1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



89'.t 



bloom, so we will bring out the section-su- 

 pers and pile them up in the apiary so that 

 we can put them on at short notice. Although 

 our three-deckers have an inch block under 

 each of the four corners of the hives, and a 

 half-inch piece under the back end of the 

 covers with a good shade-board over every 

 hive that is at all exposed to the sun, yet the 

 bees of these hives are hanging out on the 

 outside of the hives; and as our other colo- 

 nies are bunching out we will tip them all 

 up and put an inch block under each front 

 cover; also a half-inch block under the back 

 end oif the cover. 



July 2. — We have had a tine I'ain, and the 

 bees are beginning to woi'k a little on bass- 

 wood-bloom; and, although it is nearly dai'k, 

 yet the bees are leaving their perches on the 

 outside of the hives and making a bee-line 

 to the timber. 



July 3. — We were out at half-past four, but 



the bees were out before, and the droning of 



the heavy-laden bees gladdened our heart 



and also quickened 



I 1 our steps to get 



those sections on 

 the hives. It be- 

 comes necessary 

 at this time to 

 have 50 brood- 

 sections full of 

 newly drawn 

 combs, for pur- 

 poses which will be 

 described later; so 

 we will place a 

 brood-section hav- 

 ing full sheets of 

 medium brood 

 foundation in 

 brood - frames on 

 each of the 50 ex- 

 tracting colonies 

 next to the brood- 

 chamber, where the 

 foundation will be 

 quickly drawn out. 



Super of 

 £)(iractlnp Combs 



(WkhN hy.ri.i)i->tn 



Brood Section 

 with stieets of 

 medium brood Fdn. 

 in frames. 



Broo<f 



Brood 





FIG. 



and tilled with eggs. See Fig. 2. 



PUTTING ON THE SECTION-SUPER.S. 



We will now go to the 50 nuclei, all of which 

 at this time contain laying queens, and re- 

 move the covers, placing on each hive a 

 queen-excluding honey-board, after which 

 we will go to one of the 50 two-queen colo- 

 nies, and remove the extracting-super, which 

 is now full of honey, and with our hive-lift- 

 ing device, to be described later, quickly 

 swing the hive clear from the bottom-board 

 and place directly on the bottom- board the 

 extracting-super full of uncapped honey, and 

 drop the hive back in position now on the 

 extracting-super. We will now remove the 

 top brood-section with the queen, placing it 

 on one of the nucleus hives having the queen- 

 excluder in place and put on the cover. We 

 will proceed in like manner with the other 

 49 colonies having two queens, after which 

 we will place on each of these colonies a sec- 

 tion super of drawn foundation that we had 

 started on fruit-bloom, first removing the top 



Brood 



Super of 

 sections w/t/i 

 drawn foundation 



u.iJk hN )- y.r.LiJDtn 



brood. Queen. 



Super of 

 extra ctinp combs 

 noy\j full of honey 



brood-section after 

 driving the bees 

 down, so as not to 

 get the queen, and 

 place the queen- 

 excluder on the 

 lower brood - sec- 

 tion, and on this 

 place the section- 

 super, and on the 

 top of the section- 

 super we will place 

 the top brood-sec- 

 tion, thus placing 

 the section-super in 

 the center of the 

 brood - chamber, 

 where the bees will 

 immediately begin 

 work on the par- 

 tially drawn combs i-iG. £>. 

 in the sections as shown in Fig. 3. 



Why did you place the extracting-super 

 full of uncapped honey below the brood- 

 chamber? It is pretty generally understood 

 by those who are at all familiar with the hab- 

 its and instincts of bees that they will not al- 

 low honey to i-emain for any length of time 

 below their brood. Taking advantage of 

 this instinct of the bees we place the extract- 

 ing-supers full of uncapped honey below the 

 brood, knowing that such honey will be 

 quickly removed and placed above the brood, 

 which in this case will be in the sections, 

 since the top bi'ood section is full of brood 

 clear to the top-bar, it having been up to this 

 time the bottom brood-section. 



HOW AND WHY THE SECTIONAL HIVE IS SU- 

 PERIOR TO THE OLD-STYLE ONE- 

 BROOD-CHAMBER HIVE. 



Reader, compare this with other methods 

 in which the honey is placed at the sides of 

 the brood-chamber. Although bees will 

 quickly remove any and all honey that is 

 placed below their brood, yet they are often 

 very loath to remove honey from the sides 

 of a deeper one-brood-chamber (especially is 

 this true of the Italians), since bees always 

 store honey at the sides of the brood but 

 never below it. 



This proves the truth of our statement in 

 a former article, that the manipulations of 

 the sectional hive enable the apiarist to turn 

 the instincts of the bees to his own account 

 in solving the most perplexing problems of 

 successful apiculture. Compare our light- 

 ning methods of hive manipulations with the 

 old-fogy methods of handling brood-frames 

 and dummies! What is your opinion re- 

 garding the expediency of building up a col- 

 ony of bees by adding one frame at a time, 

 and closing up each time with a f/«?«TOy/? Have 

 you seen any place anywhei'e in any of our 

 manipulations whei'e it would have been at 

 all desirable to handle brood- frames".' and 

 have we not proven thus far that the han- 

 dling of brood- frames as a business is a waste 

 of time and energy, not mentioning the dis- 

 turbance of the bees caused by overhauling 

 the combs evex-y little while, and often im- 

 properly spacing them? We are telling you 



