GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July, 1922 



HEADS OF GMlNl proMVJ TMF^ FIELDS 



Making Increase The following plan for 

 When Removing making increase without 

 Surplus Honey. reducing the honey crop 

 has ■ been tried out in 

 Ontario and found to give good results: 



During the spring, the usual precautious 

 for swarna control and colony development 

 are taken. After the main honey flow has 

 been on long enough for the first super to 

 be completed and the second one in a con- 

 dition to warrant putting on a third, the 

 beekeeper who has either raised queens 

 beforehand or ordered them from a breeder, 

 sets a hive with foundation or preferably 

 drawn comb to one side of the colony he 

 wishes to increase. He then removes the 

 supers of honey and takes three or four 

 frames of brood with adhering bees from 

 the parent colony and places them in the 

 new hive, being careful not to get the queen 

 on these combs. These combs of brood are 

 leplaced by foundation or drawn comb in 

 tlie parent colony. A Porter bee-escape is 

 then placed over the new hive, and the 

 super or supers that are ready to be ex- 

 tracted are placed over. it. The immediate 

 result is tliat the bees in the brood-chamber 

 soon find they are queenless; and, as soon 

 as this condition is realized by the bees 

 above the brood-chamber, they come down 

 through the bee- escape more readily. Any 

 field bees that leave the hive go back to 

 the original colony to carry on without in- 

 terruption the nectar-gathering. The fol- 

 lowing morning a new queen is introduced 

 by the cage method to the queenless colony 

 ;ind the honey lifted off, ready for extract- 

 ing. 



Tliis plan for making increase has the 

 following advantages: The parent colony 

 is not robbed of its field bees; the bees 

 leave the supers over the escape board more 

 readily; tlie bees in the new colony, all be- 

 ing young, accept a queen more readily; this 

 honey is being taken off at a time when the 

 bees are not cross, as the honey flow is 

 still on; in the fall the two colonies will 

 both be in good condition for wintering; it 

 releases a number of supers for an increased 

 flow of honey. H. D. Clark. 



Medina, Ohio. 



Qi= 



Advantages of a That honey seasons are 

 Hive on Scales. variable in our northern 

 states was evident this 

 past season; never before in our nearly 50 

 years' experience with bees have we had a 

 iioneyflow from flowers (not from the aphis') 

 (luring September. We were busy with the 

 honey we had harvested, crating and ship- 

 ping it. We hurried to get it into mar- 

 ket, as it was wanted, and for this reason 

 our bees were not watched. Some colonies 

 built comb on the outside of their hive; 

 some under their hive or in any old place. 



We might have secured quite a bit of amber 

 honey at this time, had we been on our 

 guard. Possibly a hive on scales, if some 

 attention had been paid to it, would have 

 given us a pointer. 1 have decided that in 

 the future this matter is to be made a fea- 

 ture of our beekeeping. We may never again . 

 have such a season, and we may; or some 

 other peculiar thing may develop, and the 

 hive on scales may put us on our guard. Let 

 us plan for it, friends. F. Greiner. 



Naples, N. Y. 



Five Hundred Pounds T just read the ac- 

 From One Colony, count in the Grand 



Spring Count. Forks Herald of Mr. 



Bennett 's bees and 

 T think I have almost as good a record for 

 last year. T had only one colony in the 

 spring of 1921. The first swarm came off 

 June 12, the second June 16, and a third 

 June 20. The third one we put back catch- 

 ing the queen, and then cut out the rest of 

 tlie queen-cells of which there were 13, 

 counting the ones from which the queens 

 had emerged. 



I kept the record from each hive of the 

 honey taken off, and the second swarm pro- 

 duce 160 pounds of surplus honey. Alto- 

 gether we took off over 500 pounds, or an 

 average of 175 pounds to the hive, the most 

 of this being the best grade of white clover 

 honey. 



I am going to high school and take care 

 of the bees on Saturdays. One hive is ready 

 to swarm now. We are trying to keep the 

 other two from swarming by using the dou- 

 ble-chamber method. Sidney E. Kirk. 



Niagara, N. D. 



Quit Burning My wife maintains with 

 Your Trousers. some asperity that I have 

 scorched and burned holes 

 in more pairs of pants, overalls and cover- 

 alls (vulgarly known as elephant breeches) 

 than any other living beekeeper. I have a 

 habit of holding my smoker betwixt my legs 

 while I use my hands in working with the 

 hive. If any of you fathers in Israel can 

 prove an alibi in this case, speak right up 

 in meeting. You get the "pup." 



But, brother, if you must plead guilty, 

 do it like a man and go and sin no more. 

 Take a five-pound friction-top honey can, 

 without the cover. With a pair of tin 

 snips cut a strip three inches wide from 

 top to bottom of the can. Slip the can up 

 over your smoker and secure it above the 

 brace which holds the fire pot to the bel- 

 lows by means of a wire — and tliere you 

 are. This shield will restore peace in your 

 family, as your pants will never again have 

 to be patclied, in that quarter at least. And 

 if vou are real anxious to avoid even the 



