July, 19-ja 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



A Wonderful Queen's 

 Comb Honey Record. 



WK liave just come from viaitiug C. B. 

 Hamilton of Fenton, Mieli., who, a year 



ago, purchas- 

 ed from the 

 South 32 two- 

 pound pack- 

 ages of bees, each containing a queen. One 

 of these queens, with her 10,000 bees, per- 

 formed a feat in comb-honey production 

 whicli at first thought seems unbelievable. 

 We will frankly say tliat we did not see 

 how it could be done; but after an extended 

 interview with Mr. Hamilton we are sure 

 our readers will consider it quite within the 

 realm of possibility. 



The bees were received April 18 — so early, 

 in fact, that one would think that they 

 would chill to death in the climate of Mich- 

 igan before they would actually get under 

 way. But Mr. Hamilton took pains to see 

 that they were warmly packed, given hot 

 syrup from time to time, and, in fact, every 

 attention possible except to give the bees 

 frames of brood or more bees. One pack- 

 age of the bees and the queen clearly out- 

 stripped all the rest, and when Mr. Hamil- 

 ton saw what they were doing he watched 

 them very closely. To make a long story 

 short, the queen kept a two-story hive full 

 of brood during the breeding season, some- 

 times having as many as 20 frames at a 

 time, and Y>art of the time she went up into 

 the first super of sections with drawn comb. 

 Mr. Hamilton did not know what she was 

 going to do, and therefore he did not keep 

 a record, he says. The flow from white clo- 

 ver last year was practically a failure on 

 account of a severe drouth. This very 

 drouth made red clover just right for the 

 honeybee- — that is, it stunted the blossoms 

 so the bees could get the nectar. At all 

 events they immediately went to work on 

 the red clover, which, in connection with 

 sweet clover and alfalfa, yielded an enor- 

 mous amount of honey. When this red clo- 

 ver began to open up, Mr. Hamilton put on 

 six supers of sections, each section con- 

 taining a comb two-thirds drawn out from 

 the previous season. In a few days, said 

 Mr. Hamilton, these were filled up with 

 honey. Then he piled on more, supers. These 

 were again filled in an incredibly short time, 

 and still more supers, until he had 24 su- 

 pers, each super containing 24 sections of 

 drawn comb, or a pile of supers, including 

 the hive, 12 feet high; "and at the end of 

 the season," remarked Mr. Hamilton, "I 

 took away, filled, 23 24-pound shipping cases 

 of honey. ' ' 



So far this story will seem almost unbe- 

 lievable; and as we tell it we know many 

 will say it is impossible; but taking the 

 story just as Mr. Hamilton gave it, it is 

 evident that the queen was the most pro- 

 lific he ever knew of. She kept on laying, 

 and he kept on giving warm sugar syrup 

 up to the honey flow until there were bush- 

 els of bees — how mnny he does not know. 



It is Mr. Hamilton's policy in the produc- 



tion of comb lioney to put on the first super 

 of unfinished sections from which the honey 

 is extracted and the cells cut down to about 

 half their original depth with a special 

 knife Avhich he has designed. After they 

 liave been extracted and leveled down tliey 

 are given to a big colony to clean up, "be- 

 cause," said Mr. Hamilton, "there must 

 not be a particle of honey left in the sec- 

 tions, as that will cause granulation." 



The next step is to put one of these supers 

 containing drawn combs on the liive when 

 it is ready for it. After that it is his rule 

 to give supers containing only full sheets 

 of foundation; but in the case of this re- 

 markable queen, in order to see what she 

 ro)ihi (In he gave her and her bees only 

 supers of fully drawn combs. With bushels 

 and bushels of bees and a long honey flow, 

 he actually produced ;")77 sections from tlic 

 one queen and his original two pounds. 



Eemember that his main flow did not be- 

 gin until comparatively late, so the queen 

 had a chance to build up from the syrup 

 that was constantly given her. 



Mr. Hamilton has sold the queen that made 

 this record, and therefore he has no ax to 

 grind as he has no queens for sale. 



A Unique Trick of the Trade for Comb- 

 Honey Producers. 



Mention has been made many times in the 

 journals of applying hot paraffin to hive 

 parts to prevent the bees from smearing these 

 parts with liquid propolis; but somehow the 

 idea seems never to have been developed ex- 

 cept in parts of the West, especially in Colo- 

 rado and Idaho. Mr. Hamilton has worked 

 it down to a fine science. He takes a pan 

 of hot paraffin with an ordinary varnish 

 brush and gives a fine, nice coat to the tops 

 of his sections after they are in the supers 

 and before they are given to the bees. The 

 brush wlien not in use must be kept continu- 

 ally in hot paraffiii; and just before applying 

 it to the sections it is wiped off on the pan to 

 remove the drip, when it is given one sweep 

 lengthwise over the tops of four sections. The 

 brush must not be worked back and forth, 

 for that will eause bubbles and make an un- 

 even surface. Supers should be tilted ud to 

 an angle of 4.5 degrees, and the brush given 

 only one sweep down. "Bees will not then 

 deposit any smeary glue over the tops of the 

 sections having a thin coating of paraffin on 

 top, ' ' said Mr. Hamilton. 



This trick of coating the tops of the sec- 

 tions with paraffin, while old, is good just 

 the same. So, likewise old is the trick of 

 giving drawn combs in sections; but when it 

 helps to increase the crop of comb honey and 

 at the same time invite the bees up into the 

 sections with a rush, it is certainly worth try- 

 ing. Don't forget that "bushels" of bees 

 are another important factor. That, of course, 

 means a flood queen. We have come to the 

 stage in apicultural history where we must 

 have not only larger brood -nests but also 

 queens that can fill them. — -E. E. K. 



