Publisht Weekly at 118 Michigan St. 



George W. York, Editor. 



$1.00 a Year — Sample Copy Free. 



38th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., AUGUST 18, 1898. 



No. 33, 



(All rights reserved by the Northeryi Newspaper Syndicate, 

 of Kendal y Eyiglaiid.) 



PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING, 



WITH 



HINTS TO BEGINNERS, 



. BY 



Author of "Bees atiil Bee-Eeeping," ^^Pleasurable See-Keeping," etc. 



No. 7.— SUPERING. 



The amount of success that a bee-keeper achieves de- 

 pends, as has already been stated, upon surrounding eiriuun- 

 stauces, such as nearness of honey-producing crops to the api- 

 ary, and thi^ state of the weather during the time tliey are in 

 bloom : but with these necessary conditions in his favor, tlicre 

 remains another item without which tlie fullest advantage 

 possible cannot be obtained ; his energies must be directed hy 

 thought and applied to the work of the apiary at the riglit 

 time. 



It is utterly useless expecting full supers if bees are left 

 to themselves ; it is equally foolish not to give supers when 

 colonies are strong and honey is being gathered rapidly. I 

 have known many cases where, for want of supers, 4<) or 50 

 pounds of honey per hive have been lost. For instance, in my 

 own apiary I had three swarms as nearly as possible of the 

 same weight, I hived ihem on the same day in exactly similar 

 hives, and gave exactly the same treatment to all except in 

 one respect. Two were supered a few days after hiving, th.' 

 other was left entirely alone, the consequence being that while 

 the bees of the two supered lots were working vigorously day 

 after day lilling their supers, the bees in the third hive were 

 lounging about tlie entrance doing nothing simply because 

 they had nowhere to put the honey if they gathered it. This 

 resulted in a positive loss of over 20s., as the other two lots 

 stored honey to more than that value. 



It may be askt, "What is supering ?" This term, tho 

 sometimes wrongly applied, is understood to mean the giving 

 . of bell-glasses, sections, shallow-frames, or, in fact, any re- 

 ceptacle in which tlie bees may store their honey when they 

 are gathering considerably more than is required for the daily 

 wants of the colony. 



Supering really should be applied only to the giving of 

 room for surplus honey above the brood-chamber, as must be 

 the case when the tiering hive is used. This is the style of 

 hive recommended, and the supers used in connection with 

 them may be either Ivo bar supers, shallow-frame, or sec- 

 tional supers. 



The style of super adopted should be determined by the 

 market for honey, and the time that can be spared for the 



work. Being a busy man I have used some Ivo bar supers on 

 several movable-comb hives for some years past, and I find I 

 can get as much honey, if not more, by using such supers 

 than I can by using either shallow frames or sections, and by 

 spending not a quarter of the time. Sheets of foundation, 

 three inches in depth, are put into the bars, and then the 

 super is ready, but between this or the shallow-frame super 

 and the brood-chamber there should always be placed a sheet 

 of queen-excukiing zinc. 



When full of honey the super must be cleared of bees by 

 one of the methods given in this article. The combs are at- 

 tacht to the front and back walls of the hive, and therefore 

 before they can be moved the attachments must be cut by rais- 

 ing each end of the super alternately and running a knife 

 from end to end close to the inside walls. The combs will 

 then hang from the bars, and are removed by raising the lat- 

 ter. The combs are next cut from the bars and allowed to 

 ,drop into a pan, to be afterwards sliced so that vvhen put into 



Dr. H. Besse — Sec inuje 'lUi. 



some kind of a strainer or honey cistern the honey may drain 

 away free from any contamination wliatever. Before the bars 

 can be used again fresh pieces of fcnindatiou must be fitted in 

 tliem, but this need not te lookt upon as an expense, as the 

 wax produced by melting the slici'il loinbs will more tlian com- 

 pensate for the outlay. 



EXTRACTING FROM SIlAI.I.oW-FRA.ME SUPERS. 



Extracting honey from the combs is now a very general 

 practice, and one that is to be strongly recommended in work- 

 ing colonies for large returns, for much work is saved the 

 bees, and more honey is obtained seeing that much that would 



