GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



September, 1917 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



The story-and-a-half brood-chamlier (Wilder 

 method) . 



one (or sometimes the midcll? one) to the 

 bottom at intervals of about ten clays or 

 two weeks; and the use of the iy2-story or 

 shallow-super addition to the regular body, 

 shifting occasionally on the J. J. Wilder 

 plan. 



The shallow divisible and th? iV^-story 

 plans give splendid results, having only th3 

 drawback of considerable heavy lifting, 

 especially when supered, while the Jumbo 

 colonies jDeg along with their tremendous 

 force of workers thruout the season, asking- 

 only for super room, requiring no fussing 

 other than to keep them with good queens. 



The fact that there are so many wild 

 black bees in the woods in many sections of 

 I he South makes it far more satisfactory to 

 buy queens from breeders guaranteeing pure 

 matings than to have the trouble of re- 

 placing many mismated queens of one's 

 own rearing. 



More bees die of starvation in the South 

 than in almost any other section cf the 

 country, and this usually occurs late in the 

 spring during cool rainy spells after brood- 

 rearing has well advanced, and often wlion 



the bees are nearly ready to ewarm. So the 

 standard hives often make feeding neces- 

 sary, but the methods shown eliminate all 

 that worry. 



Aside from the advantages mentioned, a 

 still greater advantage is the excellent win- 

 tering and heavy spring brood-rearing re- 

 sulting from the colony having room for 

 almost unlimited stores, which is the great- 

 est asset to the business. 



The accompanying photos are illustrative 

 of the methods mentioned. The hives were 

 supered according to requirements at the 

 time (July 16) for the production of sec- 

 tion and chunk comb honey in combination 

 supers. 



Likely conditions in other sections of the 

 United States are sucli that beiekeepers 

 would call these methods inapplicable; and 

 many will do so without sufficient tests, as 

 it seems beekeepers as a class are prone to 

 stick to a set rule, even when something 

 better awaits them. In fact, it seemed to 

 me at first like a radical variation from the 

 standard methods; yet I consider my de- 

 cision to depart from the standard methods 

 to be worth infinitely more to me than 

 everything else I have done. 



Morganton, N. C. L. E. Webb. 



(000 PouHtjs 



SOUVNOOB, SwEtT CUVER, 



W'flili's iiu'thod ul' belliiis hoiu-.\ . This is pul in a 

 piominent show window, together with supers of 

 honey and extra sections. By means of this display, 

 he sold over 1400 pounds or honey in three day.s. 



