374 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



EXTRACTED HONEY AND INCREASE, ETC. 



"Mr. Doolittle, I want to ask you some 

 questions, and have a little talk with you." 



"Very well, Mr. Brown. What would 

 3'ou like to know?" 



"Which is the better plan when working- 

 an apiary for extracted honey — to make the 

 increase by natural swarming- or by di- 

 vision? If by division, when is the best 

 time to do it in latitude about 41, white clo- 

 ver being the main plant giving- sur- 

 plus?" 



" You are putting the questions in pretty 

 thick, aren't you? We will consider the 

 swarming part first. Should we desire, 

 never so badly, increase by natural swarm- 

 ing, it would be very little we should get if 

 the colonies were worked to the best advan- 

 tage for extracted honey." 



"Why so?" 



"Because a good yield of extracted honey 

 is obtained onlj' by providing the colony 

 with an extra set, or more, of empty combs, 

 putting the same in upper stories at the be- 

 p inning of the honej'-flow, or as soon as the 

 bees have increased sufficiently to receive 

 them without any detriment to their build- 

 ing up the most quickly. Bees do not swarm 

 till the hive is well populated, and honey 

 coming in from the fields; hence if we put 

 on combs as above, and we must to secure 

 the best results in extracted honey, these 

 combs go on before any preparation for 

 swarming is made. If I remember correct- 

 ly. Editor E. R. Root once said, 'Plenty of 

 empty combs is the best preventive for 

 swarming,' and no truer saying was ever 

 uttered; and by fixing the bees as we are 

 obliged to, to secure the best results, we 

 very nearly, if not quite, prevent all increase 

 of a natural kind." 



"Has this been your experience? I did 

 not think it would be thus." 



"In all of my experience with the extract- 

 or I have never had a single colony cast a 

 swarm before the honey harvest was begin- 

 ning to wane; and not ten per cent of the 

 colonies thus worked ever offered to swarm 

 at all. Therefore you will see, if you wish 

 increase, it must be done in some way other 

 than natural swarming, or elseyou will have 

 to sacrifice your honey crop quite largelj' 

 by not putting on the combs till the colonies 

 have swarmed." 



"Well, I do not wish 1o sacrifice my crop 

 of honey more than I can help." 



"This is as I thought it would be; there- 

 fore we have increase by division, where 

 increase is wished, as the only way when 

 working for extracted honey." 



" That seems clear the way you put the 



matter. So the next thing to talk of is 

 when that division is to be made." 



"Very many of our practical apiarists 

 tell us that, where we make increase bj' 

 division, this should be done a little before 

 the honey harvest, or at its commencement, 

 and this is correct when working for comb- 

 honey; but I fail to see why it need be thus 

 where only a moderate increase is desired 

 when one is working for extracted honey 

 only." 



"What is the argument they use?" 



"The claim is made that, after division, 

 we shall have two queens laying instead of 

 one, and in this there is a gain." 



"Can you see any gain in that?" 



"No. And such reasoning is mysterious 

 to me; for the bees which hatch from those 

 eggs laid by the two queens, after the divi- 

 sion, can never become honey-gatherers in 

 the white-clover harvest, unless said harvest 

 is much more prolonged than it ever is in 

 this locality; so the bees from the eggs of 

 the extra queen will become only consumers, 

 without adding one iota to our crop of hon- 

 ey. Yea, more: Instead of adding to the 

 crop of honey it will lessen the crop bj' just 

 the amount that it will take to feed and 

 nurse the brood and the young bees after 

 emerging, which is a clear loss, instead of 

 again, it appears to me." 



" But, may it not be possible that the two 

 parts would store more separately than to- 

 gether?" 



"No. All bee-keepers whom I ever heard 

 express themselves in this matter admit 

 that one strong colony will store far more 

 honey when kept together, if not having the 

 swarming fever, than the same colony would 

 if divided and placed in two separate hives, 

 thus making two weak colonies of it. Hence, 

 by dividing at the commencement of the 

 harvest, or a little before, we have two weak 

 colonies to do the gathering, up to about the 

 time the harvest closes, instead of the one 

 very strong one; while after-results from 

 fall flowers are no better for our having in- 

 creased at this time. Therefore I think it 

 the better way to work all colonies without 

 any increase till very near or just at the 

 close of the harvest, when I go to work and 

 make what increase I wish by dividing as 

 many of the best colonies as I wish in- 

 crease." 



"W^hatdo you do with any swarms which 

 may issue?" 



"If any happen to swarm near the close 

 of the honey harvest, or at any time during 

 the latter part of the same, I accept their 

 increase as far as they do so, thus lessen- 

 ing the number desired, according to the 

 number which swarm." 



"This appears as right to me, and I 

 thank you for the instruction you have given 

 me. But I must go now, as I left my son 

 out holding the horses. Good by." 



"Hello, Doolittlel I met a Brown man 

 out here at the gate, and here comes another 

 one; but this Brown is from Ohio." 



"Glad to welcome you, Mr. Ohio Brown. 

 Did you come to talk on increase? This 



