464 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



but I should just like to say, in reply to his 

 comment (page 342) upon my method of get- 

 ting bees started in sections, that I have tried 

 bait sections, and find that usually the bees 

 will fill them and leave the others untouched. 



Now, wnat I am going to say will probably 

 be considered a heresy; but it is a fact that I 

 prefer the small combs because the queen will 

 lay in them. When a super of combs is put 

 upon a good hive of bees they will rush the 

 honey from the brood-nest into the small 

 combs. Usually the queen, after filling the 

 empty cells below, will get into the super of 

 combs when it is almost full of honey. She 

 does not have room for much brood, but we 

 generally find a few patches of eggs and larvse 

 when we raise the super to put in sections. 

 We smoke the super well so that the queen 

 goes down before raising it, and she does not 

 trouble it any more, as the sections are be- 

 tween her and the super, and she won't go 

 through them. 



I used to think that brood above my sections 

 would ruin them, but I know better now. I 

 suppose if we left the queen in the super, or 

 if the super were full of brood, the quality of 

 the section honey might be impaired. 



All of my honey last year was produced by 

 that method. Just after I had put a lot upon 

 the market last fall in Durango there was a 

 grand fair or exhibition of the products of 

 Southwestern Colorado, Northern New Mexi- 

 co, and Eastern Utah. The man who handled 

 my honey, wishing to add to the display, en- 

 tered a lot of cases of my honey, and got the 

 second premium. The honey was an average 

 market lot, and I did not know that it was on 

 exhibition until notified of my premium. I 

 mention this to prove that the quality was 

 good. We have a fair demand for extracted 

 honey, and wax and vinegar; and, consider- 

 ing the cost of putting into packages for mar- 

 ket, it pays better than comb honey, especial- 

 ly when we can get several hundred pounds 

 extra while coaxing the bees to work in sec- 

 tions. With the present low prices we have 

 to consider every thing, and find the big prod- 

 ucts of extracted honey (wax and vinegar) go 

 a long way toward paying for the cans to put 

 up the crop. 



Mancos, Colo., May 13. 



[I am becoming more and more convinced 

 that this is the way to produce comb honey. 

 The ordinary method of putting a super of sec- 

 tions on to the hive direct often results in loss 

 of time — two or three days, and possibly a 

 week. The bees apparently do not quite like 

 the upstairs arrangement, and, as a conse- 

 quence, fritter away for several days, trying 

 to decide what to do. Valuable time as well 

 as honey is lost. By putting the shallow ex- 

 tracting-super right on the hive in the first 

 place — that is, at the beginning of the honey- 

 flow — we get the bees into the upstairs fever. 

 After they get well agoing in the shallow 

 combs, lift them up and put a comb-honey 

 super under them, and, presto ! what a rush 

 there will be for the sections ! I have tried it 

 myself just enough to know that there is no 

 jugglery about it ; but that, in our locality at 



least, good results may be secured ; but be- 

 cause I thought I was almost alone in the mat 

 ter I did not say so much about it. Of course, 

 after the bees once get to work in the sections 

 it is not necessary further to put on extracting 

 combs. 



The Barber method seems to be so practical 

 .that I have incorporated it in the new edition 

 of our A B C of Bee Culture. 



Hello ! here is another subscriber who knows 

 that the plan is not all theory. Just read what 

 he says. — Ed ] 



PRODUCING BOTH COMB AND EXTRACTED AT 

 THE SAME TIME. 



By his Straw in Gleanings, p. 386, I am 

 glad to see Dr. Miller has done some figuring. 

 He is almost persuaded, and with a little actual 

 experience he will become fully so. The first 

 thiee years in bee-keeping I produced comb 

 honey exclusively, extracting only from the 

 unfinished sections. Last year being poor in 

 promise, I put up eleven supers of extracting- 

 frames filled with extra-light brood founda- 

 tion, wired, for ten-frame hives. From these 

 eleven supers I extracted 316 lbs. of honey 

 which I sold at from 13 to 15 cts. net, accord- 

 ing to package — four-quart granite pails con- 

 taining 10 lbs., §1.45; two-quart, 5 lbs., 75 cts.; 

 1-qt. fruit-jars, 3 lbs., 50 cts., and 1-lb. bottles 

 with labels, 20 cts., all in the home market, 

 and to friends in adjacent towns. Had my 

 crop been multiplied by 5 I should still have 

 run short. In November it candied, and I 

 gave a jar to a poor German shoemaker, who 

 declared with many strong expressions it was 

 the first honey (bee's honey) he had seen in 

 this country. His wife took all I had, and 

 wanted more for her friends. She sold it at 

 60 cts. per 3-lb. jar. 



I had no idea there was so much filth in 

 good clean comb honey until I melted down 

 14 sections and found the wax full of propolis 

 and impurity. By the way, 14 Danzy sections 

 gave me just 3 oz. of wax, 11 lbs of honey, 

 and % oz. refuse. My average of comb and 

 extracted per colony last year was 43 lbs. I 

 had 11 swarms, only one from a ten-frame 

 hive. After cutting out queen-cells and plac- 

 ing the old hive in a new location, I gave them 

 a super with extracting (5-inch-deep) frames. 

 They were handsomely filled and capped, and 

 gave me 25 lbs. of extracted honey. The oth- 

 er old colonies stored but four or five pounds in 

 sections. B. F. Onderdonk. 



Mountain View, N. J., May 23. 



THE SOMERFORD METHOD OF FORMING NU- 

 CLEI. 



How to Examine a Young Queen in a Queen-cell ; 



a Suggestion to Fred L. Craycraft; Foul Brood 



in Cuba ; How did it Originate ? 



BY W. W. SOMERFORD. 



Dr. Miller; — I see in one of your Straws 

 for April 15, that you always supposed that 

 your queens were the best reared as I describe 

 in an article on expansion, page 160, April 1st 

 Gleanings. I will say that I adopted the 



