176 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



campaig-n with this story occupied almost 

 enti*-ely with brood— often occupying every 

 frame in it. 



EARLY EXTRACTING LESSENS SWARMING. 



While this condition favors the rapid 

 storing- of honey above, it also greatly 

 lessens the tendency to swarm, and if the 

 honey is taken promptly from the bees as 

 soon as ready, and plenty of room g-iven 

 them as they increase in numbers, swarm- 

 ing- will be reduced to a minumum. 



This trip takes the place of my regular 

 round; therefore. 1 attend to all the nec- 

 essary yard-work that may be required 

 to run them to the next extracting day. 

 This work includes the putting on of ad- 

 ditional stories wherever the strength of 

 the colony will perm.it it. I always put 

 these stories, whether they may be of 

 comb or foundation, on top, except that I 

 put two or three of the newly extracted 

 combs in each newly placed story to 

 bring- the bees promptly there. In this 

 way their work is less interfered with, 

 and by the time the other surplus stories 

 are filled this one will also be ready for 

 immediate filling: but if I have exceeded 

 their capacity, as 1 sometimes do in a 

 medium or light flow, this is the body 1 

 would rather have neglected. 



1 thus commence the white clover sea- 

 son with colonies cleaned of honey, but 

 they hustle, and in from seven to twelve 

 days, they will be ready to extract again. 

 This is, properly speaking-, the first real 

 extracting- of the year, and if it proves to 

 be a fair year for clover it is such clover 

 honey as everyone wants. 



The question may be asked as to how 

 fully the honey will be capped on the 

 basis outlined above, and in answer I 

 would say, the combs should be abcut 

 one-half capped; that is, each comb 

 should be capped from the top about half 

 way down in the upper story, and in the 

 lower stories they will be capped some- 

 what more fully, many of them entirely. 

 if it is left longer than this, it means just 

 so many days diminished honey crop, 

 with practically no improvement in qual- 

 ty, and it also means swarms, and, to 



me, swarms mean loss; yet there will be 

 an occasional one each time which will 

 insist on making ready to swarm, and if 1 

 find this to be the case. 1 immediately ac- 

 commodate the b38s by dividing the col- 

 ony. 1 continue adding to the number of 

 stories until they are about four high (ten 

 Langstroth hives) and in case they be- 

 come over-crowded, then 1 find it most 

 profitable to divide them, anyhow. 



ADVANTAGE OF HAVING AN EXTRA EXTRACT- 

 ING GREW. 



When the surplus season is under way, 

 and my extractors in real business, every- 

 thing gives way to it, and all necessary 

 yard work is done during our extracting 

 visits, and this continues throughout the 

 flow. Each yard is visited in rotation, 

 and the order of the trips is exactly ac- 

 cording to the order of our visit when 

 cleaning out the spring honey, and, as we 

 proceed, we know from each yard what 

 to expect from the next one: and if the 

 honey gains on us a single day it means 

 that an extra extracting outfit is put in 

 to bring us back to our place; and some- 

 times during a heavy flow the second out- 

 fit is continued as long as the rush con- 

 tinues. How do I get the second outfit to 

 order? I have already made arrangements 

 with a farmer who has repeatedly come 

 to my re3cu3 at such times in my past 

 experience, to take charge of a second 

 extracting outfit during the surplus sea- 

 son of the coming summer, in case the 

 bess should crowd me. 



HOW TO MANAGE WITHOUT QUEEN EXCLUDERS 



1 use no queen-excluder above the 

 brood-nest. By extracting the honey 

 from the brood-nest as 1 have recom- 

 mended, for my first round, the queen 

 will occupy it very nicely, and so fully 

 that she seldom leaves room for more 

 than three or four pounds of honey, and, 

 occassionally, she excludes all honey. 

 Most of my queens will occupy also a 

 part of the second story with their brood. 

 As the season advances the queen begins 

 gradually to leave the bottom hive and 

 occupy the second story, so that, fre- 

 quently, on the third trip, though some- 



