THE A3rERICAN APICULTURlST. 



61 



one or two stings. Bee stings are some- 

 thing that one can soon get accustomed 

 to. With some dry rotten ehn wood, 

 and a good smoker I can conquer any 

 colony of bees in the world. Mmd you, 

 the wood must be dry and the smoker 

 have a good, easy and free draft. Thus 

 eq'iipped I can drive the smartest hive 

 of bees out the yard or make tliem sub- 

 mit to my will. 



About the smokers. All are good, 

 yet there are some better than others. 

 The Clark has its advocates ; the Hill 

 is strongly endorsed and recommended, 

 but for use in the Bay State apiary, give 

 me the Bingham and Hetherington. 

 Now this smuker may not be any better 

 than some of the others named. I have 

 used one a g )od miny years, and know 

 they are good. Like everything else, 

 the smoker must be u ed awhile to 

 work it to the best advantage. 



WOUKIXG AN AFIAI5Y FOR EXTRACTED 

 HONKY. 



Surely I would produce extracted 

 honey if I had a market for all I could 

 raise. Tliere is more money in extracted 

 honey at eight cents per pound, than in 

 comb honey at double that price. It 

 is not much work to care for extracted 

 honey unless it is thrown out before the 

 nectar is properly ripened by the bees. 

 Honey is not ripe until it is capped, 

 unless the weather is very dry for a long 

 time ; in fact, dry all the time the bees are 

 gathering. If tlirown out before capped, 

 a process of ripening must be adopted. 



Honey known to be pure, put up in 

 neat jars holding from half a pound to 

 one pound seems to be the favorite 

 package to use. Very few people care 

 to purchase over half a pound of 

 honey at one time. The name of the 

 ai)iary, as well as the producer's name 

 should be on each package, not only as 

 a guarantee of purity, but as an adver- 

 tisement for the beekeeper. This also 

 applies to comb honey. 



HOW TO PRODUCE EXTRACTED HONEY. 



The usual way to run an apiary for 

 extracted honey is to tier one set of 



brood combs above anotlier with a 

 metal queen excluder between the two 

 hives. My plan would be to liave an 

 extra set of combs at hand. Would re- 

 move the set from which tlie honey is 

 to be extracted and imuiediately place 

 the empty set on. In this way the bees 

 would not be much disturbed in their 

 work. Would then extract the iioney 

 and have the combs ready to use on the 

 next hive. 



'Hie bees can be brushed or shaken 

 off the combs in front of the hive they 

 belong to. 



Another thing I find will work suc- 

 cessfully. If lioney is coming in slowly 

 I would work the "jump" plan on many 

 of the colonies. This is to remove in 

 the middle of the day several colonies 

 to a new location, leaving one to catch 

 all the bees returning from the fields. 

 If one set of combs does not furnish 

 all the storage room such a colony needs, 

 add two or more sets of combs. The 

 practical and profitable way is to get 

 all tlie honey when there is honey to 

 get. To obtain the best results in honey 

 from any hive of bees there must be 

 workers in great numbers. Small col- 

 onies do not store, nor gather a great 

 amount of [loney. 



PUKVEXTION or SWARMI.VG. 



This is also an important question 

 with beekeepers. No two enteitdnthe 

 same ideis and opinions as to the best 

 methods of preventing swarming. Cer- 

 tainly no practical method has as yet 

 been brought out for the prevention or 

 controlling of natural swarming. We 

 have been told of the queen-restricters, 

 of clipping the wings of queens, or the 

 "jump" method and how swarming is 

 prevented by extracting from the brood- 

 chamber, etc. Well, in a measure all 

 the above operations have some effect 

 to retard and prevent the issuing of a 

 natural swarm. 



Of all the plans above mentioned for 

 the prevention of swarming, that of ex- 

 tracting from the brood combs is the 

 most effectual. The disturbance to the 

 queen, bees and brood-nest by removing 



