2l8 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



me than the entire numbers cost for 

 a year. But to return to the matter in 

 hand. 



I will first say that pollen in this my 

 immediate locality is very abundant 

 through the entire season, but as this is 

 used mainly in brood-rearing, the natur- 

 al instinct of bees causes them, when 

 conditions are so they can, to store it in 

 the brood-chamber, where it will be easi- 

 ly accessible for this purpose. But the 

 plan I follow with swarms, either natural 

 or artificial, and one which I believe is 

 largely practiced, is to hive them in a 

 hive with frames containing only starters, 

 when, if the supers from the parent hives, 

 in which work has already commenced, 

 is put on in a day or two, w-ork will be 

 resumed in them at once, and a good 

 queen will usually lay in a large part of 

 the comb below as fast as it is built, so 

 that most of the honey brought in is nec- 

 essarily for sometime stored in the sec- 

 tions. 



I do not believe there is any other 

 method by which as much honey can be 

 secured in sections; and, in agood season, 

 or during a good flow, a swarm when first 

 hived will not bring in much pollen for a 

 few days. Last year the flow, except dur- 

 ing the first few days, was very scant and 

 irregular; and as it was those swarms 

 treated the way I have described that put 

 pollen in the sections, it will be seen that 

 this method should not be practiced dur- 

 ing a poor flow in a locality where pollen 

 is as abundant as it is here, for when the}' 

 can not secure honey, if pollen is plenti- 

 ful, they will carry in an excessive amount 

 of it, and must of necessity store it in the 

 sections. 



Now, I have not much doubt that two, 

 or possibly one, frame in each hive con- 

 taining drawn comb, then waiting until 

 considerable comb was built before put- 

 ting on the sections, would overcome the 

 difficulty, or if no frames containing 

 combs were on hand, a like number filled 

 with foundation would prove effective. 



There is so much pollen here that col- 

 onies that did not swarm would oftimes 

 carry it into the sections; but years ago I 

 accidently learned how to almost entireh' 

 overcome this by changing the places of 

 combs in the hive. This was done to dis- 

 courage swarming. 



My practice was, and is largely yet, at 

 the approach of the swarming season to 

 replace the two outside combs with those 

 that contain the most sealed brood, the 

 two from the outside which usually con- 

 tain a large proportion of what ])ollen 

 there is in the hive are then placed in the 

 center. If done at the right time this has 



a tendency to check swarming, and I soon 

 noticed sections over colonies so treated 

 hardly ever contained any pollen. Such 

 an abundance of pollen right in the center 

 of the brood-nest may po^sibl}' act as a 

 check to their gathering much more for a 

 time. However this may be, there wonld 

 soon be plenty of room for them to store 

 a large amount again in the two outside 

 combs. 



As to sections containing honey but 

 slightly fastened to the wood, I believe 

 there are means b}' which this can be 

 largely avoided, no matter what the 

 character of the flow is, and even if only 

 small starters are used But as this arti- 

 cle is already so long I will have to wait 

 to explain my experiments in regard to 

 this matter until some other time. 



Southern Minnesota. 



RIPENING HONEY. 



It Proceeds more Rapidly when the Honey is 



Unsealed. Sealed Honey not Always 



Ripe. Weight of Ripe Honey. 



Nothing has been more damaging to 

 the sale of hone)' than the putting upon 

 the market of an unripe article. Time 

 and again have bee-keepers been scolded 

 because they extracted hone}' before it 

 was capped over; but here comes a man 

 from California, Mr. Delos Wood, who 

 tells us in Gleanings — well, here is what 

 he says: — 



On page 125, Feb. 15, 1898, Dan White 

 complains of all bee-keepers who extract 

 honey before the bees have sealed it, and 

 gives hot shot, but fails to point his gun 

 in the proper direction. His article is a 

 good one, and will bear careful study 

 even by himself. There have been so 

 few writers who advocate extracting un- 

 sealed honey that I cannot call the names 

 of any of them. I, for one of those hit 

 by Mr. White's bombs, am willing to join 

 hands with him in condemnation of put- 

 ting thin, watery honey, or unripe honey 

 on the market. "The everlasting foot- 

 note" to Mr. White's article says we 

 should "agree not to put on the market 

 extracted honey weighing less than 1 1 

 lbs. to the gallon." That is too thin and 

 watery for me Mr. Editor. Honey that 

 does not weigh 12 lbs. to the gallon is 

 not well ripened. Weigh that "over at the 

 house" and you will find it about 13 lbs. 



