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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



With Replies thereto. 



Lit is quite uBeless to ask for answers to 

 Queries in this Department in less time 

 than one month. They have to wait their 

 turn, be put in type, and sent in about a 

 dozen at a time to each of those who answer 

 them ; get them returned, and then find 

 apace tor them in the JotiRNAL.. If you are 

 in a "hurry" for replies, do not asls for 

 them to be inserted here.— Kd.1 



Wlen to Pnt on Section-Cases. 



Query 403.— 1. Ought the super or case 

 of sections be put on the hive of a swarm at the 

 time of hiving? If not, when? 2. Ought they to 

 be put on tlie hives of old colonies before the 

 brood-chamber is filled with brood and honey ?— E. 

 & W. M.. Va. 



I answer yes to both questions.— W. 

 Z. Hutchinson. 



1. At the time, or very shortly 

 after. 2. Not as a general rule.— C. 

 C. Miller. 



1. Yes. 2. Tes, as soon as harvest 

 opens. Bead Mr. Hutchinson's new 

 book.— A. J. Cook. 



1. It depends upon the method of 

 management. 2. They should be put 

 on when the hives are filled with 

 brood, and before there is any honey 

 gathered.— C. W. Dayton. 



If metal queen-excluders are not 

 used, it will not do to put on the cases 

 until the brood-nest is fairly started 

 below. I put on the cases in the 

 spring as soon as warm weather has 

 fully set in, and the bees are gather- 

 ing some surplus. A glance at the 

 top-bars of the frames will usually 

 show white bits of wax, if the bees 

 are ready for the surplus cases. — G. 

 W. Demaebe. 



1. I prefer to wait a day or two 

 until the bees get well started below, 

 before putting on thesections ; though 

 when pressed for time, I have placed 

 them on at the time of hiving, with 

 good results. 2. No. Bees will not 

 ■work in supers as long as they can 

 find room below.— J. P. H. Brown. 



Yes ; and usually the super should 

 be one taken from the old colony that 

 swarmed. Whether or not the old 

 colony is ready for surplus receptacles 

 is not positively determined by the 

 amount of honey or brood, or both, 

 which the hive contains. — James 

 Heddon. 



1. If the swarm has left a hive with 

 a case of sections on, take that case 

 and put it on the hive in which the 

 swarm is put. 2. When you see new 

 comb along the top-bars of the 

 frames, and new brace-combs, then it 

 is a good time to put on sections. — H. 

 D. Cutting. 



1. In using what is known as the 

 Hutchinson plan, yes. If a full hive 

 or brood-chamber of 2,000 cubic inches 

 is used, it is just as well to wait a 

 week. 1 prefer the former. 2. Not 

 before the hive is tilled with brood. 



It is poor policy to allow much honey 

 in the brood-chamber during the 

 heighth of brood-rearing.— G. M. 

 Doolittle. 



If the bees are hived on frames filled 

 with comb or foundation, and a queen- 

 excluder used over the tops of the 

 frames, the sections may well be put 

 on when the swarm is hived, as time 

 will thereby be saved. Otherwise wait 

 two or three days or so, until the 

 queen begins laying below.— G. L. 

 Tinker. 



1. Yes, with the hives I use it is 

 best to put on one or two cases of 

 sections before hiving. But if you 

 use a large brood-chamber like the 10- 

 frame Langstroth, it is only an ex- 

 ceptionally good honey-flow that it is 

 worth while to put on any sections. 

 2. When the colony gets to be strong 

 in bees, is the time to put on sections. 

 It is better to put them on then, even 

 if some time before a honey-flow.— G. 

 L. Tinker. 



It depends upon the method 

 adopted. In answer to both questions 

 we would say, give them the supers 

 either at the time mentioned or soon 

 after.— The Editor. 



GettiM Bees ont of tie Sections. 



Query 404.— I am troubled about getting 

 bees out of the sections when the latter are filled 

 with honev. 1 use two-pound, close-top sections. 

 I have to take the sections out of the case and 

 brush the bees off. ('an you inform me of any 

 better way ?— Wisconsin. 



Use open-top sections, and smoke 

 them out.— C. W. Dayton. 



Turn over the case and apply a 

 little smoke, and then carry them 

 into a dark room with a small open- 

 ing emitting a little light, and the 

 bees will pass out. Do not use close- 

 top sections.— J. P. H. Brown. 



Use open-top sections, when by the 

 use of smoke the bees can be driven 

 off the honey down below before the 

 sections are 'taken from the hive.— G. 

 M. Doolittle. 



One way is to put the bees in a tent 

 of wire-cloth or musquito netting, 

 having a hole in the top of the tent, 

 and the bees will come out them- 

 selves. See page 55 of "A Year 

 Among the Bees."— C. C. Miller. 



With your close-top sections you 

 cannot practice tiering up. With two 

 sets of sections on, it you leave off 

 the hive-cover at night, you will have 

 but few bees in the top case of sec- 

 tions early in the morning, and they 

 can be taken off with easef placed in 

 a well-lighted room, and all bees will 

 go to the windows.— H. D. Cutting. 



It is no easy task to get bees out of 

 a section case in which close-top sec- 

 tions are used. I have a little closet 

 standing in close proximity to the 

 apiary, which has a door so as to take 

 in the cases. The closet will hold 

 quite a number of cases at one and 

 the same time, and when the door is 

 shut the place is perfectly dark. The 

 shutter of the door has a bee-escape 

 in its centre. The bee-escape permits 

 the bees to leave the closet, but they 

 cannot return. With my open-top 



sections I smoke the bees down, then 

 lift the case and carry it to the " bee- 

 escape," and leave them there until 

 the bees return home. I could not 

 describe how the " escape " is made, 

 here, for want of space.— G. W. 

 Demaree. 



Every bee-man has his ■' pet- 

 method " for taking the bees out. A 

 good way is to place the crate on a 

 board not far from the hive, covering 

 it with a sheet. The bees will crawl 

 up under the sheet, and will promptly 

 leave, unless they have the queen 

 with them. Care must be taken not 

 to give ingress to robber bees. — 

 Dadant & Son. 



Use open-top sections. Pour a per- 

 fect deluge of smoke down upon the 

 bees, when most of the bees will run 

 down. Take oft' the case and tremu- 

 lously shake it in front of the hive, 

 which will dislodge most of the bees. 

 The case should then be carried to a 

 room having windows so arranged as 

 to allow the bees to escape, but let 

 none in. — W. Z. Hutchinson. 



In the first place I would not use 

 close-top sections. I prefer wide 

 frames to hold 4 sections, and make 

 the separators movable, so the bees 

 can be shaken from 4 sections at once. 

 They do not brush off readily. .The 

 only perfect and wholly satisfactory 

 method of taking comb honey is by 

 the use of wide frames to be removed 

 one at a time as above. It is the only 

 method by which the honey can be 

 taken without more or less injury to 

 the capping. It is easy to take 60 

 pounds of honey free from bees inside 

 of 10 minutes by this plan. — G. L. 

 Tinker. 



Probably the method you mention 

 is the speediest. If a number of cases 

 of sections are placed in a barrel or 

 box, and a piece of cloth thrown over 

 the open top, the bees will soon crawl 

 or fly to the cloth, and can there be 

 shaken off. Put the section-cases into 

 a close room, and the bees will soon 

 go to the windows, when they can be 

 released.— J. E. Pond. 



Put crates of sections in a bee-tent 

 or bee-house. The bees will leave 

 and may be liberated from the tent or 

 house at the apiarist's pleasure. I 

 have placed section-crates in a large 

 dry-goods house, over which I spread 

 a blanket, leaving only a small hole. 

 The bees would leave the sections. 

 When the bees are not gathering, this 

 last method may endanger from rob- 

 bing.— A. J. Cook. 



ITes. It is better to use open-top 

 sections (one-pound sections prefer- 

 red), and place the case on end (so the 

 light will shine through it), smoke 

 one side, then pick up and shake off 

 and out nearly all the bees, then place 

 it on end in a screen-house or dark- 

 ened room until the rest desert. 

 There will be no queen nor possibly 

 brood in the surplus-case if you use 

 the queen-excluding honey-board. 

 This is the way I have done for years, 

 and now in running the new hive for 

 extracted honey, I do it with my 

 extracting supers, and in both cases 

 so quickly that robber bees cannot get 

 in their work, even if they should be 



