THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



457 



Let us have more light on the sub- 

 ject. Speak out, you legal bee- 

 keepers. 



North Temescal,+o Calif. 



ffor tlie American Bee JoumaL 



Extracling Honey— Some Observations, 



C. W. DAYTON. 



To-day I worked alone at the apiary 

 in the country extracting honey. The 

 amount taken was 70(i pounds, and I 

 also hived 3 swarms of bees. 



I was surprised when I examined 

 the record of three of tlie colonies 

 from which I took honey. The record, 

 dated .June 8, says Nos. (>, 11 and 73, 

 each had .s combs of brood, and were 

 ready for the upper story of combs 

 for extracting. The stories were put 

 on the hives of these colonies on June 

 9. The queen in No. 6 was confined 

 in a " restrictor " on 6 empty combs 

 at that time. On June 15, No. (i and 

 No. 73 were capping the honey in the 

 upper story, so another story was 

 added. On June 17 a story contain- 

 ing 6 combs in one end was added to 

 No. 11. On June 22 another story was 

 placed upon No. 6, making it four 

 hives high. To-day the honey in 

 these colonies being nearly all cap- 

 ped, I began to extract, taking 102 

 pounds from No. 6, leaving 1.5 pounds 

 in the lower story ; No. 73 yielded 78 

 pounds, with 20 pounds left in the 

 lower story, and two combs from 

 above, while in No. II there was about 

 25 pounds divided about equally in 26 

 combs, and which I considered too 

 tedious a job to extract, except two 

 combs which were about one-half 

 tilled. 



Now as to brood : In No. 6 of course 

 there could not be more than combs, 

 but they were entirely filled. No. 73 

 contained 7 combs of brood, which 

 had a narrow line of honey along the 

 upperedges; and as I use no exclud- 

 ing honey-boards, the queen of No. 

 11 had 23 of the 26 combs three-fourths 

 full of brood. 



The friction comes about in this 

 way: Bass wood is just beginning to 

 blossom. I never knew it to last 15 

 days, much less last 37 days, as it 

 would need to, that a little "of that 

 brood might gather honey. When 

 basswood is gone our honey harvest 

 is always ended. The situation is 

 like this : As I do not want increase 

 (if I did it would only make things 

 worse) that brood is taking the money 

 from my pocket in consuming honey ; 

 and I would feed it to the chickens if 

 it were possible. 



It is highly probable that the rear- 

 ing of brood at that rate would make 

 the difference in the honey-yield. 

 Twenty pounds of honey to feed the 

 overplus of brood above what was 

 contained by the other colonies, and 

 40 pounds the bees might gather while 

 caring for the brood, should not be 

 too large. By this way of figuring I 

 have already lost .fiS on the brood in 

 that colony, and a very fair prospect 

 of losing more is still before me. 



In llying-bees these colonies ap- 

 peared about equal, and none of them 



had attempted to swarm. I did not 

 describe them because they were bet- 

 ter than others in the apiary, but 

 more because they were examined 

 to-day. 



I am about to conclude that the 

 bees never carry eggs to place in 

 queen-cells when they have a queen 

 to lay them ; also, that the queen 

 puts eggs into queeji-cells of her own 

 accord, and thebeesdirect the swarm- 

 ing ; that when the bees do not 

 swarm out the queen will destroy the 

 cells a day or two before the young 

 queens are ready to hatch, unless 

 they are defended by bees ; but the 

 bees, I think, will not defend them if 

 there is plenty of space for storing 

 honey in the hive. If the cells happen 

 to be in some out-of-the-way place 

 not frequented by the queen, they are 

 allowed to hatch, and in this way I 

 have several times known an old 

 queen and a virgin queen also to 

 accompany the first swarm. 



If the above is true, it will be seen 

 that the queen may be confined to a 

 few combs, and though there may be 

 queen-cells built if there is plenty of 

 room for the bees, she will be caused 

 to destroy the cells for her own safety, 

 checking swarming meanwhile, which 

 would occur should a young queen 

 hatch and " notes of war " be heard. 



Bradford,!^ Iowa. 



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Local Convention Directory. 



188(i. TUne and plact of Meeting. 



Auk. 31.— Stark <;ounty, at Canton, O. 



Mark 'I'homson, Sec, (.'anton, O. 



Sept. 4.— Sheboynan Co., at Sheboygan Fails, Wis. 

 Mattie B. Thomas, Sec, Sheboygan Falls, Wis. 



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s-^Msr^M^ 



Getting Considerable Honey.— Will 



B.Robinson, Upper Jay,(i N. T., on 

 July 13, 1S86, says : 



We are getting considerable white 

 clover honey this season. I com- 

 menced the season with 8 colonies of 

 black bees, and have had only three 

 swarms as yet, but they each gave me 

 a 2.5-pound case of honey before they 

 swarmed, and they are now at work 

 in the sections. If basswood turns 

 out good, we will have a bountiful 

 harvest. 



Long Honey-Flow, etc.— W. M. 



Woodward, Custer,;^ Ills., on July 13, 

 1886, writes : 



Clover is still yielding honey after 

 almost seven weeks. 1 have almost 

 1,000 pounds stored now, when all is 

 finished off, and more coming, to all 

 appearance. I have increased my 

 apiary from 17 to 48 colouies, and 

 nuclei that will easily build up. The 

 early heart's-ease is opening out, and 

 will be sufiicient, I think, to carry the 

 honey-flow through until frost, with 

 good weather, I expect to get 1.50 

 pounds of clover honey from one 

 colony of black bees. The Albinos 

 have not done well. They do nothing 

 but swarm, having swarmed twice all 

 around. The Syrians have not 

 swarmed, and are now piling in the 

 honey. They are the best bees I 

 have seen in every way, except that 

 they cap their honey so thin that it 

 shows thi'ough badly. 



Very Dry Weather,— F. Roulo, 

 Poitville,p N. Y., on July 12, 1886, 

 says : 



I commenced in the spring with 100 

 colonies, and increased them to 179 

 full colonies and 18 nuclei; the most 

 of them contain 6 frames. I have 

 taken, so far, 2,600 pounds of honey. 

 It is very dry now. Basswood has 

 commenced to blossom, but the bees 

 work only a little while in the morn- 

 ing and toward night. I produce 

 mostly comb honey. 



