Vol. XVI. 



AUG. 15, 1888. 



No. 16. 



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THREE WAYS OF W^OBKING 

 COMB HONEY. 



FOR 



FRIEND DOOLITTLB BRINGS SQUARELY BEFORE US 



A MATTER OF CONSIDERABLE MOMENT TO 



HONEY-PRODUCERS. 



f5< HE usual mode of working- for comb honey is 

 §)" what is known as the " tiering--up system," 

 < and without doubt there are more who use 

 this system than there are of those who use 

 another systems combined; yet this does not 

 certainly make it true that this plan is the best one 

 there is, by any means. It often happens that the 

 majority is not in the right, and so after I had 

 pr(jven, to ray entire satisfaction, that there was a 

 better plan to work on in raising comb honey than 

 the tiering-up system, I forsook the same and turn- 

 ed my attention to other plans. My chief objection 

 to the tiering-up plan was, that not so much honey 

 could be obtained by using it, and, worse than all the 

 rest, if the utmost care was not used, the result 

 would be lots of unfinished sections in the fall. 

 These unfinished sections have been an " eye-sore " 

 to all the users of this plan, as the immediate past 

 will testify, for many are so disgusted with them 

 that they recommend that they be burned up, while 

 a whole issue of one of our bee-periodicals is used in 

 telling how to save them by way of feeding back ex- 

 tracted honey, in order to get them filled. 



The next system most in use is what is termed the 

 "side and top storing plan combined," which I 

 adopted upon leaving the tiering-uj) plan. By the 

 use of this plan, more honey can be obtained than 

 by any other plan I know of, except by using the 



lateral plan, of which I shall soon speak. The trou- 

 ble with the side and top storing plan was, that it 

 required much work; yet as I go over the results of 

 the past while using it, I am convinced that the ex- 

 tra amount of honey obtained by the use of it more 

 than paid me for all the extra work the plan requir- 

 ed, over the tiering-up plan. An average yield of 

 over 80 lbs. of comb honey per colony, for a period 

 of 15 years, is a record never attained by any of 

 the advocates of that plan. A few years ago D. A. 

 Jones came out with a wholly side-storing plan, the 

 young brood to be kept in the center of the hive by 

 means of perforated zinc, while the sections were to 

 be placed between that and the older brood, which 

 was to be kept on the outside. One trial of this 

 proved, so far as I was concerned, that the plan was 

 fallacious; and although he told us he would ex- 

 plain, some years ago, I have never seen a word 

 from him on the subject since; hence I have not 

 enumerated this in the above three plans at all. 

 While working with the side and top storing plan, I 

 left a passageway under the side boxes, so that any 

 bees which might be scattered around over the top 

 and side of the hive, after any manipulation, could 

 get back to the cluster instead of dying there, as 

 is the case where no means of outlet is provided. 

 This caused many to write me, asking if I meant to 

 have this so; "for," said they, "the bees will go 

 around under these side boxes up into the cap over 

 them, and build comb there, which they fill with 

 honey." I told them that this was as 1 wanted it, 

 giving the reasons for so leaving it, and telling them 

 if any colony so persisted in doing, to give more room 

 by adding sections at the sides. Well, 1 often got 



