GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



August, 1922 



that are prepared that can take advantage 

 of the conditions above mentioned. We 

 have kept our bees a whole year waiting for 

 these conditions, and while the reserves (the 

 brood) are quite necessary, this particular 

 battle is won only by the bees that are 

 ready to go over the top. 



Last year a colony on the scales at my 

 home yard gathered fifty pounds in three 

 days after their honey was extracted, and 

 it was nothing more than a representative 

 one among two hundred. I lost much honey 

 at an apiary four miles out, that was equally 

 well situated, because I was unable to empty 

 them or give more combs during this short 

 and sweet flow. 



Having been a comb-honey producer ex- 

 clusively until recent years I have not been 

 properly equipped for the production of ex- 



comb and extracted honey I have noticed 

 that comb-honey bees, as a rule, winter 

 much better than those used to produce ex- 

 tracted honey. So I make it a rule to antici- 

 pate the close of the honey flow a few days, 

 and strip off all supers. This gives the bees 

 a chance to arrange their winter nest and 

 fill up the same as do comb-honey colonies, 

 and avoids all robbing, as is often the case 

 when the last extracting comes after frost 

 or when the honey flow has stopped. 



Wintering in Two Stories. 



I wintered one pack in two-story hives 

 the past winter, and they seemed to have 

 wintered better than in single-story hives. 

 They were clustered in the top story this 

 spring; but, as little heat is lost downward 

 they have not the brood now that the hives 



M. A. Gill's home apiary of 240 colonies. 



tracted honey, but I am building an ex- 

 tracting outfit equipped with a power ex- 

 tractor and shall arrange to have the honey 

 run by gravity from the extractor to a 

 three-ton horizontal tank. In going from 

 the extractor to the tank it will run over a 

 hot plate heated by electricity with de- 

 layers so timed and graduated that the heat 

 will not discolor the honey in the least, but 

 will cause it to remain liquid longer. Is 

 there any better way to do this? 



Strip Off Supers Before Honey Flow Ceases, 



In the production of extracted honey 1 

 notice that some men keep the extractor 

 going just as long as there is any honey 

 coming in. These, if they do any feeding at 

 ••ill, try to fit the colony for winter by hang- 

 ing in a comb or two of honey. Tliis, I 

 think, is a mistake. As a producer of both 



wintered in single stories have which were 

 given a second story when needed. 



I think this proves the great benefit of 

 the tiering-up system that bees follow the 

 heat in brood-rearing. 



It is not so much the size of the hive 

 as it is the seasonal conditions and the 

 manipulations that prevent swarming and 

 that secure the greatest amount of honey. 

 I want to remind the large-hive advocates 

 that some 36 years ago a man by the name 

 of Silencer (as I remember) produced 1020 

 pounds of extracted honey, the product of 

 one queen from a ten-story eight-frame 

 liive, and I do not recall when the yield has 

 been excelled. 



The alfalfa weevil lias disappeared in this 

 locality, and we have had the heaviest June 

 floAv witliin the past six years. 



ilyiHini, Utah. 



