Jl'i.v, 19-Jl. 



G li K A N I N (i S T N B K K C V \, T V 



fact, for out-apiaiies it is incouveuient to 

 use tlieni, since an extra trip must be made 

 to ]nit them in place, but at the close of the 

 season bee-escapes are almost a necessity. 



When removing supers during the honey 

 flow without bee-escapes a good operator 

 soon learns the trick of driving the bees out 

 (|uickly and taking the super away before 

 any can return. As the cover is lifted, the 

 bees should be started down at once with 

 smoke and kept on the go until they leave 

 the super. They must not be permitted to 

 stop on the way to till themselves with hon- 

 ey, for when they once get their heads into 

 tiie cells, they pay but little attention to 

 smoke. 



Quite a number of bees can be brushed off 

 tlie top of the sections when the hive is first 

 opened, brushing and smoking at the same 

 time. While the bees are being driven down, 

 the super should be pried loose from the 

 one below but not lifted until most of the 

 bees are out, when one end of the super is 

 lifted quickly, and at the same time pulled 

 backward slightly, so it will rest upon the 

 super below at one end, while being brought 

 almost to a vertical position. All this should 

 be done so quickly that the bees on the bot- 

 tom of the super do not have time to get 

 back among the sections before they can be 

 brushed off. 



If robbers are not troublesome the supers 

 still containing a few bees may be simjily 

 leaned against the hive, standing on end, 

 until the bees go out of them. If robbers 

 begin to come, the supers can be piled up 

 in the apiary, eight or ten in a pile, placing 

 the first one on a hive cover or bottom, be- 

 ing careful to leave no openings where bees 

 can enter. The top of the pile may be kept 

 closed with a hive cover or an inner cover 

 which is pushed off as each super is added, 

 then quickly put back in place on the top 

 of the pile. As these piles are uncovered 

 from time to time in adding more, many of 

 the confined bees escape. Finally while load- 

 ing the supers to take them home, most of 

 the remaining bees will leave them. 



Sometimes the sections of honey can be 

 sorted in the apiary without robbers both- 

 ering, and the unfinished sections returned 

 to the bees at once, but frequently this can- 

 not be done and it becomes necessary to 

 haul the supers home to be sorted, unless 

 there is a small portable honey-house at the 

 apiary. When the supers are sorted at home, 

 the unfinished sections can be taken to an- 

 otlier apiary to be \isited the next day. 

 Storing Comb Honey. 



It was formerly advised that comb honey 

 be stored in a well-ventilated room and the 

 supers piled in such a manner that the air 

 could circulate freely among the sections, 

 the theory being that this arrangement 

 would permit a further ripening of the 

 honey after being removed from the hives. 

 The plan is open to the serious objection 

 that honey so exposed may absorb moisture 

 if subjected to any great variation in tem- 



perature, for warm air which may contain 

 considerable moisture and still be relatively 

 tiry, coming in contact with cold honey, if 

 chilled sufficiently, will give up some of its 

 moisture, causing condensation on the sur- 

 face of the honey. Honey that is well rip- 

 ened is usually safer if the supers are piled 

 in tight piles, the piles being closed at top 

 and bottom. Its aroma will be better also. 



Plan for Next Year. 



While taking off the season's crop of hon- 

 ey, beekeepers are inclined to neglect plans 

 for next season. It is not too early now to 

 begin preparing for next season by replacing 

 all inferior queens and by seeing that 

 enough honey is left each colony when the 

 crop is removed, so that none of them will 

 run short of stores during late summer and 

 fall, as too often happens, causing the col- 

 ony to begin winter in poor condition. 



When two brood-chambers were used for 

 brood-rearing in building up in the spring, 

 these extra brood-chambers, having been 

 taken away when the first comb-honey supers 

 were given and tiered up on certain colo- 

 nies to be filled with honey, should be given 

 back to the colonies, thus insuring their food 

 supply for another year. By taking off the 

 comb-honey supers a little before the honey 

 flow ceases entirely, and giving a second 

 brood-chamber about two-thirds full of 

 honey, the bees can store the honey gath- 

 ered at the end of the season in these instead 

 of in unfinished sections. 



Packing Comb Honey for Market. 



Scraping, giading, and casing up comb 

 honey mean a lot of work which must be 

 done by some one who knows how, tho the_ 

 person who does it need not be a beekeeper. 

 Every producer will have his own way for 

 doing this work, but the speed with which 

 it is done depends greatly upon the arrange- 

 ment of the scraping tables and the system 

 used for grading and packing. 



The scraping tables need be only large 

 enough to hold one or two supers of honey 

 and a trough or box to catch the scrapings. 

 An a])ron can be arranged with the lower 

 edge tacked to the trough for the scrapings, 

 the upper portion to go over the shoulders 

 of the operator. 



In scraping the propolis from the edges 

 of the sections a section may be held in the 

 left hand in such a manner that it can be 

 turned as the propolis is scraped from each 

 of its four edges on one side, then turned 

 over, and the process repeated. 



For grading it is well to have a sample 

 section to represent each grade before the 

 operator for quick comparison. These sam- 

 ples should be the lowest permitted in the 

 grade which they represent. One good way 

 to grade and pack is to have several ship- 

 fiing cases conveniently placed, each being 

 marked for a certain grade, so that the sec- 

 tions of honey as they are scraped can be 

 put directly into the shipping case for its 

 grade without further handling. 



