Nov. 30, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



757 



Just as quick as the knife is put in tliat honey what hap- 

 pens ? The whole colony is active. At the end of that time, 

 if it does not continue more than 48 hours, you have roused 

 the activity of the bees. You want to do it at the rifjht 

 time. Nothing booms along- your business like doing- the 

 right thitig in the right place and at the right time. 



Dr. Mason — Why not let that strong colony do a little 

 more and get a little stronger ? Now, if Mr. Doolittle takes 

 a little bigger suit of clotlies than other people, why not 

 let him have them ? If he fills his clothes full, and they 

 show they are not large enoug-h for comfort, why not let 

 him have larger ones? I believe in expansion. Feed the 

 strong colonies if it will make them still stronger. I never 

 saw a colony too strong during the honey-flow. 



Mr. Doolittle — If I have everything I need, is it neces- 

 sary for me to have more? Bees are like men — they are 

 grasping. The more they have, the more they want. You 

 know which colony needs the feeding. You are the better 

 judge. 



Dr. Mason — Mr. Doolittle is making just such state- 

 ments as we see in the bee-papers. We are talking about 

 those that do not have all they need. If bees are like men — 

 if one colony is brighter, more active and energetic than 

 others, and requires more room and more food — why not 

 furnish such colonies witli what they need? We are work- 

 ing- for best results, and we want strong colonies. The bee- 

 keeper's motto is, "Keep all colonies strong," and the 

 stronger the better for honey gathering. 



Mr. Coggshall— Mr. Howe is like Mr. Doolittle. When 

 they have no breakfast they want their dinner. So it is 

 with bees. 



Mr. Cook — It makes no difference if we can transfer a 

 little brood — we want eggs. It is stimulating brood-rear- 

 ing, but, of course, it must be done when the weather is 

 warm. We get the bees, and then we can distribute them 

 evenly. 



Pres. Whitcomb — That is not the point we were dis- 

 cussing. 



Mr. Cook — I don't care where we get the brood. We can 

 •strengthen the weak colonies with brood from the strong 

 ones. 



Mr. Abbott — Take a knife and cut off the cappings. 



Mr. Doolittle — I don't believe you do. 



Mr. Cook — I have not been bothered with the honey 

 running when I have shaved off the cappings. 



Mr. Doolittle — That is, candied solid, I suppose. 



Mr. Cook— No. 



Mr. Abbott — I have been shaving for years. We don't 

 roll them to Ohio in the sand. 



Dr. Mason — Probably you don't have the " sand." 

 [Laughter.] 



Mr. Abbott — We have plenty of " sand." 



Mr. Doolittle — What do you do about exposing honej' ? 



Mr. Root — Say " I " when you ask that, Mr. Doolittle. 



Mr. Hutchinson — The bees will uncap it quickly enough 

 if you have it out-of-doors. Fussing with this in a largpe 

 way is no fun. 



Mr. Doolittle — There is another point that has not been 

 toucht. I have tried oiit-door feeding for stimulating- pur- 

 poses, and I have become disgusted with it. I fully agree 

 with the president, that if a bee takes evaporated honey 

 that bee will forever be on the go for more. I am a little 

 fellow by the name of Doolittle. I carry a box around for 

 my 2bO or 270 pounds to rest upon, and a colony of bees 

 will follow me around for weeks for the honey they smell 

 on that box. When Mr. Hutchinson has filled up with beef- 

 steak he doesn't want much more right away. When you 

 find dollars you will think you can keep finding them and 

 you won't stop to pick up pennies. 



Dr. Mason — Feeding in this way does not induce rob- 

 bing with me. I don't believe the bees know that it is rob- 

 bing. They have to fight if they rob. Localities differ. 

 New York robber-bees that have gone out to Ohio may be 

 robbers there as they were in New York. 



Mr. Hershiser — Do you find it pays to feed ? 



Dr. Mason — Yes, sir. I don't want it to go out that I 

 recommend putting a frame of honey in the middle of a 

 weak colony. 



At the close of the above discussion Mr. Danzenbaker 

 read a paper on 



The Best Method of Comb-Honey Production, With 

 Latest Hive Improvements. 



This is an important topic, especially for beginners. 

 Space will only permit the merest mention of the essentials 

 of the best method in the order of their importance : 



The first is a good field where a full and steady flow of 



white honey can be had ; where bees can be wintered safely 

 on the summer stands in box-hives, where hives and flying 

 bees are sheltered from cold or violent winds on dry 

 ground, sloping southeastward, that the morning sun may 

 shine in the entrances of the hives. 



The second is large, healthy American-bred. pure-Ital- 

 ian queens, without trace or taint of Cyprian, Holy Land 

 or Carniolan stock in their composition ; of gentle, docile 

 disposition, safe to handle, and not over a j'ear old; that 

 they may crowd the brood-frames full of eggs without over- 

 swarming, forcing the bees to store their surplus in sections. 



The third is a double or thick wall, tight, dry, warm 

 hive, consisting of separate hive-bodies and supers, for 

 tiering up to any size desired; to be used on loose hive- 

 bottoms that can be easily cleaned, and afford ample venti- 

 lation beneath the brood-frames, the full width at front and 

 rear of the same. 



The bodies should be wide enough to hold 10 brood- 

 frames. Innodeeper than these can bees build natural combs 

 without the cells stretching out of shape, resulting in 

 sagged, bulging, corrugated or scallopt edges at the bottom 

 where worker-bees are reared. 



The last but not least consideration in securing comb 

 honey is strong colonies of bees, old enough to collect the 

 honey at hand. While a small colony of bees in warm 

 weather may fill a small box solid with honey, a larger col- 

 ony will do much more, proportionately, as they can main- 

 tain sufficient heat in the supers to work continuously day 

 and night from first to finish. Sufficient heat has much to 

 do with success or failure in the production of comb honey, 

 as it is as impossible for bees to produce and work wax into 

 cells in cold supers as it would be for their owners to fasten 

 dry stamps on paper. When bait-combs are used in weak 

 colonies, bees may cluster on a few sections, and finish 

 them by forming a wall of bees about them to create suffi- 

 cient heat. 



I have always produced comb honey, and I find that 

 two supers, protected by wrapping up or with an outside 

 case, are as good as three unprotected, and I have never yet 

 seen a super so warm (where the outside air was up in the 

 nineties, in Virginia, North Carolina and Soutli Florida), 

 but that the first tinisht and handsomest sections were 

 always in tlie center of the super, and extending outward 

 just in proportion to the strength of the colonies. Suffi- 

 cient heat has more to do with success or failure than any 

 single tiling in the production of comb honey. When we 

 consider that the heat of brood-nest and supers must be 

 maintained continuously in the nineties, we realize the im- 

 portance of retaining it as much as possible, and the bees 

 instinctively seal air-tight each crack or crevice at the top 

 or sides of their hives to prevent the loss of warm air. 

 Hence, there is a limit, according to the strength of the 

 colony, to the space that can be given them in brood-rear- 

 ing, lest there should be loss of time, and space filled with 

 excess of pollen, or combs deserted to the wax-moth. 



Forty of the strongest colonies of pure Italians I have 

 seen this season wintered safely last winter out-doors in 

 nine closed-end reversible-frame two-story hives, 7 inches 

 deep, with flat covers "s inch thick, left as sealed down 

 solid by the bees, with 'dry cork -dust cushions over the 

 cover, -with a cap 6 inches deep telescoped over the same. 

 They had plenty of honey, and by swapping and evening 

 up as needed, most of them had three bodies filled with 

 brood and bees ready for clover and basswood. Many of the 

 frames were solid slabs of brood from top to bottom. By 

 shaking most of the bees on one story of brood frames they 

 crowded into the supers and began drawing foundation at 

 once. With no signs of loafing they went to work with the 

 vim of new swarms. The surplus brood was set aside with 

 bees enough to care for it to hatch out and re-inforce the 

 colonies with the supers, when it would do them the most 

 good. 



The largest possible yields of comb honey can be had 

 from single colonies by breeding all the bees possible in 

 two stories before the full flow begins, then contracting the 

 brood-nest one-half and reversing one set of frames to force 

 all the bees of a strong colony into one body and super ; 

 the latter to be raised up when the bees commence sealing 

 the first cells, and putting on an empty super of sections, 

 with full sheets of foundation in the same beneath them. 



It is worse than labor lost to put on sections before the 

 bees are strong enough to fill them, or before the honey- 

 flow begins, with the mistaken idea that they are getting 

 used to them. In a full flow they may refuse to start if the 

 brood-frames are clogged with sealed honey at the top 

 above the brood. 



But they can be started at once by exchanging a part 



