1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



649 



secreting nectar sometimes for several days 

 at a time during our otherwise best harvest 

 is another serious trouble in producing comb 

 honey of the finest quality; and with many 

 the trouble of getting their sections all well 

 filled at the close of the season is a hard 

 problem to solve. 



Now, in order to show you how these 

 three most seriou-; troubles can be almost 

 wholly overcome I have written this, my 

 first article on the production of comb honey. 

 We will first consider the natural desire to 

 swarm. This is the honey-bees' natural 

 way to perpetuate their race, and is the 

 most strongly imbeded law, not only of the 

 whole animal world, but the vegetable world 

 also, except the desire for food, of any law 

 connected with our existence. This is why 

 we have made no -progress in changing the 

 nature of our bees since man first tried to 

 domesticate them. It is true that certain 

 strains, or. more properly speaking, certain 

 families, have far less desire to swarm than 

 others. This same law can also be said to 

 apply to other animals, including man. Now 

 let us see what we can do to prevent the de- 

 sire on the part of our bees t ) c^rry out this 

 main object of their creation. First we will 

 keep only bees that have but little natural 

 desire to swarm; then we will raise their 

 hives from their bottom boards all around 

 about J inch as Foon as the weather begins 

 to get warm. In this way we shall give 

 them two or three entrances in the shade at 

 all hours of the day. This, 1 know from ex- 

 perience, goes a long way to prevent the de- 

 sire to swarm. Then we will supersede ev- 

 ery queen at the commencement of our har- 

 vest, with one ju'^t fertihzed, which, we all 

 know, of itsf If will to quite an extent pre- 

 vent the desire to swarm. Then we will 

 see that their hives, including their clamps 

 of sections, contain but a small amount of 

 capped honey for any length of time. 



Here is one thing that I used to be very 

 particular about during my thirty years of 

 producing comb honey. As fast as I could 

 find four or five nicely finished sections in a 

 clamp they were taken out and empty ones 

 put in their place, never using more than 

 two clamps at one time on a hive. I don't 

 wonder that your bees swarm when two or 

 three clamps of mostly capped sections are 

 on a hive and a lot of capped honey in the 

 hive below, and then only one entrance 

 where the sun can shine down on the bees 

 through the hottest hours of the day. This 

 will make almost any colony restless, and 

 frequently start a desire to swarm. 



The honey-producer, until recently, has 

 been justified in keeping his queens longer 

 than one year, for it is only since Pratt gave 

 us his method of rearing queens that we can 

 have all we want early in the season with 

 only a little trouble. If you will do as I 

 have suggested in the above you will almost 

 wholly prevent the desire to swarm. 



Next we will consider the matter of a 

 steady harvest, with no lost days, even if 

 the flowers do fail to secrete nectar for sev- 

 eral days at a time. This can easily be ac- 



quired in this way: First divide your apiary 

 into two equal parts as to number of colo- 

 nies, but have all your strongest colonies in 

 one part and your weakest ones in another. 

 Then run the weak colonies wholly for ex- 

 tracted honey and the stronger colonies for 

 comb honey; and attach a good practicable 

 feeder under every hive that is producing 

 comb honey, and extract all you can from 

 your weak colonies and feed it to those that 

 are working in sections. Be sure to give 

 them some every night. If the weather is 

 fine, and they are getting considerable from 

 the flowers, it will not be necessary to give 

 them much; but if from any cause they fail 

 to gather from the flowers, then feed enough 

 to keep them busy in their sections night 

 and day, with no stop until the harvest is 

 over and every section is finished in fine 

 shape. 



Now don't say this can not be done, for I 

 know it can. I used to produce comb honey 

 in this way twenty- five years ago, and I am 

 sure fifty colonies managed like this, with 

 fifty more to furnish them with honey dur- 

 ing bad weather, to work over into comb 

 honey, will produce more first-class section 

 honey than you could possibly obtain from 

 the iOf) colonies if they were all run for 

 comb honey at the same time, as nearly all 

 comb-honey producers do. The point is 

 right here: In this way your comb-honey- 

 producing colonies can have a good steaby 

 harvest from the day you put on your first 

 clamp of sections until the last section is 

 finished, and that is what counts, both in 

 quantity and quality 



Nor, don't get this method mixed up with 

 that of feeding back at the close of the 

 harvest, but do the feeding when the har- 

 vest is on and every thing is in proper con- 

 dition to produce comb honey. Make your 

 extracted honey quite thin and give them 

 one grand big harvest, and you will see your 

 sections finished as if by magic. With two 

 clamps of sections on, and a good young 

 queen in the hive below, you need not be 

 afraid of their storing too much in their 

 breeding-combs. Then examine them often ; 

 and as fast as you can find five or six full 

 sections in a clamp take them out; don't 

 leave them to become soiled and 1 ravel- 

 stained by the bees, in order that you may 

 save yourself a little work, and take off a 

 whole clamp at a time; for. as sure as you 

 do, your bees are liable to sulk away their 

 time and possibly fix for swarming. 



It looks nice to go into your storehouse at 

 the close of the season and see several tons of 

 choice comb honey with hardly a section that 

 is not of the finest quality; and to see the 

 clamps all empty, with no partly filled sec- 

 tions lying around is another thing which 

 shows there has been some skill used in pro- 

 ducing that crop of honey. 



Some of you may think that this implies 

 lots of work, which I will admit, and so does 

 every thing connected with the successful 

 management of bees. I know many let 

 them take care of themselves, and appear 

 to be satisfied with whatever they can get; 



