38 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



child dreads the lire." I received a " scorch- 

 er " ill the following manner : In the fall of 

 188(), in company with a friend, I went into 

 the business of evaporating fruit. I had l.^O 

 colonies of bees, located in two apiaries. In 

 September I had but little to do with the 

 bees, thinking that, if feeding should be re- 

 quired, it could easily be done at night, 

 or early morning. The rush of apples came, 

 and we were busy day and night until nearly 

 the first of December. The bees were neg- 

 lected, and in the severe winter that followed 

 a hundred colonies were lost. ( )ur evai^ora- 

 ted apples were held over, and tinally sold 

 for four cents a pound — three cents Jess 

 than the cost of evaporating. Now, when I 

 hear advice about "working in some other 

 business with bee-keeping," I "grit" my 

 teeth and say: "Not any for me if you 

 please." 



It is a mistake for a bee-keeper to send all 

 his honey to a commission man. If thei'e is 

 a business that will "work in" with bee-keep- 

 ing, it is that of peddling honey in winter. 

 Tea, coffee, etc., can also be carried along to 

 good advantage. Much honey can thus be 

 distributed in the rural districts and the city 

 markets relieved of much of their surplus. 



If a bee-keeper owns fifty colonies, it is a 

 mistake to purchase bees in box hives be- 

 cause they are cheap. It is often quite a 

 temptation to buy such lots at an auction or 

 other sale. If there is any occasion to buy, 

 it will prove more profitable in the end to 

 get bees in good, practical hives. , 



It is a mistake to make artificial swarms 

 out of season. There has been much advice 

 in the past in relation to making large in- 

 crease after the honey season. It is better to 

 make the increase early, and be saved the 

 vexations of building up weak colonies that 

 will seldom winter well. 



Some bee-keepers wait until they get 

 their bees through the winter before they 

 make up new hives, put up sections, etc. 

 This is a fatal mistake. The dish is sure to 

 be bottom up when the big yield comes. 

 Let the spare time in winter be spent in get- 

 ting ready for the summer harvest. 



It is a mistake to think that bees can be 

 moved into muj neighborhood. Other bee- 

 keepers will often be eiicoutered who will 

 look with positive disfavor upon all such en- 

 terprises. Any neighborhood can be ami- 

 cably entered by the ijurchase of a small api- 

 ary in that locality. It is, however, a mis- 

 take to enter a locality that is partly stocked. 



Among the minor errox-s, might be men- 

 tioned that of using sawdust around the 

 hives. In dry weather there is danger of 

 damage from fire that may be started from 

 the smoker. For the same reason, all quilts 

 and cloths ought to be relegated to the 

 waste heap. 



I have, heretofore, raised extracted honey 

 almost exclusively, and shall do so the com- 

 ing season, hut I begin to feel that it is a 

 mistake not to produce more comb honey ; 

 and a few more cases of sections than usual 

 will be introduced this season. 



Your point in relation to keeping too few 

 bees is well taken. It is the hosts of work- 

 ers that l)ring in the tons of surplus. My 

 Hpiai'ies now consist of L'OO colonies, if the 



coming season proves to be a good one, I ex- 

 pect to increase the number to viOO, and es- 

 tablish another apiary. 



Hartfokd, N. Y., Feb. (;, 1889. 



A Review of "The Production of Comb 



Honey;" The Best it Has Yet Received — 



The Harm of Discussing " Feeding 



Back" and Artificial Comb. 



JAS. A. GBEEN. 



^RIEND HUTCHINSON : — When I 

 called it a mistake to do away with 

 foundation in the V)rood chamber, I 

 never for a moment thought that com- 

 plete failure was even a necessary or even a 

 probable result, when all your instructions 

 were followed. I have followed your 

 methods myself, with very good results and 

 no very great failures. What I meant was 

 that, taking everything into consideration, 

 the disadvantages of the plan outweigh the 

 advantages, to my mind. Admitting that 

 there is, sometimes, at least, something to 

 be gained by making the bees build their 

 brood comb, let us look at some of the 

 drawbacks. 



Ill the first place, the hive in which a new 

 swarm is j)laced must be exactly level, else 

 the combs will be built partly outside the 

 frames. This, especially, with frames at 

 fixed distances, is not to be tolerated. You 

 may say it is easy to have hives level, but, 

 with a large number of hives, in two or three 

 apiaries, especially if they are on a side liill, 

 I think you would find it no easy matter to 

 have all hives always exactly plumb. 



Secondly, I think that, witli an empty brood 

 chamber, bees are much more likely to ab- 

 scond than when some sort of a start is given 

 them. I had trouble enough in this way last 

 summer, being obliged to hive some swarms 

 twice a day for nearly a week, before they 

 would "stay put." This was with a con- 

 tracted brood chamber, but I would rUher 

 use even empty combs than give w\) that. I 

 know that to transfer the old supers to the 

 new hives has a tendency to prevent this, but 

 it is not always effectual, and what are you 

 going to do, if, as was the case last season, 

 the bees swarm before any honey comes in 

 to amount to anything, and when but few 

 supers have any honey in tliem? 



Tlieii comes the drone oiiib question, and 

 it is the ugliest of them all. With a large 

 swarm, a sudden rush of lioney, or an old 

 (pieen, a great deal of droiiy comb will be 

 built. Of course, we can cut this out, but I 

 think it would pay better not have any built. 

 I do not think it profitable to try to keep 

 only young queens, or to use hives different- 

 ly prex>ared according to the age of the 

 queen, A'c. Even supposing you get your 

 combs built straight, and the drone comb 

 cut out, and replaced witli worker, your 

 combs are not worth as mucii as if built on 

 unsupported foundation, and not nearly as 

 much as if on wires. We should have an 

 eye to the pratlnfl, as well as tiie jiioccss. 

 Hrood combs, I know, are not the principal 

 product of an apiary, but I consider them 

 valuable nevertheless. 



