AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



657 



pendent of the risk of encouraging, if 

 not propagating, the great curse of our 

 pursuit, viz. : foul-brood. 



The method adopted by myself is as 

 follows : About the first of June, or a 

 little earlier in some instances, as soon 

 as the queen requires more room (I use 

 the 8-frame Langstroth and New Hed- 

 don hives), the hive is opened, and the 

 face of every capped cell of honey is 

 bruised by simply drawing a knife flat- 

 wise across the comb, first driving the 

 bees away with smoke; or, if necessary, 

 shaking them from the combs altogether, 

 when a half-story of drawn combs, as 

 described, is placed over the brood- 

 chamber, and the cover to the hive 

 replaced for two or three days, when it 

 is again opened and a queen-excluding 

 honey-board placed between the two, as 

 egg-depositing in supers is not encour- 

 aged,, although the presence of a few 

 eggs will do no harm at this juncture, 

 providing the bees are not allowed to 

 build queen-cells, and a young queen is 

 reared and destroys the one below. It 

 is, of course, presumed, when the ex- 

 cluder is inserted, that the old queen is 

 in the lower portion of the hive. 



Reversible frames are said to accom- 

 plish this end, if the reversing is done at 

 the proper time, without the necessity 

 of brushing the face of the comb; but 

 not having had an extended experience 

 with such, I can give no decided opinion, 

 although I do not see why such a course 

 would not work. This, however, I do 

 know : the dividing of the Heddon hive, 

 viz. : placing the top half below, and the 

 bottom part above, will effect the same 

 purpose. 



There will now be no difficulty in 

 securing the honey in its proper place, 

 after it has been carried above, from 

 this time henceforth. You will please 

 observe there is no difference up to this 

 point, whether working for comb or 

 extracted-honey, as that can be deter- 

 mined afterwards, for the strength of 

 the colony and the strain or race of bees 

 are factors that ought to be considered, 

 especially in producing the former 

 article. 



We will suppose extracted-honey is 

 desired. If so, all that is required is to 

 raise up the first half -story or super 

 containing the dark honey stored from 

 the brood-chamber, and any that may 

 have accumulated before the flow from 

 clover commenced, and add a second, 

 which will, of course, now be filled with 

 clover, while a third or fourth may con- 

 tain basswood or thistle, as the case 

 may be, and yet all can be thoroughly 

 ripened on the hive, as it should be, for 



many reasons, too numerous to mention 

 here. 



If, however, for want of sufficient 

 combs, you prefer extracting the differ- 

 ent kinds before thoroughly ripened on 

 the hives, it is an easy matter to place 

 one of the several bee-escape boards 

 (preferably, the Porter spring contri- 

 vance, which, by the way, are only be- 

 ginning to be half appreciated as they 

 ought to be) under each top story, and 

 free the supers from bees in a few hours. 

 They can now be extracted and again 

 returned to the hives. 



This way of managing, to one who 

 has never before tried the escape system, 

 will, I fancy, become permanent with 

 them, as the pleasure of removing shal- 

 low supers, containing nothing but 

 honey, has only to be tried once to be 

 appreciated. 



In the event of your being a producer 

 of comb-honey, all that is necessary is 

 to tier up as for the extracted article. 

 With this advantage, only one case of 

 sections need be given any colony, un- 

 less considered advisable to do so ; and 

 this is not given until the honey is com- 

 ing in rapidly, and the bees are ready 

 and willing to fill and seal the cells in 

 short order, and thus present you with 

 an article as white as snow, instead of 

 travel-stained, propolized sections, suffi- 

 cient to disgust any one from purchas- 

 ing even at a low figure. 



Again, I find I can get more and 

 better comb-honey with less unfilled 

 sections than by any other process ; in 

 fact, it is not at all desirable to carry 

 over any partly-drawn sections from the 

 previous year, for, in my own experi- 

 ence, they are not filled and sealed any 

 sooner than a new case of sections 

 containing full sheets of thin founda- 

 tion, when added under a half-story as 

 described. 



The only valid excuse against using 

 these half-stories is the expense and the 

 time consumed in handling the double 

 number of frames. As to the first rea- 

 son, I am free to admit, the cost is a 

 trifle greater ; still, if protected by out- 

 side cases until clover commences to 

 bloom, the material comprising them 

 need not be any thicker than % inch. 



As to the second reason, I find it 

 easier and more expeditious to uncap 

 and extract two sets of half-depth 

 frames than one of the full size, as one 

 sweep of the knife cleans the face of 

 every comb in an instant; and if your 

 frames are wired as they ought to be, 

 even in half-stories (notwithstanding 

 what others may say to the contrary), 

 and your extractor is capable of taking 



