140 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



you keep honej^ in good condition thi'ee 

 months after it is removed from the 

 hive? 



2. What is your method for getting 

 bees out of sections? 



ANSWKKS BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



1. Honey in appearance is much better 

 when removed from tlie liive as soon 

 as finished, but as this causes so much 

 work, no large apiarist can do so; 

 strictly speaking. If all hives having 

 surplus on them are all gone over, and 

 aU finished honey removed, once every 

 ten days, it is as often as the most of 

 us can get to it, and quite often 

 enough for all practical purposes. 

 Where no separators are used a whole 

 case must be left on until all are fin- 

 ished, so that more or less of the white 

 comb is soiled by the travel of the bees, 

 and the being obliged to thus leave the 

 whole case after a part of the sections 

 are completed, is one gi'eat objection to 

 to the non-separator system. 



Honey to keep in perfect condition 

 needs a warm dr'y air, such as is found 

 inside a bee hive. What would you 

 think of a temperature of 50° with the 

 air so saturated with moisture that the 

 roof and sides would be dripping with 

 water, for the inside of a bee hive dur- 

 ing August, September and October? 

 yet such is the place much of our nice 

 white honey is consigned to after leav- 

 ing the hive. A careful testing of the 

 temperature of the inside of the hive 

 gives from 90° to 95° during August 

 and the first half of September, when it 

 gradually lowers to about 70° as the 

 bees become inactive and go into their 

 winter quiescent state ; while 63° is the 

 lowest temperature I have ever found 

 inside a cluster of bees when they were 

 in a normal condition. By keeping 

 honey at the temperature given above, 

 duriiig August, September and October 

 and holding it at 70° until May, when 

 it should be increased to 90° to 95° 

 again for the summer, honey can be 

 kept for years in a perfect state, as I 

 have twice proved. 



2. In taking ofl" honey I go to the 

 hive and carefully remove the cover so 

 as not to disturb the bees when I blow 

 smoke in at one side of the surplus ar- 

 rangement. The Ijoard clamping the 

 sections together is now taken off. and 

 the nozzle to the smoker is pointed in 

 at tlie little holes or passage-ways the 

 bees always leave at the upper corner 

 of the sections; when the smoker is 

 worked A'igorously so as to force a 

 stream of smoke as far as possible 



through the case of sections. If done 

 as it should be, in less time than it 

 takes to tell it, every bee will have left 

 their sections as far as the smoke has 

 reached and gone below, when the sec- 

 tions are quickly removed without a 

 bee on them. As soon as I came to 

 sections with a few bees on them, I 

 proceed to l)low smoke as before when 

 every section is taken from the hive 

 free from bees and are ready to be car- 

 ried where you wish. This is a great 

 improvement over any of the old plans, 

 and especially so in a time of scarcity 

 of honey in the fields, where by any of 

 the old plans the bees are apt to gnaw 

 holes in our nice white cappiugs 

 (so that each bee may get a load of 

 honey) as so many of us know from 

 past experience. By using the plan 

 given above the bees run down into 

 the hive below so our combs are left 

 perfect, and clear of bees. 



ANSWKKS BY A. E. MANUM. 



1. Sections should be removed from 

 tlie hive as soou as filled and the honey 

 well capped, in order to prevent the 

 soiling of the combs by the bees travel- 

 ing over it,, as they are apt to do in 

 their constant watch over their stores; 

 and, to my mind, the early removal of 

 tlie honey is a preventive of the moth 

 worm making havoc with comb honey, 

 either because the honey is removed 

 before the moth eggs are deposited or 

 because the honey is placed in a lower 

 temperature than that of the hive. 

 I have found that when honey has been 

 left on the hive for a long time, by 

 neglect or otherwise, such honey is 

 most apt to be infested with worms. 

 As sooif as the honey is removed I 

 place it in a well-ventilated room 

 built expressly for the purpose. Here 

 it is assorted, and all sections that 

 have any pollen in them, if not more 

 than one cell, they are placed by them- 

 selves and sold at once for home con- 

 sumption, because wherever there is 

 a ceil of pollen, a brood of moth worms 

 may be expected. In this room my 

 honey remains until sold, without fur- 

 ther precautions against worms. I 

 have never been obliged to burn sul- 

 phur in order to preserve my honey, 

 and I have kept coml)-honey the year 

 round in perfect condition and I have 

 it in that condition to-day. 



2. I use a clamp for holding my 

 sections, and when desirable to remove 

 one from the hive during a flow of 

 honey, it is set edgewise on the ground 

 near the entrance of the same hive 



