 

 it so as to help them in June and July, 

 to enable them, or be a help, in securing 

 a honey crop. 



PKODUCING COMB HONEY. 



We will first tell how to produce comb 

 honey. We will suppose you have kept 

 close watch over your honey-plants, and 

 know just about when they will be in 

 bloom — I mean those that give your sur- 

 plus, as these are the special ones, and 

 if you do not get this part of the lesson, 

 or have not got it noted down, this 

 whole lesson will be a mere blank to 

 you, for to be a successful honey-pro- 

 ducer you must know when to expect 

 your harvest, and have your bees ready 

 to reap it. 



Now, to do this, you should begin to 

 stimulate, or see that all the queens are 

 good, and laying nicely about six to 

 eight weeks before your honey-flows. I 

 do not wish to teach you to rear bees 

 out of season, as this is a dead loss, and 

 what I mean by " out of season " is rear- 

 ing bees more than are necessary to 

 keep up the strength of the colony when 

 there is no prospect for a surplus ahead; 

 and the reason I say begin six to eight 

 weeks ahead of your flow is, that I want 

 you to give your bees time for the second 

 litter of brood to be hatched just about 

 the time your harvest begins, as your 

 bees will need the first litter to begin the 

 work in the harvest field, and the second 

 to complete it, in this latitude, and by 

 this time you will have all booming col- 

 onies, and that means honey to you. 



Now, while your bees are getting 

 ready, you get ready, too, or you will be 

 left with your tub bottom up. During 



this six to eight weeks you must have 

 all your sections, crates, and starters all 

 in, just ready to place upon your hives 

 about the third day after your harvest 

 begins, or a little sooner will not hurt ; 

 but be sure to have them on as soon as 

 you discover white or new comb along 

 the top-bars of the brood-frames. But 

 it will not pay to put them on when no 

 honey is coming in, as the bees seem to 

 delight in biting holes in the starters, 

 and get the sections dirty where the 

 same are exposed to the bees. 



It will be nice to have two crates ready 

 for each hive, as you may have a good 

 flow, and just as soon as the first crate 

 is about full or completed, you can raise 

 it up and place an empty one between it 

 and the brood-nest. This will cause the 

 bees to cap over the sections quicker, 

 and give you nice white honey. As soon 

 as it is ready to take off, remove it at 

 once, and should there be one or two 

 sections not finished up to suit you, set 

 them in the center of the crate the bees 

 are at work on, and they will soon finish 

 them up. But this you will seldom 

 have to do, if honey has been coming in 

 steadily. 



Now watch every movement of the 

 bees, and the flowers giving the flow, 

 and if you are not expecting any more 

 harvest that year, you had better begin 

 to contract, or move some of the filled 

 sections, and placing the unfilled in the 

 center of the crate, and you will more 

 than likely get all nicely finished sec- 

 tions, unless your flow ceases all of a 

 sudden. Then you will have some un- 

 finished sections to extract or sell at a 

 reduced price in your home market. 

 (Notice Selling Honey, in a future les- 

 son.) 



If your season is now oyer, clean up 

 the crates, etc., and store them away in 

 a dry place, and you will soon rejoice 

 that you have followed my instructions. 



Should you be at all this trouble and 

 expense, and not get any honey, or but 

 little the first year, do not be discour- 

 aged, but sing just as merrily, and be 

 (or try to be) as happy as if you had a 

 carload of honey to sell, for it really 

 takes this kind of grit to make a good 

 bee-keeper. And, dear scholars, I beg 

 to stop right here long enough to ex- 

 plain to you that we rmist make up our 

 minds at the outset to overcome, if pos- 

 sible, the disappointments through life 

 and take things just as easy as we can! 

 Otherwise we will be wearing ourselves 

 out unnecessarily. I believe this should 

 be done in any kind of business that we 

 undertake in life. 



