GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



sections filled with foundation by our new pro- 

 cess that we will explain in our next article. 

 We do not expect to get any surplus honey 

 from fruit-bloom, and our o'bjeet in putting 

 thejsections on at this time is to get the foun- 

 dat on partly drawn out so as to get the bees 

 at work in the supers at the very beginning 

 of clover- bloom. 



THE BAIT SECTION OF PARTLY DRAWN COMB 

 NOT ADVISED. 



Some advocate the use of 12-bait sections 

 in each super to coax the bees to begin work 

 in the sections. However, since such baits, 

 when finished, are invariablv off-gradp. and 



Brood 



Srooc) o^ 



brood.Queen 



Brood 



Brood 





this. Although the bees are gathering a lit- 

 tle honey, yet .there is not enough of a flow 

 to warrant putting on the sections, and only 

 the very strong colonies are making any 

 gain, and bees are not yet building new 

 combs; and, though they will store consider- 

 able honey in the extracting-supers, yet they 

 would not do satisfactory work in the sec- 

 tions, and would only daub them with pro- 

 polis, and gnaw holes in the foundation. Our 

 reason for putting on the extract ing-combs 

 at this time is to coax the bees to store the 

 honey above as fast as it is gathered, so that 

 the queens can fill the whole brood-chamber 

 full of brood, which they will 

 quickly do since the fertility of 

 the queens is in excess of the 

 room in all our brood-chambers. 



'-- Queen he /uder 



Brood 



Fig. 1. This represents the apiary which consists of 150 stands 

 divided into 3 groups as shown. 



Vi second-quality sections in each super would 

 seem like rather expensive bait, we prefer to 

 render our bait sections up into wax, and 

 use full -sheets of foundation freshly drawn 

 out into combs during fruit-bloom by our 

 mammoth two-queen colonies. With our ex- 

 tra-strong colonies, and our bees being ac- 

 customed to passing freely from one brood- 

 section to another of our hives, no coaxing 

 is necessary in order to get our bees to begin 

 work in the supers. This is the least of our 

 troubles. 



May 30. — Fruit-bloom is over, and our bees 

 have put in good time. Qur extra-strong 

 colonies have stood us in good stead, as the 

 hives are all well supplied with honey, which, 

 together with what they will gather from lo- 

 cust-bloom and tulip or poplar, will keep up 

 brood-rearing finely until clover blooms, 

 which will be in about two weeks. We will 

 now remove the supers of sections. We find 

 that we have got 150 supers in which the 

 foundation is more or less drawn out. This 

 will give the bees a fine start when clover 

 opens. 



PUTTING ON FIRST EXTRACTING-SDPERS IN- 

 STEAD OF COMB-HONEY SUPERS. 



June 10. — Clover is beginning to bloom, but 

 it has been very dry for a long time, and the 

 outlook for a crop of clover honey is very 

 discouraging: however, if we get rain soon 

 we may even yet secure a partial crop of 

 (tlover honey. As a little honey is being 

 gathered we will place a super of extracting- 

 combs on each of our hives, first placing on 

 each hive a queen-excluding honey-board. 

 Why do we pvit on extracting-combs if we 

 are going to produce comb honey? Whynot 

 put on the sections at once? The reason is 



ALL BROOD AND NO HONEY IN 

 THE BROOD-CHAMBER. 



We want a ^^rood-chamber for 

 brood, and of such a size that the 

 average queen can fill it with 

 l)rood. If one can't do it we will 

 use two, for our brood-chambers 

 must be kept full of brood, and 

 queens cost nothing, and brood- 

 combs cost money If we use a 

 full-depth single brood-chamber 

 of a size to develop fully the fer- 

 tility of the best queens, as some 

 the average queen will not be 

 it; hence the brood-chamber be- 



advocate, 

 able to fill 



comes a store-house for honey, and swarm- 

 ing and poor work in the sections is the re- 

 sult. The most satisfactory work in the su- 

 pers, as a rule, is done by the colonies that 

 store the least honey in the brood-chamber. 

 If we would get the best work that our bees 

 are capable of doing we must keep the brood- 

 chamber practically free from capped honey. 

 This is also right along in line with perfect 

 swarm control. 



We will now go to our cell-building-colo- 

 nies and get a batch of queen-cells which we 

 will place in West cell-protectors, and push 

 down between the combs of our 50 nuclei, 

 and also of the two colonies that were queen- 

 less. 



June 25, — The "bees have been storing a little 

 honey in the extracting-combs right along, 

 but not enough to warrant putting on the 

 sections. We have had no rain during this 

 month, and every thing is pretty well dried 

 up, and we have given up all hopes of even 

 being able to put on the section supers before 

 basswood blooms; however, the basswood- 

 trees are loaded with healthy buds that bid 

 fair to open at an early date, and we are yet 

 hopeful of being able to secvire a little sm-plus 

 from basswood. This is our last resort, for 

 we do not get any surplus from fall flowers 

 in our location, 'md we consider ourselves 

 in luck if our bees gather enough from this 

 source to carry them through the winter. 



Our three-deckers at this time ai'e fairly 

 boiling over with bees, and the extracting- 

 supers are nearly full of honey, and the 

 brood-combs are whitened a little along the 

 top-bars, which tells us to be ready with the 

 section-supers at the opening of basswood- 



