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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15 





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CHAPTER VIII. 



PROGRESS IN THE SUPERS. 



Nearly a month has passed since my last 

 visit to the out-apiary, and it is now August 

 18. The buckwheat is now in full bloom, 

 and the snow-white fields, nestled down here 

 and there among the meadows, cornfields, 

 and pasture lands, remind one of days in 

 early spring when the snowbanks are loath 

 to leave under the enlivening influences of 

 the oncoming summer sun. With the bloom- 

 ing of buckwheat, cool days and colder nights 

 come on, which are not what is needed for a 

 good yield of honey from that source. Hot 

 flays, with heavy dews, and an occasional 

 foggy morning, are the ideal for a prolific 

 yield of nectar from buckwheat. But the 

 bee-keeper always looks on the hopeful side, 

 seeing the silver lining to the cloud, even 

 though this lining may be on the side from 

 him, and hidden from his outstretched arms. 

 In just such a hopeful mood I am again at 

 the out-apiary, this time to see that all col- 

 onies have sufficient room, should there be a 

 heavy flow from buckwheat through return- 

 ing good weather. 



Notwithstanding the poor weather, I find 

 that most of the colonies are well along in 

 the super next to the brood- chamber, while 

 the most of them are beginning work on the 

 foundation in the one above. Four or five 

 are quite well advanced in these, and with 

 such the supers are exchanged, the one be- 

 ing nearly completed set over that having 

 less work done in it, with a super of empty 

 sections on top of the two. In this case this 

 top super was of no value, as the season was 

 so poor that the bees did no work in it. How- 

 ever, in this race for honey we can not tell 

 how things are going to turn out, and I hold 

 to the idea that it is always better to do a 

 little work for naught than to have a loss of 

 10 to 25 pounds of honey from each colony 

 through any inattention of mine. Forty 

 minutes to an hour sufficed for all that was 

 necessary to be done at this time, and the 

 whole gave me an excuse for an enjoyable 

 outing with the auto. This was^ visit No. 8. 

 If greatly pressed for time, this visit could 

 be dispensed with without experiencing any 

 great loss in honey in the average year. 



CHAPTER IX. 



A SIMPLE WAY TO PUT ON ESCAPES WITHOUT 

 LIFTING. 



It is now September 8th, and the honey 

 season for 1905 is ended, as no surplus is 

 ever secured in this locality from fall 

 flowers. And it has been one of the most 



singular seasons I have ever known as to 

 poor weather at the time of the blossoming 

 of our honey- producing flora. It was most- 

 ly wet, cool, or very windy, during the time 

 of clover, basswood, and buckwheat bloom, 

 our three resources for surplus honey, and 

 quite generally fine and warm outside the 

 time they were in bloom. We often have 

 poor bee w^eather during the time one of 

 these sources for honey is in bloom, and once 

 or twice I have known it thus during two of 

 the sources of supply; but to have it poor 

 during all three puts the season of 1905 at 

 the top, along the line of bad weather, dur- 

 ing the expected harvests from all sources, 

 and giving it the name of the "poorest sea- 

 son ever known" among my bee-keeping 

 neighbors. Enough thia nectar was gath- 

 ered to keep their bees rearing an abun- 

 dance of brood, resulting in much swarm- 

 ing, and hives light in stores for winter; but 

 the surplus crop with them was very meager. 



USE OF THE WEDGE BETWERN SUPER AND 

 EXCLUDER BOARD. 



I now go to the out-apiary for the ninth vis- 

 it, and the chief work at this time is to put 

 an escape-board between the brood -chamber 

 and the supers of the whole 28 colonies. To 

 do this best, one of the escape- boards is 

 placed by the side of each hive, before I 

 commence, when I take the piece of wag- 

 on-spring used to pull the staples out at the 

 first visit (a long stout chisel will answer in 

 place of the spring) , the smoker and a wood- 

 en wedge, \\ inches wide by one foot long, 

 the same being two inches thick at the big 

 end, and go to hive No. 1, row 1, stepping 

 to the back side of the same. The point of 

 the wagon- spring is now pushed between the 

 supers and the hive, or between the supers 

 and the queen-excluder, where one of these 

 has been left on, as with the tiered-up hives. 

 I now bear down on the "handle " end of 

 the spring, enough so a crack is made of 

 sufficient size to insert the point of the 

 wedge, pushing the wedge until a one- eighth- 

 inch opening all across the back is made, 

 when puffs of smoke are driven through this 

 crack to drive the bees away. I am careful 

 not to make this crack big enough at first to 

 let out any bees; for if I do, they are sure to 

 crawl all about on the back side of the hive 

 and supers, to become a nuisance through 

 my killing them, and their stinging my hands 

 during the rapid handling now required. By 

 smoke driven through this one- eighth-inch 

 crack, the bees are "stampeded" in all di- 

 rections away from the place where I am at 



