350 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



CONVERSATIONS with DOOLITTLE 



At Borodino, New York 



DRAWN COMBS IN SECTIONS. 



" As the season of 1915 was not 

 the best for honey, I have many- 

 sections with combs in them left 

 over from that year. What had I 

 better do with these sections — cut 

 out the combs and clean up the 

 sections, melting the combs for wax, or 

 would you use the whole thing for fire- 

 kindlers as does a beekeeper near me?" 



Well, now ! that is ahead of any waste- 

 fulness I ever heard of except letting the 

 larvae of the wax-moth destroy the combs. 

 Sections filled with combs are equal to mon- 

 ey in the bank. Money is put in the bank 

 for safe keeping, but more especially for 

 the interest it will bring. If these sections 

 of combs are given to the bees at the open- 

 ing of the clover or basswood harvest, they 

 are not only preserved and filled with hon- 

 ey, but they will give big interest by draw- 

 ing the bees into the supers before they 

 would otherwise enter them. The very first 

 honey is thus secured from these sources at 

 the very start, which practically insures a 

 good yield to the very end. 



I have had years of experience in this 

 matter, and know that when the flow from 

 either clover or basswood opens very sud- 

 denly, or, at least, becomes very profuse 

 soon after it opens, neither starters nor full 

 sheets of foundation can begin to compare 

 with sections filled with comb. There is no 

 time in which drawn combs can be used to 

 such good effect as at the rush that comes 

 at the opening of the basswood harvest. 



Then these combs are of equal value in 

 getting the bees started at work in the 

 sections at the beginning of the clover har- 

 vest, at which time the commencement of 

 the nectar flow is not such as it is with 

 basswood. When honey comes in slowly, 

 the bees have to be coaxed into the sections 

 or else they are very slow in starting, and 

 these sections of comb are the greatest 

 " coaxers " in bee life of anytliing which 

 can be used. When honey comes with a 

 rush, there is no time for deliberation; the 

 honey must go somewhere, and work will 

 at once be commenced in the sections full 

 of inviting combs. 



_ Then drawn combs are ahead of founda- 

 tion — at least so far as the amount of honey 

 to be secured is concerned — at any stage of 

 the flow. If we could have all sections filled 

 with nice white combs there is no reason 

 why we cannot get just as much comb hon- 

 ey as extracted. If I could have my choice 

 I should be glad to have all the sections in 

 the first super filled with drawn or partly 



drawn combs. I have seen seasons in. which 

 I was satisfied that a super of partly drawn 

 sections of comb to give a colony at first 

 meant just one more super of finished 

 honey. A colony given a super of combs 

 would have those combs filled, and be start- 

 ed upon a second super of sections filled 

 with foundation by the time a colony given 

 a super filled with only foundation had 

 barely made a start. Where only founda- 

 tion is used in the first super put on, the 

 bees are slow to make a start, seeming 

 rather to store in the brood-combs below. 

 If a bee emerges from a cell, and the queen 

 doesn't stand ready to put in an egg, it is 

 quite likely to be filled with honey. Give 

 such a colony a super of sections filled with 

 jDartly drawn combs, and the bees will store 

 honey in these combs just about as readily 

 as in the combs below — a long time before 

 they will draw out foundation in the sec- 

 tions. Combs in the sections relieve the 

 pressure upon the brood-nest. More brood 

 is the result. Yes, and it starts the bees 

 to storing above the brood-nest, and, having 

 made a start, they are sure to continue it 

 unless the flow of nectar nearly or quite 

 stops altogether. 



Considering the value of drawn combs, 

 I do not try, to any great extent, to restrict 

 the number of unfinished sections at the end 

 of the season. Supers entirely filled with 

 drawn combs are not only just the thing at 

 the beginning of the white-honey flow, but 

 they are equally good near the close, for I 

 have many times given colonies supers half 

 filled with drawn combs and half filled with 

 foundation near the end of the basswood 

 flow, in which the drawn combs were filled 

 and nicely capped; and the foundation, al- 

 tho in the center of the super, was left 

 entirely untouched. If I had sufficient 

 drawn combs I would use them exclusively 

 during the white-honey season, at the begin- 

 ning, middle, and end ; and by giving the 

 colonies, after the basswood season is end- 

 ed, supers of sections filled with foundation 

 at the beginning of the buckwheat flow, the 

 bees will draw out thousands of them dur- 

 ing that and the fall flow. This can be 

 extracted, and the combs used the following 

 season. The extracted dark honey may be 

 used for feeding, or it may be sold to those 

 who prefer dark honey. In uncapping, it 

 is well to cut quite deeply, thus reducing 

 the depth of the cells, as when combs are 

 nearly completed and used over again they 

 will not have the smooth new look of those 

 just built, nor of those that were not more 

 than half completed the previous season. 



