July. 1921. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



419 



tion of laying queens. What I have said 

 above applies to laying queens. 



Other Uses for the Push-in Cage. 

 It is entirely successful in introducing 

 virgin queens to full colonies. While I do 

 not advocate shipping virgin queens thru 

 the mail, still some good beekeepers do. In 

 such cases our cage is ideal for introducing 

 these virgins. It has been reported to me 

 that in caging a queen to cure European 

 foul brood, this cage gives best results, for 

 the queen can lay a little while in the cage, 

 and thus the caging does not injure her, as 

 is frequently the case with other cages. It 

 can be successfully used in caging a queen 

 to discourage swarming, when cutting out 

 queen-cells. It can be used in case some 

 fine cells have been built by a colony having 

 a good queen during the swarming impulse. 

 The cage can be placed over the cell and the 



virgin allowed to emerge in it. In introduc- 

 ing virgin queens to nuclei, some practice 

 the method of placing a second virgin in 

 the nucleus three or four days after the 

 first one was introduced, caging the second 

 one. As soon as the first is mated and lay- 

 ing, she is taken out, virgin Number 2 is re- 

 leased, and another introduced in a cage. 

 Our cage is highly successful in such cases. 

 In uniting colonies or in case an absconding 

 colony goes in the hive with another colony 

 and the queen is balled, she may be placed 

 in our cage a couple of days and then safely 

 released. If one has some laying queens 

 which he desires to cage in a hive for any 

 reason, the Push-in cage should be used, as 

 a queen is not in any way injured by being 

 kept in this cage. 

 Vincennes, Ind. 



COMB HONEY 



Inducing the Bees to Finish <^ost 

 of the Sections at 

 Honey 



By Geo. S 



THE close of 

 the honey 

 flow brings 

 some serious 

 problems for the 

 comb-honey pro- 

 d u c e r . If it 

 closes abruptly, 

 without w a r n- 

 ing, it m a y 

 leave him with a lot of unfinished sections; 

 and if it tapers ofl" gradually toward the end, 

 the bees often do a poor job of finishing on 

 the last supers. Since, in most cases, it is 

 impossible to tell just when to expect the 

 end of the honey flow, it is important to 

 prepare for it in advance as much as possi- 

 ble and hold things in readiness until it 

 comes. 



New Supers Given Only as Needed. 



One of the first steps in anticipation of 

 the closing of the season is the giving of 

 additional super room more sparingly. After 

 the beekeeper has been doing his utmost to 

 induce the bees to occupy and begin work 

 in more and more supers during the fore 

 part of the honey flow, the tendency is to 

 go ahead giving additional room at the 

 same pace too long. At a certain stage in 

 the honey flow the emphasis should change 

 from the expansion of the surplus room to 

 a concentration of the super work to the 

 smallest number of supers possible and still 

 give the bees sufiicient room. 



It is sometimes a good thing if the bee- 

 keeper runs out of supers during the latter 

 part of the honey flow, for it is surprising 

 how much can be done in the way of fur- 

 nishing enough room without giving addi- 

 tional supers by shifting supers from one 

 colony to another, thus giving a little more 

 room to colonies that are beginning to be 

 crowded and reducing the super room in 

 those having more than they need. In fact 



PRODUCTION ESraSTu,: 



latter part of 

 the honey flow 



the Close of the 7^«^ ^\ ^^ ^,f ' 



. •' ter to have the 



rlow colonies crowd- 



ed a little for 

 , Demuth super room, but 



the difficulty is 

 to know when this time has arrived. The 

 bees will usually stand a degree of crowd- 

 ing at this time which earlier in the season 

 would have caused them to swarm or to loaf 

 badly. Any new supers that are given at 

 this time should usually be placed on top 

 of those already on the hive. 

 Reducing to One or Two Supers Per Colony, 



The second step in preparation for the 

 close of the season is that of reducing the 

 number of supers on each hive to one or two 

 supers as soon as possible, concentrating the 

 unfinished sections in these supers. Some- 

 times the bees are slow about sealing the 

 honey, when it may be necessary to tier up 

 the supers, four, five, or even six high, be- 

 fore any of them are ready to be taken off. 

 At other times they seal the honey more 

 promptly, so it is not necessary to tier up 

 more than three supers high. Usually the 

 bees seal honey more promptly toward the 

 latter part of the honey flow. 



As a rule it is not advisable to leave the 

 supers on until all of the sections are fin- 

 ished, especially late in the honey flow, but 

 when most of the sections are finished the 

 super should be taken off and the unfinished 

 sections sorted out to give back to the bees 

 for completion. It is not safe to assume 

 that a super is ready to be taken off by look- 

 ing in at the top only. It is better to look 

 in at the bottom also, for sometimes the 

 sections of honey are sealed near the top 

 and not sealed near the bottom. 



