GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July, 1920 



either sold to bakers or fed to our own bees. 

 Getting Drawn Combs. 



In the production of extracted honey we 

 plan in our operations to have two extract- 

 ing bodies for each colony of bees. Dur- 

 ing the past several years we have not had 

 two full sets of drawn combs for each hive 

 to begin with. The most that we have had 

 has been one set of drawn comb and one 

 set of full sheets of foundation. 



Our increase in bees has been so rapid 

 that we have had to use extracting combs 

 for brood-combs for our increase, and in this 

 way we have never had full drawn combs 

 for each colony to begin with. However, 

 our honey flows have been favorable enough 

 so that we have lost little if any honey by 

 having the bees draw out their combs be- 

 fore storing the honey. 



Early in the season we have quite a spring 

 flow from dandelion and fruit bloom, and 

 we remove combs from the brood-chamber 

 of many colonies and insert full sheets of 

 foundation. In this way we get a great 

 many combs drawn out prior to the alfalfa- 

 sweet-clover honey flow. This not only 

 relieves congestion of honey in the brood- 

 nest, but also gives the queen new combs 

 to rear brood in, which we think is a very 

 desirable feature of operations for this ter- 

 ritory. We put in these full sheets of foun- 

 dation at the time we are equalizing stores 

 and doing general spring work. We have 

 found our spring work with the bees is as 

 valuable for stirring up the colony to re- 

 newed energy as the work which we do in 

 cleaning the frames, equalizing honey, and 

 ascertaining the work of our queen. 

 Extracted-honey Equipment. 



We believe that in the production of ex- 

 tracted honey it is important that economy 



should be exercised at all times, and espe- 

 cially in the putting up of equipment, wir- 

 ing frames, putting in foundation, nailing 

 up beehives, etc. We use time cards for all 

 of our men so that we know how many 

 frames a day they wire or nail, and in this 

 way we aim to cut down the expense of 

 labor of operations. We find that it costs 

 us about 75 cents per 100 for nailing frames, 

 about the same for wiring, and about 75 

 cents per 100 for putting in the foundation 

 and imbedding it with electricity. 



We have not taken up any of the methods 

 of wiring frames illustrated in the bee 

 journals. We think that if the work is done 

 properly little, if any, ' sagging will oc- 

 cur in frames where four horizontal wires 

 are used, and if we want to do a good 

 rapid job of imbedding we prefer the four 

 wires. Possibly, when we have looked into 

 the matter a little further, we may take up 

 the matter of wiring so there will be no sag 

 to the brood-combs. We think this would 

 be a desirable feature in the imbedding of 

 the foundation when we find a method that 

 is rapid enough to adopt. 



The Use of Queen-excluders. 



We believe that the use of the excluders 

 limits the queen in egg-laying and is a very 

 great inducement to swarming. We prefer 

 to have the queen given the entire run of 

 the hive, even tho it is three or four stories 

 high, rather than to hold her down to one 

 story early in the season. And anyway the 

 bees, along toward the middle and last of 

 the season, restrict the queen in egg-laying, 

 as she generally lets up to a great extent 

 along the middle of July, just at the time we 

 want her to do heavy egg-laying. 



In taking out the honey we find little 

 ditticulty in rejilacing the brood back in the 



Apiary of W. H. Corlliell at Carbondale, Colo., which produced almost a M\ car of comb lioncy in 1919; 



265 colonies spring count. 



