ALEXANDER'S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 53 



be changed to a long rich one, for the bees will simply be helped to 

 carry out their natural Instinct, and success will be the result. 



August, 1907. 



PRODUCING COMB HONEY. 



HOW TO RAISE A GREATER PROPORTION OF FANCY HONEY; A PLAN TO HOLD BACK 



SWARMING AND AT THE SAME TIME KEEP WORK GOING IN 



THE SUPER DURING A LULL IN THE HONEY-FLOW . 



Although It is now about 20 years since I gave up this part of the 

 bee business I often think I should like to call the attention of comb- 

 honey producers to some important points connected with this branch 

 of bee-keeping. The natural desire to swarm has always been a serious 

 trouble in producing comb honey. Then the frequent change in our 

 atmosphere, causing the flowers to stop secreting nectar sometimes for 

 several days at a time during our otherwise best harvest is another 

 serious trouble in producing comb honey of the finest quality; and with 

 many the trouble of getting their sections all well filled at the close of 

 the season is a hard problem to solve. 



We will first consider the natural desire to swarm. This is the 

 honey-bees' natural way to perpetuate their race, and is the most strongly 

 imbeded law, not only of the whole animal world, but the vegetable 

 world also, except the desire for food, of any law connected with our 

 existence. This is why we have made no progress in changing the nature 

 of our bees since man first tried to domesticate them. It is true that 

 certain strains, or, more properly speaking, certain families, have far 

 less desire to swarm than others. This same law can also be said to 

 apply to other animals, including man. Now let us see what we can do 

 to prevent the desire on the part of our bees to carry out this main 

 object of their creation. First we will keep only bees that have but 

 little natural desire to swarm; then we will raise their hives from their 

 bottom-boards all around about Yz inch as soon as the weather begins 

 to get warm. In this way we shall give them two or three entrances 

 in the shade at all hours of the day. This, I know from experience, 

 goes a long way to prevent the desire to swarm. Then we will supersede 

 every queen at the commencement of our harvest, with one just fer- 

 tilized, which, we all know, of itself will to quite an extent prevent the 

 desire to swarm. Then we will see that their hives, including their 

 clamps of sections, contain but a small amount of capped honey for any 

 length of time. 



Here is one thing that I used to be very particular about during 

 my thirty years of producing comb honey: As fast as I could find four 

 or five nicely finished sections in a clamp they were taken out and 

 empty ones put in their place, never using more than two clamps at 

 one time on a hive. I don't wonder that your bees swarm when two or 

 three clamps of mostly capped sections on a hive and a lot of capped 



