July, igi? 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Sid 



be put on top as before. There is little 

 more to be done now except to see that 

 the queens ai'e using both stories, or, in 

 some instances, if two are filled a third one 

 besides. Two to three stories should be 

 boiling over with bees ready for clover. 



THE HONEY-FLOW. 



After white clover has been yielding for 

 a week or ten days (wliite clover com- 

 mences about IVfay 10 or 20 in this locality 

 according to the season), after having put 

 on extra supers as necessary the queen 

 should be confined to the lower story. In 

 this lower brood-chamber eight combs are 

 selected from the two or three brood-cham- 

 bers that are the heaviest with pollen and 

 also that contain the most eggs or the 

 youngest brood. On top of these the queen- 

 excluder should be placed, then a body of 

 drawn comb or full sheets of comb founda- 

 tion (it is a waste of good time and honey 

 to use less than full sheets of foundation), 

 and finally the body or bodies of the more 

 advanced brood and the honey. All stories 

 above the excluders should have but seven 

 frames and these should be equally spaced. 



At this time the empty cells left when the 

 young bees hatched out will be filled at once 

 with honey, and there is always a scramble 

 to get all the combs filled between the two 

 lots of brood. Some might ask about these 

 combs that have brood in, whether they will 

 not be in the way or whether such old combs 

 will not make the honey dark. There is no 

 need to woitv, for the bees will all be hatch- 

 ed and out of the way long before the honey 

 is ready to take off. Honey stored in these 

 old black combs is ripened at once, and 

 there is always more of it. I have had two 

 supers of these old combs filled while the 

 bees were filling one super of newly drawn 

 combs. As to the color, I have not been 

 able to distinguish the slightest difference 

 between honey taken from old combs and 

 that taken from new except that the honey 

 from the old combs is invariably better 

 flavored and thicker. Bees never put honey 

 in cells that are dirty. 



If the weather becomes warm enough to 

 cause the slightest indication of bees hang- 

 ing out on the fronts of the hives, two one- 

 inch cubes of wood should be cut for each 

 hive, the lower stories tipped up from the 

 bottom-board, and the blocks placed under 

 the fi'ont corners. This gives additional 

 ventilation, and has a tendency to send the 

 honey up into the supers. The hive-stands 

 should be set with pitch enough so that, 

 when the blocks are put under, the hives will 

 be level. 



When putting on empty supers it is ad- 

 visable to remove the full supers down to 



the queen-excluder and put the empty one 

 on, then on top of it those taken off, putting 

 the heaviest on top. Tlie supers should not 

 be added loo fast at the end of the flow. 

 I have always been well repaid for all of 

 the extra heavy work of putting full supers 

 on top. (By the way, this is one of the 

 reasons eight-frame hives are large enough 

 for me, as we often have them tiered up six 

 stories high). The empty supers are near- 

 er for the bees to put the honey in. More- 

 over, the bees continually traveling over the 

 honey to upper stories, especially if left on 

 to the end of the flow, make the cappings 

 very tough. 



My reason for using but seven frames and 

 spacing them equally is that it takes fewer 

 frames and the combs are much thicker, so 

 that when uncapped if the knife goes right 

 down to the frame the uncapping is much 

 easier, much more wax is secured, and the 

 combs are left in better condition. More- 

 over, there are fewer to handle according to 

 the amount of honey extracted. 

 , Why not extract the combs when full in- 

 stead of tiering up the supers"? The reason 

 is that the honey is richer and heavier when 

 left until the end of the flow. There is 

 nothing worse than honey which is not 

 thoroly ripened. Then I have always 

 noticed if honey is taken away during a 

 honey-flow and empty combs returned the 

 bees become dissatisfied, and it often re- 

 sults in swarming. I rarely have any 

 swarming. The reasons are, first, the young- 

 queens; second, the ventilation by blocks 

 under the front ends of the hives; third, 

 keeping the honey on until after the flow 

 is over; fourth, requeening right after the 

 honey - flow with strong young queens. 

 These queens get right down to work and 

 make every one else work too. Bees with 

 nothing to do are like people out of work. 

 They get into mischief, rob a great deal, so 

 they should be kept working as much as 

 possible. A good many of my colonies give 

 over two hundred pounds of surplus honey 

 each. 



After the honey is extracted and the 

 combs are empty it is a good time to select 

 all worker combs to be added to the brood- 

 chamber when requeening. The remaining 

 combs can be put eight to a super and piled 

 back on the hives above the exeludex', for 

 tlie bees can care for them better than the 

 beekeeper can. 



Mount Holly, N. J. 



[Beekeeping is a man's business, — the 

 business of a man who can look into the 

 future and plan for the months to come. 

 One who can see only 24 hours ahead cannot 

 be a successful honey jDroducer. — Ed.] 



