Junk. 1920 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



359 



itself should be placed in the cellar for a 

 daj- or two, and a hive containing a small 

 amount of honey left in its place. After the 

 robbers have used up this honey they will 

 become quiet; but if no honey is left in the 

 place where they had been robbing, they 

 will soon begin robbing from a neighboring 

 hive. 



About the easiest way to stop robbing 

 when but one colony is doing the mischief 

 is to interchange the hive locations of the 

 robbed and the robbing colonies. 



Beginning of the Honey Flow. 



By consulting an old experienced beekeep- 

 er of the neighborhood the beginner may 

 learn about when to expect the different 

 honey Hows and especially the main flow. 

 For instance, if he lives in the clover belt, 

 he will probably be told that the flow may 

 be expected to begin from seven to ten days 

 after the first few clover blossoms are dis- 



When bees return to their hives heavily ladeu, they 

 ought to have a clean entrance to alight upon, in- 

 stead of being obliged to waste their time and 

 strength in struggling thru weeds or grass such as 

 shown in front of this hive. 



covered. At this time those colonies that 

 have quite a few bees in the first super 

 should be given a second one, but all good 

 colonies should at this time have at least 

 the equivalent of one deep super, no matter 

 whether they are being run for comb or ex- 

 tracted honey. 



Management when Producing Extracted 

 Honey. 



For about a week after the opening of the 

 honoy flow it is a good plan to allow the 

 queen access to two stories and to keep 

 brood in each. This gets the bees into the 

 habit of storing above, so that when the 

 queen is confined to the lower story by the 

 excluder the bees store above more readily. 

 Whenever combs of brood are left separated 

 from the queen by an excluder, the bees 

 frequently start queen-cells on such combs. 

 These queen-cells should be torn down seven 

 or eight days after separating the queen 

 from the brood. 



The beginner who has frames of good 

 drawn combs to use in his supers is indeed 

 fortunate, but in most cases he will proba- 

 bly have frames of full sheets of foundation. 

 The full set of 10 should be put on the hive 

 until the bees have drawn out the founda- 

 tion, then one or two should be removed and 

 the remaining frames equally spaced. This 

 will give more room for storing honey and 

 will result in combs nicely bulged and there- 

 fore easily uncapped. When the super is 

 perhaps one-third filled with honey the next 

 super is put on, the two middle frames of 

 foundation being replaced by the two par- 

 tially drawn combs removed from the first 

 super. This will induce the bees to work 

 in the super more readily. Super room 

 should always be given by placing the new 

 super next to the brood-chamber and placing 

 the full or partly filled supers above it. The 

 only exception to this rule is near the close 

 of the season when the beekeeper is anxious 

 to get his partly filled supers completely 

 filled and yet fears they may need more room 

 before he realizes it. In this case the empty 

 super may be placed at the top above the 

 other supers. 



When the weather is very hot, it will be 

 found a help to give more ventilation by 

 moving the inner cover back a little, leaving 

 a quarter-inch crack at the front of the hive. 

 To give still more ventilation, the supers 

 may also be moved slightly backward or for- 

 ward to give a bee-space, and the hive it- 

 self may be raised from the bottom-board 

 by inserting a small block at each front 

 corner. When the hive is raised on blocks 

 in this way, a little smoke should be blown 

 in the opening at the side, when beginning- 

 work at the hive, otherwise, the sentinel 

 bees stationed along the crack to protect 

 their home will be likely to dart out and 

 sting. 



One might suppose that if all our direc- 

 tions have been carefully followed, no 

 queen-cells would be started, but in a few 

 cases queen-cells may be started in spite of 

 all our care. If so, the beginner is advised 

 to use this plan already mentioned in our 

 last talk. Set the old hive temporarily to 

 one side. In its place put the new hive with 

 nine frames of foundation and at the center 

 one comb with a small patch of eggs and 

 young larvae and the queen, and above this 

 a queen-excluder and supers, at least the top 

 one containing plenty of room for storing, 

 and on top of all, the hive of brood with 

 capped queen-cells torn down. This hive 

 of brood, it should be understood, is placed 

 immediately over the top super, nothing in- 

 tervening between them. The hive is then 

 covered with the inner and the outer covers. 

 Eight days later the upper story may be 

 moved to a new location, and the colony left 

 with one capped queen-cell, and a contracted 

 entrance to prevent chilling of the brood. 

 The queen-cell left in the hive should be the 

 best one, long yet plump, with well-defined 

 corrugations on the sides. To avoid injur- 

 ing the unhatched queen, the frames should 



