Jan. 3. 1907 



American Hae Journal 



with the suggestions of :Mr, Pettit in 

 the Canadian Bee Journal last year, we 

 stick close to the program so that mem- 

 bers coming in can know what to expect 

 at certain hours. 



R. F. Holtermann. referring to the 

 price of honey, thought that consider- 

 ing the price of everything else is up, 

 bee-keepers could keep the price of 

 honey up. Messrs. Brown, jMcEvoy and 

 Sibhald. spoke on the matter of prices, 

 and thanked the crop-report committee 

 for the help they had been to the bee- 

 keepers. Jlr. Timbers considered it not 

 necessary to export hone}'. 



Jlr. McEvoy would be in favor of 

 exporting enough to keep the price up. 



J. D. Evans sees that the lesson of 

 the year of shortage to us is that in 

 €.\tra-good years we store the surplus 

 for the poor years. 



Mr. Holtermann — This report, that 

 there is a combine, is more far-reach- 

 ing than we think. We should assure 

 people that the Crop Report Committee 

 do not control prices. It merely ad- 

 vises members as to the price they can 

 likely get. 



Jno. Xewton — Bee-keepers should be 

 permitted to get together and agree 

 on prices, as well as fruit-growers and 

 others. 



M. B. Holmes — It has always been 

 my wish that this report be kept pri- 

 vate, and should not find its way into 

 public print. Take care that honey be 

 kept A No. I, as always. 



G. A. Deadman agreed that the prices 

 be kept private. The committee should 

 always be cautious about setting the 

 price too high, because bee-keepers some- 

 times keep honey till winter and sell 

 at a lower price. 



Mr. Couse, Secretary of the Commit- 

 tee, said the committee has not made a 

 great mistake yet, though prices may 

 vary slightly. This reporting is what is 

 going on with reference to many other 

 things — grain, seed, etc., and is quite 

 legitimate and very helpful. 



Mr. Chrysler suggested that the re- 

 port of the Report Committee be sent to 

 as many outside bee-keepers as possi- 

 ble, to influence them to keep prices 

 right. 



Mrs. Grosjcan and W. A. Chrysler 

 commended the work of the Report 

 Committee, and moved a vote of thanks 

 to them. 



W. H. Kerby said it should reach 

 smaller bee-keepers. 



Mr. Holtermann — The only way to 

 reach smaller bee-keepers is through the 

 local associations. 



Mr. Sibbald — The reason for publish- 

 ing the crop report in the papers was 

 that local bee-keepers, dealers and con- 

 sumers should all understand the state 

 of the crop. 



Mr. Deadman — Too often bee-keepers 

 charge a wholesaler the same price as 

 the retailer, so the Committee should 

 publish these prices. 



PRODUCTION OF COMB HONEY 



The essential requisites for the pro- 

 duction of comb honey are a good 

 honey-flow, strong colonies of bees, con- 

 venient hives, and an apiarist who un- 

 derstands handling bees and hives so as 

 to take advantage of the flow of nectar. 



The first of these requisites is beyond 

 our control, except that we should take 

 care to locate our apiaries where there 

 is usually an abundance of nectar-se- 

 creting plants and trees, such as clover, 

 basswood, etc. In my location clover 

 is the only source of surplus hofiey. 



The strength of the colony of bees 

 depends largely upon the care it gets 

 after being taken from its winter quar- 

 ters. .'V colony that has wintered well, 

 and has a good queen and an ample sup- 

 ply of food, will usually be in good 

 condition for the harvest wdien it comes. 



The hive should be sufficiently large 

 to contain a good supply of honey, and 

 yet leave room for all the. brood a good 

 queen can produce. It should be easily 

 enlarged or contracted as the occasion 

 may require. The hive I use holds 8 

 Langstroth frames in the brood cham- 

 ber, which is large enough for the great- 

 er part of the year. In the spring, when 

 a colony is building up rapidly and needs 

 more room, I enlarge the hive by adding 

 a half-story super containing 8 frames, 

 5 inches in depth, being equal to 5 

 Langstroth frames, thus increasing the 

 capacity of the brood-chamber to 13 

 frames. 



When the harvest is at hand and the 

 hive overflowing with bees, put on a 

 super of sections. If the colony is in a 

 i'<;-story hive, remove the half story, 

 making sure that the queen is in the 

 lower brood-chamber, and put on a 

 queen-excluder to keep her there. Put 

 on the sections, and on top of them the 

 half-story super that was on the hive in 

 the first place. The entrance should be 

 the full width of the hive, and about an 

 inch wide during the harvest. Af- 

 ter the bees are nicely started in the sec- 

 tions the super of shallow frames may 

 be taken away and another super of sec- 

 tions put on in its place. 



.\bout this time the colony will be 

 preparing to swarm. The swarming im- 

 pulse is not the great misfortune fhat 

 it is often represented to be. The choic- 

 est comb honey is usually produced by 

 the colonies that have swarmed, either 

 naturally or otherwise. But the swarm- 

 ing must be controlled, and I know of 

 no better plan than the "shook" swarm- 

 ing. Shake the bees into a new hive 

 containing 5 frames filled with wired 

 foundation or starters, as you prefer 

 (my preference is the wired foundation), 

 and one frame of comb to catch the pol- 

 len. If that frame of comb contains a 

 quantity of unsealed brood, no harm will 

 be done. Put in enough dummies to fill 

 out the hive. Set the new hive on the 

 old stand with an empty hive-body be- 

 low the brood cliamber. This empty 

 body will give the bees room to clus- 

 ter in. and they are not likely to swarm 

 out the next day, as they probably 

 would do without it. It should be re- 

 moved after the second or third day. 

 In shaking the bees I prefer to shake all 

 the bees and give the brood to some 

 other colony to take care of. The sec- 

 tions should be taken- from the old hive 

 and placed on the new one. 



Where shall we put the sections that 

 :.-e add to a hive that has one or more 

 supers on? And how many supers should 

 we have on a hive at one time? I 

 have no fixed rule for putting on sec- 

 tions. It is largely a matter of judg- 



ment, for what is all right in one case 

 may be wrong in another. I usually 

 put the second super on top of the 

 first, leaving it there till I think it is 

 safe to put it below without danger of 

 the bees stopping work in the first one. 

 The third super is put on top, with No. 

 I next, and No. 2 below No. I ; and so 

 on, crowding, if anything, the lower su- 

 purs and keeping an empty one on top 

 in reserve. It is there if needed, and 

 if not needed it does no harm. 



The sections and foundation we use 

 are two important items in the produc- 

 tion of comb honey. The plain or no- 

 bee-way section with the fence separa- 

 tor is much superior to the old-stj'le bee- 

 way section and plain wood or tin sep- 

 arators. I have given both kinds a thor- 

 ough trial and am decidedly in favor of 

 the no-bee-way section. 



The sections should be so placed in the 

 super that there will be a fence separa- 

 tor between the outside rows of sections 

 and the sides of the super, leaving a pas- 

 sage-way for the bees on each side, 

 which results in the outside rows of 

 sections being nearly, if not quite, as 

 well filled as the middle ones, and in 

 about the same time — sometimes sooner. 

 I have taken off supers of sections where 

 the only unfinished sections were in the 

 center rows. Use full-sized sheets of 

 extra-thin foundation in the sections. 

 The thinnest foundation is the best and 

 most economical to use. A section that 

 is taller than it is wide is bet:ter than 

 a square one. The tall sections sell 

 more readily, and are preferred by deal- 

 ers. 



When removing the filled supers of 

 honey from the hives, bee-escapes are 

 very convenient, but it is not necessary 

 to iiave an escape-board for each hive. 

 A few puffs of smoke will drive most 

 of the bees out of the super to be taken 

 off, and then it should be quickly re- 

 moved. Pile the supers up at the side 

 of the apiary with an escape-board un- 

 derneath, and in a few hours they will 

 be free from bees. The honey should 

 be stored in a warm, dry place, if possi- 

 ble. I use the cellar under my house for 

 storing the honey, and keep it dry with 

 a small stove burning natural gas, which 

 is lighted more or less every day wdiile 

 the honey is there. If there is no un- 

 sealed pollen in the combs it w-ill not 

 be necessary to fumigate comb honey. 



The Italian bees have not given as 

 much • satisfaction in comb-honey pro- 

 duction as a cross between the Italian 

 and the black bees, on account of the 

 manner in which they seal the combs, 

 that of the hybrids being much whiter. 



At the close of the honey-flow enlarge 

 the brood-chamber to its full capacity 

 again, .\fter having secured a crop of 

 nice comb honey do not spoil it by 

 slipshod methods of marketing. Put the 

 honey in neat and clean cases holding a 

 a dozen sections each, having first thor- 

 oughly cleaned each section of propolis 

 and carefully graded them. Time spent 

 in this work is well and profitably spent. 

 U. H. BOWEN. 



Niagara Falls, South, Ont. 



"Can as good comb honey be pro- 

 duced above old comb as above new?" 



Mr. Pettit — When there is a quick, 

 sharp flow there is not much difference, 



