134 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mar. 1 



frame. But I use the Jumbo frame, and 

 the four supply as much storage, and, when 

 full, contain as much honey, as Mr. S.'s 

 half-stories which I imagine he uses. 



Next, Mr. Southworth must "bear in mind 

 that, when I make the exchange, I perform 

 two operations in one. 1 take honey from 

 the hive and supply storage at the same 

 time, while Mr. 8. does only the one, leav- 

 ing the taking of honey until some future 

 time; and when that future time comes, he 

 has to gather up his two, three, or more su- 

 pers, as the case may be, take them to his 

 extracting-room, and stand at the extractor, 

 where he has to do at least twice the crank- 

 ing I do, and then not get his combs as 

 clean as I do mine earlier in the season. 

 And all this time, while Mr. S. is doing this 

 work, I have nothing to do but to take my 

 honey to market and take advantage of the 

 early sales. 



The advantages gained by using one su- 

 per and the exchange of combs are briefly 

 these: Every comb goes direct from the hive 

 to the extractor. It is then in the very best 

 condition to extract the honey cleaner with 

 less turning than would be needed any time 

 thereafter. In the same way the empty 

 combs go direct from the extractor into the 

 supers. Tiiey are then also in the most 

 tempting condition for the bees to accept, 

 and, being placed exactly where the full 

 ones were taken from, business goes on 

 without the least interruption. But how is 

 it when Mr. S. places an empty super under 

 the full one? The whole inside of the hive 

 is disarranged; his bees have to hunt up 

 new fields of operation, get acquainted with 

 the new order of things, prepare his stale 

 combs for the reception of honey, etc., and, 

 befoie his bees are ready to begin storing, 

 my exchanged combs are nearly or quite 

 full of honey again. This is the reason why 

 my management gives me more honey. 



The question of quality, which the head- 

 ing of this article suggests, is of the greatest 

 importance to our pursuit. It is the all-ab- 

 soibing center of attraction from which all 

 arguments of the different advocates radi- 

 ate. The claim that honey must remain 

 on the hives all summer to ripen perfectly 

 is governed entirely by season and locality. 

 I do not think that honey (at least my hon- 

 ey) can possibly improve with old age as do 

 certain kinds of cheese. When honey is 

 capped, whether it be comb or extracted, 

 it is ready for the table; and the sooner it is 

 taken from the hive the better. Why is it 

 that some of my neighbors and customers 

 call for my first-extracted honey? They 

 say, "It has that delicious flavor of new- 

 ness which it loses when extracted later in 

 the season." As long as my honey comes 

 up to and even overruns the 12-lbs.-to-the- 

 gallon test, it would be unpardonable short- 

 sightedness to let it deteriorate by leaving 

 it on the hives any longer. By doing so it 

 may improve a little in body, but lose in 

 flavor. Jn all my extracting operations I 

 never had honey ferment or sour. The cir- 

 cle of my customers has grown larger from 



year to year; and the fact that I can not 

 produce nearly enough to supply the de- 

 mand is suflicient to prove that my product 

 is up to the standard mark of desirability. 



When I made the misleading remark, that 

 I began extracting when my combs were 

 capped "three-quarters or over" I should 

 have given a little exj^lanation, which I 

 omitted at that time for brevity's sake. 

 The facts are, when I have a sufficient num- 

 ber of combs of that description to pay for 

 starting the extractor, many more combs 

 scattered through the hives are then all 

 capped. The progress in my supers, when 

 the white-clover flow is well under way, is 

 so rapid that combs three-quarters capped 

 to-day are all capped inside of 24 hours, so 

 that, by the time I get to them, practically 

 all honey that goes into the extractor is 

 capped. 



La Salle, N. Y. 



THE WINTER NEST VS. SOLID COMBS OF 

 HONEY. 



The Solution of the Problem Depends upon the 



Locality and on the Time when the Bees 



go into Winter Quarters. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



Seeing my name mentioned in a discus- 

 sion on "winter neat better than solid 

 combs of honey," pages 65, 66, 67, of Glean- 

 ings for February 1, 1 wish to state that, in 

 1905 and '6, a discussion upon this subject 

 took place between Dr. Miller and myself 

 on one side and J. L, Byer on the other, in 

 the American Bee Journal. Both the doc- 

 tor and myself advised room and dry comb 

 for the bees to cluster upon below the hon- 

 ey, on the center frames. Mr. Byer averred 

 that he wintered bees successfully "on solid 

 sealed combs" {Am.er%Gan Bee Journal, 

 Feb. 1, 1906, page 99) . He referred to Wm. 

 McEvoy as authority for the same thing. 

 Being well acquainted with Mr. McEvoy, 

 having full confldence in his statements, 

 and knowing him to be an experienced bee- 

 keeper, I had the curiosity of writing to 

 him to ascertain what his experience was. 

 He replied along the line mentioned by Mr. 

 Byer, that, since the year 1876, he had been 

 in the habit of crowding his bees "on five, 

 six, and seven combs of all-capped stores." 

 Mr. Byer in his articles had demanded that 

 we make a trial of all capped combs filled 

 from top to bottom, as he used them, before 

 condemning his method. I had never had 

 more than one colony with all capped combs 

 without room to breed, to my knowledge, 

 and it had died, leaving the combs practi- 

 cally all full, so I did not feel like renewing 

 the experiment; but in view of the positive 

 assertions of both of these men, who are cer- 

 tainly bee-keepers of experience, I have con- 

 cluded that it is possible to winter bees suc- 

 cessfully on full sealed combs. Perhaps 

 friend McEvoy will pardon me for sending 

 you his letter to me, dated February 6, 1906. 

 I believe it is worth publishing. 



