G! T. E A N i N G R IN P. K E C U I. T U H K 



TAar 



en. 1921 



cd liuac'.v i'or table use exclusively; we do 

 nut extract frequently to increase the crop 

 at the expense of quality, but we do try 

 to use the combs which the bees like best 

 for all purposes. 



We use a queen-excluder on every hive 

 and prefer to use No. 1 dark combs in the 

 supers, for reasons stated above. I mean the 

 dark combs of light weight, not the old 

 heavy ones which are on their way to the No. 

 4 class and the wax press. Since we have 

 not enough No. 1 dark combs, we use next 

 No. 1 light combs, then No. 2 combs, and 

 finally, if driven to it. No. 3 combs. The 

 main objection to combs of the third class 

 is the fact that bees wishing to rear drones 



will refuse to store ho)iey in drone-cells 

 until badly crowded. This is a distinct detri- 

 "ment to the morale of the colony at a very 

 imjjortant point in the season. There is 

 nothing in the No. 2 combs which presents 

 this objection. In fact, I cannot see that No. 

 2 dark combs arc any less desirable for 

 honey storage than No. I's. 



This matter of being able to classify our 

 combs for different uses is a very important 

 advantage we have in using only one size 

 of frame- Just how it is to be accomplished 

 with Jumbos in the brood-chamber and 

 something else in the super remains to be 

 seen. 



Georgetown, Ont. 



TRANSFERRING IN THE SOUTH 



IN our last is- 

 sue, page 77, 

 I told how a 

 bee- extension 

 a gent, C. L. 

 Sams, of the 

 Bureau of Ento- 

 mology, Wash- 

 ington, D. C, 

 and of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, Raleigh, N. C, is 

 rapidly changing the old order of things 

 into new — box-hive beekeeping into modern 

 methods an(] equijnnent. 



Government officials have stated that 

 there are more bees per square mile, or cer- 

 tainly more apiaries, in the southeastern 

 part of the United States than anywhere 



Hon- an Expert Does It, and the 



Sure and Speedy Methods He Has 



Learned to Use 



By E. R. Root 



ers are going 

 south and buy- 

 ing up bees; 

 but when they 

 do so, of course 

 they have to 

 transfer. There 

 are good as well 

 as decidedly 

 poor ways of 

 performing this operation. For the benefit of 

 these and the old-timers in the Southland 

 I shall try to show how an expert does it 

 after having tried all the different ways. I 

 refer, of course to C. L. Sams. 



As I explained in our last issue, he usually 

 announces that he will give a transferring 

 demonstration at tlic home of some box-hive 



Fig. 1.- — Smoking the bees in the box hive prepara- 

 tory to transferring. The box hive is first turned 

 up.side down, and then the smoking is begun. 



else in the country, and I believe this is 

 true. But most of these bees are in box- 

 hives, handled by the haphazard, happy-go- 

 lucky methods that yield only a small frac- 

 tion of the lioney that it would be possible 

 to secure by modern methods. We in the 

 North are apt to think that the gums of the 

 lolder days are a thing of the past. A tri]) 

 thru the South will convince one that they 

 :are very much in evidence. 



Because of this many nortliern beekeep- 



Fig. 2. — Dnuuming the bees out on to the super 

 cover. This is done by n .series of liglit blows kept 

 up for three or four minutes on all four sides. The 

 super cover or a board is much better than a box 

 because it makes a tight tit. 



man. Sometimes the neighbors will bring 

 their box hives over to these demonstrations. 

 To do this, Mr. Sams instructs them how to 

 slip the gum into a burlap sack and tie up 

 the top. On occasions of this kind he will 

 transfer several colonies, showing how sim- 

 ple and easy the trick is, and some weeks 

 later he shows how these same bees in 

 "patent gums" will outstrip everything 

 else in the vard in old gums ten times over. 



