OCTOHKK, 192-J 



(I T, K A N T N (i S 1 N H 



!■; (' I' I, ■!• i: li K 



lu some loealitios the proljliiiii of .stoii'.s 

 f(H- winter uiul spring is t.ukeu care of l)y 

 a fall honey How, so that the brood-cliani- 

 her is filled as brood-rearing wanes in the 

 fall; but in many localities, when the ex- 

 tracting-supers are taken off at the close of 

 the seasoji, there is but little honey left for 

 the bees, no matter how large the brood- 

 chamber. When empty combs are given in 

 tlie supers the bees are inclined to carry 

 nearly all of the honey above, often leaving 

 empt}^ combs below. Even w^hen by careful 

 management the bees can be induced to store 

 fall honey in the brood-chamber in sufficient 

 amount for winter and spring, ^much of this 

 fall-gathered honej'' is not safe for winter 

 stores unless the bees are able to take a 

 cleansing flight every three or four weeks 

 during the winter. For this reason niany 

 northern beekeepers endeavor to induce the 

 ])ees to store most of the late-gathered 

 honey in the supers, and then feed heavy 

 sugar s^Tup in October after there is no 

 further chance for the bees to put in in- 

 ferior stores gathered from the late flowers. 



Where hundreds of colonies must be sup- 

 plied with stores for winter and spring the 

 labor involved is no small item, if the bees 

 are to be wintered in single stories. Just 

 now (the middle of September) there are 

 thousands and thousands of colonies of bees 

 occupying two stories, the upper one, or 

 super, in many cases being fairly well filled 

 with honey, Ijut the lower one containing 

 almost no honey. In many cases this super 

 contains the remnant of the early-gathered 

 honey which was left on the hive after the 

 close of the early honey flow, because the 

 beekeeper knew that to take it off would re- 

 sult in the colony starving or approaching 

 the verge of starvation during late summer 

 and fall. In other cases this super was 

 filled with honey gathered from fall flowers. 

 The problem which now confronts the bee- 

 keepers is whether to take off all these up- 

 per stories, extract the honey, and then feed 

 his bees for winter; take out the queen- 

 excluder and winter the bees in the two 

 stories; or put most of the honey into the 

 lower story, in order to be sure that the 

 colony is supplied with sufficient stores for 

 winter and spring. No wonder beekeepers 

 arc asking tliemselves the question whether 

 it would not be better to leave this honey 

 on the hive during the winter, provided it is 

 fit stores for wintering if in the North. In 

 California and other parts of the West win- 

 tering in two stories is coming to be almost 

 the universal practice in large apiaries. 



But why have a separate chamber for 

 food? Why not have a brood-chamber large 

 enough to hold the brood and an ample sup- 

 ply of stores at the same time, thus avoid- 

 ing extra parts to the hive? This can be 

 done to a certain extent in comb-honey pro- 

 duction, and can also be done in localities 

 having a dependable fall honey flow in ex- 

 tracted-honey production. The trouble with 

 this plan for extracted-honey production for 



most localities is that even tlic largest hrood- 

 chamlx'rs are not well stocked with honey 

 at the (dose of the early honey flow. If there 

 is no fall honey flow, colonies in such hives 

 must either be fed or combs of honey must 

 be put down from the supers if they are 

 to be wintered in a single story. To make 

 sure of having combs well filled with honey 

 for winter when producing extracted honey, 

 it is necessary in many localities to have 

 them filled as supers, preferably above a 

 queen-excluder. 



The shallow extracting-super when used 

 as a food chamber can be filled with early- 

 gathered honey and lef.t on the hive among 

 the supers through the season; then, when 

 the supers are all taken off, this food cham- 

 ber, filled with the best early-gathered honey, 

 is put into place immediately on top of the 

 brood chamber. In this way the colonies can 

 be supplied with wholesome winter stores 

 with almost no extra labor. In the spring 

 when the first super is given, it is often an 

 advantage to raise up the rim of honey in 

 this food chamber in order to put the supers 

 between the brood and the honey. 



Some beekeepers paint this food chamber 

 a different color to remind them that it must 

 not be taken away when extracting. Some 

 use a shallow extracting-super for the food 

 chamber, while others use a regular stand- 

 ard hive-body for this purpose. An objec- 

 tion to wintering out of doors in a story- 

 and-a-half or a two-story hive is the extra 

 space for the bees to keep warm. But ac- 

 tual tests have proven that well-protected 

 colonies Avinter well this way and do not 

 need attention until late in the spring, being 

 well provided with both stores and room. 

 There Ls no doubt a limit as to how far 

 north this plan of wintering can be used 

 successfully, but it is now being used by 

 some extensive honey producers as far north 

 as Michigan and Ontario. Perhaps the abil- 

 ity of the cluster to expand and contract lat- 

 erallj^ in the space between the two sets of 

 combs is an advantage sufficient at least 

 partially to overcome the disadvantage of 

 having more room to keep warm. 



For many localities, probably for most 

 localities, the separate food chamber is a 

 great labor-saver. If we must sell our honey 

 for 10 cents per pound or less, it is impera- 

 tive that all short cuts possible be taken in 

 its production. Such a food chamber be- 

 comes an automatic feeder that feeds the 

 bees whenever they need feeding, even 

 thougli the beekeeper is a thousand miles 

 away. It Vjecomes especially valuable as an 

 automatic feeder in the spring, for colonies 

 that are thus supplied with an abundance of 

 stores are usually so much stronger in the 

 spring than colonies not so well supplied 

 that the automatic feeder is refilled free of 

 charge most seasons, because such colonies 

 often gain in stores during unsettled weather 

 in tlie spring while weaker colonies are los- 

 ing in stores. 



