1380 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



FIG. 2. 



can make demonstrations at every county 

 fair within fifteen or twenty miles, or, we 

 will say, within a radius of a Hay's drive, 

 and thus dispose of all his crop off ihe wagon. 

 It is one of the anomalies, and all wrong 

 from an economic pomt of view, that many 

 a producer will ship his honey to the city, 

 leaving the local retailers to send to that 

 same city for honey. The bee-keeper has to 

 pay the commission man, freight, drayage, 

 leakage, and commission, and the local deal- 

 er probably pays an additional profit. Why 

 in the name of common sense should not the 

 home producer save all this salvage? — Ed.] 



SHALLOW EXTRACTING SUPERS. 



Bees from Even Weak Colonies Enter them 



Readily; What may be Done with 



them. 



BY H. A. SMITH. 



While the different advocates of hives of 

 various depths aie airing their opinions I 

 should like to say something about the shal- 

 low extracting super. Generally this super 

 has been recommended to use as a "coaxer " 

 for bees to enter sections. It is certainly an 

 excellent thing to use for this purpose; but I 

 do not produce much comb honey, and I use 

 the shallow extracting-super in producing 

 nearly my whole crop of extracted honey. 



When I first thought of using the shallow 

 super I balked at the idea of having two sizes 

 of frames in my apiary, and my desire to 

 Jiave hives and supers interchangeable was 

 also an argument against their use. I made 

 a few, however, and placed them with start- 

 ers upon some of my weakest colonies. That 

 was a poor season, but I tell you it was a sur- 

 prise to me when I examined those supers in 

 a few days. The frames were solid full of 

 honey, and capped in a way that would com- 



fete closely with fancy sections, 

 remember one of tnose weak 

 cohmieswith shallow supers gave 

 me nearly as much honey that 

 season as the best colony I bad 

 which was supplied with deep 

 combs. That and later experi- 

 ence have converted me to the 

 use of the shallow super. 



It is a fact that a comparatively 

 weak colony will enter a shallow 

 super as quickly, and often more 

 so. than a strong colony will en- 

 ter a deep super, and will often 

 come out with an equal amount 

 of surplus. If a deep super be 

 given such a weak colony they 

 will very often refuse to occupy 

 it at all. Very often when they 

 do occupy them it will be upon 

 a few combs on one side of the 

 super, which will be badly bulged 

 and almost never fully capped. 

 As I said above, such colonies in- 

 variably give excellent results in 

 shallow supers. 

 The addition of a shallow su- 

 per is a gradual enlargement, and does not 

 materially affect the heat of the colony. It 

 is, therefore, occupied much more quickly, 

 and much valuable time is saved over giving 

 the colony a deep super. 



If a colony is very strong at fruit-bloom I 

 add a shallow super of combs or foundation, 

 allowing the queen access to it This often 

 catches a surplus of fruit- bloom honey, and 

 the additional brood room helps to check 

 swarming. When the main flow is at hand 

 three different things may be done with this 

 super: 



1. It may remain where it is, and another 

 super placed over it with an excluder be- 

 tween. 



2. The queen may be put below, and a su- 

 per of combs or foundation put between this 



FIG, 3, 



