PRACTICAL BEEKEEPING 71 



PRODUCTION OF HONEY 



Last, but none the less important are the operations of the 

 apiarist attendant upon the production of honey. Indeed nearly 

 all of the foregoing operations are brought to a focus upon this, 

 the principal aim of keeping bees' for profit. The successful pro- 

 ducer of honey, as has been pointed out, must begin in the fall or 

 late summer of the preceding year rather than just before the 

 honey flow, as is too often done. The importance of this point will 

 be readily seen when it is realized that to have a colony well sup- 

 plied with bees at the time of the honey flow, that is, bees old 

 enough for work in the fields, the colony must be stocked with eggs 

 about five weeks or longer previous to the flow. But colonies will 

 not be in this prime condition so early in the spring unless wintered 

 well with a good supply of strong bees bred in late summer the 

 previous year. To accelerate the production of brood, stimulation 

 by spring feeding, as previously outlined, is an excellent course to 

 pursue. Then manipulation to enlarge the brood nest may follow 

 and, if pollen is not plentiful in a colony, frames of pollen added. 

 Should there be a dearth of pollen, which is not likely to be the 

 case, artificial pollen food may be supplied in the shape of graham 

 flour. This may be dampened and placed in pans near the bees 

 where they will find it. In these ways early brood rearing will be 

 established and the serength of the colony rapidly increased in the 

 weeks preceding the honey flow. Then of the swarming problem 

 is handled properly, so that the strength of the colony be kept to- 

 gether, a good yield of honey will be assured. The manipulation 

 here will depend somewhat upon whether one is running for comb 

 or for extracted honey. Shakeij swarms on starters below, or first 

 swarms hived on the old stand with the flight bees added, also on 

 starters, make good colonies for producing nice white clear comb 

 honey. For the production of comb honey the colony must be very 

 strong. If only a limited increase is desired this may be secured by 

 shaking together the bees from two adjoining colonies, first remov- 

 ing the queens and returning the latter to the parent colonies re- 

 specitvely after the operation. The new colony so made should be 

 on starters and may then be given a young queen newly fertilized 

 from a nucleus. The bees being excessively strong in numbers 

 and bearing on starters below will immediately go to work in the 

 super placed above, with section containing full sheets of founda- 



