742 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



J\lov. 21, 



Where Should the First Honey be Stored ? 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent writes that a neighbor tells him that bees 

 generally fill the brood-chamber full of honey before they go 

 into the sections to work, and after the brood-chaniber is thus 

 filled, then they will go into the sections, if the blossoms yield 

 honey after the hive is filled. From this he reasons that bee- 

 keepers should feed inferior honey or sugar syrup to fill the 

 combs just before the honey harvest, so as to cause the white 

 honey to be stored in the sections, and asks if this is not cor- 

 rect logic. He desires that I shall give my views on the mat- 

 ter in the American Bee Journal. 



No, this is not correct logic, and I object to both views, 

 for on them hang all there is against the use of large hives for 

 comb honey, as recommended by our fathers, and even by 

 some of the present day, as opposing the contraction plan 

 which is now in general use among our most prominent api- 

 arists who produce comb honey the most largely for market. 

 No, sir! the bees must ?!ot fill the brood-chamber first with 

 houey md the sections afterward, if we are to reap the best 

 results from our bees. 



At the time the honey-flow commences, the brood-cham- 

 ber must be filled with brood, with not to exceed five pouuds 

 of honey in it, and one pound would be far better than more 

 than five. If it is not thus filled with brood, the wise api- 

 arist will take out all the combs not thus filled, and store them 

 away where the bees cannot have access to them at this time 

 of the year, for if they once commence to store honey in the 

 combs below, to any considerable extent, thus early in the 

 season, instead of going into the sections they will begin to 

 crowd the queen by filling the empty cells with honey to a 

 greater or less extent, thus removing the sections further and 

 further from the brood in the hive, resulting in little honey in 

 the sections, and the colony in very poor condition for winter, 

 on account of the fewness of bees left, owing to this same 

 crowding out of the queen from the brood-combs. 



The work of every bee-keeper should be, during the fore- 

 part of the season, to see that the combs are being rapidly 

 filled with brood, and all of that inferior honey spoken of used 

 up and turned into brood, which is to make the bees for the 

 harvest, till the hive is literally filled with brood ; when, if 

 there is a pound of honey coming in after this, it must go into 

 the sections or nowhere. 



Many have opposed the Italian bees, because they say 

 they ar% prone to crowd the queen, rather than enter the sec- 

 tions; but if managed as I propose, they will out-yield the 

 blacks every time in section houey, while at the end of the 

 season they will have honey enough in their brood-combs for 

 winter, when the black bees will be almost in a starving con- 

 dition. This is not mere theory, but something any one can 

 prove to his or her satisfaction in one year by working a few 

 colonies on each of the two plans. 



One of the many things about the Italian bees which 

 pleases me is their desire to store houey in the brood-chamber: 

 for, if rightly managed, they will give a good crop in the sec- 

 tions, and at the same time generally have stores enough, or 

 nearly so, below to winter upon. Just as soon as they begin 

 storing honey in the sections, they begin storing to a limited 

 extent in the brood-chamber, and as the honey season draws 

 toward a close they seem to be on the alert as to their own in- 

 terest, and the queen ceases to lay as prolifically as at first, 

 which allows of their storing the later honey in the brood- 

 combs for winter stores, while their keeper has plenty of the 

 most salable honey as his share of the season's work. With 

 the Germans, Syrians and Carniolans, the case is different ; 

 for they continue to rear brood right along at a rapid rate so 

 long as honey comes in from the field, so that, at the end of 

 the harvest, we have no honey to speak of in the hives, and a 

 host of useless consumers on hand as the result of this out-ot- 

 season breeding. 



I wish all might fully comprehend thatone of the greatest 

 secrets of successful bee-keeping is having the brood-chamber 

 full of brood at the commencement of the white honey harvest. 

 I would certainly have it thus, even if I had to take all the 

 combs out of the hive but four or five, if the queen had no 

 more brood than this at the commencement of the harvest, 

 leaving the bees only this number below until after harvest, 

 when I would at once supersede a queen that would not keep 

 a greater number than that filled with brood three weeks pre- 

 vious to the harvest. 



It is one of the great mistakes we often make in allowing 

 poor queens to remain at the head of colonies, such colonies 

 requiring just as much labor as do those which give bees in 

 plenty in time for laboring in the harvest to the best advan- 

 tage. If lack of brood is caused by weak colonies in the 



spring (weakness being caused from a hard winter, etc.), then 

 I would unite all colonies which were thus weak, three weeks 

 before the honey harvest, even if I had to divide afterward to 

 give me the required number of colonies, considering that I 

 would be the gainer by so doing. 



Unless all colonies are strong in brood and bees when the 

 honey harvest arrives, we are sure of failing to reap the best 

 results in our pursuit. Borodino, N. Y. 



Co-Operation NeedA iti Marketing Honey. 



BY \V. D. FKENCH. 



While bee-keepers of the Pacific Coast are subjected to a 

 combination of blood-sucking thieves, we cannot lose sight of 

 the fact that it affects, to a considerable extent, our Eastern 

 brothers. 



We are now confronted all over our broad and happy laud 

 by unscrupulous processes by which the toiling masses are 

 fleeced to a finish. All branches of industry — save the agri- 

 cultural element — have combined, and established a price for 

 their product, regardless of supply and demand. Agriculture, 

 then, being the backbone, muscle and sinew of this broad 

 land, must clothe, feed, and fatten all other industries with- 

 out a murmur; but we have now arrived at a period where 

 men are not engaged in honorable pursuits, but are ever ready 

 to dictate and to estabUsh prices for the product of that ele- 

 ment to which I refer. 



These parties are known as middle-men ; their sole object 

 being to compel the producer to divide the price of their pro- 

 duct, so they (the middle-men) may be enriched. Bee-keepers 

 of Southern California are harrassed in this respect perhaps 

 more than in any other locality. They are forced to give up 

 one-half of their crop, more or less, as greed demands, and 

 when you tell them the price paid is wholly inadequate, and 

 not corresponding with Eastern markets, they simply say : 

 "What are you going to do about it ?" 



I am sure something can be done ; that part of agricul- 

 ture to which belongs the bee-keeping fraternity can. with a 

 few grains of resolute determination, enlarge the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Union, so as to admit of every person in our 

 land who keeps bees. Let it be the object of this vast asso- 

 ciation to establish the price of honey in all parts of the coun- 

 try through their manager, and to accomplish all other objects, 

 as it now exists. Let every city and hamlet select a person by 

 vote, or otherwise — one of their number — to handle the pro- 

 duct of his community, and to ship to points where demanded. 



Warehouses in Chicago, New York, and all cities, could 

 be maintained, and distribution from such places be made. 

 The price of honey according to grade could easily be main- 

 tained uniformly throughout the United States, and the hon- 

 est producer could be liberally rewarded for his labor. The 

 amount of cash to be collected from each bee-keeper, placed 

 at §1.00, would, in all probability, form a sufficient sum to 

 advance to those who would need ready cash. 



The solution of this problem can be made easy, and it 

 seems to me, under existing circumstances, when all other 

 elements of production have combined against the agricultural 

 interest of this Nation, it is high time that our bee-keeping 

 friends throughout the United States should awaken to their 

 sense of duty, and inaugurate a system to protect themselves, 

 and their children, from that robber class to which they are 

 now subjected. Foster, Calif. 



Robber-Bees — Crimson and Alsike Clover. 



BY J. A. GOLDEN. 



Never in my recollection have I seen bees in so starved 

 a condition as at the present time (Oct. 14) in this section of 

 southeastern Ohio ; seldom have I seen hives boiling over with 

 bees at a time of such a drouth, and never did I see such a 

 multitude of robber-bees storm my apiary as in the past fort- 

 night; at times the air seemed to be alive with bees, deter- 

 mined to steal or die. But I am glad to know they have found 

 their match, as all my colonies are provided with the Golden 

 combination feeder, and are fed so quickly that no difference 

 how many robbers storm the fort, they fail to get a sniff. 



This is the way I arranged my hives when the fray be- 

 gan : First, I stopped the entrances to about two inches, and 

 put the Alley trap to each entrance; then I placed a small 

 board against the trap, leaving about two inches of an open- 

 ing through the zinc. Thus the hive's bees were well forti- 

 fied, and were victorious in every battle. If ever a robber- 

 bee got inside, she was brought out a corpse. I was sorry to 

 see such a slaughter of the honey-bees, yet it was either starve 



