490 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



may here mention that the honey from the 

 extractor runs through an apparatus which 

 heats it to 150 or 100 de^i^rees. All particles 

 of wax, pollen, and air-bubbles rise to the 

 surface in the tank, a strainer being inserted 

 merely to keep the tank closed. 



Some may infer that 1 extract mostly 

 from clear combs; but this is not the case. 

 The majority of my combs are dark; but 

 they are straight — straight in the midrib; 

 and when uncapping 1 scarcely touch the 

 da'k cocoons, the knife taking just the new 

 extension of the old comb. Thus very little 

 of the brown material gets into thecappings. 

 Why should I have crooked combs when 

 straight ones are so much better for the ex- 

 tractor, for the brood-nest, and for the op- 

 erator? 



Victoria, Aus. 



DO QUEEN -CELLS ABOVE A COMB-HONEY 

 SUPER BRING ON SWARMING? 



Bees Enter Drawn Combs in Sections as Readily 

 as in Extracting-frames. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



Dr. C. C. Miller: — I use Danzenbaker 

 hives; and in the spring, in order to forestall 

 swarming, I place an extracting-super on, 

 allowing the queen to occupy the same un- 

 til the beginning of the clover flow, or until 

 time to put on sections. I then raise the 

 extracting-super and put on sections below 

 the excluder and extracting-super, brood 

 and all. Now, the question with me is, does 

 not the placing of brood above an excluder, 

 with its certainty of having queen-cells start- 

 ed, thwart the \ery object I have in view by 

 communicating, to the colony below, the 

 swarming fever, by the jjresence of queen- 

 cells above? 



Nevada, Ohio. F. J. Armstrong. 



[Dr. Miller replies:] 



When one or more frames containing un- 

 sealed brood are under or over the brood- 

 chamber, these frames being isolated from 

 the queen by an excluder or by some other 

 means, there is more or less tendency on 

 the part of the bees to start queen-cells on 

 this isolated brood. It seems as if the bees 

 have a feeling of queenlessness, and the 

 greater the distance from the queen the 

 more surely will cells be started. In the 

 l>resfcnt case, a super of sections being be- 

 tween the brood-chamber with its queen 

 and the brood above, the isolation is so great 

 that cells will be started almost as readily as 

 if this upper story were on a separate stand. 

 Now, if the effect of this distance is so mark- 

 ed that the presence of the queen in the low- 

 er story will not have enough effect on the 

 upper story to prevent the starting of cells 

 there; conversely, the presence of cells in the 

 upper story should not have enough effect 

 on the lower story to start swarming there. 

 Although there may be no such danger as 

 you suggest, there niay, however, be other 

 reasons whv vou should do some thinking 



before following out the plan outlined. 

 Whenever I have tried having brood over a 

 super of sections, it has always resulted in 

 having the sections darkened, i)robably by 

 bits of dark comb being carried down from 

 the combs above. Just why they will carry 

 tiiis dark comb down, and will not carry it 

 the same distance above, I do not know. It 

 seems to be a way they have. 



While it is a desirable thing to give the 

 queen all the room she needs before the har- 

 vest, it may or it may not be a good thing 

 to let the extra room remain to be used as 

 an extracting-super. If you want the ex- 

 tracted honey, well and good. But if there 

 is more profit to you in getting the white 

 honey in sections, then do not leave on the 

 hive the frames that have been used for 

 brood, allowing them to be filled with the 

 finest of the harvest. This is sometimes 

 done with the idea that bees will begin work 

 sooner in extracting-frames than they will 

 in sections. It all depends upon what is in 

 the extracting-frames and in the sections. 

 If the sections be filled with drawn-out 

 combs, and the extracting-frames with foun- 

 dation, they will take to the sections first 

 every time, and vice versa. If both are fill- 

 ed the same, I don't know that they would 

 have any choice. Moreover, if there be in 

 the super a single section filled with comb 

 centrally located, work will begin in that 

 section just as soon, whether the rest of the 

 sections contain comb or foundation. In 

 seasons of failure I have seen hundreds of 

 cases in which the bees have put honey in 

 the bait section, perhaps filled and sealed it, 

 and not a drop in any other section. So for 

 me to allow an extracting-super to be filled 

 would simply give me so much extracted 

 honey in the place of comb, with no advan- 

 tage unless it be an advantage to have the 

 extracted honey, which involves, of course, 

 the possibility of a larger yield of extracted 

 than comb. 



Now I'm telling you how it is here. If 

 there is something dilTerent in your bees or 

 your locality, then you must act accordingly. 



Maiengo, 111. 



INCREASING THE CONSUMPTION OF HONEY 

 BY ADVERTISING. 



BY W. W. BROCKMIRE. 



If bee-keepers expect to see an increase in 

 the amount of honey used they will have to 

 educate the public in regard to the habits of 

 bees and the ])roduction of honey; for the 

 average man thinks honey is honey, one 

 flavor and one color, and that, when can- 

 died, it is a sugar-syrup mixture. For this 

 reason many suppose that honey is adulter- 

 ated when it is not. Bee-keepers ought to 

 do something to counteract adulteration 

 and comb-honey canards. This can be ac- 

 complished by a judicious advertising cam- 

 paign through their organizations. 



Now, I suggest this plan, which I think 

 is simple and feasible: Better organization 

 of bee-keepers by consolidating the National 



