August, 1921 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



The process of extracting or the handling 

 of the sections of comb honey should be 

 done in a room which is well screened, hav- 

 ing no openings thru which robber bees 

 can enter. After the honey is extracted the 

 empty combs should be put back into the 

 supers and set back on the hives so the bees 

 can clean up the combs and protect them 

 from moths. While the bees will usually 

 store some honey back in the combs when 

 this is done, it is a method which a begin- 

 ner can safely use. The combs should be 

 given to the bees in the evening after they 

 have quit flying for the day. 



Preparation for a Dearth of Nectar. 

 The beginner should begin now to look 

 forward to having the colonies in the best 

 possible condition for winter. Much de- 

 pends upon what happens within the hive 

 from the middle of August until the first 

 of October and the fate of the colony during 

 the winter is determined largely before win- 

 ter begins. To have good colonies for win- 

 ter it is not necessary that they be boom- 

 ing strong now, provided they have the 

 means of building up to normal strength 

 for winter. The workers that make up the 

 colony the first of August are not the ones 

 that will make up the winter colony. The 

 present workers will all be dead before win- 

 ter begins, and the winter bees are yet to 

 be reared. In fact, a good two-frame nu- 

 cleus can be built up to a normal colony for 

 winter even after the middle of August, if 

 it has a good queen and plenty of food for 

 rearing brood. On the other hand, colonies 

 that are now so strong that there is not 

 room for all the bees within the hive after 

 the supers have been taken off, may be so 

 reduced by the first of October that they 

 are worthless if a normal amount of brood- 

 rearing is not carried on in the meantime. 

 The two things which most frequently pre- 

 vent normal brood-rearing during August 

 and September are a dearth or scarcity of 

 nectar, together with too little honey left 

 in the hives at the close of the season, and 

 a poor queen or queenlessness. 



The beginner who produces extracted 

 honey will be tempted to extract all of the 

 honey from the supers, expecting the bees 

 to have enough in the brood-chamber for 

 their fall and winter needs. Too often if 

 there is no fall flow, the amount that is left 

 in the brood-chamber now is not enough 

 even for the needs of the colonies during 

 the remainder of the summer and the fall, 

 to say nothing of their winter stores. Even 

 when comb honey is produced the bees 

 sometimes put so much of their honey into 

 the supers that there is not enough left in 

 the brood-chamber to last until winter, un- 

 less they are able to gather considerable 

 nectar during the fall, tho comb-honey colo- 

 nnios usually have much more honey in the 

 l)rood-chamber at the close of the honey 

 flow than extracted-honcy colonies. 



The only safe thing for the beginner to 

 do, unless he is located where the fall honey 



flow is quite certain, is to leave with the 

 bees enough honey at the close of the early 

 honey flow to supply their needs thru a pos- 

 sible dearth of nectar from now on. When 

 producing extracted honey at least five full 

 frames of honey should be left in the upper 

 story in addition to that in the brood-cham- 

 ber. When producing comb honey this is 

 usually not necessary, but it is well to have 

 two or three extra combs of honey for each 

 colony, to be given later if needed. Some 

 comb-honey producers arrange to have cer- 

 tain colonies store these extra combs of 

 honey in an upper story during the early 

 honey flow. 



In addition to an abundance of stores, 

 each colony should have a good queen at 

 least after the middle of August, for a poor 

 queen or an old queen can not be expected 

 to lay enough eggs during the fall to pro- 

 duce a good colony for winter when nectar 

 is scarce, even when plenty of honey is left 

 in the hives. If colonies are requeened to im- 

 prove the stock or to supplant old and fail- 

 ing queens, this should be done in time for 

 the young queen to begin to lay soon after 

 the middle of the month, in order that there 

 shall be time to rear plenty of young bees 

 for winter. 



To find and kill the old queen in order to 

 introduce a young queen at this season is a 

 rather difficult undertaking for a beginner, 

 especially if there is a dearth of nectar and 

 the bees are blacks or hybrids. Under such 

 conditions it may be best either to ask a 

 neighboring beekeeper who has had more 

 experience to help find the old queen, or to 

 wait until later in the month when there 

 may be more nectar available. Great care 

 should be taken in all requeening operations 

 to prevent robbing, for if robbing is started 

 the new queen is more liable to be lost in 

 introducing. The printed directions for in- 

 troducing sent out by the queen-breeder 

 should be strictly followed when introducing 

 queens. 



Preparation for a Fall Honey Flow. 

 Where a fall honey flow is reasonably cer- 

 tain it is not necessary to leave so much 

 honey in the hives at the close of the early 

 honey flow. For extracted honey, the ex- 

 tracting combs having been put back on the 

 hives after being emptied, the colonies are 

 ready at any time for a fall honey flow, but 

 for comb-honey the supers should not be 

 put back on the hives until the fall flow 

 actually begins in earnest and the bees be- 

 gin to elongate the cells in the upper por- 

 tion of the brood-combs as at the beginning 

 of the early honey flow. Unless the fall 

 honey flow is rapid it will be better not to 

 put on comb-honey supers. It would be 

 much better, in such cases, to give an upper 

 story of empty combs and let the bees fill 

 these; then, if not too far north where the 

 winters are severe, leave the extra story of 

 lionov on the hive all winter, and note how 

 rapidly colonies so abundantly supplied with 

 stores will build up next spring. 



