June, 1921 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



347 



/ 



C^;-^ I should be placed on 

 _^ 1 top at first, and no 

 super should be 

 raised up and an- 

 other put under it 

 until the founda- 

 tion has been com- 

 pletely drawn in all 

 of the sections. If 

 the honey flow is 

 slow or if the nec- 

 tar is thicker when 

 first gathered, the 

 work of drawing 

 out the foundation, 

 comb-building, the 

 Third super ripening of nectar, 

 jlow and first '^ ^ ° , . , , 



and sealing the 



honey may all be 

 done in a single super. In this case the 

 newly added super should be placed on top. 

 The thing to keep in mind when adding 

 supers is to avoid, on the one hand, too 

 many unfinished sections by giving addi- 

 tional room too fast; and to avoid, on the 

 other hand, the lack of stimulation which 

 comes from newly added room for new 

 work and an abundance of comb surface 

 for ripening nectar. The surplus apartment, 

 whether made up of one super or half a 

 dozen supers, should have some fresh foun- 

 dation being drawn until near the close of 

 the honey flow. Rapid expansion of super 

 work should take place during the early part 



Fig. 3.- 

 placed belo 



just above it. 



^ 



of the honey liow, while during the latter 

 part of the honey (low the super work should 

 be concentrated. 



During hot weather added ventilation 

 may be given by pushing the first super for- 

 ward on the brood-chamber about an inch. 

 This will form an opening at the back of 

 the hive just above the ends of the top-bars 

 of the brood-frames. Such openings should 

 not be made between the supers, since the 

 bees may fail to finish the sections nearest 

 such openings. 



The beekeeper who by skillful supering is 

 able to entice most 

 of the rapidly on- 

 coming younger 

 bees into the supers 

 early in their lives, 

 and who keeps his 

 colonies comforta- 

 ble at all times, 

 t h e r eby increases 

 his crop. With most 

 of the younger bees 

 in the supers and 

 most of the older 

 bees in the fields 

 during the heat of 

 the day, it would 

 seem that each of 

 field workers should 

 make six or eight 

 trips for nectar 

 during the day in- 

 stead of four. 



^ 



Pig. 4. — First super left 



in same position until 



finished. 



CLASSIFYING THE QUEENS 



Wh-y 2iueen Bleeders List Different 

 Grades of Untested ^eens. Vari- 

 ation in Tested ^eens 



By H. D. Murry 



SOME confu- 

 sion seems 

 to exist in 

 the minds of 

 beekeepers about 

 the proper clas- 

 sification of 

 queens — espe- 

 cially the un- 

 tested queens. 



In the January issue of Gleanings in Bee 

 Culture, page 44, George W. Moore says: 

 "Many queen-breeders have lost my trade 

 by listing two kinds of untested queens^ — ■ 

 the good and the bad." Since I read that 

 quotation, I have had a letter from a friend, 

 whom I know to be a well-informed beeman, 

 expressing the same idea. As well informed 

 as we all know the late Dr. Miller to have 

 been, I recall more than one reference to 

 this subject, and he admitted that the mat- 

 ter was not clear to liis mind. I do not re- 

 call that any queen-breeder has ever at- 

 tempted to make the matter clear. Perhaps 

 they may be afraid to stir the matter up, as 

 it may lead to more controversy than the 

 best and busiest queen-breeders have time 

 for. As I am, at least temporarily, out of 

 the list of advertisers of queens, I am going 



to make the at- 

 tempt. I have 

 no ax to grind 

 and nothing to 

 lose. 



Paying for good 

 Looks. 



The confusion 

 seems to arise 

 from the fact that the average beekeeper has 

 only two kinds of untested queens in mind, 

 untested and select untested, while the up- 

 to-date queen-breeder recognizes three kinds, 

 as they first appear in his queen-yard — un- 

 tested, select untested, and culls. The culls 

 get their heads pinched off, and, as he is not 

 selling that kind, he does not list them in 

 his advertisement. 



Eliminating the culls, there remain the 

 untested queens to classify. This is mere- 

 ly a matter of choice, and two queen-breed- 

 ers might not make the same classification 

 of the queens. One may be governed by 

 what he believes to be the inclination of 

 the average customer. For instance, there 

 has been a tendency among beekeepers to 

 keep the yellowest bees they could get. If 

 the queen-broeder is catering to this ten- 



