58 THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
COMB HONEY. 
Continued from Page 43. 
American Apiculturist. 
METHOD NUMBER TWO. 
By Dk. G. L. Tinker. 
How to Gel Strong Colonies . — The success of 
the apiarist in producing comb honey depends 
much upon getting strong colonies in time for 
the harvest. Where the harvest is from the 
clovers chiefly, colonies must be got in proper 
condition early by 1st June at the latest, in 
this locality. If the main crop is derived from 
the basswood, at least three weeks more time 
is given to build up strong colonies. Those 
that have wintered well and are provided with 
plenty of sealed stores and a gooc\ queen will 
require little attention, and will usually be 
strong enough to take in their share of the 
first honey flow. 
The most needful requisite in building up 
colonies in the spring is to see that all have 
plenty of stores to last at least till fruit bloom. 
Five Langstroth brood frames will contain 
the necessary stores for wintering and for 
brood rearing until 1 st May if the bees have 
proper winter protection. Then if the bee- 
keeper will add several combs of sealed honey 
at the sides and cover all up warm, breeding 
will go on rapidly. 
Protection is not only necessary in winter 
but valuable in spring. It always saves in 
stores to p>ay the cost, and it invariably secures 
earlier spring breeding than in other methods 
of wintering. In any locality where bees can 
have a few flights in the month of March out- 
door wintering is the most desirable, since it 
is these early flights that are the inducements 
to breeding. As a rule cellar wintered colonies 
do not breed much till set out in spring. If 
this should be late in April it will often be 
found that they have not a particle of brood, 
at the same time many young bees may be 
seen flying from chaff hives ; and it always 
turns out that the colonies that have the 
most young bees in April will swarm first and 
make the most comb honey. But if cellar 
wintered colonies are taken to the summer 
stands and packed in the latter part of Feb- 
ruary or in early March they will do equally 
well. 
Bees may be successfully wintered out of 
doors on a full set of brood combs in a large 
packing case, but more protection is required 
than in eases where the tees are placed on 
just enough combs to contain the necessary 
stores. I prefer a brood comb capacity of 
about 800 square inches of comb surface for 
winter, and to have the combs in a ease made 
to contain no more nor less. During fruit 
bloom a similar case of combs, having sealed 
stores, is placed beneath the first, when the 
queen and bees will extend then- work down- 
ward very rapidly. Indeed, with such cases 
properly constructed, and with proper manage- 
ment, it is desirable to have a larger brood 
space than is usually provided ; since a pro- 
lific queen can be made to quite fill with brood 
before 1st June from 1400 to 1800 square inches 
of comb, or nearly as much as two ordinary 
eight-frame Langstroth hives may contain. 
This very large area of brood can be obtained 
after a colony becomes numerous by simply 
exchanging, with proper judgment, the combs 
between tw r o such brood cases. It is quite 
probable that the eight-frame Langstroth hive 
could be very successfully managed in this 
way. The essential point is to have a numerous 
I colony hy fruit bloom, but I have already 
! indicated how such colonies can be obtained. 
In developing these large colonies the bee- 
keeper must see that after fruit bloom the 
bees have plenty of stores. The interval 
between fruit bloom and white clover is one 
in which we cannot afford to stint the bees in 
the least, for every cent invested for need- 
ful food to feed a large amount of brood just 
before clover bloom will be returned with great 
profit. 
The advantages of this system of manage- 
ment can hardly be estimated as compared 
with the usual methods. First, we are able 
to get a great force of workers at a time to bo 
of practical use. And again the queen will he 
so much exhausted that later on in the season 
she will not lay so many eggs at a time when 
they will hatch out non-producing workers. 
We thus obviate any necessity to limit the 
work of the queen by cooping her up on one 
or two combs as has been suggested. Neces- 
sarily there will be swarming ; but I would 
ask, why not let bees swarm ? For myself, I 
would not give a fig for a non-swarming hive. 
If hives are constructed for easy operation it 
is rather desirable to have bees swarm, as the 
choicest comb honey is always obtained from 
the swarms. 
The Sections and Supers . — The most comb 
honey can be obtained by using full sheets of 
foundation in the sections, and it no doubt 
pays to use them, hut there is no denying the 
fact that the nicest comb honey is made where 
starters only are used. It is best to use 
separators, but not without open side sections. 
I do not advise, nor would I use, separators 
with closed side sections, for better results are 
obtained without them. The sections should 
be so wide that the bees will not be disposed 
to store pollen in them. I use and prefer a 
section 41 x 4j- x If with separators. With- 
out separators the 4} x 41 x 7 to the foot 
sections are no doubt the best. A section of 
less width, if filled over shallow brood cases, 
or even over a contracted ease of deep frames, 
is very liable to contain more or less bee- 
bread ; and it is hardly needful to add that no 
wise beekeeper will even put such honey on 
the market, at least during warm weather, as 
it may be infested by moth worms. 
The supers should be adjusted as soon as 
the colonies become strong in bees, and it is 
