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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



honey it would be easier to answer him on 

 some points; but in regard to what he says 

 concerning this location I can say that it 

 never was considered any more than ordi- 

 nary until we commenced to have the large 

 yields of surplus of the past few years. 

 Before black brood destroyed nearly all the 

 bees in this location there were several par- 

 ties who kept from twenty to a hundred or 

 more colonies in this vicinity, and on inquiry 

 I find they seldom got more than 40 or 50 

 lb*, surplus per colony, and frequently not 

 half that amount. Before I came here I 

 kept bees in five different counties in New 

 York, three of which were better localities 

 for surplus honey than Delanson has ever 

 been. 



Now, as it has become almost a byword 

 among some bee-keepers, "Alexander's fair- 

 ly good locality," it may not be out of place 

 for me to describe what I consider a fairly 

 good locality. It is this : 



Any place, after June 1, that will furnish 

 a harvest for 35 days, sufficient for one col- 

 ony of Itahan bees of a good honey-gather- 

 ing strain to gather a surplus of 100 lbs. of 

 extracted honey, is what I call a fairly good 

 locition, and is as good a locality as this is; 

 and all that we have been able to secure 

 more than that has been done by adapting 

 certain methods which the majority of bee- 

 keepers have known but little about until 

 recently. 



Now as to the number of colonies that 

 this or any other fairly good location can 

 furnish a good surplus for. That is a prob- 

 lem that no one has ever been able to solve. 

 I know that this location has furnished and 

 can furnish a surplus of just as many pounds 

 of honey per colony for 750 colonies in one 

 yard as it ever did for a less number, and I 

 think the same will yet be proven true of 

 any fairly good location. 



in regard to breaking up good colonies 

 just previous to the main honey-flow, I can 

 say that I have never advised any one to do 

 this except where increase was preferred to 

 surplus honey. I have always advised doing 

 every thing possible to build up the colonies 

 so that they will not only be strong in bees 

 but have their hives well filled with brood in 

 order to keep them strong during the whole 

 honey-flow Either make the increase long 

 enough before the harvest to enable all col- 

 onies to become strong in time for it, as can 

 very easily be done in a buckwheat location, 

 or make no increase until the harvest for 

 surplus is over. 



In regard to the part of my article in Jan. 

 1st Gleanings, page 26, which Mr. Byer 

 calls a ' ' stunner, ' ' I wish to say if he had 

 ever produced much extracted honey he 

 would have learned the necessity of having 

 his hives well filled with honey, and a large 

 percentage of that capped before he put the 

 extra hive of combs on top to extract from. 

 Although we always put a queen-excluder 

 between the hive and extracting-combs, it is 

 no uncommon thing for us to have many of 

 our colonies short of stores in the under hive 

 before the season is over, and we usually 



take off the extracting-super several days 

 before the close of the harvest, in order to 

 give the bees a chance to fill their hives 

 again for winter. With a good young queen 

 in the hive below, it makes but little dif- 

 ference how much honey there is in the 

 under hive unless it is capped, and even then 

 the bees will carry a large part of it above. 

 So I repeat, see that your hives are well 

 filled with honey before you put on your 

 super of empty combs to extract from. 



As to the quality of our extracted honey 

 I think I have given all the evidence on that 

 line that any reasonable party can ask for. 



In regard to Mr. Byer's experience in a 

 locality where his bees got a little buck- 

 wheat surplus, it is strange he does not 

 know it to be a fact that, in any harvest 

 where bees get only a little surplus, they 

 will fill up the brood-nest with twice the 

 honey, and cap it over, that they will in a 

 good harvest, providing they have a place 

 above to store it. 



I have never advised sacrificing a full 

 brood- nest in order, as Mr. B puts it, to 

 have the brood chamber "plugged with 

 honey. ' ' I will admit I took it for granted 

 that, if the hive contained a good young 

 queen, as I have always advised, there would 

 be at least one- half or more of the combs 

 filled with brood. I can see wherein it 

 would be better for the inexperienced if I 

 were a little more explicit sometimes; but 

 to the man of experience I hardly expect 

 him to catch at these omissions, although I 

 sometimes take it for granted that they 

 know more than they seem to know. If Mr. 

 Byer's theory were true in regard to bees 

 storing a larger amount of surplus in two 

 extracting-supers than one, then certainly 

 we all must miss it very much when we 

 don't put on several supers at once, both 

 for extracted and comb honey, in order to 

 secure a large surplus. 



No, Mr. Byer, you are away off on that 

 point, and you should know that bees work 

 much better when we give them only enough 

 room so that they are a little crowied and 

 can keep their surplus-apartment nice and 

 warm. 



It can not be possible that you have not 

 seen the importance of contracting our hives 

 and supers in order to secure the best re- 

 sults. 



LEAVING THE WELL-BEATEN PATH, AND THE 

 CONSEQUENCES. 



In regard to the wisdom of cautioning be- 

 ginners about leaving the ' ' beaten paths too 

 far, and following what may in their locaH- 

 ties turn out after all to be a phantom, ' ' I 

 wish to say that, when I was a boy, a very 

 small minority of bee-keepers left the well- 

 beaten path of setting their best colonies 

 over a brimstone- pit in order to get a little 

 honey, and adopted the more humane way 

 of cutting a little out of the sides of their 

 hives in order that they might save their bees 

 for another year; and I could never see any 

 phantom about that. I can well reniember, 

 many years ago, of a small minority that 



