938 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



NINE=YEAR=OLD GIRL GRAFTING QUEEN=CELLS 



BY WM. GIECK 



The accompanying' pictnies show my 

 daughter gxafting queen-cells. She is 9 

 years old, and these pictures were taken 

 July 15. I raise my queens by the Swarth- 

 more system. She always wanted to try, so 

 this summer she grafted some of the cells 

 for me. She is the youngest girl I have 



heard of raising queens. I raise my own 

 queens, and supply some for the neighbor- 

 ing beemen. The honey-flow in this locality 

 was only about half a crop ; but the bee.s 

 worked strong on aster and goldenrod. 

 Aurora, 111., Sept. 9. 



ADVANTAGE OF PRODUCING COMB, EXTRACTED, 

 HONEY IN THE SAME APIARY 



BULK COMB 



BY BYRON S. HASTINGS 



I heard the best joke the other day that 

 I have heard in a long time. I have my 

 bees in the orchard of a Mr. John Craig. 

 The hives are painted white, and are in 

 three rows, two in a place. The other day 

 as I was going out to the ajjiary I stopped 

 to talk to a neighbor, and during the con- 

 versation she said, " The other day Ave had 

 visitors, and I just had to laugh at one of 

 them. She said to me, ' I never knew before 

 that John Craig had a graveyard in his 

 orchard;' and 1 couldn't think what she 

 meant until I went to the window and looked 

 over there. She thought 

 your hives were tomb- 

 stones." 



If that lady would 

 stand in front of one 

 of those nice white 

 tombstones some warm 

 August day she Avould 

 think there were 

 spooks in that grave- 

 yard sure. 



In planning to make 

 beekeeping my voca- 

 tion, naturally the 

 question came into my 

 mind whether I should 

 produce comb honey in 

 sections, bulk comb 

 honey, or extracted 

 honey. 



I decided to produce 

 all three for a while, 

 anyway. Why? Well, 



I would rather produce section comb honey, 

 because it takes more skill, sells readily, 

 and is, I think, nicer to handle than the 

 others. But not all colonies are suitable for 

 producing it. 



I have two colonies that will store as 

 much as any ; will build the comb as straight 

 as a board, fill them clear to the wood, and 

 cap them as white as snow. I have two 



others that will do as well as the first two 

 every way, except in capping. They cap so 

 that it looks dark and greasy. Some of my 

 colonies are just average — that is, they will 

 do fairly good work in the section, and cap 

 white, but they will not come up to the fir.st 

 tAvo in any Avay. 



I had one colony in which, no matter 

 Avhat I Avould do, the bees in it Avould not 

 do a thing in the super, but jDrepared to 

 swarm. I removed all but one frame of 

 brood, the one Avith the queen on it, and put 

 them into another hive-body, putting frames 



Dolores Gieck grafting cell ciijis. 



with full sheets of foundation in their place. 

 I put a queen-excluder on the hive, the 

 comb super on that, and the brood on that. 

 They filled the brood-chamber with brood 

 and honey, and the other hi\"e body Avith 

 honey as fast as the brood hatched out, but 

 they Avould not do a thing in the comb-honey 

 sujier. I look it off and put another hive- 

 bodv on, Avith full sheets of foundation in 



