1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



323 



care of honey. She said she had been 

 buying extracted honey during the 

 summer, but thought it was not pure 

 honey as it did not taste good. The 

 next day I was in Chillicothe and her 

 husband told me his v/ife said last 

 night she would order honey of me 

 and then he gave me the order him- 

 self. Now the honey she spoke of 

 may have been unadulterated, but 

 poorly cared for after it was taken 

 from the hive, or taken before it was 

 properly cured. We must keep our 

 comb honey from cold, damp, musty 

 places. The chamber is better than 

 the cellar, because it is nearer to the 

 sunshine. It should be kept dry and 

 warm. In summer it requires plenty 

 of air to keep it from sweating and 

 thereby discolering the comb and in- 

 juring its sale . When extracted honey 

 is well cured it should be kept from 

 the air, by making the vessel it is kept 

 in air tight until wanted for use, 

 Chillicothe, Mo. 



Straight Combs Without 

 Foundation, Etc. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent wishes me to tell 

 the readers of the American Bee- 

 Keeper, how straight combs can be 

 secured without using full sheets of 

 foundation in the brood frames, how 

 to avoid the building of too much 

 drone comb, where only starters are 

 used in the frames, and how often he 

 should look after his bees ; so I will 

 give a sort of a rambling talk along 

 these lines, as in my younger bee- 

 keeping days I used to pick up more of 

 real worth, to me, out of rambling ar- 

 ticles, than I did out of many fine 

 spun theories, which many writers are 

 quite prone to give. As a rule I pre- 



fer natural swarming to any mode of 

 making swarms, and as the time of 

 natural swarming will be in its heighth 

 when this article reaches the eyes of 

 the reader, a word or two regarding 

 how I manage them in view to secur- 

 ing straight combs, will be in good 

 time. Having all of my queens' wings 

 clipped, as I believe this is right 

 where natural swarming is allowed. I 

 hive the swarms by letting them re- 

 turn, which they will do as soon as 

 they miss the queen; moving the old 

 hive to a new location and setting the 

 new hive containing the full number 

 of frames (I use nine) in its place, 

 while the swarm is out. In two days 

 I open said hive and usually find the 

 bees have made a good start in five 

 frames. These five frames I place 

 together at one side of the hive and a 

 division board is placed next to them 

 so as to confine the bees to them. This 

 throws the full force of bees on these 

 five frames and will soon fill them 

 with straight worker comb, as a gen- 

 eral rule , as I use a starter of worker 

 foundation one-half inch wide in each 

 frame, so that they may be started 

 straight and right, on the start. If 

 there are more bees than can well get 

 on these five frames, the surplus ar- 

 rangement, or as much of it as is re- 

 quired, is placed over them. If you' 

 get these five built straight you will 

 have no trouble in getting the rest so, 

 as they can build them in no other 

 way if placed between two of those al- 

 ready built. If drone comb is likely 

 to be built in these last put in, which 

 is often the case, I would use comb 

 foundation in these, even if I had to 

 pay a dollar a pound for it, unless I 

 could get worker combs built in some 

 way, at a less price. If every comb is 



