JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 28, 1881. ] 
91 
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is duly thickened, and then when food is again given they draw 
out the neighbouring unfinished cells and give the comb an ugly 
uneven face. The sections retained for completion ought also to 
be kept in a warm place.— F. Cheshire, Avenue House, Acton, W. 
UNFINISHED. SECTION BOXES. 
The termination of the honey harvest is nearly certain to leave 
in the bee-keepers’ possession a number of sections either half 
finished so as to be unmarketable, or with that tantalising ap¬ 
proach to completion which gives them their full quota of honey 
without enabling them to secure good prices. A correspondent 
asks me to give information in reference to this difficulty, which 
is so common, and has so much to do with profit in these days 
when sections almost cause extracted honey to be forgotten, that 
I make it the subject of a few lines. 
If several hives are engaged in the work of filling sections of 
the same size we treat them all alike during the continuance of 
the honey flow. Every two or three days the racks are uncovered 
in order that the completed boxes may be removed. Ail parts 
of the rack do not progress with equal rapidity, and want of 
observation here is largely the cause of the difficulty many bee¬ 
keepers have in getting their boxes sealed. If the space between 
the hive and rack is all open, the boxes in the centre lying over 
the brood nest are sealed most quickly ; but if the bees be admitted 
only towards the end of the rack, then the part immediately over 
the opening will make most rapid progress. (This fact, let it be 
remarked in passing, condemns the zinc queen-excluder as always 
reducing the honey yield.) We have standing by our side the 
sections furnished with foundation which are to substitute the 
full ones ; but if the latter are drawn out and at once replaced by 
the former, we have boxes which will require some days for comb¬ 
building and storing occupying the best place for sealing, while 
those that only need their finishing touches are kept in an inferior 
position for receiving them. As a consequence, at our next visit 
the foundation previously given will be found to be perhaps half 
stored, while the surrounding boxes will not be in so many cases 
completed as would have been had they been transferred to the 
best position. It is wise, therefore, whilst avoiding overmuch dis¬ 
turbance, to put the most advanced boxes into the spot where 
most rapid work is done, giving the empty ones to the spaces 
left. 
If the honey yield is slackening and promising shortly to close, 
the contraction of the rack is more desirable than filling up gaps ; 
we thus concentrate the bees and get more rapid progress in the 
boxes remaining. If, however, the stock is extremely strong and 
seeming to do better than some others, rather add empty boxes 
than contract, for a reason which will appear presently. 
At length the yield is so reduced that no progress is made, and 
the danger of the bees carrying down the unsealed honey threatens 
us. We now take off all sections from the hives which seem 
doing least, with the idea of giving them for completion to the 
most vigorous stock, which will have to be helped in its work by 
being fed with diluted extracted honey. The boxes removed and 
the rack carefully taken off, we examine the combs, and pass as 
many of them as our objects may make desirable through the 
extractor. We must be careful in making our selection of combs 
should we take those not containing fed syrup. The honey will 
now require dilution. Newly gathered nectar contains very vary¬ 
ing quantities of water, depending upon source and season ; but it 
is perhaps a fair average to say that evaporation reduces five pints 
of gathered nectar to one pint of honey. The beginner at this 
work will perhaps argue, “ What is the use of my adding water 
which will require to be again removed ?” but experience shows 
that unless the quantity be at least doubled by dilution immense 
loss is the result. To prove that bees prefer to handle thin honey, 
take a comb half filled with sealed store, pour diluted honey into 
the empty cells, and then uncap the rest and expose somewhere 
in the apiary. The bees will crowd upon the former, and until it 
is gone will almost neglect the latter. The method of feeding 
must be determined by the hive. I feed thus at the hive door 
upon a stage, which prevents all possible robbing, aDd the trouble 
is almost nil. The Americans feed largely under a division board 
which does not quite reach the floorboard. For continuing this 
work into quite chilly weather I prefer a feeder which I exhibited 
last year, and which gives the bees an uninterrupted line of food 
at the base of the hive. The feeder can be constantly refilled 
without removal. All our stocks will at length have lost their 
sections save one, and this one will be continually provided with 
the partially completed boxes we are keeping in store until we 
have no others to supply. The reduction of the size of their crate 
will then follow. A few points will have to be attended to here, 
and amongst these none is more important than keeping up a 
steady supply, otherwise the bees begin to seal before the comb 
THE MOORS. 
Please say what hives I should select to send to heather to 
secure good results in quantity and secure transit—I mean tops or 
stools. — K. E., Montrose. 
[The weather during the period of heather bloom is in a majority 
of seasons too cold and unsettled to make it profitable to remove 
bees to the moors unless special precautions are taken to secure 
stocks fit to store a surplus, even in the most untoward circum¬ 
stances. The above question does not, therefore, in my opinion, 
admit of a categorical answer. If bar-frame hives are used, 
special means must be taken to prepare for the moors. Having 
several stocks to select from, those with young fertile queens should 
be chosen, and a few days before the heather blooms these should 
be strengthened to the fullest extent by removing all combs not 
well filled with brood or eggs, replacing them with full brood 
combs from the hives to be left at home. In this way the stocks 
to be removed may be expected within a few days to have a 
superabundant population fit for the exhaustive work on the 
heather. When removed to the moors, after of course securing 
the combs from shifting and giving abundant ventilation, a pile 
of supers should be placed in position consisting largely of those 
partly finished on the Clover. A skepful of driven bees minus 
their queen may at the same moment be run in at the entrance to 
make assurance doubly sure. Under such circumstances success 
is certain if honey is to be had at all; for it is well to remember 
that bees dwindle very rapidly on the heather, and ordinary stocks 
may thus in a few days become too weak for profitable work. 
In the case of skeps being selected, those with old combs should 
be preferred, having, as before, young queens. Thus stocks that 
have swarmed may be selected. These should of course be such 
as to permit of liberal supering. For every stock thus selected a 
skepful of driven bees from other stocks should be taken, to be run 
in as before, immediately the stocks are located on the moor. The 
gorged and alarmed state of the bees after the journey will render 
any precautions in thus uniting almost superfluous. 
If run honey is wished for, a second storey, whether of wood 
or straw, should be fitted with full sheets of comb foundation 
and placed instead of supers. It pays to press down combs thus 
obtained, and as the extractor cannot be used with ripe heather 
honey I know of no better means of securing it in its purity. 
If time permitted much may be done a week or two before 
the heather blooms to prepare good stocks for removal. The 
period of scarcity between Clover and heather may be tided over 
by very slow but continuous feeding with extracted honey, brood- 
rearing thus promoted, and spirit maintained among the earnest 
workers. Supers may be selected or produced furnished with 
comb ready to fill, &c. 
The stocks that are to remain at home, weakened as they are by 
the removal of part of their brood or bees, should be treated as in 
spring—that is, encouraged to continuous breeding till the deficiency 
is made good. Pure sugar syrup fed in small quantities at first, 
and after a week or two quite rapidly, will make such stocks quite 
equal to those that return from the moors. 
Those who are fortunate enough to have locations already within 
reach of the heather should treat their stocks similarly—that is, 
select certain stocks to be strengthened at the expense of others. 
Those standing side by side may be united under proper precau¬ 
tions, a nucleus being formed from one of the stocks in order to 
preserve one of the queens if desired. Only combs containing 
brood should be allowed in the united stock, the rest being stored 
away to assist in wintering, or left in the nucleus if strong, or ex¬ 
tracted. A second storey of old combs, though excellent as a 
means of getting large returns in Clover by the extractor, is not 
to be recommended when heather is in view. It is only by severe 
mashing and mixing of pollen, See., that the heather honey can be 
taken from such combs. I therefore recommend for those who 
prefer run honey that the second storey be filled with comb foun¬ 
dation only. A sheet of foundation to fill a Woodbury frame 
costs 4 %d., which is a mere trifle on the value of the 5 or 6 lbs. of 
honey that may be stored in it ; besides that it will be worth 3d. 
or so afterwards as raw wax. 
The approaching heather season promises fairly to be a good 
one. The bloom is early and the signs are in favour of suitable 
weather. In Scotland stocks were never in better condition to 
take advantage of it, for it has been pre-eminently a breeding 
season. No glut of honej to check breeding has taken place, only 
a steady though too slow income of it. Even till now (July 25th) 
