4:6 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



and screws, but with two little strips of 

 wood and two wire nails — , and we could 

 step up to a hive and " flip " back the cover, 

 when it was at once a shelf upon which to set 

 the smoker, queen cages, etc. A strip of 

 wood was nailed to each side of each hive. 

 These strips projected like prongs, and were 

 used to hang the frames on when caging 

 queens. From beginning to end, every- 

 thing was thus arranged to reduce the labor 

 to a minimum. Each day, one-third of the 

 nuclei needing it were looked over and the 

 unsealed brood given a glance to see if any 

 were queenless. Successful queen rearing 

 does not call for any great outlay of physical 

 strength, but consists rather of constant at- 

 tention to a thousand and one little details ; 

 and the man who is not "cut out " for this 

 kind of work will not succeed. One very de- 

 lightful feature of queen rearing is that the 

 close of the season finds the breeder with 

 his "cash in hand" — unless he has spent it. 



THE PBODUOTION OF COMB HONEY. 



Little girls — sometimes big ones — " piece 

 blocks. ' ' Afterwards they put them together 

 and make a quilt. Since beginning the Re- 

 view, we have "pieced ".quite a number of 

 " blocks " that would fit together nicely. In 

 other words, quite a number of topics have 

 been discussed that have a bearing upon 

 "The Production of Comb Honey." We 

 have discussed "Races of Bees ; " " Hives ; " 

 "Spring Management;" "Sections and 

 Their Adjustment on the Hives;" "Con- 

 trolling Increase;" "Contraction of the 

 Brood Nest;" and " Feeding Back ; " and 

 we believe it would be a good plan now to 

 put all of these little "blocks " together and 

 have a "quilting." In other words, let's 

 have a sort of recapitulation accompanied 

 by a little discussion as to the bearing that 

 these dififerent topics have upon one another 

 and upon the subject as a whole. Let us 

 suppose that we possess neither hives nor 

 bees, but wish to establish and manage an 

 apiary for the production of comb honey. 

 In the light of our present knowledge, and 

 particularly, in the light of the special dis- 

 cussions that have appeared in the Review, 

 what course shall we pursue? 



With such harvests as we often have here 

 in Michigan — clover and basswood — , where 

 the yield is bountiful and the range short, 

 we know of no bees better suited to the pro- 

 duction of comb honey than the black bees. 



Their willingness to enter the supers, the 

 delicacy, neatness, whiteness and complete- 

 ness with which they finish their combs, are 

 points that cannot be ignored by the produ- 

 cer of " gilt edge " honey. Bnt harvests are 

 not always bountiful, nor the range short, 

 and this is why the greater industry of the 

 Italians under adverse circumstances must 

 be added to our stock if the best results are 

 secured. In short, we wish for a judicious 

 cross between the Italians and blacks ; or 

 else — we would have Carniolans. We know 

 that the cross mentioned will give good re- 

 sults ; at the same time, we think that the 

 Carniolans may be still more desirable. 

 They are good workers, gentle, enter the 

 supers readily, and, so far as the whiteness 

 of the combs is concerned, are ahead of even 

 the pure blacks. The cappings are thicker, 

 hence appear whiter. Perhaps some will 

 wonder why we don't come right out and 

 out and say whether or not we think the 

 Carniolans are the best. It is simply this : 

 Occupying the position that we do, we are 

 obliged to be very guarded in making asser- 

 tions, that none may be misled — we must 

 knoiv whereof we speak. After we have 

 kept Carniolans, in larger numbers, two or 

 three years more, and tested them under 

 varying conditions, we can then say posi- 

 tively whether we prefer them to any other 

 bee. At present, we can only say that, so 

 far as we are acquainted with them, we have 

 no fault to find. 



In the production of comb honey, we pre- 

 fer a small, light, readily movable hive. We 

 know there are men who use large hives, 

 chaff packed at that, and succeed ; but we 

 feel sure it is only by an increased amount 

 of labor. There are so many corners that 

 can be cut by the manipulation of hives that 

 it sometimes fairly makes us ache to think of 

 the methods that must be employed where 

 the hives are so large as to be practically 

 immovable. In our opinion, no hive equals 

 the new Heddon. When the time comes for 

 putting on the sections, the brood, arranged 

 in the form of a great globe, can be changed 

 in a twinkling, by simply interchanging 

 the sections, into a divided globe with the 

 spherical sides touching each other in the 

 center of the hive. This secures the greatest 

 possible amount of brood at a time when it 

 is the most desirable, besides bringing a 

 great, broad surface of brood right close up 

 to the bottom of all of the sections. With 

 some strains of Italians, this latter point is 



