1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



19 



bees of light weight colonies will have 

 carried the honey in toward the 

 brood-nest and the exchange of out- 

 side combs can be effected with very 

 little disturbance. 



For the successful production of 

 comb honey, either comb or ex- 

 tracted, good wintering is essential, 

 and good wintering requires not only 

 strong colonies with ample stores, but 

 also ample protection. If one is so 

 unfortunately situated as not to pos- 

 sess a properly constructed cellar, the 

 hives must be thoroughly packed out- 

 side and sheltered. It often happens 

 that spring losses are much greater 

 than winter losses. This is especially 

 true if cellar wintered bees are set 

 out in the spring without adequate 

 protection. In order to avoid spring 

 losses, some advise wrapping with 

 tar paper, others advocate the use of 

 hair felt, which can be purchased in 

 sheets about one inch in thickness 

 and cut to any size. In using hair 

 felt, a sheet is slipped in, in place of 

 each outside comb and another pad 

 laid over the top. If metal covers are 

 used, the pad may be placed between 

 the inner and outer covers, and, as 

 the escape of heat from the colony is 

 mostly upward, it is very effective in 

 retaining the warmth of the colony. 

 For want of better protection, several 

 newspapers are sometimes folded and 

 placed between the covers. 



Assuming that the colonies come 

 through winter and spring in good 

 condition, a number of them may at- 

 tempt to swarm with the coming of 

 fruit bloom. To forestall this, place 

 above each colony sufficiently strong, 

 a queen excluder and a hive body. 

 This hive body should contain at the 

 sides two frames of honey kept over 

 from the previous season. The mid- 

 dle frames should contain one or 

 two empty drawn combs and the re- 

 mainder of this second story filled 

 with frames of full sheets of founda- 

 tion. Now, why this arrangement? 

 The full combs are to guard against 

 starvation in case of bad weather or 

 shortage of nectar from other causes, 

 for it must be remembered that if the 

 colonies are as strong as they should 

 be, and if there is no other important 

 source of nectar up to the time of the 

 opening of the main flow, the honey 

 of the lower story will practically all 

 be turned into young bees before 

 the clover flow begins, and it is these 

 bees which are of greatest value. Mr. 

 Geo. S. Demuth, in his bulletin on 

 comb-honey production, rightly em- 

 phasizes the fact that it is the brood 

 reared within the si.x weeks preced- 

 ing the opening of the main honey 

 flow that furnishes the bees which 

 are effective in storing the crop. If 

 bees run short of stores at this time, 

 brood rearing ceases, or slows up 

 just at the time when it should be at 

 its maximum. For this reason, be 

 sure that there is an abundance of 

 food in the hive between fruit bloom 

 and the opening of the clover flow. 

 The use of the one or two middle 

 drawn combs is to induce the bees to 

 begin working above and thus to re- 

 lieve congestion of the brood-cham- 

 ber and to prevent consequent swarm- 

 ing. 



There are two general methods of 

 procedure which may be used at the 

 opening of the clover season in or- 

 der to forestall swarming, methods 

 which bring about results corres- 

 ponding to the two conditions follow- 

 ing natural swarming. One of these 

 produces a condition corresponding 

 to that of the parent colony, the 

 other to that of the new colony. In 

 case of natural swarming there is, in 

 the parent colony, no egg laying un- 

 til a new queen has emerged, mated 

 and begun her duties, a period of 

 about 17 days. In the new colony no 

 brood emerges for three weeks fol- 

 lowing the issuing of the prime 

 swarm. To bring about the first con- 

 dition artificially, the queen is re- 

 moved about the time the main flow 

 begins. Nine or ten days later all 

 queen cells are removed and the col- 

 ony is requeened with Italian stock 

 or a ripe cell given from the best 

 breeder. It is expedient to use this 

 plan with colonies which need re- 

 queening, usually weaker stands, 

 those which have not required the 

 added hive body. 



The second method is as follows : 

 Remove the lower story and ail of 

 the brood, making the second story 

 the new brood-chamber. Find the 

 queen, and after shaking the bees in 

 front of the hive, let her run in. The 

 brood taken away may be used in 

 strengthening weaker colonies or for 

 building up nuclei. Do not make the 

 mistake of leaving one frame of 

 brood, as advocated by some, or any 

 brood at all, as it will often happen 

 that queen-cells will be started and 

 swarming follow. If the above is 

 carefully followed out. and the bees 

 are properly shaded, there is no dan- 

 ger whatever of them swarming out 

 or absconding. It is important that 

 there be at least one empty comb 

 available for the queen to begin lay- 

 ing. The six frames of foundation 

 serve to retard storing in the brood- 

 chamber, thus forcing the honey into 

 the comb supers, two of which are 

 added at this time, the first super 

 containing a few bait sections. 



It will be observed that the above 

 modes of manipulation insure a ma.xi- 

 mum number of bees at the time 

 when bees mean more honey, and it 

 cuts off brood-rearing at the time 

 when an increased amount of brood 

 would result in a greater number of 

 consumers, both in the larval stage 

 and as adults, after the flow is over. 

 Of course, it sometimes happens that 

 with a prolonged flow colonies may 

 become somewhat weakened before 

 it is over, but, on the whole, it is 

 preferable to rearing a horde of bees 

 at the wrong time only to consume 

 the crop after it is gathered. 



In localities where buckwheat, 

 heartsease, goldenrod or other late 

 summer or fall flowers furnish the 

 main crop, the same modes of manip- 

 ulation may be followed, the work 

 being done preferably at or about the 

 time the plants begin to yield nectar. 

 The surplus brood will be found use- 

 ful in building nuclei into full colo- 

 nies for next year's campaign. At 

 this time it must not be forgotten to 

 place upon the hives a sufficient num- 



ber of supers containing brood-combs 

 to be filled for next spring's feeding. 

 Some of the advantages of the 

 methods described may be enumer- 

 ated as follows : 



1. It brings about conditions similar 

 to those of natural swarming. 



2. It insures continuous brood-rear- 

 ing in the springtime, resulting in the 

 maximum number of bees at the right 

 time. 



3. It restricts brood-rearing at a 

 time when the brood and bees would 

 become consumers rather than pro- 

 ducers. 



4. It effectually prevents swarming. 



5. It guards against starvation in 

 case of inclement weather. 



6. The plan is applicable to com- 

 mercial outyards. 



7. Incidentally, it is an effective 

 mode of treatment for European 

 foulbrood. You can cure the disease 

 and get a crop at the same time. 



8. It requires the minimum amount 

 of labor. In the first plan there are 

 two manipulations, first removing the 

 queen, and, secondly, removing cells 

 and requeening. In the second pro- 

 cess there is but one operation aside 

 from adding and removing supers. 



The methods above outlined are 

 not merely theory. They have been 

 found to work out satisfactorily in 

 practice, and while certain localities 

 may require a modification of details, 

 I believe that the principles are cor- 

 rect and worthy of careful study. 



Indiana. 



AN AMERICAN HERO 



It appears that Voorhees, son of 

 one of our active beekeepers, Frank 

 Voorhees, of Raritan, III., was the 

 discoverer of the method which en- 

 abled the American troops to actual- 

 ly "walk over the wire entangle- 

 ments" during the world war. "He 

 took two ordinary rolls of chicken 

 wire netting, about 40 feet long and 

 wove them together, making a mat of 

 double width. This was rolled up 

 loosely. When they reached the wire 

 entanglements, they would lay one 

 end on the ground and push the roll 

 on before them, over the entangle- 

 ment. Strange as it may seem, a 

 body of troops could march over any 

 entanglement in this manner with as 

 much ease as they could march 

 through a field of high grass. "Young 

 Voorhees died of disease in France. 

 Keep his memory green. 



A WORD FROM AUSTRALIA 



We have a letter from James E. 

 Marshall, of Geelong, Victoria, ob- 

 jecting to some statements made by 

 Tarlton Rayment in our June issue. 

 Rayment (page 199) states: "There is 

 a beekeepers' association, but it is 

 very small and not at all representa- 

 tive of the many progressive api- 

 arists of the State." 



Marshall states that in this he is 

 wrong, that the number of members 

 is 200 and that it does contain the ma- 

 jority of the progressive apiarists 

 from all sections of Victoria. He fur- 

 ther states that sixty attended the 

 last conference and that in member- 



