654 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



I claim that what is here given stands 

 "head and shoulders " above any thing else 

 in sight during the past or at the present 

 time, especially in working an out- apiary for 

 comb honey. 



Hive No. 3, on row 2, contained what I 

 considered my best breeder for comb honey, 

 and I had left it strong in bees and brood 

 on the last visit, hoping it might make some 

 preparation for swarming by the time I 

 came again, and when shaking it I found 

 just what I wanted, which was queen-cells 

 with one or two day old larvae in them, the 

 larvae literally swimming in royal jelly. 



The shaking of these combs was done 

 more carefully than with the others, for fear 

 of dislodging the swimming larvae, although 

 there is little danger along this line, until 

 the royal larvae attain an age of four or five 

 days. This hive of beeless brood and queen- 

 cells was placed on top of the strongest col- 

 ony not tiered on my third visit, and only 

 this one hive of brood was put on it, while 

 the others had two and three hives each, as 

 I had 13 hives of brood to go on six colonies, 

 hence taking only one for this hive left 

 twelve to go on the other five not tiered be- 

 fore. Why I put no other brood on this col- 

 ony with these cells was because I wished 

 these royal larvse given every possible ad- 

 vantage looking toward the best of queens. 

 I do not generally depend on queens or 

 queen- cells from the out-apiary for work 

 therein, as I generally have more time and 

 conveniences for rearing them in the home 

 yard, taking whatever I wish along this 

 line with me at each visit. But if we have 

 a good breeding queen at the out- apiary, 

 and wish to use cells or queens from her 

 brood, as was the case above, this tells the 

 reader how it can be done. 



The reader is undoubtedly familiar with 

 the truth advocated of late years, that, if 

 an extracting- super is placed over a colony 

 as soon as it becomes strong in bees, swarm- 

 ing will be retarded to quite an extent. 

 Then on the arrival of the honey harvest, if 

 this extracting- super is taken off, and a 

 super of sections placed on the hive, the 

 bees will the more readily enter the sections 

 from the fact that they have been used to 

 working above the brood- nest. I practiced 

 this quite largely eight to twelve years ago, 

 and obtained much better results than I had 

 done before. Ever since * ' Scientific Queen- 

 rearing" was given to the public (1889) I 

 have been spending my best efforts in try- 

 ing to work out a perfect plan of non- 

 swarming, either with or without manipula- 

 tion; and during the first six or seven years, 

 just as I would begin to think I had some- 

 thing of value a different season would 

 come, the bees swarm, and spoil it all. I 

 was about to give up in despair, when one 

 day it came to me, " why not use this ex- 

 tracted super plan, combined with shook 

 swarming?" which was then first appearing 

 in sight. My mental reply was, " I do not 

 want any plan that will not put the first- 

 gathered honey (more than is needed for 

 brood-rearing) anywhere else than in the 



sections." Then the thought came. "Is it 

 not possible to have that first honey, which 

 others extract, stored in the upper story of 

 a full-sized hive, thereby retarding swarm- 

 ing still more, and then work in such a way 

 as to cause the bees to put it in sections 

 later on?" With this, despair turned to 

 hope, and this hope h^s become a reality by 

 the perfect working of the plan as now giv- 

 en to the public; and the result of the year 

 1905 (114J lbs. of section honey on an aver- 

 age per colony) , the poorest of all late years 

 for honey in this locality, has caused me to 

 write the matter up, so all who wish can use 

 it the coming season. 



Having the 13 colonies * ' swarmed, ' ' and 

 the six others on the road to prosperity aft- 

 er a careful looking-over the whole, to see 

 that " all is well," the scythe is again wrap- 

 ped up, allowed a whole seat in the ambu- 

 lance (auto), the starting- crank turned, 

 when I am soon experiencing a delightful 

 rest in the "noonday" sun (which had 

 seemed pretty hot in my work in the bee- 

 yard), made so comfortable through the 

 pleasant breeze caused by the tireless run- 

 ning of the automobile. In this we have 

 what was done at the fourth visit although 

 the same is pretty well mixed up with 

 other things pertaining to the developing 

 of this plan. 



OVER-WEIGHT SECTIONS AS AN ADVER- 

 TISING SCHEME. 



A Reply to Wm. Muth-Rasmussen. 



BY T. K. MASSIE. 



Our friend Wm. Muth-Rasmussen, page 

 1310, thinks that, as I cut out all light- 

 weight sections, and convert them into 

 chunk honey, I should be consistent and cut 

 out, also, ' ' all combs weighing over a pound 

 and convert them into chunk honey" — 

 should "be honest toward myself," etc. 

 This naturally implies that I am losing some- 

 thing on over- weight sections, and that the 

 light- weight- section men gain where I lose. 

 Let us follow this thought to its logical con- 

 clusion, and see if I am not ahead of the 

 light-weight-section people in the final out- 

 come. Suppose my 4jX5Xli plain sections 

 average 18 ounces. Take off 1 oz. for sec- 

 tions, and we have 17 oz. honey, net. Then 

 I get 18 cents for 17 ounces of honey, or IrV 

 cents per oz. Suppose the light weights 

 average 15 oz. They would then weigh 14 

 oz. net. Suppose he gets 15 cts. for the 14 

 oz. That would be Ij^^ cents per ounce. 

 Then in every 238 sections sold, the light- 

 weight man gains 5 cents on me, which is 

 about 12 J cents per thousand. Does our 

 friend think the light-weight man can pay 

 his extra bills of advertising, time lost in 

 selling, dues in the Honey- producers' League, 

 etc., for 12J cts. on a thousand? I say, no 

 My over- weight sections are the best-paying 

 advertising 1 can do. Mr. M. overlooked 

 the hint I gave on the sale of extracted 



