March, 1920 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



165 



sdiis when coiiil> lioney would bo nu abso- 

 lute failure; for, in order that any quantity 

 of rouil) be built, it is necessary that the 

 iiij^hts be warm, as it is during the warm 

 uiglits that most of the wax is secreted and 

 tiie combs built. 



Oftentimes a beginner is able to find a 

 larger beekeeper in his own locality who 

 will be willing to do his extracting for a 

 small sum. We have found that even one 

 cent a pound is a good bargain on both sides. 

 If one prefers the fun of doing his own ex- 

 tracting (and there is a real pleasure in it), 

 he will be able to purchase a two-frame ex- 

 tractor at a moderate price. And this size 

 will be quite large enough for some time to 

 come. And when he later decides to go into 

 the business a little heavier it will, doubt- 

 less, be possible to sell the small extractor 

 and purchase a larger one, either new or 

 second-hand. 



We advise, therefore, that the beginner 

 use extrac ting-combs rather than sections, 

 and produce either chunk honey or prefer- 

 ably extracted. For the sake of those, how- 

 ever, who greatly prefer comb honey and 

 find a keen delight in the beauty of the 

 snow-white section just as it comes from 

 the hive, we intend describing the outfit 

 for comb as well as extracted honey and in 

 a later issue the management necessary for 

 the production of both. 



Outfit for Extracted Honey. 



For extracted-honey production the small- 

 est practical outfit should consist of a com- 

 plete hive with fixtures and supers — a bee- 

 brush, bee-hat, smoker, hive-tool, queen-ex- 

 cluder, bee-escape board, uncapping-knife, 

 and a honey-extractor. This provides for 

 only one colony of bees. It would be dis- 

 tinctly to the beginner's advantage to dou- 

 ble or triple the number of bee-escape 

 boards, queen-excluders, supers, and hives 

 with contained fixtures; for with two or 

 three colonies he would have a chance for 

 comparison, and, we believe, would learn 

 beekeeping much faster. 



A single-walled hive exactly identical 

 with the deep super may be used, but in 

 this case it will be necessary to provide also 

 a winter packing case if the colony is to be 

 wintered outside. Therefore we consider 

 the double-walled hive much more practical 

 for the beginner, and, accordingly, recom- 

 mend the double-walled ten-frame hive 

 equipped with ten frames containing full 

 sheets of foundation, metal telescope cover, 

 inner case, chaff tray, division-board, bot- 

 tom-board, entrance-closer, two or three 

 deep or four or five shallow supers furnished 

 with frames containing full sheets of foun- 

 dation. The hive body, or lower story of the 

 hive, rests immediately upon the floor-board 

 which has at the front an entrance-con- 

 tractor for regulating the size of the en- 

 trance. At each upper end of this box or 

 hive is a metal support, or rabbet, holding 

 suspended lengthwise of the body ten mova- 

 ble Langstroth frames 9^x17% inches in 



size. Inside of these frames, attached to 

 till' toi)-bar by means of wax and supported 

 by fine wires, are full sheets of foundation, 

 or beeswax stamped with an impression of 

 the natural base and central walls of honey- 

 comb. During the honey flow, or while the 

 bees are being fed, new wax is added to 

 these shallow walls, and the foundation 

 built out into comb for storing honey and 

 raising young bees. Here in this lower hive 

 or lower story, called the brood-chamber, all 

 the young bees are raised, the queen usually 

 being allowed to lay eggs only in this story. 

 As soon as the bees seem to need more 

 room there is placed above the brood-cham- 

 ber a queen-excluder, which is an arrange- 

 ment of perforated zinc or of wire rods, 

 which allows the worker bees to pass freelj' 



/ ^</ff 



Parts uf .siuijle-walk'd comb-honey hive. 



back and forth between the lower and the 

 upper chambers, but excludes the queen 

 from the upper story on account of her 

 larger size. When producing extracted hon- 

 ey this excluder is necessary in order to 

 keep the queen from laying in the supers or 

 upper stories that contain the surplus honey. 

 A few beekeepers allow the queen access to 

 any . or all of the supers, but we can not 

 recommend this; for, besides the extra trou- 

 ble and inconvenience, the practice also re- 

 sults in a poorer grade of honey. 



Over the queen-excluder is placed the su- 

 per filled with frames of foundation. The 

 super is a plain dovetailed box without top 

 or bottom. The inside dimensions may be 

 the same as that of the lower double-walled 



