108 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, 



July 



are getting honey from the fields so 

 that they will not draw out of the 

 foundation readily, then, decidedly, 

 the old plan or method given in near- 

 ly, all the standard works on bee cul- 

 ture is the proper one to use. I never 

 could understand the logic that melt- 

 ed up good straight worker combs, 

 made the wax from them into founda- 

 tion, wired the frames to keep that 

 foundation from sagging, and then 

 "transferred" the foundation into 

 those wired frames with an amount of 

 labor nearly equal to that required to 

 transfer the original combs, all for 

 the fun of saying that we used the 

 Heddon plan. Straight worker comb, 

 properly transferred into a frame, 

 and fasteued by the bees, makes just 

 as good a frame of comb as is the one 

 finished by the bees, makes just as 

 good a frame of comb as is the one 

 finished from foundation ; and a 

 frame properly filled with comb, 

 without any wires in it, is just as good 

 for all practical purposes, including 

 shipping bees across the continent, as 

 in the one having wire in it ; while 

 the wire is a positive nuisance if, from 

 any reason, holes get in the combs 

 from moldy pollen, mice, or any thing 

 of the kind, so that we wish to "put 

 in a patch " of worker comb to keep 

 the bees from building in drone comb. 

 I have shipped bees to nearly all 

 parts of the United States and Canada 

 on combs uuwired, and have yet to 

 hear of the first comb broken in tran 

 sit. I do not wish to be considered 

 cianky ; but when a thing savors of 

 more money out than of profits in I 

 have always felt it a duty as well as 

 a privilege to enter a mild protest, 

 after which I am not to blame if any 



see fit to use any thing recommended 

 which may result in a financial loss. 



PREVENTION OP INCREASE. 



Question. — What is the best way to 

 keep down increase ? The colonies 

 which I now have furnish about all 

 the honey my home trade demands, 

 so I do not want to increase my num- 

 ber of colonies further than I now 

 have. 



Answer — The surest way is to give 

 plenty of comb room, and then ex- 

 tract closely. Probably not one col- 

 ony in twenty will offer to cast a 

 swarm treated in this way. In fact 

 very few colonies will offer to swarm 

 where tiered up for extracted honey, 

 and the extracting not done till the 

 end of the season, providing that 

 empty comb room is given as fast as 

 needed. But when working for comb 

 honey the case is different, and the 

 bees are almost sure to swarm, no 

 matter how much section room is 

 given, or whether these sections are 

 filled foundation or not. My way of 

 keeping my apiary at the original 

 number of colonies while working for 

 comb honey would be to unite the 

 colonies about three or four weeks be- 

 fore the honey harvest, making one 

 colony out of two, preparing for this 

 in advance by keeping each colony 

 shut on only half of the combs con- 

 tained in the hives I used, and then 

 let them divide by natural swarming 

 to the original number, keeping down 

 all after swarming. Or you can let 

 them swarm without uniting before 

 the honey harvest, and after the honey 

 season is over, unite back to the 

 original number. This accomplishes 

 the same object as the former, only it 

 gives more mouths to feed after the 



