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ALBERT R. MANN
LIBRARY

New YorK STATE COLLEGES
OF
AGRICULTURE AND Home EcoNomics

AT

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

 

EVERETT FRANKLIN PHILLIPS

BEEKEEPING LIBRARY

 

 

 

 

 

 
Cornell Universit

9 91
Advanced bee-culture, its

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Advanced
Bee Culture

Its Methods and

Management

By

W. Z. HUTCHINSON

Editor Bee-Keepers’ Review

Flint, Mich.

The A. I. Root Company
Medina, Ohio

Fourth Edition—1911

 

 
Dedication

To those who:are getting their bread and
butter by raising honey to spread upon the bread
and butter of?others, this book is dedicated: by

The Author.
Author’s Introduction to the 1911 Edition

During the last four or five years I have been having quite a
bit of experience in establishing out-apiaries, and in the production
of honey upon a somewhat extensive scale. I have also visited a
number of prominent bee-keepers, and photographed and described
the methods whereby they made money.

Of course, all of this has appeared in the Review and in Gleanings,
but in a more or less scattered fashion; and, for a year or more, I
have had in mind the gathering together of this matter, in consecutive
order, in a new edition of Advanced Bee Culture. There are several
reasons why I have been unable to accomplish this, chief of which
has been the lack of health and strength to do the work.

A few months ago a correspondence over the matter sprang up
between Mr. E. R. Root and myself, with the result that, under my
guidance and sanction, he revised the book, adding the new matter.
All of the new matter is something that I have written, but the work
of fitting in with the old, so as to make a smooth, continuous story, is
that of my friend Root.

W. Z. HUTCHINSON.

Introduction to the 1905 Edition

This book is intended for the professional bee-keeper; hence it is
taken for granted that the reader is fairly well acquainted with bees
and their management.

No space is devoted to the natural history, anatomy, and physiology
of the bee, because my experience has been along commercial instead of
scientific lines.

The history of this book, how and why it came to be written and
published, would read something as follows: Twenty or more years
ago, while making my living in the apiary, I learned that, with my
management, it was more profitable to use starters only in the brood-nest
when hiving swarms. My experiments and methods were described in
print; others tried my plans; discussions followed; and finally it became
apparent that the system was really more complex than it appeared on
the surface: also, that short articles scattered through different bee
journals did not present the subject in the best possible manner, and, as
a result, I published a little book in which I described in detail my
method of comb-honey production.

One of the criticisms brought against the book was its small size;
and I was repeatedly urged to write a larger book, giving my experience
and views more in detail, and upon other points. Flattering as all of
this may have been, I doubt if I should have yielded to these entreaties
had it not been that, by the time the last copy of the little book was sold,
I had been editor of the Bee-keepers’ Review for nearly four years, and
had the benefit of reading, and studying over, special discussions, by the
most practical men, of the most important questions connected with our
pursuit. As it was, I went to work and classified, arranged, and con-
densed, and gave what I considered the cream of the special-topic
discussions that had appeared in the Review. So many new subjects
were taken up that the old title, “The Production of Comb Honey,”
was no longer appropriate; and as I was giving what seemed to me the
best and most advanced methods I called the new book Apvancep Bre
CuLTuRE. Two years ago, the first edition having been exhausted, I
rewrote and revised everything necessary to bring it up to date, and
got out a second edition, which has since been sold. The present edition
has been largely rewritten, many engravings, much new matter, and a
more substantial binding, being added, thus bringing the book more
nearly up to the ideal that I have for several years had in mind.

Apvancep Bre CuLrurs is really the summing-up of the best that
has appeared in the Bee-keepers’ Review during the eighteen vears of
its existence; that is, from a most careful examination of the views of
the most progressive men, and a thorough consideration of the same in
the light of my experience as a bee-keeper, I have described in plain
and simple language what I believe to be the most advanced methods of
managing bees for profit, from the beginning of the season throughout
the entire year.

W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Flint, Mich.
 

 

 

The Author Telling Stories to His Grandchildren.
Bee-keeping as a Business

In reply to the query, “What will best mix with bee-keeping?” I
have always replied, “Some more bees.” When the conditions are
favorable I am decidedly in favor of bee-keeping as a specialty—of
dropping all other hampering pursuits, and turning the whole capital,
time, and energies into bee-keeping. If bee-keeping can not be made
profitable as a specialty, then it is unprofitable as a subsidiary pursuit.
If bee-keeping must be propped up with some other pursuit, then we
had better throw away bee-keeping and keep the prop.

General farming is very poorly adapted for combining with bee-
keeping, yet the attempt is probably made oftener than with any other
pursuit. There are critical times in bee-keeping that will brook no delay ;
when three or four days’ or a week’s neglect may mean the loss of a
crop; and these times come right in the height of the season, when the
farmer is the busiest. Leaving the team and reaper standing idle in
the back field while the farmer goes to the house to hive bees is neither
pleasant nor profitable. Drawing in a field of hay while the bees lie
idle because the honey has not been extracted to give them store room
is another illustration of the conditions with which the farmer bee-keeper
has to contend. The serious part of it is that the honey thus lost may
be worth nearly or quite as much as the hay that is saved. Some special
lines of rural pursuits, like winter dairying or the raising of grapes or
winter apples, unite with bee-keeping to much better advantage than
general farming ; but when bee-keeping is capable of absorbing all of the
capital, time, and energy that a man can put into it, why divide these
resources with some other pursuit? It has been said that bee-keeping
is a precarious pursuit; that it can not be depended upon alone to furnish
a livelihood, and for this reason it should be joined with some business
of a more stable character. It is true that there are many localities
where there is often a season in which little or no honey is secured, and,
in the Northern States, winter losses are sometimes very heavy, hence
it would be risky to depend entirely for a living upon keeping bees, in a
limited way, in such localities ; but if the average profit from bee-keeping,
one year with another, is not the equal of other rural pursuits, why keep
bees? The truth of the matter is, it is greater ; and if bee-keepers would
only drop everything else and adopt methods that would enable them to
branch out and keep hundreds of colonies where they now have dozens,
 

Hard-maple Torests of Northern Michigan.

As fast as the timber is lumbered off, red raspberries spring up in myriads,
furnishing bee pasture that is simply incomparable.
Bee-keeping as a Business 9

they would secure enough honey in the good years to more than carry
them over the poor years, and thus not only make a living but lay up
money.

When a man decides to cut loose from everything else, and go into
bee-keeping extensively, making it his only and his life business, the
question of all questions is that of locality. There are few localities
in which a small apiary might not yield some surplus; but when a man
is to make of bee-keeping his sole business the securing of the best
possible location is time and money well spent. What a good solid
foundation is to a “sky-scraper,” a good location is to the building-up
of a successful, extensive bee business. Having settled in a locality,
the bee-keeper can not study it too thoroughly. Especially must he
understand its honey resources; the time when each flow begins, its
probable duration, its quantity and character. He must know whether
to expect a spring flow, like that from dandelion, hard maple, or fruit-
bloom, that will build up the colonies for the main harvest that is to
come later. If there is likely to be a season of scarcity between the
early flow and the main harvest, it must be known, and preparations
made to keep up brood-rearing by means of feeding or the uncapping
of honey. The management will depend largely upon the source of the
main honey-flow, whether it be raspberry, clover, basswood, buckwheat,
alfalfa, sage, or fall flowers. Whatever the source, the bee-keeper must
know when to expect it, and plan to have his colonies in exactly the
right condition to gather it when it comes. This is one of the funda-
mental principles of successful bee-keeping.

Having secured the most desirable location, the next step is to
procure the best kind of bees that can be obtained. ‘There are several
different varieties of bees, each with its peculiarities; but, aside from
this, every bee-keeper who has had experience with several strains of
the same variety knows that some strains are far superior to others—
that there is scrub stock among bees just as there are scrub horses,
cattle, sheep and poultry. With scrub stock, the cost of hives, combs,
and other appliances remains the same; it is no less work to care for
such stock; and it requires the same amount of honey to raise and feed
it as it does the best stock in the world. In proportion to its cost, no
investment brings the bee-keeper greater profit than the securing of
superior stock.

Having secured a good location and good stock, the bee-keeper
should adopt such hives, implements, and methods as will enable him
to branch out, establish out-apiaries, and keep a large number of col-
onies. At the present time the greatest failing of professional bee-
keepers is the keeping of too few bees—of clinging to some other
hampering pursuit. Many keep enough bees to furnish them a fair
 

Apple-orchard in Full Bloom.
ing in the line of early honey that so stimulates brood-rearing as does that from the pink and white blossoms of the apple-trees

There is noth
Bee-keeping as a Business 11

living in a good season; but when winter losses and poor honey seasons
follow one another in quick succession, there is suffering, or, at least,
great inconvenience. If a man is going to follow bee-keeping as a
profession, his only hope is in a good location, good stock, and the
keeping of bees in such numbers that, when a good year comes, he
can pile up the honey ton upon ton—enough to keep him several years.
The larger a business the more cheaply can it be conducted in proportion
to the results; not only this, but the very fact that bees are scattered
about in out-apiaries, several miles apart, adds to the certainty of the
crop; as one locality often yields a fair crop while another a few miles
away yields nothing.

It has been urged against bee-keeping as a sole pursuit, that, while
it keeps a man very busy during the summer, it leaves him idle in the
winter. Bee-keeping, rightly managed, will keep a man busy every
day in the year. Too many bee-keepers fail to realize that the selling
of a crop is fully as important as its production. The business part
of bee-keeping has been sadly neglected. No set rule can be given as
to how a man shall dispose of his crop; but it does seem like very poor
business management to send away a crop of honey to some commission
merchant, and then sit around all winter when good wages might be
made selling honey direct to consumers, or to retail dealers. The selling
of the crop, and the preparations for the coming season, may well
occupy a man during the winter.

Perhaps a dozen years ago I visited Mr. W. L. Coggshall, of New
York. Few bee-keepers have made a greater financial success than
has Mr. Coggshall. There have been stories about the thousands of
dollars that he has in the bank. Mr. Coggshall has never admitted nor
denied these reports; but, let this be as it may, he is certainly well-to-do.
As I sat in the train, thinking the matter over while on my way home,
I tried to decide why Mr. Coggshall had been so much more successful
than many other bee-keepers, when all at once it came to me like a
flash, why, he “keeps more bees!’ As I continued to think of the matter,
it seemed so strange that this point in bee-keeping had never been
brought home to me before. Then I thought there were thousands of
other bee-keepers, just like myself, fussing and struggling along with
a single apiary of 75 or 100 colonies, barely making a living, when, by
spreading out, and increasing the number of our colonies, and adopting
methods that would enable us to handle them, we might soon be in easy
circumstances. I felt almost as though I had made a “discovery,” and
yet it was really such a simple matter. From that day on, I have
practiced and preached the “keeping of more bees.”

It is with a little elation, and much thankfulness, that I now receive
letters from men who have secured a residence on “easy street” by
12 ecidvanced Bee Culture

following the advice to “keep more bees.’’ I can give an example right
near home—that of my own brother, Elmer. He had a small farm
and kept a few bees, and I hope he will pardon me for saying it, but
he had quite a struggle to make a living. Then I became so enthused
with Northern Michigan and her wild red raspberries, that Elmer
caught the enthusiasm, sold his farm, moved to Northern Michigan, and
turned his whole time and little capital to the keeping of bees; and,
while it has cost a lot to move and establish apiaries, build cellars and
honey-houses, and we have had many things to contend with, the forest
fires, for instance, Elmer says that he has never had an easier time to
get along and make a living, never felt happier and more free from
care, than since he turned his whole time and talents into one channel—
bee-keeping. His wife once said to me that they had never had so
many things in the house, had as good clothes, and other comforts, as
since they had gone into bee-keeping as a sole business.

I am aware that the circumstances and the man are not always
adapted to exclusive bee-keeping, but there are many men now mixing
bee-keeping with something else who would be better off if they would
drop one or the other. It is much better to have a whole lot of one
thing to do than to have a little bit of each of a lot of different things.
Many say that they would like to keep more bees, but they haven’t got
them to keep, nor the moncy to buy them with. Let me say that the
first, and most difficult, step in keeping more bees is to decide to keep
more bees. Once a man really comes to that decision, makes up his
mind that he wll keep more bees, he can find ways of accomplishing his
object.

It should be understood, however, that bee-keeping is not an occu-
pation in which one cai casily become wealthy. In this respect it is
much like other rural pursuits. Rightly managed, in a locality adapted
to the business, it can be depended upon to furnish a comfortable living,
and perhaps enable a man to lav uy a few thousands of dollars, but
such fortunes as are sometimes amassed in merchandising or manufac-
turing can never be haped for by the bee-keeper. Fortunately, however,
the perfection of a man’s happiness bears but little relation to the size
of his fortune; and many a man with the hum of the bees over his
head finds happiness deeper and sweeter than ever comes to the merchant
prince with his cares and his thousands.
 

 

 

 

One of six Out-apiaries belonging to M. A. Gill, of Colorado.
Making a Start in Bee-keeping

Bees, and the requisite knowledge for their management, are the
two most important factors in making a start in the business. The
latter ought to be secured first; or, at least, its acquisition should keep
pace with any increase in numbers of the former. As in any business,
so with bee-keeping, it pays well to lay broad and deep the foundations
of an education in that line of work. So many men fail in different
kinds of business because they start in with only a narrow or superficial
knowledge of their chosen profession. The time may come when bee
culture will be taught at the agricultural colleges, the same as dairying
is now taught; but at present the nearest approach to a college course
is that of working with some experienced successful bee-keeper. This
is the quickest way of learning bee-keeping; and, if the teacher is com-
petent, it is a very desirable method. The beginner is not always able
to choose wisely in selecting an instructor, hence it is well to supplement
such instruction by a course of reading, and thus be able to make com-
parisons and discuss the instructor’s methods in the light of those
employed by others. In fact, I am inclined to think that a thorough
course of reading is the most desirable first step that can be taken by a
prospective bee-keeper. One after the other, I would read the leading
standard text-books. Having done this, the next step is to subscribe for
the best bee journals. At this stage a season with an expert bee-keeper
would be of great value, when the previous reading will enable the
apprentice to use his mind intelligently, and see the reason of things
instead of being simply an imitator, following blindly in the footsteps
of his preceptor. Probably nine-tenths of the men who now keep bees
never served an apprenticeship. Many have become interested in bees
from the capture of a stray swarm. Neighboring bee-keepers would be
visited, books or papers borrowed or bought, improved hives and methods
adopted, and, as the bees increased, so did the enthusiasm and interest,
until, finally, the bees received more time and attention than did the
regular business. Thus did bee-keeping eventually become a specialty
or the sole business.

When a man has decided to embark in bee-keeping as a business,
he should in some manner learn the business thoroughly before invest-
Making a Start in Bee-keeping 15

ing extensively. No hard and fast rules can be laid down, so much
depending upon circumstances. A young man with no established busi-
ness would do well to pass one or two seasons in the employ of some
experienced bee-keeper, as has been already suggested, while an older
man already in busienss, with a family to support, may find it advisable
to work into bee-keeping gradually, reading and studying as his bees
increase. Whatever the method employed, let the work be thorough;
and, especially, let there be plenty of actual experience before venturing
extensively.

As a rule, a man already has some bees when he decides to become
a bee-keeper. Perhaps he never formally makes any such decision. He
captures a stray swarm, or cuts a bee-tree and saves the bees, and the
stock increases with such wonderful rapidity that the owner becomes
a bee-keeper ere he scarcely realizes it. This wonderful rapidity with
which bees increase is one strong argument in favor of a man securing
a few colonies and building them up into an apiary instead of buying
a large number of colonies at the beginning. By rearing queens with
which to furnish the newly made colonies, and furnishing them with
full sheets of comb foundation, the extent to which bees can be increased
in a favorable season is something almost beyond belief. Just how or
where the first colonies shall be secured may well be considered. As a
rule, the man who has steady work, at good wages, had better buy bees
in such movable-comb hives as he intends to use. If he can get them
near home, of some reliable bee-keeper, so much the better. Of course,
there are instances in which a man has more time than money, or there
may be a trace of the sportsman in his make-up, and, in either case, the
hunting of bees, or the putting-out of decoy hives to catch stray swarms,
will make to him a strong appeal. In those parts of the country where
many bees are kept, yet there is not much timber, as in Colorado or
California, there is no difficulty in catching swarms in decoy hives; in
fact, there is difficulty in keeping swarms out of chimneys and the walls
of buildings. While out riding one day with Mr. Gill, of Colorado, he
pointed out one house in the walls of which five colonies had their homes.
In California Mr. Mendleson set away three empty hives in his wagon-
shed; and when I was there, swarms had taken possession of two of
the hives. Even in well-timbered localities, stray swarms are frequently
caught in decoy hives. Mr. George A. Fenton, of Pine Island, Min-
nesota, reported in the Review, in 1900, that he had, the previous vear,
caught more than 50 swarms in decoy hives. He used ordinary boxes
instead of hives, and put them pretty high up in tall trees, as a good
hive, easily accessible, is quite likely to be stolen. A piece of old black
comb is fastened inside the hive or box, and the latter firmly fastened
to the tree so as not to be easily blown down, a position being chosen
16 Advanced Bee Culture

where the hive will be in the shade.
A tree on the edge of the woods is
chosen, as, when a swarm reaches
the woods, it at once begins a search
for a suitable hollow in which to
make its home. The hives are ex-
amined as often as once a week,
oftener if there is time, and when
one is found occupied the tree is as-
cended by the use of climbers, the
box lowered by means of a rope,
and another box fastened up in its
place. Mr. Fenton attributed his
success to the fact that the farmers
near him who had a few bees did
not watch them, but let the swarms
go to the woods, and, further, there
was no large timber for many miles
around.

In all probability, more of my
readers would be able to secure
bees by finding and cutting bee-
trees than by putting out decoy
hives; and, as the subject will not
be touched upon elsewhere, I will
here describe how bee-trees are
found. In principle, it is simply
that of putting out honey, in times
of scarcity, when bees will “rob,”
watching the loaded bees as they fly home, and following the “line” of
bees to the tree; but there are many details the observance of which
greatly aids the hunter in his search. Those who hunt bees to any
great extent use what is called a “bee-box.”” This is a small box made
in two parts, the lower half being used to hold a piece of comb filled
with honey, while the upper part, or cover, is used principally for catch-
ing the bees and getting them at work upon the “bait.” The top of
the upper part is covered with a glass, and a short distance below the
glass is a horizontal sliding partition; while still lower, just at the
lower edge of one of the sides, is a small opening covered on the
inner side with glass. Equipped with his box and a bottle of diluted
honey, the bee-hunter begins operations in some field or cleared spot
near the forest in which he expects bee-trees may be found. The honey
is diluted with an equal amount of water, as it enables the bees to load

 

 

 

Decoy Hive in Position.
 

‘Lining’ Wild Bees
18 Advanced Bee Culture

and unload quicker, to fly faster, and in a more direct line. Sometimes
pieces of old comb are burned, the odor from the “smudge” attracting
bees from a long distance. Tf, by careful search, a bee is found indus-
triously at work upon some weed, the cover to the box is taken off, the
slide drawn nearly out, and the open or lower side of the cover held
near the bee. A handkerchief is then held upon the opposite side of
the bee; and as the cover and the handkerchief are brought quickly
together, the bee is caught in the former. Seeing the light, the bee
at once buzzes up against the glass top of the cover, when the slide is
shoved in, thus making the bee a prisoner. The cover is now replaced
upon the box, the box set upon a stump or upon a stake stuck in the
ground, the slide drawn nearly out, and the handkerchief spread over
the glass top. The bee now sees only one opening, the small one in
the side of the cover near its lower edge. and in attempting to escape
by the lower opening, the bee comes in contact with the comb of honey
in the lower part of the box.

To find the honey is to begin at once “loading up.” Occasionally
removing the handkerchief shows when the bee has found the honey;
and as soon as it is seen filling its sac, the hunter carefully removes
the cover and places his eve near the ground. This position is assumed
to secure the sky as a background in watching the bee take its home-
ward flight. Under such conditions a bee can be kept in sight for a long
distance. .\ minute or two suffices for the bee to fill its honey-sac,
when it slowly rises in gradually widening circles. Each time around
it sways more and more to one side—toward the spot where it lives:
finally, having taken its “bearings,” it strikes a “bee-line’’ for home. In
a short time it returns with perhaps three or four companions in its
wake—eager to learn whence came that fine load of honey. The result
is, that a strong “line” of bees is finally at work between their home
and the hunter’s box. He now puts the cover on the box, shutting in
the bees, and moves along on the “‘line’’ toward their home. .\fter
going some distance the bees are released, when they at once leave for
home, only to return and re-establish the “line.” when the hunter again
closes the box and moves forward. When the bees turn and fly back
on the line, it shows that the tree has been passed and must be near at
hand. At this point in the game it may be advisable to resort to what
is known as “cross-lining;” that is, the box is moved off several rods
to one side, and another, or “cross-line,” established. The tree must
certainly be near the point where these two lines intersect. The trunks
and branches of all large trees in the vicinity are now carefully cxam-
ined, particular attention being paid to any knot-holes or openings. Get-
ting the tree between the sun and the observer greatly aids in discovering
Making a Start in Bee-keeping 19

any bees that may be flitting about. An opera-glass is also a great aid
in this part of the work.

Bee-trees are also found by walking through the woods in the first
warm days in the spring, before the snow is off the ground, listening to
their humming and noticing the dead bees that have been brought out
and dropped upon the snow.

After the bees have been found, then comes the task of getting
them out of the tree and into a hive. Sometimes it is possible, if they
are located in a large limb, to cut off the limb beyond the portion
occupied by the bees, and then cut off the portion in which they are
located, and lower it by means of a rope. Again, it is sometimes pos-
sible to rig up a temporary scaffold and cut out a piece of the tree
over the bees’ home, remove the combs and lower them in a basket.
Such proceedings are attended with more or less danger, even when
carried out by the most careful of men, and I would rather put up with
the more or less broken condition of the combs that usually results from
cutting down the tree than with broken legs or arms. Many times a
tree can be so guided that it will strike upon smaller trees that will
break the fall. The saving of the bees and combs, after they have been
reached, is very similar to an ordinary job of transferring from an old
box hive to a movable-comb hive. Pieces of comb containing brood
must be fastened into frames, and hung in the hive, and as many as
possible of the bees guided into the entrance. If the hive is left on
the spot for several hours, perhaps over night, nearly all of the live
bees will gather into the hive.

As I said at the beginning, if a man has steady work at good wages
he will, as a rule, find it more satisfactory to buy bees in good movable-
comb hives; but if he has the time and inclination to get a start by
hunting bees, or by putting up decoy hives, what I have written will
show him how to do it.
Mistakes in Bee-Keeping

It is pleasant to tell of success. Mistakes are mentioned with
reluctance; yet they may be of equal value for imparting information.
Mr. J. M. Smith, of Wisconsin, is a noted horticulturist. The crops of
berries and cabbages that he raises are something wonderful. His
contributions to the press are valuable; but I never read one that con-
tained more information than the one in which he recounted the mstakes
of his horticultural life. I believe that space can be profitabl, used in
mentioning a few things that experienced bee-keepers look upon as
mistakes in bee-keeping.

A man who has decided that he will make bee-keeping his life
business makes a mistake when he gets a few colonies and attempts to
learn the business all by himself. Both time and money will be saved
by passing at least one season in the employ of some successful bee-
keeper.

If a man must start with a few colonies, and learn the business by
himself, let him avoid the mistake of attempting to follow several leaders
or systems. Much confusion and annoyance will be saved if he adopts
the teachings, methods, and appliances of some one successful bee-keeper.
He may make the mistake of not choosing the best system, but better
this than a mixture of several systems.

A beginner is quite likely to fall into the error of increasing his
colonies too rapidly. There is probably no mistake so disastrous as this,
on account of its frequency and results. To the beginner, this is very
tempting ground. If bee-keeping must be learned hy expereince and
reading (without the serving of an apprenticeship) the beginning should
be small, and practical knowledge and skill keep pace with the increase
of colonies.

\ mistake that has been made by many is in looking upon bee-
keeping as a sort of royal road to wealth, or, at least, a good living,
with but little labor, and, some believe, little brains, after they have once
“caught on” to a few secrets (7). To choose any business simply be-
cause it is profitable is the height of folly. A business that is unusually
profitable does not long remain such. It soon becomes overcrowded,
and loses its bonanza character. .\ man should choose a business be-
cause he and his surroundings are best adapted to the pursuit.
Mistakes in Bee-keeping 21

Many fall into the error of judging entirely by results, regardless
of causes. As that excellent bee-keeper, R. L. Taylor, of Michigan, once
said: “The greatest actual results do not prove the method of man-
agement by which they were produced to be the best. Time and labor
and thought and care and material and capital are all money, so the
greatest results numerically may be obtained at a loss, while the least
apparent results may yield a profit.”

In much this same manner do many bee-keepers make the mistake
of computing their income at so many pounds per colony, and at so much
per pound. The greatest yield per colony might not be so profitable as
a less yield per colony from more colonies, or even a lessened vield from
the same number of colonies. If a great yield per colony is the result
of a great deal of work, it may be that the work was done at a loss.
Bee-keeping should be viewed in a broader light. It may sometimes be
profitable to put a great deal of work on each colony; but each bee-
keeper should ask himself how, all things considered, can I make the
most profit? That is the question, and all other propositions not relating
directly thereto are mistakes.

And this leads to the mention of another mistake, the keeping of
too few bees. Instead of keeping only a few colonies, and striving to
secure the largest yield per colony, it is usually more profitable to keep
more bees—enough to gather all the honey in a given area, and then
when that area is overstocked it is probably a mistake not to start out-
apiaries. There is much to be gained in having as few kinds of things
to do as possible, and as much of them as can be managed. The pro-
portional cost of doing business is greatly lessened by increasing the
volume.

Another mistake is that of choosing hives, implements, and methods
that are complicated and require much time for their manipulation. A
most common error in this direction is that of trying to adapt hives to
bees, to such an extent as almost entirely to ignore the adaptability of
the hive to the bee-keeper. I remember once hearing a bee-keeper argu-
ing for a hive that it was “so handy for the bees.” ‘Why,’ said he,
‘Sf you were building a house, would you have it so arranged that
your wife would be compelled to go up and down stairs between the
kitchen and the pantry?” It must be remembered that we build hives
for our bees, and houses for our wives, with altogether different objects
in view. We don’t keep bees, nor arrange their hives, so much with
a view to saving them labor as that we may get the most honey with
the least labor to ourselves. Drone-traps, queen-traps, self-hivers, queen-
excluders, separators, and many other contrivances, are probably not
considered “handy” by the bees, but their use is an advantage to us.
22 Advanced Bee Culture

It is in line with this method of reasoning that causes some bee-
keepers to make the mistake of condemning any practice that is not
“according to nature.” The whole system of modern bee culture is
largely a transgression of nature's laws, or of managing differently than
the bees would manage if left to their own way of doing things. In
some things it is advisable to allow nature to have her own way; in
others it is not, and our success is just in proportion as we learn when
and where we can, advantageously, to a certain extent, cross nature’s
snethods with those of man’s intelligence.

Mistakes have been made, and erroneous conclusions arrived at, by
experimenting upon too small a scale. There are some kinds of experi-
ments which will demonstrate truths just as well upon a small as upon
a large scale, while there are others requiring experiments upon a large
scale, and a repetition of experiments, before definite conclusions can be
arrived at.

Many beginners make the mistake of thinking that they can improve
some of the standard hives and implements, and that before they have
fairly learned the business. A beginner with a few brains, boards, and
buzz-saw, is the man of all others who feels called upon to invent a
bee-hive.

Others make the mistake of adopting new hives, implements, meth-
ods, or varieties of bees, upon too large a scale before they are certain
that the change will be desirable. When a new thing with one advantage
is held up before our eyes, we are too much given to forgetting the
many advantages possessed by the article that we are asked to lay aside
for the new comer. As a rule, the rank and file can afford to wait
until at least good reports are given in regard to a novelty. Then it
will be in order to experiment upon no larger scale than that upon which
failure can be met and borne.

Speaking of the “rank and file’ waiting for the leaders or others
to try novelties, reminds me that it is a mistake to have undue confidence
in the leaders, or in any one, for that matter. It is possible that they
may be in error, or some unknown circumstances may cause different
results at different times in other localities. It is a mistake to pin one’s
faith blindly to another. Read how other men have succeeded, consider
their advice, but do your own thinking just the same, and try things for
yourself until you are sure vou are right, then go ahead.

Qne expensive mistake, vet one that is easily avoided, is made year
after year by many bee-keepers, and that is, not securing hives, sections,
foundation, and other supplies in season. They intend to buy them soon
enough, but wait until the last moment. So many others do the same
thing that dealers and manufacturers are overrun with orders, and ex-
Mistakes in Bee-keeping 23

pensive and vexatious delays occur. A delay of a few days, at just the
right time, sometimes means the loss of a crop of honey.

It is a mistake to attempt the production of honey, commercially,
in a locality not suited for the business. The same may be said of queen-
rearing. It is a mistake to attempt it as a business in the Northern
States—the seasons are too short. I followed it several vears, and,
while the experience may be valuable to me in my position, I am now
well satisfied that I would have made vastly more money had I turned
my whole time and attention to the production of honey.

It is a mistake to suppose that a poor location can be changed to a
good one by planting for honey. Those who thus imagine do not realize
the vast area of bloom that is needed to produce a surplus crop of
honey. The bees of an apiary, going 244 miles in every direction, scour a
territory of about 12,000 acres. There is this to be said, however, if
the soil, climate, and other conditions are such that it is profitable for
farmers to raise such crops as yield honey, then they will be raised, and
the acreage will be such that the yield of honey from them will be of
benefit to an apiary in that locality. Note the buckwheat regions of New
York and the alfalfa-fields of Colorado as examples.
“TALL JOOMYS Ju YPAOID) JULIANNH'] k& SuULLUpYy 2D 2 y posuvrapy jo Joy Ny OL

 
The Influence of Locality

In my earlier bee-keeping years I was often sorely puzzled at the
diametrically opposite views often expressed by the different corre-
spondents for the bee journals. In extenuation of that state of mind I
may say that at that time I did not dream of the wonderful differences
of locality in.its relation to the management of bees. I saw, measured,
weighed, compared, and considered all things apicultural by the standard
of my own home-—Genesee County, Michigan. It was not until I had
seen the fields of New York white with buckwheat, admired the lux-
uriance of sweet-clover growth in the suburbs of Chicago, followed for
miles the great irrigating ditches of Colorado, where they give life to
the royal purple of the alfalfa bloom, and climbed mountains in Cali-
fornia, pulling myself up by grasping the sage brush, that I fully realized
the great amount of apicultural meaning stored up in that one little
word—locality.

The basic principles of apiculture are the same the world over; but
the management must be varied according to the locality. In the South
and extreme West, the wintering of bees is easily accomplished, it being
necessary only to see that they have sufficient food. As we go north,
some protection must be given—either by packing or by the use of chaff
hives. As we go still farther north, successful wintering is secured,
as a rule, only by the use of first-class winter stores, and putting the
bees into a cellar.

In Cuba and Florida the honey harvest comes in the cooler part of
the year, or what corresponds to our northern winter; and those varieties
of bees that will breed late in the summer, even though little or no honey
is coming in, are more desirable, as more populous colonies are thus
secured at the opening of winter. In the Northern States, east of
the Mississippi, the main honey-flow comes, as a rule, early in the sum-
mer. It may be very abundant, but is seldom of long duration; for
this reason those varieties of bees are preferable that rear brood very
abundantly early in the season, and then slacken breeding as soon as the
main harvest begins. In some parts of the West the honey harvest is
much longer than in the East. There are no such rapid flows as we
have here sometimes from basswood, but there is a steady flow that may
last for months; the conditions being ideal for the production of comb
26 Advanced Bee Culture

honey, as there is abundant time in which to build combs for the storage
of the honey, fill them, and seal them over.

In the white-clover and basswood regions, swarming and the main
honey-harvest come at the same time; in some parts of the Southwest,
swarming comes on with the flow from the early minor honey-plants,
and is almost entirely abandoned with the advent of the heavy honey-flow
that comes on later.

The question of large versus small hives, over which there have
been so many spirited discussions, is largely one of locality. In the cooler
regions, where the harvest is early and short, small hives find favor,
especially in comb-honey production, while the large hive is a favorite
in the warmer regions that are blessed with a long honey-flow.

Which the bee-keeper shall produce, comb or extracted honey, is
also largely a question of locality. Where the main honey-flow is short.
as it is often from basswood, sometimes lasting only a few days, there
is not time for the bees to build combs in the sections, fill them, and
cap them over, before the harvest is over and past. With full sets of
drawn combs in the extracting-supers, a good crop of extracted honev
may be secured within a week. Such conditions as these exist in many
parts of Wisconsin. Where honey must be shipped long distances to
market, as is the case in Cuba and California, one very important reason
for producing extracted honey is that there is so much less danger of
damage in shipment. Dark honey is, as a rule, much more salable in
the extracted form. When the flow is light but constant, and of long
duration, as in Colorado, and the honey is white, comb-honey production
has its advantages, as honey is worth more when stored in sections than
when taken in the extracted form.

California furnishes the most immense crops of honey that are any-
where produced, but they are entirely dependent upon the rainfall that
comes in the winter. If the rains fail to come, the bee-keeper knows to
a certainty that not only will there be no surplus, but, unless the proper
management is given, his colonies will perish from starvation.

In the buckwheat regions of New York, not much dependence is
placed upon the early honey-flows for securing a surplus. They enable
the bees to breed up, and, as a rule, finish their swarming, before the
buckwheat opens, when the main crop of the season is gathered. A
colony so weak in the spring that it would be nearly useless in a flow
from clover or basswood, has abundant time in which to build up for
the buckwheat honey-harvest.

Then, again, there are localities near swamps, where the main flow
comes very late, from fall flowers, asters, and the like. The yield is
often very abundant, but the quality is undesirable when used for winter
stores. If the cold confines the bees for several months upon such stores,
 

A Field of Buckwheat in Full Bloom
28 Advanced Bee Culture

they are almost certain to perish. The only remedy is to extract the
honey and feed sugar syrup, unless it might be that of brimstoning the
bees in the fall, and buying more in the spring from some other locality—
a course which has been followed successfully, as the long season for
preparation allows of the building-up of one colony into several.

It would be an easy matter to use pages in giving illustrations of
the differences in localities, but it is unnecessary; the thing for the bee-
keeper to remember is that, if he changes his locality, he must leave
behind him many of his old notions and methods, and seek the advice of
his new neighbors who have been successful. The veteran bee-keeper
from the verdant hills of old Vermont would make a flat failure were
he to bring his apiary to Colorado, and manage it the same as he has
been accustomed to do. .\ bee-keeper can not know his locality too
thoroughly. Some men succeed in localities where the majority fail,
and one reason is because their more thorough knowledge of the locality
enables them to adopt methods more perfectly adapted to the peculiarities
of that location. Above all things, know your locality.
Best Stock and How to Secure It

There are only two varieties of bees worthy of consideration for
use in the United States; in fact, they are about the only varieties now
left here for consideration, and they are the Italians and the Germans
(or blacks) as they are commonly called. The prolific Syrians and the
fierce, irritable Cyprians, have practically passed away on this side of
the waters. These varieties of bees are very prolific, but undue prolific-
ness is of no value—it is really objectionable for this part of the world.
If queens cost large sums of money, there might be a shade of reason
in desiring those that are prolific; but to the practical honey-producer
they cost almost nothing; and by using hives that are not too large,
queens of ordinary prolificness will keep the combs sufficiently filled with
brood. The great ambition of these varieties seems to be to rear brood
instead of to store honey. Their only object in gathering honey appears
to be that it may be used in rearing brood. They will rear brood until
the last drop of honey in the hive is used. The Syrians also have the
undesirable trait of filling the cells so full of honey, and capping it so
poorly, as to give it a dark, watery appearance, which is very objection-
able in comb-honey production.

Carniolans resemble the Syrians and Cyprians, so far as prolificness
is concerned, but are very gentle, and cap their honey with a whiteness
equal to that capped by the blacks; but this disposition to extend their
energies in breeding and swarming has caused them to be discarded in
their purity, although a few bee-keepers still prefer a cross between them
and the Italians.

In this matter of brood-rearing, the Italians are unexcelled. During
the spring months they push breeding with wonderful rapidity; but as
soon as the main honey harvest begins in earnest, breeding is greatly
reduced, and most of the energy turned to the gathering and storing
of honey. It might be safely said that the Italians are the standard
variety of this country. They are very gentle in disposition, remaining
quietly on the combs when being handled, while there seems to be about
them a peculiarly quiet, steady, energetic determination possessed by no
other variety. Almost any variety of bees will do fair work gathering
honey when it is plentiful and near by; but when the flowers yield spar-
ingly, and must be sought for far and wide, then it is that the Italians
30 Advanced Bee Culture

carry off the palm. For the production of extracted honey, the Italians
are probably unexcelled; but in producing comb honey the blacks show
two points of superiority. They are more willing to store their honey
in the supers at some distance from the brood, and, in capping their
honey, they leave a small space between the honey and the capping,
which gives to the comb an almost snowy whiteness. The blacks are
also more easily driven out of the supers with smoke, and more readily
shaken from the combs. They are very irritable while being handled,
many taking wing, and others running about upon the combs, gathering
in bunches and dropping off upon the ground. For the production of
comb honey there is probably no better bee than a cross between the
Italians and the blacks, at least so far as results are concerned. They
are energetic workers, willing and ready to store their honey in the
supers, but, unfortunately, they are possessed of a very uneven temper.
Either variety, black or Italian, in its purity. is easier to handle than is
a cross between them.

Modern bee culture, with its “bait” sections of partly drawn combs,
or the putting-on of extracting-supers at the opening of the season, then
changing them for sections after a start has been made, has well nigh
overcome the objection of the Italians clinging to the brood-nest, while
much can be done by selection in breeding to overcome the trait of poor
capping. In brief, if I were to engage in the production of either comb
or extracted honey, I would adopt pure Italians; then, by selection in
breeding, get rid of the undesirable traits, such as “watery” capping
of the honey, inclination to build large quantities of brace-combs, undue
swarming, etc. Every bee-keeper of experience, who has tried different
strains of bees, knows that there is a great differenc: betwen different
strains of even the same variety. A bee-keeper whe is just starting in
the business, or one already in the business why has not taken such a
course, ought to get queens from several of the best breeders, then adopt
some easily kept but comprehensive system of recording the traits and
peculiarities of each colony. The card system which has been so sue-
cessfully adopted in so many wavs readily lends itself to this use. If the
bees of any colony prove vindictive, requeen it. If the bees of another
colony are poor comb-builders, or cap their honey poorly, destrov the
queen and give them another. Do the same if they build large quan-
tities of “brace-combs,” or if they are unduly given tu swarming, or if
they are poor honey-gatherers, or do not winter well. On the other
hand, the desirable traits should be watched for and recorded, and
queens reared from the queens of such colonies. Care ought also to be
taken that no drones are reared, or allowed to fly, from undesirable
stock, and pains taken to rear them in goadly numbers from the best
stocks in the apiary. By pursuing this course, the bee-keeper will
Best Stock and How to Secure It 31

eventually build up a strain of bees that will be peaceable, hardy, good
honey-gatherers, and good comb-builders. Well-directed efforts at im-
proving his stock, carefully watching and recording the traits of each
colony, getting rid of poor queens and keeping the best, perhaps buying:
queens occasionally and comparing their progeny with the stock already
on hand, always breeding from the best, such a course as this will
prove the most profitable of any which a bee-keeper can pursue. The
wonder is that it is so greatly neglected.

 
The Choice of a Hive

Early in every bee-keeper’s life must come the choice of a hive—
and a perplexing question it often proves. Probably there is no “best
hive” for all persons, locations, and uses; in fact, a choice is usually
more or less of a compromise—the relinquishing of certain advantages
for the sake of securing others considered more desirable. The tastes
of a bee-keeper, his system of management, the kind of honey produced,
the method of wintering, the location, etc., all have a bearing upon the
kind of hive that is most desirable; but the inducements must be great,
indeed, that would lead a man to adopt an odd-sised hive or frame.
As to size of frame, it is probable that the Langstroth is the most widely
used, is well adapted to the production of both comb and _ extracted
honey, and its choice can not be a serious mistake. With the choice
of a frame, a decided step has been taken toward the choice of a hive:
in fact, the most important question left to be settled is the number
of frames to be used in the hive. In those parts of the country blessed
with a long honey-flow, or if extracted honey is to be produced, hives
holding ten Langstroth frames are desirable. If bees are to be managed
in out-apiaries, or upon any plan where they are not to receive close
and constant attention, large hives possess the advantage of containing
sufficient stores to avoid danger frem the bees starving in times of
scarcity. The argument sometimes used in favor of large hives, that
they give the queens more room to lay, is decidedly fallacious. We do
not keep queens simply to “give them a chance to lay,” but to secure
the prompt and thorough filling of the brood-combs with eggs, and
this is more surely accomplished by using a hive of moderate size. one
below rather than above the laying capacity of the average queen. It is
true that larger vields per colony may be secured with large hives, but
not any larger vields per comb. Where the honey-flow is short, or
comb honey is produced, a smaller hive, one holding only cight Lang-
stroth combs, has its advantages.

The hive body for holding the frames need be nothing more than
simply a box with plain square corners, without top or bottom, having
rabbets on the upper inner edges of the end-picces, for supporting the
frames. If a hive is nailed up with the heart side of the lumber out,
it is less inclined to warp. A plain simple board, cleated at each end,
The Choice of a Hiv. 33

upen the under side, to prevent warping, with half-inch strips nailed
along the two sides and back end, upon its upper surface to support the
hive, is the equa! cf any bottom-hoard.

{t may not be amiss to say that hives may be used with no bottom-
board except the earth. The hive sits upon a rim made of rough
cheap lumber, an entrance being furnished by making the front end-
piece of the rim an inch narrower, and the rim filled with earth or
sawdust to within an inch of the top. At first thought this seems like
a very rough, primitive affair, as though using simolv the earth for a
bottom-board would not answer, but it is difficult to say why.

 

A “Dirt-Cheap” Bottom-Board.

A. cover after the same style, simply a plain board cleated at the
ends to prevent warping, is a model of simplicity and desirability.
If it is difficult to obtain boards wide enough for covers, they may be
pieced, even made of narrow strips, then the upper surface covered
with a piece of muslin while the paint is fresh, and another coat of
paint applied over the muslin. If kept properly painted, such covers
will not leak.

Much has been written about staples and projections on frames
to make them self-spacing; but the objections greatly overshadow the
advantages, which are that all the frames are kept exacily the same dis-
tance apart; in closing up the hive, or, rather, in arranging the frames
34 Advanced Bee Culture

preparatory to closing the hive, they can all be shoved over in a body,
ly pressing against the outside one; and if the hives are to be moved,
as from one apiary to another, the frames are held in position without
any additional fastening. The moving of colonies from one location to
another is something that occurs only occasionally, in many cases not
at all, and it is better to fasten specially all of the frames once or even
twice a year, should it become necessary, than to be continually annoyed
by objectionable attachments. In closing up a hive there is some advan-
tage in being able to shove the frames over without taking up any time
in spacing them; but, so far as exactness is concerned, there is no
necessity for self-spacing devices, as the combs may vary from 114 to
14 inches from center to center without any serious results. The eye
and hand very soon become trained to sufficient exactness in the matter
of spacing. The most serious objection to self-spacing is that it destroys
the most valuable feature of hanging frames—the J/ateral movement.
lf frames hang free, it is an easy matter to press one over one way and
another the other way, and then lift out the one that hung between them.
Self-spacing prevents this. Before self-spaced frames can be moved, a
division board, or ‘‘dummy,” must be pulled out at one side of the hive,
and sometimes this board is glued fast and more difficult to remove than
would be an ordinary comb. Another objection to staples or other
metal attachments is that the honey-knife is likely to strike them, and
be dulled, when the honey is being uncapped; and they also give trouble
by catching in the wire cloth forming the recl of the extractor. A few
men have tried and been pleased with the plan of supporting frames
upon nails driven into the centers of the ends of the top-bars. To illus-
trate: Take an ordinary Langstroth frame; saw off the projecting ends
of the top-bar; then, into the center of each end of the top-bar, drive
a six-penny nail at such a point that its lower side will occupy exactly
the same point as the lower side of the wooden projection occupied
before it was sawed off. The nail is, of course, driven in until it projects
exactly as far as the former wooden projection extended beyond the
end-bar. These nail-supporters may be used either with or without
metal rabbets. In either case the points of contact are so slight that
there is little opportunity for gluing them fast, and the frames can
always be loosened with the fingers.

Closed-end frames, in common with other styles of self-spaced
frames, possess the advantage that they need no fastening when the
hives are moved from one part of the country to another; but, aside
from this, the advantages are all with the loose (or hanging) free-
swinging frame.

\. divisible-brood-chamber hive, one having two sets of shallow
frames, thus allowing the hive to be divided horizontally, possesses
The Choice of a Hive 35

some advantages. For instance, at the beginning of the season it is
desirable to induce the bees to spread out and fill their combs as com-
pletely as possible with brood; and by dividing the brood-nest_ hori-
zontally, transposing the sections, placing the lower one above and
the upper one below, we bring together, in the center of the hive, the
outside or spherical portions of the brood-nest, while the broad center
surfaces are thrown to the outside. In their efforts to bring the brood-
nest back to a spherical shape, the bees remove the honey from the
center of the hive and replace it with brood, thereby increasing the
amount of the latter. The transposition of the two sections of the
brood-nest also throws a large surface of brood up close to the supers,
which greatly hastens the beginning of work in the sections.

The use of this style of hive also allows of contraction of the
brood-nest without reducing the supering surface or the bringing in of
“dummies,” as must be done with other styles of hive. Divisible-brood-
chamber hives cost considerably more than other styles of hives, and,
after using them for years by the side of the ordinary Langstroth hive,
seeing them used by other persons in different locations, and considering
the new features that have recently sprung up in bee-keeping, I have
gradually come to the decision that if I were now starting in the bee
business I would not use the horizontally divisible hive. In my opinion,
its greatest point of superiority is in practicing contraction of the
brood-nest; but so far as handling frames is concerned, there is no
frame that approaches the plain all-wood hanging frame, and. in man-
aging out-apiaries, in which case there is not time for using the bee-
escape, this is a most decided advantage.

In northern climates bees need more protection in winter than
is afforded by a single-wall hive. In Michigan this is best afforded by
a cellar; further south, some kind of packing is probably preferable.
Whether this packing ‘shall be in the shape of the so-called chaff hive,
or in something of a temporary nature that can be removed in summer,
is a point upon which bee-keepers differ. It is true that temporary
packing calls for extra labor (but it does not come at a hurrying time
of the year), and there was a time when it also resulted in some untidi-
ness and unsightliness in the apiary during the winter; but the neat
outer case and improved methods of packing that are now being adopted
have removed the latter objection and greatly reduced the former.
These methods of temporary packing are cheaper than the chaff hives,
while the advantage of having light single-walled hives during the
working season, hives that can be picked up, handled, manipulated,
tiered-up, carried, if advisable, to a distant or more desirable location—
hives, in short, that can be handled in a way that means business—all
these advantages are so great that I should never think of adopting the
30 Advanced Bee Culture

chaff hive. I know there are methods of management in which the
unwieldly, stand-still character of the chaff hive proves no obstacle; but
such methods are not the most expeditious.

In brief, my choice of a hive for Michigan is a simple plain box
with plain all-wood hanging frames—and I would winter the bees in
the cellar.

 

Divisible-Brood-chamber Hive.
Queen-Excluders

A honey-board is easily
made queen-excluding by
simply cutting saw-kerfs in
the edges of the slats, and
slipping strips of perforated
metal into the kerfs between
the slats. Whole sheets of
zinc have been used as honey-
boards, but they are lacking
in rigidity. They are likely
to sag, bend, or kink, thus de- Queen-Excluding Honev-Board.
stroying the perfection of the
bee-spaces. Ifa sheet sags, the space above becomes so large that there
is a likelihood of comb being built therein; while the space below becomes
so small that propolis is placed between the zinc and the tops of the
brood-frames. The wood-zinc honey-board is free from this defect.

In the production of comb honey there is little need for a queen-
excluder over an old established colony; but when a swarm is hived in
a contracted brood-chamber having starters only in the frames, and
given the supers of partly finished sections from the old hive, a queen-
excluder is almost a necessity. The queen, finding no combs in the
brood-nest, at once invades the sections, where the bees soon clear out
-some of the cells for her to lay in, and, having begun her brood-nest
there, she is quite likely to remain there until considerable comb has been
built below.

In the production of extracted honey, queen-excluders are a great
convenience, if not a necessity. If they are not used, the brood is almost
certain to be scattered through the supers, or upper stories: and ripe
honey, ripe as it ought to be when it is extracted, can not be thrown from
the combs very rapidly or completely, without at the same time throwing
out the brood. If brood is found in the upper story, it is, of course,
sometimes possible to exchangé such combs for the outside combs in the
brood-nest, if such can be found without brood, but all this takes time.
To conduct an apiary successfully, the fixtures and methods should be

 

 

 

 

 

 
38 ddvanced Bee Culture

such that the work will move along smoothly, and in a systematic manner,
without any “hitches.”

There is also another point to be considered in connection with the
use of queen-excluders when producing extracted honey, and that is the
freeing of the supers of bees by the use of bee-escapes. If the super

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wire Queen-excluder.

contains brood and, perhaps, the queen, the bees could not be induced
to desert by the use of an escape. If they did leave the brood, then
something would have to be done with the brood, as already mentioned.
In short, advanced bee culture has divided the hive into two distinct
apartments—brood and surplus—and unless this division can be main-
tained, many profitable plans must be relinquished. The queen-excluding
honey-board enables the bee-keeper thus to set a boundary beyond which
the brood can not go.

 
Sections and Their Adjustment on the Hive

The standard size of sections is 414 x 4% inches; at least, this has
been the standard for many years, and I think is yet; but there is con-
siderable effort to place upon the market and secure the adoption of a
tall section—about 4 x 5 inches. Its chief advantage is in being more
pleasing to the eye—possibly in conveying the impression that it contains
more honey than a square form having the same amount of surface.
Our windows, our books, our pictures, ete., are made oblong instead of
square, because they are more pleasing to the eye, and, for the same
reason, a tall section presents a more pleasing appearance than a square
one, but I do not consider this point of sufficient importance to warrant
a bee-keeper in changing his fixtures in order that he may use the tall
section.

‘““Beeway” sections are those in which the bees gain access to them
through insets, or “beeways,’’ cut in the top and bottom bars of the
sections; but of late there has been introduced a new style, called the
“plain” section, in which there are no insets, it being the same width all
the way around. Sections of this style are held bee-space apart, and the
bees admitted, by the use of what are termed “fence” separators, from
their resemblance to a board fence. A fence separator is formed of slats
about 4% of an inch in thickness, held a bee-space apart by cleats glued
or nailed in an upright position to their sides. These cleats, or posts,
are of such a thickness, and placed at such a distance apart, upon each
side of the separator, that the edges of the side bars to the sections come
against them, and are thus held out bee-space from the slats.

The principal advantage of plain sections and fence separators is
that the freer communication thus allowed the bees induces them, from
some reason, to build out the combs fuller around the edges and corners,
and attach them more perfectly to the sections. This gives the finished
product a more attractive appearance, and greatly lessens the danger of
breakage in shipment. Another point, although it may be a minor one,
is that a plain section is filled fuller of honey; that is, the edges of the
wood do not stand out so far above the surface of the comb as they do
in the beeway sections. .\ filled plain section has a plumper look than
a beeway section, the latter having the appearance of being only partly
filled. A tall plain section may not contain any more honey than a square
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Sections and Their Adjustinent on the Hive 41

section of the beeway type, but it appears to contain more, and has,
withal, a more attractive appearance. There is still another little point,
and that is that a plain section offers special advantages in the matter
of cleaning it of propolis, as there is no insct to work into with the
scraping-knife. I do not, however, consider the advantages of the plain
section sufficient to warrant any expensive change of fixtures in order
that it may be adopted.

While I have produced tons of comb honey without the use of sep-
arators, and could do it again in this locality, I think I would use them
were [ again to engage in comb-honey production. I know of no objec-
tion to their use, except that of cost, and I certainly would advise their
use by the great mass of bee-keepers. In many localities there are
bee-keepers who can, without separators, produce sections of honey that
are tolerably perfect, straight enough to be crated with a little care, but
there is another end to the business—that of the retailer and his clumsy
clerks who are not bee-keepers. Nothing discourages and disgusts a
retailer more than a lot of dauby, dripping, damaged sections.

To sum up this chapter in a few words, my preference is for a tall
plain section, used with fence separators.

 
Arrangement of Hives and Buildings

In a small apiary the matter of arrangement is not of great impor-
tance; but as the number of colonies begins to approach 100, the question
of arrangement becomes one of considerable importance. Two things
need consideration: the convenience of the operator, and the giving of
such an individuality to each hive that each bee can readily distinguish
its home.

Before discussing these points it might be well to say a few words
about the location of the apiary. First, it ought to be some distance
from the highway. What that distance should be, depends upon what
there is between the bees and the street. If there are buildings or trees,
or even a high fence, the bees may be quite near the road: as, in their
flight, they rise above these obstructions, and thus fly over the heads
of the passersby. If there is nothing between the apiary and the high-
way, the apiary ought not to be nearer the street than ten rods, and
fifteen or twenty rods would be better. It is possible with a sinall apiary
to avoid trouble even if it is located near the street. When it is neces-
sary to handle the bees when no honey is coming in, and such handling
is likely to irritate them, the work can be done just before dark, when the
bees will not fly far from their hives; but in a large apiary there is too
much work that must be done when the bees may not be in an amiable
mood, to enable the operator to perform it during the twilight of even-
ing. If necessary, the bee-keeper can protect himself with a veil, and,
armed with a smoker, he can go on with the work, even if the bees
are a little ‘‘cross,” but the apiary must be isolated.

Nearly level ground is preferable in an apiary. If it slopes gently
to the south or east, so much the better. It should never be in such a
location that the water will stand upon the ground.

I have tried placing the honey-house in the center of the apiary,
and having the hives in long double rows that radiated from the honey-
house as the spokes in a wheel radiate from the hub. In each double
row a space large enough for a wheelbarrow is left between the hives,
and the entrances of the hives are turned away from the path left for
the operator and his wheelbarrow. So far as reducing the labor of
going to and from the hives is concerned, this arrangement is excellent;
but it has the quite serious objection that only part of the apiary can be
 

 

A Glimpse of One Corner of the Review Apiary at Flint.

This apiary stands just in the southern edge of a piece of oak woods, and is sur-
rounded by a fence of poultry-netting, with a strand of barbed wire at the top.
44 _Idvanced Bee Culture

secn at one glance from the honey-house. In watching for swarms it is
necessary to look in four different directions in order to ascertain if a
swarm is out. When the house is at one side of the yard, the whole
apiary can be taken in at a glance. Other things being equal, the south
side of the apiary is preferable for the house. In looking for swarms the
bee-keeper does not look toward the sun, but has the clear northern sky
for a background, while the shady side of the building, which will be
naturally sought by the tired bee-keeper as the best spot in which to
take a breathing-spell, is toward the apiary.

Most bee-keepers are in favor of having the building two stories
high, using the upper story as a store-room for hives and fixtures, the
lower story for work-shop and honey-room, the latter being partitioned
off by itself, and the cellar under the building for wintering the bees.
‘The usual mistake in making such buildings is in not having them large
enough. The honey-room ought to be located in a southern corner of
the building, and the walls made of some non-conductor of heat. Some
even paint the side of the building a dark color where it comes over the
honey-room, in order that as much as possible of the sun’s heat may be
absorbed. The idea is that the honey must be kept as warm as possible.
If there is any unsealed or unripe honey, this high temperature causes
evaporation and improvement. By keeping such a room warm with a
stove in winter, comb honey has been kept over until another year,
anid actually improved by the keeping.

But, to return to the arrangement of hives. When the honey-house
is at one side of the apiary, the hives may still be arranged upon the
radiating plan, by having the rows radiate from the honey-house door,
thus forming one-half of a large wheel, instead of the whole of a
smaller one, as in the case of having the honey-house in the center.
When the radiating rows are very long, they become far apart at the
outer ends, or else very close together at the inner ends. To remedy this,
shorter rows, or “spurs,” may be put in between the long rows at their
outer ends.

Another arrangement is that of placing the hives in a hexagonal
manner, each hive being the center of six others. ‘This is a pleasing
arrangement to the eve, but it has been reported that the massing of
the hives in such a regular manner has a tendency to lead the bees to
enter the hives standing on the outside of (or edge of) the apiary, thereby
weakening the colonies in the center of the vard.

Placing the hives in small groups is a most excellent arrangement.
Mr. J. FE. Crane, of Middlebury, Vermont, arranges his hives in groups
of ten each, each group being arranged as follows: ‘Two hives facing
the north, three facing cast, two the south, and three the west. Nine such
groups, arranged in a square, three groups each way, furnish room for
arrangement of Hives and Buildings 45

ninety hives in a very compact body, vet each hive is given a most distinct
individuality.

Still another arrangement is that of placing the hives in circles. The
entrances of the hives in the inner row are toward the center, while
those of the outer row face outward. This leaves the space between
the two rows comparatively free from bees, and the operator can work in
this space without annoyance to himself or the flying bees. If the two
circles do not furnish sufficient room, more and larger circles may be

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

added, or there may be two sets of circles, or three sets, arranged in
the form of a triangle, or even four sets arranged in a quadrangle.

In nearly all of the large apiaries that I have visited, the hives
were arranged in straight simple rows like the squares of a checker-
board, the entrances in some instances facing the same way, while hives
were from six to eight feet apart. I should prefer to have the entrances
of each alternate row turned toward the east, and the entrances of the
hives in the other rows turned toward the west. This would leave each
alternate passageway comparatively free from bees, and the operator
could work here without the bees bumping their heads against his.
I should prefer to have the entrances to every hive face either east or
40 eldvanced Bee Culture

west, because I wish to shade each hive with a light board, 2 x 3 feet in
size, laid over each hive, and projecting toward the south, and this pro-
jecting board would be in the way of the flying bees if the entrance
were upon the south side. When the hives are arranged in rows radi-
ating from a common center I always turn the entrance of each hive so
that it is either east or west.

There is no reason for placing hives further apart than is necessary
to afford sufficient space on all sides for the operator. Bees do not
locate their hive so much by the distance that it is from other hives as
they do by the surroundings; and these surroundings are usually other
hives. To illustrate: Let the end hive be removed from a long row
of hives, and the bees belonging to the removed hive will almost unhes-
itatingly enter the hive that has become the end hive in the row. ‘Two
hives may stand side by side, perhaps almost or quite touching each
other, yet each bee has no difficulty in distinguishing its own hive. In
a row of three or four or even five hives, the same might be said; but
as the number goes beyond this, there is a little uncertainty about the
matter. When their hives are in long rows, some bee-keepers arrange
them in groups of three or five in the row, leaving a wider space between
the groups than there is between the individual hives composing a group.

The greatest objection to any uniformity of arrangement that makes
it difficult for the bees to ‘‘mark" their location is that queens may
enter the wrong hive upon their return from their “wedding trip.” With
my method of management, in which the hive with a voung queen is
given a new stand to prevent after-swarming, a Ja Heddon, this difficulty
is easily remedied by placing the hive in some location that is easily
marked—the end of a row, for instance. When this can not be done,
the hives containing unfertile queens may be marked in some conspicuous
manner that will easily enable them to distinguish their own hives.

In queen-rearing it is important that the small hives, containing the
nuclei, be scattered about promiscuously ; the greater the irregularity and
oddity of the arrangement, the less will be the loss of queens from their
entering wrong hives; but in a large apiary managed fer honey, it is
doubtful if there is a more practical arrangement than that of placing
the hives in rows; and it seems to me that a little is gained, and nothing
lost, by having the rows radiate from the honey-house door.
Comforts and Conveniences in the Apiary

By these are meant those things not absolutely essential to success,
but that serve to render more smooth and pleasant the somewhat
“thorny” path trodden by the bee-keeper. To illustrate: Mr. H. R.
Boardman, of Ohio, has a cart for carrying his bees to and from his bee-
cellar, with which there is no necessity for even lifting the hives to

 

 

Boardman’'s Hive-cart.

place them on the cart. It is made like a wheelbarrow with two wheels,
having two long prongs projecting in front. When the cart 1s wheeled
up to a hive, one prong goes one side of the hive and the other the
other side, when, by depressing the handles, the hive is lifted from the
ground. Cleats upon the sides of the hive prevent it from slipping
down between the projecting prongs. ‘Then, again, Mr. J. .\. Green, of
Colorado, has an arrangement for opening the honey-house door by
simply stepping upon a pedal. When both hands are occunied with
48 Advanced Bee Culture

tools, a case of honey, or something of that sort, such an arrangement
is quite a comfort. Mr. Green is also the man who keeps kerosene oil
in a spring-bottom oil-can to squirt on the fuel in a smoker when
“firing up.”

Most of these comforts are comparatively inexpensive. To think
of them and secure them is often more work than to earn the money
with which to buy them; but their possession often makes all of the
difference between a season of pleasure and one bordering on drudgery,
to say nothing of the bearing they may have upon the profits. These
little helps and conveniences are, in one sense, the oil that makes the
great apicultural machine move smoothly, and I believe it worth while
to enumerate a few of them.

I will begin with the bee-keeper himself, or, rather, with his
clothing, as his comfort is largely dependent upon that. When there
is much shaking or brushing of bees to be done, I preter to wear light
calf-skin boots with the trousers tucked inside. If the grass is wet I wear
rubbers over the boots. When shoes are worn, the trousers may be
tucked inside the stockings. One fundamental principle about clothing
to be worn in the bee-yard is that one garment laps closely over the
other, leaving no opening into which a bee can crawl, and the lower
garment should lap over the upper one, as becs almost invariably crawl
upward and the clothing should be so arranged that a bee can crawl
from a man’s foot to his head without being led into any opening. Mr.
Arthur C. Miller suggests canvas shoes that lace well up around the
ankle, such as are worn by tennis and base-ball plavers and cyclists.
Then he would have the trousers come just below the knee, with canvas
leggings to cover up the lower part of the legs. His ideal coat is a
close-fitting jacket of light-weight that buttons up to the throat. In the
heat of the day, however, few bee-keepers, doing active work in the
apiary need either coat or vest. The hat that approaches the nearest
to perfection, in Mr. Miller’s opinion, is the helmet. It has visors front
and back, and a ventilator all around the rim and the inner band. It is
light and cool, and protects both the eves and the back of the neck from
the sun. Such suits as those described hy Mr. Miller can be had in white
or colored duck, and are light. cheap, washable, and serviceable; and
complete or in part are worn by cyclists and others. Light-colored cloth-
ing is not only cooler, but saves the wearer from some stings, as the bees
seem to have a decided aversion to dark or black objects. I know one
bee-keeper who dresses in white duck from head to toe, and he is
positive that it saves him from many attacks from the bees. In the heat
of the working season I wear linen trousers, a white cotton shirt, and a
straw hat. I have seen recommended the wearing of light woolen cloth-
ing, but have never tried it. Ernest R. Root mentions the comfort that
Comforts and Conveniences in the .Lpiary 49

he has derived from the wearing of light underctothing. But he docs not
perspire freely, and his underclothing retains the perspiration, keeping
the skin moist. With me it is the reverse. I perspire so freely the
clothing is soon soaked through and through, and frequent changes are
necessary. Perhaps each will be obliged to decide the matter by per-
sonal experience.

I never wish a veil attached to the edge of the hat-rim. It is only
part of the time that a veil is needed, and when it isn’t needed I wish it
off out of the way. I prefer a veil with a string run into a hem around
the top, then the upper edge can be puckered up until it will just slip
down nicely over the hat-crown. And when it is necessary to wear a
veil in hot weather, who has not wished that there was some way
of holding it down, aside from that of tucking it inside the collar?
When the neck is hot and sweaty, how uncomfortable it feels with a sort
of muffler pressed close against it by the collar! Besides this, the veil is
held suffocatingly close to the face—so close, too, that the bees often
sting through it. All this may be avoided, and I'll tell you how. In a
hem in the bottom of the veil run
a string, leaving about a foot of
the hem, right in front, unoccupied
by the string. That is, let the
string enter the hem at about six
inches to the right of the center
of the front; pass it around the
back of the neck, bringing it out
of the hem at a point about six
inches to the left of the center of
the front. The projecting ends of
the string must be long enough to
pass under the arms, cross at the
back, and then be brought around
and tied in front. The string holds
the edge of the veil securely out
upon the shoulders, while, if the
right length of hem is left with-
out a string in front, that part
will be drawn snugly across the
breast. To Mr. Porter, of bee-
escape fame, belongs the honor of
devising this unsurpassable way
of holding down a bee-veil.

Gloves I have never worn, and doubt if I could be led to believe
them a comfort. To use them would seem too much like a cat with

 

 

 

 
50 .idvanced Bee Culture

mnittens on trying to catch mice. Perhaps a beginner might tolerate
them until his timidity has worn off.

L know of no comfort in the apiary greater than a smooth surface
(of earth) thickly covered with grass. .\ lawn-mower can scarcely
he called a comfort—it is a necessity. Sprinkle salt around the hives
to kill the grass a distance of six inches from each hive, then the lawn-
mower can cut all of the grass that grows.

About the first thing needed upon beginning work in the apiary
is a smoker; and oh how much comfort or discomfort can come through
this little implement! lf any of my readers have suffered from smokers
that spill fire, that become stopped up with soot, that go out, or from
fuel that will not burn, let them get a Bingham or a Root smoker; get

 

Holding a Smoker |ctween the Knees Working the Bellows of the Smoker while
while Manipulating Frames. Holding between the Knees.

a barrel of planer shavings from dry pine, to use as a fuel, and then
take comfort. If you have never used shavings as a fuel, you may have
trouble in getting the fire to going. Don't put in too many shavings
at first. Leave off the cover and keep puffing until they have burned
down to cinders before putting in more. .\ little kerosene oil, from an
oil-can, as has been mentioned, is a great help in starting the fire. When
through using the smoker, don’t throw out the fire, but stop up the nozzle
with a wad of grass, thus smothering the fire, and the charred remains
left in the bottom of the smoker will light very readily at the touch of
Comforts and Conveniences in the Apiary 51

a blaze from a match—much more so than fresh fuel. keep matches in
a safe place near where the smoker is to be lighted. Never be pestered
by having to run off somewhere after a match. Above all, don’t keep
the smoker fuel and matches in the honey-house, as the danger from
fire is too great. Rig up a box or a barrel or an old hive, with a rain-
proof cover, and have it located some distance from the honey-house.
I kept the fuel in an old wash-boiler, and had it “burn out” once. As it
was out of doors, no harm was done. Keep the cap of the smoker filled
with green weeds or grass, and there is no danger of blowing sparks
into the hives.

Have a wheelbarrow for carrying cases, hives of honey, and other
heavy articles. In making a wheelbarrow, some bee-keepers have used
a wheel from some old discarded bicycle, the pneumatic tire doing away
with the jolts in carrying honey or hives of bees.

With such hives as I use, the cover can be turned up on edge and
used as a seat. Where such is not the case, a seat of some kind ought

 

 

The Coggshall Bee-brush.

|
|

to be provided. A light box 17x 12x9g gives a chance for having a seat
with any one of these heights. It should be strong enough not to rack,
and have hand-holes in the side for carrying it.

A hammock in the shade of a tree, or in the work-shop, is a great
comfort. Ten minutes’ rest in a reclining position is of nearly twice the
value of that taken in a standing or sitting posture.

For brushing bees off the combs I know of nothing more effectual
or comfortable to both the operator and the bees than the so-called
Coggshall brush, which is a sort of whisk-broom, with the strands
thinned out, and longer than the ordinary whisk-broom, so as to enable
the operator to give a soft, pliable, easy sweep of the combs. In using
this brush it is not intended that the combs be brushed with the ends of
the strands, as one would sweep a floor. Instead, the brush is laid flatwise
against the comb, and given a quick, sharp, lateral sweep.

Let each bee-keeper look about his apiary and see if he is not doing
some of his work in an awkward manner—one that might be avoided by
providing a few comforts and conveniences.
 

A Well-shaded Hive.
Shade for Bees

Shall we shade our bees? If so, why, when, how? Some bee-
keepers do not shade their hives; others do. Why do they do it? Is it
really necessary? Do they thereby secure more honey? These are per-
unent questions to which it is difficult to give definite answers, but about
which it is advisable to know all that 7s known.

The temperature of a colony of bees in summer, when brood is being
reared, is nearly 100 degrees. Until the temperature in the sun reaches
this point, shade is no benefit; rather, it is an injury, as it deprives the
bees of the warmth of the sun at a time when it would be of some
benefit. When the temperature in the sun goes above Ioo degrees, and
begins to climb up to 110 degrees, 120 degrees, 130 degrees, then the
effort on the part of the bees is to lower instead of raise the temperature
of the hive. Crowds of bees stand at the entrance of the hive, and with
their wings create strong ventilating currents of air. It has been asserted
that the bees leave the combs of honey well nigh forsaken when the
temperature is very high; the reason given being that the combs can
be kept cooler when not covered with bees. I have also read and been
told that bees would “hang out,” that is, cluster upon the outside of the
hive, instead of working, if their hives were left unshaded during a hot
day; that they are compelled thus to desert their hives to save their
combs from destruction. I have always kept my hives shaded during
hot weather, hence can not speak from experience upon this point; bat
if it is true, then it would seem that shade, in very hot weather, is both
desirable and profitable. This much I have noticed, that weak colonies,
nuclei, for instance, seldom make any demonstration of discomfort from
heat, even when left unshaded, while strong colonies are puffing and
blowing like the runner of a foot-race. Why is this? Isn't it because
the strong colony is suffering from the accumulation of its own heat—
that generated by itselfi—that can not escape fast enough? If this is
true, why isn’t a chaff hive the most insufferably hot place imaginable
for a colony of bees in hot weather? Possibly the point is just here:
the bees in the chaff hive have to contend with their own heat only, while
those in the single-wall hive have that from the sun in addition to their
own. The thick walls act as a sort of absorbent of heat—taking it up
during the day, and gradually giving it up during the cool of the night.
54 Advanced Bee Culture

Let this be as it may, a colony can be kept the coolest in a thin-wall
hive in the shade. How do we keep cool in hot weather? We wear thin
clothing, and lie in the hammock in the shade. A colony of bees is a
living, heat-producing body, and can be kept cool in the same manner
that we keep our bodies cool, viz., let its clothing (hive) be thin, with
a free circulation of air upon all sides, above and below, and then
protect it from the sun’s rays.

The color of the hives has a great bearing upon the necessity for
shade. Black, or a dark color, absorbs heat, while it is reflected or
repelled by white. I have seen the combs melt down in an old weather-
beaten hive that stood in the sun, but I never saw them melt in hives
painted white, even if standing in the sun.

There is still another point that has a bearing upon the question
under discussion, and that is the circulation of air about the hives. I
have read of combs melting down in hives standing in shade so dense
that the sun never shone upon them. The trouble was that growing
corn on one side and dense brush upon the other made it so close that
no air circulated.

Shade is not needed in the spring, fall, morning, or evening. The
only time it is needed, if it 7s needed, is the middle of our hottest days;
and some temporary, quickly adjustable, easily removable shade is pret-
erable to an attempt to furnish a permanent shade by growing ever-
greens, grapevines, and the like. In fact, a permanent shade, like that
furnished by an evergreen, is an injury in spring, robbing the bees of
the benefit to be derived from the heat of the sun. In fact, I know of
nothing better than a light board, 2 x 3 feet in size, laid upon the top of
the hive. One of the longest edges of the board is placed parallel and
even with the north edge of the top of the hive, the opposite edge of the
board projecting beyond the hive. This shades the hive when shade is
needed, and only when it is needed—in the middle of the day. Ina windy
situation it may be necessary to lay a brick or stone upon this board
to keep it in place. Don’t imagine that hooks or something of that kind
will be preferable for holding the shade-boards in place. .\ weight is the
simplest, cheapest, and most convenient. I make these shade-boards
by nailing the thick ends of shingles to a piece of inch board four inches
wide and two feet long. They cost only five cents each, and, in the fall,
they can be tacked together, forming packing-boxes in which to pack
the bees for wintering.

For the comfort of the apiarist, it is well to have a few scattering
trees in the apiary ; but let their branches be trimmed to such a height that
they will not be knocking off his hat or gouging out his eyes.

Perhaps this whole matter of shade might be summed up some-
thing as follows: If the apiary is located where the cool breezes can
Shade for Bees 55

fan the heating sides of the hives, wafting away the heat ere it accu-
mulates, and a broad, generous entrance is furnished each tidy white hive,
I am persuaded that shade is not so very essential; but if the hives are
dark in color, or the apiary located where there is not a free circulation
of air, I feel sure that shade is an absolute necessity to prevent the combs
from melting, if for nothing else.

 

Royal Palms of Cuba.
Contraction of the Brood-Nest

The brood-nest is contracted to prevent the production of brood at
a time when the resulting bees would come upon the stage of action at a
time when there would be no honey to gather—when they would be con-
sumers instead of producers. It is also contracted to compel the bees tu
store the honey in the sections instead of in the brood-nest. There are
several reasons why this is desirable. The honey from clover and bass-
wood is white, fine-Havored, and brings a higher price than that gathered
later; hence it is more profitable to force this higher-priced honey into
the sections, and allow the bees to fill the brood-combs, later in the sea-
son, with winter stores from such sources as yield honey that brings a
lower price. When it is desirable, either from its cheapness or from
its superiority as a winter food, to use sugar for winter stores, contrac-
tion of the brood-nest can be so managed as to leave the bees almost
destitute of honey in the fall, which does away with the trouble of ex-
tracting, and leaves nothing to be done except to feed the bees. Such,
in brief, are the advantages of contracting the brood-nest. Where the
honey-flow lasts nearly the whole season, with no long periods of scarcity,
and the quality of the honey is uniform throughout the season, and no
advantage is to be found in substituting sugar for honey as winter stores,
I see little need of contracting the brood-nest, and would advise that it
be of such size that an ordinary prolific queen can keep the combs well
filled with brood in the early part of the season; but where any of the
first-mentioned conditions exist, the bee-keeper who neglects “contraction”
is not emploving all of the advantages that are available.

Asa rule I don’t advise the contraction of the brood-nest of an estab-
lished colony. If it does not properly fill its hive, is too weak, and the
time for putting on sections has arrived, then contraction is necessary
if the colony is to be worked for comb honey. But when a colony com-
pletely fills its hive, and has its combs well filled with brood, I doubt
if much is gained by contracting the brood-nest. So long as the combs
are kept full of brood, the surplus will go into the supers. If any of
the combs of brood are taken away, they must be cared for by other
bees somewhere else, so nothing is gained.

It is at the time of hiving a swarm that | have found contraction
of the brood-nest advisable. Years ago some of the “big guns” in api-
Contraction of the Brood-nest 57

culture were given to lamenting the swarming of bees, because, they
said, with the swarm went all hopes of surplus. As the business was
then conducted, the “big guns” were correct in many instances. The
swarm would be hived in a ten-frame hive, and no supers put on until
the hive was filled. If they had been put on they would not have been
occupied until the lower hive was filled; and by the time this was ac-
complished it often happened that the white-honey harvest had passed.
lf the old colony did not swarm again (usually it did), some return
might be expected from that, unless the season was nearly over. In most
of our Northern States the crop of white honey is gathered within six
weeks, often within a month. If a colony is in condition to begin work
in the supers at the opening of the white-honey harvest, and continues
faithfully at work without swarming, as I have already said, no con-
traction is needed; but suppose the harvest is half over; the bees are
working nicely in the supers; there may be one case of sections almost
ready to come off, another two-thirds finished, and a third in which the
work has only nicely commenced; now the colony swarms; what shall
be done? By hiving the swarm in a contracted brood-chamber upon
the old stand, transferring the supers to the newly hived swarm, and
practicing the Heddon method of preventing after-swarming, work will
be resumed and continued in the supers without interruption, and the
surplus will be nearly as great as though no swarming had taken place.

When the brood-nest is only one tier of frames, the only way by
which it can be contracted is by taking out some of the outside combs,
and filling the space, thus left, by using “dummies.” A “dummy’’ is
simply a brood-frame with thin boards tacked upon each side. It hangs
in the hive and occupies space the same as a comb, only it is a dummy,
just as its name indicates. .A frame wider than a brood-frame may be
used, and this will make the dummy thicker. Don’t have the dummy
touch the sides of the hive, then the bees can not glue it fast. How thick
a dummy should be depends upon how many combs are to be removed.
When using the Langstroth frame I prefer to contract to five frames.

With the Heddon hive, in which the brood-chamber is horizontally
divisible, simply using only one section of the brood-nest contracts the
brood-nest to about the proper capacity. This method of contraction
is preferable to using dummies. Not only is there less labor and com-
plication, but the flatness of the brood-nest, and the absence of any
dummies under the outer sections, make the bees more inclined to work
in the sections.

When the brood-nest is very much contracted, it has a tendency
to cause a newly hived swarm to “swarm out” and leave the hive. When
there is trouble from this source the brood-nest may be used nearly or
quite full size for two or three days, until the swarming fever has abated
58 Advanced Bee Culture

and the bees have settled down to steady work. If newly hived swarms
begin swarming out when I am using the new Heddon hive, I use a
full-size brood-nest for three days, and then shake the bees from the
lower section of the hive, and use this section for the upper section of the
next hive into which I put a swarm.

It has been urged against contraction that it results in small colonies
at the end of the season. If it is carried to too great an extent, and
too long continued, it certainly does. Ifa man wishes to turn bees into
honey, so to speak, contraction of the brood-nest will enable him to
accomplish his object. If colonies are too weak in the fall as the result
of severe contraction, they must be united; but the course pursued by
nearly all who practice contraction is to enlarge the brood-nest again in
time for the colony to build up sufficiently for a fall flow of honey, if
there is one, or to become strong enough for winter. When bees are
wintered in a repository of the proper temperature, I have never found
that unusually populous colonies were any more desirable than smaller
ones. This is one advantage of cellar wintering; the population may be
reduced to the minimum during the consumptive, non-productive part of
the year.
The Use and Abuse of Comb Foundation

That comb foundation has been a boon to bee-keepers, no one doubts ;
that money expended in its purchase is often returned many fold is
equally true; but such is not always the case. All through the working
season wax is being secreted to a greater or less extent. If not utilized
it is lost. Of course, bees that fill themselves full of honey and hang in
clustering festoons secrete wax to a very much greater extent than those
engaged in bringing in honey. The bees of a swarm will nearly always,
if not always, be found with large wax scales in the wax-pockets. Hav-
ing found that foundation is used at a profit in some places and at some
times, the bee-keeping world seems to have decided, with almost no experi-
ments, that bees ought never to be allowed to build comb naturally.

Years ago I practiced hiving swarms upon empty combs, upon foun-
dation, and upon empty frames—empty except starters of foundation.
The first swarm was hived upon comb, the second upon foundation, and
the third upon starters only. This order was continued, the first year
it was tried, until fifteen swarms were hived, when the use of empty
combs was discontinued, as it was only too evident that they were used
at a loss. I have reference here to what was used in the brood-nest in
hiving swarms when raising comb honey. The difficulty with drawn
combs is just this: Before the queen will lay in old combs, the cells
must be cleaned out and “varnished” or polished until they shine; and
long ere this, especially if there is a good flow of honey, they will be badly
needed (and will be used) for storage. In other words, combs are
ready for honey before they are ready for eggs, and the bees fill the
combs at once with honey, when, from some perversity of bee-nature,
work, in many instances, comes almost to a standstill. Having filled the
body of the hive, the bees seem disinclined to make a start in the sections.
Where bees commence storing their surplus, there they seem inclined to
continue to store it; and let the bees once get the start of the queen
by clogging the brood-nest with honey, and that colony becomes prac-
tically worthless for the production of comb honey.

The advantage of full sheets of foundation over starters, or vice
versa, was not so apparent, and, until the close of the season, an equal
number of swarms were hived alternately upon full sheets of foundation
and upon starters. Enough was proved the first season to show that,
60 Advanced Bee Culture

so far as surplus was concerned, nothing was gained by using foun-
dation in the brood-nest, except for starters, when hiving swarms. I have
since continued to experiment, year after year, by hiving swarms alter-
nately upon foundation and upon starters only, in the brood-nest, weigh-
ing both surplus and brood-nests at the end of the season, and the
evidence has been in favor of empty frames cvery time. Occasionally
I have hived a swarm upon crawn combs, but the loss has always
been so great that it seems like folly to repeat it.

When full sheets of foundation are used in the brood-nest, and
the brood-nest is so contracted that some of the bees must enter the
sections, and the sections are filled with drawn comb, or partly drawn,

 

 

Bees Secreting Wax and Building Comb.

the honey must, from necessity, be stored in the supers until the foun-
dation in the brood-frames can be drawn out; and even then, having
commenced work in the sections, the bees will not desert them. But
there is only one queen furnishing cggs while hundreds of busy, eager
workers are pulling away, with might and main, drawing the founda-
tion out into comb; and the time eventually comes when there are
thousands of empty cells in the brood-nest. Now, Nature has no
The Use and Abuse of Comb Ioundation 61

greater abhorrence for a vacuum than has a bee for an empty cell
during a flow of honey; so, while the general orders are “up stairs with
the honey,” no cells in the brood-nest are left empty very long. Es-
pecially is this true with a deep brood-nest and yellow Italians.

If a swarm is hived upon starters only, the first step is, necessarily,
the building of comb. If a super filled with drawn or partly drawn
comb (not foundation) is placed over the hive, the bees will begin
storing honey in the combs in the super at the same time that comb-
building is begun below. .\ queen-excluder must be used to keep the
queen out of the supers, then she will be ready with her eggs the
moment a few cells are partly finished in the brood-nest; and if the
latter has been properly contracted she will easily keep pace with the
comb-building. The result is that nearly all of the honey goes into the
supers, where it is stored in the most marketable shape, while the combs
in the brood-nest are filled almost entirely with brood. When bees are
hived upon empty frames, a small brood-nest is imperatively necessary,
otherwise large quantities of honey will be stored therein; and when
bees build comb to store honey, particularly if the yield is good, they
usually build drone comb. So long as the queen keeps pace with the
comb-builders, worker comb is usually built; but if the brood-nest is so
large that the bees begin hatching from its center before the bees
have filled it with comb, and the queen returns to refill the cells being
vacated by the hatching bees, the comb-builders are quite likely to
change from worker to drone comb.

No fairer question could be asked than: “What are the advan-
tages of this system?” In the first place, the cost of the foundation
is saved; but, although this is a great saving, it comes about incidentally,
as the non-use of foundation is only a means to an end, and that is,
the profitable securing of the greatest possible amount of honey in
the most marketable shape, leaving the brood-nest so free from honey
that no extracting is needed when the time comes for feeding sugar
for winter stores. Those who for any reason do not wish to use
sugar may still take advantage of this system of putting the unfinished
sections back on the hives in time for the honey to be carried down
and stored in the brood-nest for winter. Or a case of brood-combs may
be put on over the sections as the harvest draws to a close, instead of
putting on another case of sections. This will do away with nearly all
unfinished sections, and the case of filled brood-combs can be given the
colony at the end of the season in place of i/s empty combs. By either
plan the number of fintshed sections is increased.

The greatest objection to this plan is that it can not be depended
upon to produce all perfect brood-combs. J think I am safe in saying
that I have had thousands of combs built under this management, and
62 wldvanced Bee Culture

I think that at least eighty per cent of them were as perfect as it would
be possible to secure by the use of full sheets of foundation. A much
larger percentage was perfect when I was using mostly the Langstroth
frame, and contracted the brood-nest to only five frames. This made
the top of the brood-nest, where the bees commence their combs, so
small that the swarm completely covered it. All of the combs were
thus commenced at the same time. As a rule, they were nearly as per-
fect as possible, at least so far as straightness was concerned. When
I came to using the Heddon hive more extensively I discovered that
the greater surface at the top allowed room for the starting of more
combs, that the outside combs would not always be started so soon as
the center ones, and this sometimes resulted in the bulging of some of
the combs.

Sometimes drone comb will be built in spite of contracted brood-
nests. Usually this is the result of old queens. But then, we can’t
always have young queens, hence I can only repeat that this method
gives excellent results in the way of surplus, but can not be depended
upon always to furnish perfect brood-combs. Some keep watch of
the brood-combs while they are being built, cutting out crooked, bulged,
or drone comb, and using it in the sections. I can not think favorably
of such work. When I hive a swarm I wish that to be the end of the
matter. No opening of brood-nests, and puttering with imperfect combs,
during the hurly-burly of swarming-time, would be desirable for me.
But I do think favorably of contracting the brood-nests when hiving
swarms, then uniting colonies at the end of the season, culling out the
imperfect combs and rendering them into wax. I think all such combs
are built at a profit.

If securing straight, all-worker combs is not the greatest advantage
arising from the use of foundation, it is certainly next to the greatest.
The advantages of having each comb a counterpart of all the others,
to be able to place any comb in any hive—in short, to have each inter-
changeable with all the others, and to be able to control the production
of drones, to have them reared from such stock as we desire, and in
such quantities, no more and no less, all these are advantages that can
not be ignored, even at the cost of filling our frames with foundation,
and securing a little less surplus. We must have straight worker combs.
If they can be secured without foundation, well and good; if not, it
must be used. By using weak colonies or queen-rearing nuclei or by
feeding bees in the fall, straight all-worker combs may be secured at a
profit.

Perhaps the greatest immediate profit arising from the use of foun-
dation is not so much in the saving of honey that would otherwise
have been used in the elaboration of wax as in the quickness with which
The Use and Abuse of Comb Foundation 63

it enables the bees to furnish storage for honey. When bees are storing
honey slowly, the wax that they secrete without consuming honey ex-
pressly for that purpose probably furnishes sufficient material, and there
is probably abundant time for the building of comb in which to store
the honey. As the flow of honey increases, the handling of larger
quantities of nectar increases the natural or involuntary wax secretion;
but as the yield of honey increases, a point is reached when honey must
be consumed expressly that wax may be secreted. It is quite likely that,
at this point, foundation may be used at a profit to aid the bees in fur-
nishing storage. When the yield is so great that the bees can not secrete
wax and build comb with sufficient rapidity to store all of the honey
that they might gather, then foundation is certainly used at a profit.
Furthermore, I have seen the yield of honey so bountiful that even
foundation did not answer the purpose; the bees did not draw it out
fast enough to furnish storage for all of the honey that could have been
brought in. At such times drawn combs are needed in the supers.

It will be seen that this question of foundation is one to which
there may be profitably given much thought and experimentation. If
the bee-keeper lives where the honey-flow is light, but, perhaps, pro-
longed, he will find it more profitable to allow his bees to build their
own combs. If he can’t get perfect brood-combs, he certainly can allow
the bees to build their own combs for the surplus comb honey. And,
by the way, no comb built from foundation can ever equal the delicate
flakiness of that built naturally by the bees. If the honey comes in
“floods,” as it sometimes does in some localities, the man who allows
his bees to build their storé-combs unaided at such a time, loses dollars
and dollars. If foundation is needed only for the sake of securing
straight worker combs, it need not necessarily be heavy. All foundation
in brood-frames, upon which swarms are hived, should be wired to
prevent sagging and breaking down.
Increase, Its Management and Control

There are two classes of bee-keepers who desire to prevent increase
in the number of their colonies. The first, and by far the larger class,
own large home apiaries, and prefer surplus to increase. This class
can allow swarming, if, by some simple manipulation, the number of
colonies can be kept the same, and the bees induced to devote their
energies to the storing of honey. The second class are the owners of
out-apiaries; and while they may not be so particular about preventing
increase, they do wish to prevent swarming. This accomplished, the
out-apiaries can be left alone, except at stated intervals.

In reply to the question, “Why do bees swarm?” it has been replied
that “It is natural.’” “It is their method of increase.” This may be
true, in part, but it is not a satisfactory answer. I have never known
a season to pass in which all of the colonies in my apiary swarmed or
else didn't swarm. (ne year I had seventy-five colonies. They were
worked for comb honey. Forty of them swarmed; thirty-five of them
didn’t. It would have been just as “natural,” just as much “according
to nature,” for one colony to swarm as for another. In Gleanings for
1889 there was quite a lengthy discussion in regard to the causes that
lead to swarming. The chit of the «liscussion seemed to be that an
undue proportion of young or nurse-bees to the brood to be nursed
was the prime cause of swarming. If the brood-nest is well filled with
brood, then for lack of room the bees begin storing honey in the cells
from which the bees are hatching; the result is that soon there is but
little brood to care for, compared with the number of nurses or young
bees. This theory is strengthened by the fact that, when bees are given
an abundance of empty comb in which to store their honey, swarming
very seldom occurs. In short, extracting the honey, or, to be more
exact, giving plenty of empty combs, is the most successful, practical
method of controlling increase. In large apiaries, especially out-apiaries
that can be visited only at intervals, it is well nigh impossible to keep
every colony always supplied with empty combs, hence there will be
occasional swarms. If there is to be some one present to hive what
few swarms do issuc, and prevention of increase is desired simply that
the amount of surplus may be greater, and the surplus is preferred in
Inerease, Its Alanagement and Control 05

the extracted form, then the man with these desires can have them
gratified,

In the production of comb honey it is doubtful if there is a profitable
method of preventing swarming, although, of late, the practice of what
is termed “shook swarming” enables the bee-keeper to swarm a colony
in a manner very nearly approaching natural swarming when he finds
that preparations are being made for swarming. When he finds a colony
building queen-cells he knows that within a few days, a week at the
utmost, the colony will cast a swarm; and, instead of waiting, and allow-
ing the colony to swarm when it has completed its first queen-cell, he
takes the matter into his own hands by shaking off most of the bees and
the queen into a new hive, treating this shaken swarm in exactly the
same manner as he would treat a swarm that had issued naturally. In
other words, the bee-keeper simply forestalls what would have occurred
naturally, in a few days, if the colony had been left undisturbed. The
advantage is that the bee-keeper can thus bring about the swarming
when he is present to attend to it, instead of having it happen when
no one is present. This plan enables him to visit out-apiaries at stated
intervals, giving each colony an examination, and “shaking” those that
are making preparations for swarming. A colony that is not building
queen-cells is not likely to swarm inside of a week, and may be left undis-
turbed until the next weekly visit. Another minor advantage of shook
swarming is that it does away with the uniting and mixing up of two
or more swarms that may issue at the same time in a large apiary, where
natural swarming is allowed. Failures in shook swarming result, as
a tule, from doing the work too carly in the season, before the colony
has made preparations for swarming, and in not disturbing the becs
sufficiently at the time, thus causing them to fill themselves with honev,
as they do when swarming naturally. Before beginning the work, it is
well to jar the hive, or pound upon it, until the bees are thoroughly
frightened, and have filled themselves with honey. If it is desirable to
have increase, the old hive can be given a new location and a laying
queen, or a ripe queen-cell. If no increase is desired, the old hive can
be set by the side of the new one, with its entrance turned slightly to
one side; then, at the next visit, it may be shifted to the other side of
the new hive, when the flying bees will enter the new hive. A week
later it may be placed back upon the other side, and, at the next visit,
three weeks from the swarming, the few remaining bees may be shaken
out of the old hive. The shifting of the old hive, from side to side of
the new hive, may be omitted, the old hive being left standing by the
side of the new one until the three weeks have elapsed, when all of the
bees may be shaken in with the new colony. The advantage of the
former plan is that some of the hatching bees are sooner thrown into
66 Advanced Bee Culture

the hew hive, where their work will be to the greater advantage of the
owner.

To avoid all danger from after-swarming, it is desirable to shake
the combs quite clear of bees when making a “shook swarm,” and this
sometimes results in chilled or starved brood. There is a way, however,
to avoid this difficulty. Set the new swarm a little to one side of the
old stand. The flying bees return to the old stand and care for the
brood. At night the hive containing the brood, and the flying bees that
have returned and entered it, is picked up and carried to a new stand,
and the “shook swarm” placed upon the old stand. Of course, the old
bees that are carried to the new stand gradually come back to the old
stand, and join the “shook swarm,’ but it is one or two days before
they all get back, and, in the meantime, young bees are hatching out;
and by the time the old bees have all returned, there are sufficient young
bees hatched to protect and feed the brood.

When natural swarming is allowed to the extent of first swarms,
it is an easy matter to prevent the issuing of after-swarms in a home-
apiary where there can be daily attention. The plan is very similar to
the one just mentioned for preventing increase when practicing shook
swarming. When the season for surplus honey closes with clover or
basswood, it is better not to try to secure surplus from both the parent
colony and the swarm. Hive the swarm upon the old stand, transferring
the supers from the old to the new hive. If the brood-chamber of the
new hive is not too large, work will be at once resumed in the sections.
Place the old hive by the side of the new one, with its entrance turned
to one side—that is, have the rear ends of the hives nearly in contact,
but their entrances perhaps two feet apart. Each day turn the entrance
of the old hive a few inches toward that of the new hive. At the end
of the sixth day the two hives should stand side by side. Practically,
the two hives are on one stand. True, the bees of each hive recognize
and enter their own home: but, remove one hive and all of the flying
bees would enter the remaining hive. Usually the second swarm comes
out on the eighth day after the issuing of the first. Now, if the apiarist
will, on the seventh day, about noon, when most of the bees are a-field,
carry the old hive to a new location, all of the bees that have flown from
the old hive since the issuing of the swarm, that have marked the old
location as their home, will return and join the newly hived swarm.
This booms the colony where the sections are, and so reduces the old
colony, just as the young queens are hatching, that any farther swarm-
ing is abandoned. The old colony just about builds up into a first-class
colony for wintering. If there is a fall honey-flow, such a colony may
store some surplus then. This method of preventing after-swarming,
called the Heddon method, is not infallible. Tf a colony swarms before
Increase, Its Management and Control 67

the first queen-cell is sealed, the first young queen may not hatch until
the old colony has been upon the new stand long enough for a sufficient
number of bees to hatch to form a swarm; but, as a rule, this plan is
a success. If an after-swarm does come out, I open the hive, while the
swarm is clustering, cut out all of the queen-cells, return the swarm,
and that is the end of the swarming. If the bee-keeper desires no
increase. he can pursue the plan just given until it is time to remove
the old hive to a new location, when it may be shifted to the opposite
side of the new hive, with its entrance turned to one side; then gradually
worked back to the side of the new hive, as has been already explained.
then, at the end of the week, shifted back to the other side, where it
may stand another week, when all of the bees may be shaken out, and
the hive and combs removed. What little honey remains in the combs
may be extracted, or, if some of them are well filled with honey, they
may be saved to give any colony that is lacking in stores at the approach
of winter.

There seems to be no good plan of allowing bees to swarm, and
then preventing increase by uniting, without having an extra set of
combs built for each swarm that issues, and the same may be said when
shook swarming is practiced; but I believe such combs are produced at
a profit.

There is still another plan of preventing increase, besides that of
merging the old colony into the new; it is that of contracting the brood-
nest of the newly hived swarm to such an extent that the end of the
season will find it too much reduced in numbers for successful wintering,
when it may be united with the parent colony.

Quite a number of bee-keepers have succeeded to their entire satis-
faction in preventing after-swarming, also in preventing increase, while
only a few have succeeded in preventing swarming when working for
comb honey. Probably the only certain method that has been used to
any extent, in this country, is that of removing the queens just at the
opening of the swarming season, leaving the colonies queenless about
three weeks. Of coursc, queen-cells must be cut out at least once during
this interval. Although a few good men practice this method, I never
could bring myself to adopt it—there is too much labor.

The man who is raising comb honey as a business will find it to his
advantage to allow each colony to swarm once, if it will (and no more).
then make the most out of the swarm. Whether the swarm and the
old colony shall be again merged into one, depends upon the desirability
of increase.
The Hiving of Bees

Natural swarming, with its uncertainties, anxieties, and vexatious
losses, is destined to become eventually a thing of the past. Methods
of controlling increase, preventing it altogether, or else doing the work
artificially, will reach such perfection that swarming will be eliminated.
Many bee-keepers are already forestalling swarming by some artificial
method of increase, notably that of shook swarming. No professional
bee-keeper, worthy of the name, any longer allows natural swarming,
uncontrolled, in a large apiary. The days have passed when we can
afford to allow several swarms, issuing at the same time, to join forces
and make merry in the top of some tall tree. Even if swarming is
allowed, the queens are either clipped or else controlled by means
of queen-traps in front of the entrances of the hives. Two or more
swarms issuing at the same time may unite, and give trouble by attempt-
ing to enter one hive when they return, but there will be no loss of bees
nor climbing of trees. The bees will stay in the yard, and can be brought
under control.

When swarming is allowed, I believe that the majority of advanced
bee-keepers now hive their swarms by having the queens’ wings clipped,
and allowing the bees to return to their old location, which they will
do when they find the queen is not with them. Of course the queen
attempts to follow the bees, and is found in front of the hive by the
bee-keeper, who cages her and sets the old hive to one side, replacing
it with a new hive prepared for the occupancy of the swarm. When
the bees return they enter into the new hive, supposing it to be their
old home, thus hiving themselves. While they are entering the hive the
queen is allowed to run in with them, and the work is done.

There is another method of carrying out this principle—that of
catching the queen in a trap in front of the hive. The lower part of
the trap is covered with perforated zinc, the perforations being of such
a size that the workers can pass but not the queen. When a swarm
issues, the queen attempts to follow, and, eventually, finds and passes
through a cone-shaped opening in the upper part of the trap. Here
she finds herself trapped in another apartment, as the chance that she
will find the narrow mouth of the cone, and return, is as one in a
thousand. The use of the trap saves clipping the queen’s wing, also
The Hiving of Bees 09

the looking for her when the swarm is out, together with the possibility
of her being lost. The objections to the trap are its cost, a slight
hindrance to the bees passing out and in, and its interference, somewhat,
with the ventilation of the hive. A trap placed over the entrance of a
hive containing a newly hived swarm will prevent loss if the swarm
attempts to abscond.

 

If only one swarm would issue at a time, there would be no difficulty
at all in managing swarms with clipped queens. When two or more
swarins come out at the same time, and no water is thrown between
them, they are almost certain to unite. After circling about for awhile
the bees return. If each bee would return to its old location, all would
be well; but when the bees of one swarm begin to go back, a large
share of the bees in the air follow them. A few bees from each swarm,
even if several swarms have united, will return to their respective homes,
but the majority will “follow my leader.” It is impossible to give any
set rules to be followed in such emergencies. If only two swarms have
united, the bees may be allowed to enter the new hive until it is esti-
mated that one-half the bees are in the hive, when it may be set out
upon a new stand, and given one of the queens, then another hive sect
upon the old stand, and the rest of the bees be allowed to enter. It
should not be forgotten that, as a rule, other things being equal, a bee
is worth as much in one hive as in another. Some bee-keepers, when
several swarms come to one place, take supers from other hives, where
the bees are working none the best, and place them upon the hive where
the bees are entering. .\s soon as the supers are full of bees they are
returned to the hives whence they were taken. .\ colony made unusually
strong by uniting swarms will store more honey, but will be no stronger
at the end of the season.

Another plan of managing where several swarms come out at the
same time is not to allow the bees to return to their old locations, but
put the caged queens in baskets, each queen in a separate basket, and
hang the baskets on the branches of a tree where the bees show a dis-
position to congregate. The bees soon find and cluster about the queens
70 eldvanced Bee Culture

in the baskets. As soon as a queen is found with sufficient bees to
form a good swarm, remove the basket to a shady place, and cover with
a cloth. Then remove the next basket that secures the proper quota,
and so on to the end. Or the bees may be allowed to cluster about a
single queen in a single basket, then the cluster divided up. and each
division furnished a queen.

When natural swarming is allowed in a large apiary, and there is
some one in constant attendance during the swarming season, I know
of no more satisfactory method of managing than by the use of a
swarm-catcher. With this arrangement there is no catching of queens,
no climbing of trees, nor mixing of swarms—the control is perfect. The
catcher is a light frame-work, about three and one-half-fcet long, sixteen
inches square at the large or outer end, then tapered down to about
three by sixteen inches at the small end. The outer end is closed with
a removable door covered with wire cloth. The rest of the frame is
covered with canvas or ducking. The small end is so made that it fits
nicely to the entrance of a hive, and a portion of the cloth covering
— beyond the small end, and forms a sort of flap that can be drawn
over the mouth of the catcher, and fastened to
keep the bees in after they have entered In a large
apiary there ought to be as many as half a dozen
catchers scattered about the vard. When a swarm
2 Is seen issuing, a catcher is quickly adjusted to the
entrance of the swarming-hive. In five minutes the whole swarm is in
the catcher, when the catcher is closed and set in the shade, or carried
to some cool place, like a cellar. The queen is usually among the last
to leave the hive, so there is seldom a failure in catching her. If swarms
come thick and fast, there is no objection to leaving the swarms several
hours without hiving, provided they are not left in the sun. Although
there is probably no necessity for it, they can be kept two days in a
cellar. When the bees have been “cooled down” in this manner, and
are then shaken down in front of the hive that is to be their home, they
march in with scarcely a bee taking wing. Where some one can be in
attendance, the swarm-catcher reduces the hiving business to an exact

 

system.

While I do not approve of old-fashioned swarming, with unclipped
queens, in a large apiary, still, if a man will persist in following that
pian, I will give him the best advice that I can; and, by the way, I can
speak from experience, as I clung to that method until its disadvantages
forced me to abandon it. When queens are allowed to accompany
swarms, water is the great agent by which the bees can be controlled.
Quite a number of pails filled with water should be kept standing in
different parts of the apiary. There ought, also, to be three or four
The Hiving of Bees 71

barrels of water standing about the apiary. Waiting a quarter of a
minute for water, sometimes means the loss of a swarm. For throwing
the water, a hand force pump is the best. With this a stream of water
can be thrown thirty or forty feet. If two swarms issue at the same time,
they can frequently be kept apart by the use of the pump. It is not
necessary to throw a stream of water directly into the center of a swarm,
but along one side of it, with a sort of sweeping movement of the arm,
that makes the stream fall in a sort of shower. The bees dislike water,
and edge away from it. In this way they can be driven in any direction.
Two or three pails of water thrown in this manner upon a swarm seems
to disconcert the bees, and they begin looking for an alighting-place.
If the operator once has a swarm well in hand, there is plenty of water,
and he knows how to use it, it is well nigh impossible for a swarm to
get away.

When queens are allowed to accompany swarms, there ought to
be no tall trees near the apiary, as the swarms will cluster where it is
difficult, even dangerous, to get them. It should be possible to reach
the tops of all trees with a long light ladder. If the tops of the trees
can all be reached from a step-ladder, so much the better. Besides
the pails of water, the fountain pump, and ladders, the bee-keeper will
need three or four baskets. Clothes-baskets are excellent. Upon one
side should be sewed a cover of burlap. When the swarm has been
shaken into the basket, the.cover can be thrown over the top of the
basket, and will keep the bees from flying out. Blocks of wood nailed
to the corners of the cover hold it from being blown off or from
dropping into the basket, should the bees cluster upon the cover. If
set in a cool place, a swarm may be left in such a basket several hours.
When the hive is in readiness to receive the swarm, the cover to the
basket may be turned back, and the bees shaken down in front of the
hive. A few of the bees soon find the entrance, and set up their “call”
of a home is found, when the others follow them into the hive. If an-
other swarm comes out, and attempts to join the one just entering
its hive, a large sheet may be thrown over the hive.

Where several swarms come out at the same time and unite, the
best that can be done is to divide them up as nearly equal as possible
into several swarms. When a queen is found she is to be caged. Any
swarm that has no queen will soon show its queenlessness bv its rest-
lessness. The bees will begin running out of the hive and taking wing.
One of the caged queens should then be given such a swarm, when, as
by magic, the bees will change their behavior and go into the hive.
 

Cluster of Naturally Built Queen-cells from one of

which a Queen has Hatched.
Introducing Queens

To introduce a queen to a colony of bees, two things must be well
considered—the condition of the bees and the condition of the queen.
The condition and behavior of the queen is very important. If she will
only walk about upon the combs in a quiet and queenly manner, and go
on with her egg-laying, she is almost certain to be accepted if other
conditions are favorable. Let her run and “squeal,’’ utter that sharp
“zeep, zeep, zeep,’ and the bees immediately start in pursuit. Soon
the queen is in the center of a ball of tightly clinging bees, and the
only course is to smoke the bees severely until they release the queen
from their embrace, when she must be recaged for another trial. Right
here a caution: Don’t hold the smoker too near the ball of bees, as ot
smoke seems to infuriate the bees into stinging the queen. Hold the
smoker far enough away so that the smoke will become cooled before
reaching the bees. Dropping the ball into a cup of water has been
recommended to induce the bees to release the queen. To the inex-
perienced. this may be the better plan, as it often happens that one of
the bees will grasp the queen and endeavor to sting her, smoke or no
smoke, and, in the attempt to rescue the queen, a novice is quite likely
to injure her.

The Simmins method of introducing queens is an illustration of
how great a part is played by the attitude of the queen toward the
workers. He removes the reigning queen a few hours previous to
liberating the new queen, and then, just at, dusk, so late that the
bees are through flying, and too late for the queen to take wing, the
queen is released at the top of the hive and allowed to run down
among the combs. And here comes in the important point: For half
an hour before the queen is released, she is kept away from the bees
and away trom food; hence when she comes in contact with the bees
she is hungry, and at once asks for food, instead of racing about the
combs. The bees begin to feed and caress her, and all goes well.
I believe Mr. Simmins claims that this method is almost infallible; and
I remember that I once introduced ten queens by this plan without
the loss of one. It was during a honey-flow, however, and many
plans that prove successful at such a time may miscarry at times when
74 aldvanced Bee Culture

no honey is coming in. The moral is, to feed when trying to introduce
queens during a dearth of honey.

To introduce a queen from one colony to another in the same
apiary does not call for the skill needed when the queen has been absent
several days from a colony, and is jaded by a long journey. I have fre-
quently taken a queen from a colony, caged and sent it away, and then
immediately taken a laying queen from a nucleus and placed her upon
the spot upon the comb whence I had taken the other queen, and had
the satisfaction of seeing her immediately surrounded by a circle of
admiring retainers. I believe there are times, particularly when honey
is coming in freely, when a colony with a laying queen would accept
another fresh laying queen simply by having her placed upon the combs,
and all would go well until the queens came in contact. Then there
would be a conflict in which the chances of the newcomer would be
as good as those of the old queen.

So far as the queen is concerned, it is important that she be
brought before the bees in a natural manner, in such a place and in
such a way as they would expect to meet her. \When clipping queens
I have often replaced one in the hive by dropping her upon the tops
of the frames, when the bees would immediately pounce upon her as
an intruder. A puff of smoke would cause the bees to “let up,” when
the queen would walk majestically down between the combs, and there
she was not molested, because there was where the bees expected to find
a queen. When I wish to introduce a queen by allowing her to run in
at the entrance, I first shake off the bees from two combs, in front of
the hive, and as they are running into the hive I allow the queen to run
in with them. At such times there are no guards at the entrance; the
bees that are crawling in will not attack the queen, and by the time the
colony has recovered its tranquillity, the queen it quietly parading the
combs.

When a colony has been queenless long enough to build a batch
of queen-cells I usually introduce a queen by simply taking a comb, with
the adhering bees and queen, from a nucleus, and hanging it in the
queenless colony. By means of smoke, or a feather, I drive all of the
bees from one of the inside walls of the hive, and against this side of
the hive I turn the side of the comb upon which is the queen. Then
she is not immediately brought in contact with the excited, strange
bees; but the bees intermingle, and, almost unconsciously, the whole
colony accepts the queen. If any of the queenless bees stray near the
queen, they find her surrounded by a cortege of her own bees. She is
also attending to her duties, and is almost certain not to be molested.

When queens come from a distance, they are more difficult to
introduce. They have not laid any eggs in several days. and are in a
Introducing Queens. 75

jaded condition. It would often be a saving in queens if such queens
were first introduced to nuclei, and then, after they were nicely laying,
introduce them to full colonies by uniting the nuclei with the full
colonies, in the manner just described. It is much easier to introduce
a queen to a nucleus than to a full colony. Take a frame of bees,
brood, and honey from a colony; place it in a hive with an empty comb
by the side of the comb of bees, and set all on a new stand, when, in
24 hours, all of the old bees, the ones that always make trouble with a
new queen, have re-
turned to the old stand,
and the young bees that
are left are almost cer-
tain to accept a queen.
When a queen comes
to hand in a jaded con-
dition it would be a
great advantage if she
could at once be released
upon the combs ; but this
very jaded condition is
against her acceptance. To meet these conditions it is an excellent
plan to cage her against the side of a comb. A cage for this purpose
is made from a piece of wire cloth seven or eight inches square. First
cut out, from each corner, a piece 144 inches square, then ravel out
several strands from each side, after which bend up the sides at right
angles, thus forming a sort of shallow box. The open side of this box
is placed against the side of a comb where young bees are emerging, a
few cells of honey also being included, the queen slipped under the
edge of the cage, when the raveled-out strands of wires are thrust into
the comb, clear up to the cross-wires. Before doing this work it is well
to free the comb of bees. The young bees that hatch will treat her
kindly, and in the mean time she will begin laying when, if the outside
bees seem favorably disposed, the queen may be released by boring a
hole through the comb with the point of a pocket-knife. The hole
should be bored through from the side of the comb that is opposite to
the cage, and, if the comb is simply broken up sufficiently, the bees
will clean out the broken particles and thus allow the queen to pass
through, which releases her at a time when the colony is in a normal
condition, instead of under the excitement that accompanies the opening
of the hive.
I just said that it would be well to release the queen if the bees
were “favorably disposed” toward the queen. If they are “balling”
the cage, clinging to its masses like so many burdocks, their behavior

  
70 aAdeunced Bee Culture

indicates what the queen would have to endure were she within their
reach. The operator must wait until they are in a different mood, until
they are walking quietly about over the cage, as unconcernedly as
upon the combs of honey—perhaps the bees may be offering food to the
queen and caressing her with their antenne. This shows that the bees
are favorably inclined toward the queen, and it is never safe to release
a queen unless the bees show in this manner that they have practically
accepted her.

Speaking of releasing the queen by boring a hole through the comb
reminds me that there is probably no better way of releasing a queen,
let the cage be what it may, than that af stopping the entrance with a
piece of broken-up comb honey, or with some kind of soft candy, and
allowing the bees to eat it out. The bees that first meet the queen
are in good humor from the candy they have eaten; and, as has just
been mentioned, the queen is released quietly at a time when the colony
is undisturbed. After a queen has been released the hive should be left
undisturbed three or four days, or a week, until the queen has com-
menced laying and become fully established as queen of the colony.
When a queen has been released only a short time, she is easily fright-
ened, when she is likely to run and “squeal,” and the result is that the
bees will at once ball her.

When a queen from a distance is to be introduced to a full colony,
the condition of that colony is of the utmost importance. The most
favorable condition is that it be hopelessly queenless. Tet it build a
batch of queen-cells, and remove them after all of the brood has been
sealed, and the bees are almost certain to accept a queen if given to them
in a proper manner. When I was engaged in queen-rearing I don't
know that I ever failed in trying to introduce a queen to a colony that
had built a batch of cells. IT would sooner release a queen after the
bees had discovered the loss of their old queen, and before they had
hegun the construction of queen-cells, than to release her after the cells
were under way, unless | waited until the cells were sealed over and had
been removed.

If the bees are shaken from their combs into a ventilated box,
and kept confined, without a queen, several hours, Mr. Doolittle says
that they will invariably accept a queen if given one in the box. In
other words, they are hopelessly queenless, away from home, confined,
and are ready to accept anything in the shape of a queen.

If the bees can, in some way, be placed in such a condition of
mind (or body) as to let the queen alone until she has gathered the
reins into her hands, so to speak, there is seldom any more trouble
about her being accepted as their sovereign; and one exccllent method
of placing them in that condition is by the use of tobacco smoke. For
Introducing Queens 77

several years I guaranteed the safe introduction of queens that I sent
out, and the tobacco-smoke method was the most successful of any
that I ever asked my customers to try. The day before shipping the
queen, I sent the following notice:

As soon as you receive this notice, remove the queen from the colony
to which you expect to introduce the new queen. When she arrives, put her
away in a safe place until after sundown. Just at dusk, light your smoker.
When it is well going, put in a pipeful of smoking tobacco, put on the cover,
puff until you get an odor of tobacco, then blow two or three good puffs into
the entrance of the hive. Wait two or three minutes, then send in another
good puff or two; remove the cover, drive down the bees with a puff of smoke,
open the cage, and allow the queen to run down between the combs, following
her with a puff or two of smoke, and then put on the cover. Half an hour
later, light up the smoker again, putting in the tobacco as before, and blow
two more good puffs in at the entrance. If no honey is coming in, feed the
colony a pint of syrup each night from the inside of the hive, but don’t disturb
the brood-nest for four or five days.

The tobacco smoke partly stupefies the bees; and by the time they
have—recovered, the queen is in full possession. By doing the work
in the evening the bees are in condition to defend themselves by morn-
ing, should it be necessary.

There is, however, one inethod of introducing a queen that never
tails. It is that of confining the queen in a hive with several combs
of bees just hatching. Go over several hives and find enough combs
from which the bees are just emerging to fill a hive. Choose those
combs having the least unsealed brood, as the most of this will perish.
Shake off every bee, hang the combs in the hive, and close it up bee-tight.
Allow the queen to run in at a small opening, closing it after her. This
work should be done in the fore part of a warm day. In a few hours
enough bees will have hatched to form quite a little cluster, with which
the queen is absolutely safe. If the nights are cool, it might be well
to carry the hive into the house for two or three nights. In five or six
days the hive may be given a stand in the apiary, and the entrance
opened sufficiently to allow the passage of a single bee. So much trouble
as this is not advisable unless the queen is very valuable.

And now, in closing, a word of caution: When buying a queen
from a distance, let out the bees and queen upon a window; catch the
queen and put her into a clean cage; then kill all of the bees and throw
them and mailing-cage into the stove. This is to guard against any
possible chance of getting foul brood into the apiary from infected bees
or honey. A queen has never been known to carry the contagion from
one colony to the other—the only danger is that the food in the cage
might have been made with honey infected with the germs of disease.
Of course, the danger is very slight, even in this direction; but foul
brood has been known to have been communicated in this manner, and
there is no harm in exercising caution.
The Feeding of Bees

Bees are fed to prevent them from starving when they lack stores
in the winter, or in times of scarcity during the summer or fall, to stim-
ulate the rearing of brood in the spring, or at any other time when it is
desirable to furnish them with winter stores when they are lacking in
the fall; also to secure the completion of unfinished sections that may
be left at the close of the honey harvest.

The feeding of bees for stimulating brood-rearing in early spring
is now looked upon by many as of doubtful value. Especially is this
true in the Northern States, where weeks of warm weather are often
followed by a ‘‘freeze-up.” The average bee-keeper in the average local-
ity will find it more satisfactory to feed liberally in the fall—enough, at
least, so that there shall be sufficient stores until harvest. If the hives
are well protected, and the bees well supplied with an abundance of
sealed stores, natural brood-rearing will proceed with sufficient rapidity,
early in the spring, without any artificial stimulus. The only time that
spring feeding is advisable is where there is a dearth of nectar, after
the early spring flow and before the coming of the main harvest. A
few bee-keepers have found it very profitable to feed enough at this
time to keep brood-rearing in progress; then, when the harvest comes
on, the brood-combs are full of brood and food, and the honey must
go into the super instead of being stored in the empty cells of the brood-
nest. Not only this, but, as the result of uninterrupted brood-rearing,
great armies of workers are brought upon the stage of action at the
proper time to help in the securing of the harvest. There come to my
mind now two notable examples of men who have made a great success
of this kind of feeding. One is H. R. Boardman, of East Townsend,
Ohio, and the other was the late Mr. E. W. Alexander, of Delanson,
N. Y. Mr. Boardman uses a quart Mason jar with a perforated cover,
the jar being inverted in a hole made in a shallow box that is placed
in front of the entrance of the hive, the side of the box next the hive
being open so that the bees can enter. The two side pieces of the box
are made in such a way as to leave projections on their lower edges.
on the ends next the hive, and these projections slip into the entrance,
thus holding the feeder in place and making it more difficult for robbers
to gain an entrance to the feeder.
The Feeding of Bees 79

Mr. Alexander, who, by the way, made a success of keeping as
many as 700 colonies in one apiary, made a feeder out of a piece of 2x4
scantling about four inches longer than the width of the hive. With a
cutter-head, or a saw set wabbling, grooves are cut in its upper surface
to within half an inch of the ends. This feeder is placed underneath
the back of the hive, its upper surface on a level with the bottom-board,
the hive being shoved back on the bottom-board sufficiently to cover the
feeder. The feed is poured into the end of the feeder that projects out
beyond the side of the hive, after which a block four inches square is
laid over the projecting end to keep out robbers. When there are
sufficient stores in the hive it is not necessary to feed so very much
honey, a small quantity of food brought into the hive each day encour-
aging the bees to keep on breeding, using their sealed stores for this
purpose.

Before feeding a whole apiary in this manner, year after year, I
would suggest that the bee-keeper make an experiment: Feed one-half
the colonies; keep an accurate account of the cost of feeding, and also
an account of the net profit from each lot. Such an experiment, continued
a few years, will answer the question as to whether such feeding is
profitable in that particular locality.

Do the best we can with most methods of management, there will
always be more or less unfinished sections left at the end of the season.
What shall be done with these is really a serious question. If their
number is not too great, those nearly completed may be sold in the local
market, while the honey may be extracted from the remainder, and the
bees allowed to clean them up by stacking them up in supers, out of
doors, and giving only a small entrance to the pile of filled supers, when
they may be used the next spring as “bait” sections to induce the bees
to make an early start in the supers. If bees in large numbers are al-
lowed to reach the sections while still wet with honey, they will, in
their eagerness, tear down the cells and spoil the combs. For this reason
the entrance should allow only one or two bees to pass at a time.

When the local market is not sufficient to take the nearly completed
sections, and there is a dearth of honey during the hot weather of
August, it is possible to “feed back” extracted honey and secure the
completion, at a profit, of all unfinished sections. I have fed back thou-
sands of pounds of extracted honey for this purpose, and, for the
benefit of those who wish to give the plan a trial, I will describe my
methods.

As soon as I see that the white-honey harvest is drawing to a close,
which, with me, is about the middle of July, I remove all of the sections
from the hives, look them over, take out the finished ones, and sort the
remainder into three grades, viz., almost finished, half done, and just
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a}yaATpUT Sour, POVOp sy, “WoRsod up tapaey oUF St aq “AT ety JO pus youd eu) st Vv

‘apaa,y WOWOg B YWAr Surpaaq JF pesueiry ATE

 

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The Feeding of Bees 81

commenced. The cases containing the first two grades are then placed
upon the hives, one case upon a hive, and allowed to remain until the
bees have taken possession of them.

Then comes the task of selecting the colonies to do the work; and,
by the way, this is the most important point of all. First, the colonies
must be strong; next, they must possess young queens, preferably those
of the current year, although this is not imperative; and last, but not
least, simon-pure blacks are given the first choice. Hybrids are the
next best, while, as a rule, Italians do very poor work in this line. Keep-
ing these points in view, I select one-half as many colonies as I have
cases of unfinished sections upon the hives, and to these colonies I
‘transfer the cases—sections, bees, and all—putting two cases upon a
hive. I have never experienced the least trouble, in any respect, from
thus mixing up the bees, while populous colonies are secured thereby.

If the brood-nests are not already contracted, I contract them. The
greater the contraction, the more satisfactory will be the results, so far
as work in the sections is concerned; but if carried too far it will mate-
rially weaken the colonies by curtailing the production of brood. If
have sometimes contracted the brood-nest to only three Langstroth
combs; and these three combs, when I was through feeding, were three
solid sheets of brood; but, all things considered, I prefer to contract
the brood-nest to about the capacity of five Langstroth combs. There
is also another point that must not be neglected; and that is, that the
brood-combs must not be old and black, otherwise the combs in the
sections will become travel-stained unless removed very promptly upon
their completion. The newer the combs in the brood-nest, the better.

When honey is brought in from the fields it is carried up into the
sections ; that is, the supply, as regards the sections, comes from below.
In feeding back, the feeder is usually placed above the supers, in which
case the supply comes from above. In both instances, the sections in
which the work is the least advanced should be placed nearest the
source of supply. Thus it will be seen that, in feeding back, the sections
that are nearly finished are placed next to the brood-nest, and above
these the grade that is about half completed.

The feeder that I used is the Heddon, which is exactly the size of
the top of the hive, and is placed above the sections. This feeder is
unexcelled for this purpose, as the bees take down the feed from both
sides. This might not seem important, but it is, and for this reason:
when the feed is carried down upon one side only, the sections upon
this side are completed first. When the feed is carried down from both
sides, the sections are finished up very evenly all over the case. In this
feeder, the reservoir is in the center, and just over it the cover slides
back in grooves. There is no contact with the bees, no smoke is needed,
82 Advanced Bee Culture

no propolis is disturbed, and the cover fits so snugly that no odor of
honey escapes to attract robbers.

The bees seem to be able to handle the honey to better advantage
when it is thinned somewhat, say one quart of water to ten pounds of
honey. I heat ten quarts of water over an oil-stove until it boils, then
mix it with 100 pounds of honey; stir it up well, when it is ready for
use. The first feeding should be done at dusk, as it puts the bees in
an excited state, and trouble from attempts at robbing might result.
After the bees have become accustomed to finding honey in the feeder,
feeding produces little or no excitement; still, at dusk is the best time
to feed, as the annoyance of having robber bees follow from hive to
hive, and dive into the feeder reservoir when it is opened, is thus
avoided. The feed is given as fast as the bees take it.

Close watch is kept of the sections in the lower cases; and whenever
a case is found in which all or nearly all of the sections are completed,
off it comes. The case above it is placed next the brood-nest, and

    

  
 
   

ne nb ie?

The Heddon Feeder.

above this case is placed a case of sections brought from the honey-
house, one containing sections of the third grade—that is, those in
which the bees have made the least progress. I continue to bring in
the cases of finished sections as they are completed, replacing them
with the unfinished ones from the honey-house. When the stock of the
latter is exhausted, I am readv to begin to reduce the number of colonies
upon which I am feeding back, and this is done as fast as the sections
are completed.

During all this time, since the feeding commenced I have been
watching each colony and jotting down, upon the cover of the feeder.
its characteristics; and in reducing the number of colonies those are
rejected that have done the least satisfactory work. I continue to keep
two cases upon each hive; and as the colonies work with greatly varying
rapidity, there is no difficulty, by changing about the cases, to keep next
the brood-nest those sections that are the nearest completion. In gather-
ing the sections together upon fewer hives I always take bees and all;
The Feeding of Bees 83

thus I am continually strengthening the colonies upon which I am feed-
ing back.

It is useless to expect the bees to finish up all of the sections upon
a hive. Even though the feeding is continued, the sections will not be
completed in a satisfactory manner. So long as the feeding is continued
the bees seem to reason something like this: “We must make the cells
as deep as possible, and delay the capping until the last moment, in
order to make room for all the honey that we can; and if there are not
cells enough, we must build more, even if it be in the little cramped-up
places between the tiers of sections.” After the combs are drawn out
to full length, filled with honey, and nearly sealed, I have secured better
results by giving the bees no feed for three or four days, then giving
them a light feed, and omitting the feeding for several days. The bees
then behave as though they considered the harvest over and ended. They
seal up most of the cells, and from those that they do not seal they
remove the honey. But there is a much better way of managing the
business. When the sections are all nearly finished I put them upon as
few hives as possible, and still not have more than two cases upon one
hive, and then upon each hive, above the two cases of nearly completed
sections, I place a case of sections filled with comb foundation. The
bees proceed at once to draw out the foundation and fill it with honey,
and this additional storage room appears to bring about a feeling that
there is no further necessity for holding cells open below, and they are
sealed forthwith.

When the two lower cases are completed, the upper case (the one
that was furnished with foundation) will, perhaps, be found to contain
sections half completed, and these upper cases may be gathered together,
bees and all, and placed, two upon each hive, over those colonies that
have shown the greatest aptitude for this kind of work, and the feeding
continued until the sections are almost completed, when it will again be
necessary to place a case of sections containing foundation upon each
hive. I have continued this operation until all the sections were finally
upon one hive, and had all of the sections completed except those in
the case last added on top.

After bees have been fed awhile, they secrete large quantities of
wax. The little flakes of it can be seen between the scales of the ab-
domen, and, unless allowed to build comb, the bees will plaster with
wax the woodwork of the sections, the inside of the feeders, cases, etc.
The moral is, to allow them to build comb. Have a row or two of
sections in the upper case filled with starters only; thus there is secured,
in the shape of comb, what would otherwise be wasted.

Although we can not control the temperature, it may be well to
know that the hotter the weather the more rapid and satisfactory will
be the work of the bees when we are feeding back.
84 wldvanced Bee Culture

If there is any time when separators are needed, it is in feeding
back. If the combs, both finished and unfinished, could be left undis-
turbed upon the hive, and the bees fed until all the combs were finished,
feeding back would be no reason why separators should be used; but
when the unfinished combs are put back in the cases, a great deal of
judgment and patience are needed unless separators are used. Bees
usually leave a space of about 34 of an inch between comb-: and in
putting back unfinished sections, where separators are not used, this
fact must be kept in mind. When the space is less than this, no harm
is done unless it is so small that a bee can not pass through, when
the bees will connect the two surfaces by little bridges of wax; and
when the sections are taken apart these little connecting bridges will
pull pieces out from one comb or the other. When the space is much
greater than 4s, and the comb upon each side is sealed, the bees, es-
pecially if crowded, will construct comb upon the sealed surface of the
other comb, which gives it a very botchy appearance. If the comb at
one side of the space is sealed and the other not, the sealed comb will
be undisturbed, while the unsealed cells upon the other side will be
lengthened out until the space between the two combs is reduced to
about 3%. If, in this instance, the sealed comb is smveth and even, and
in the right place as regards the section as a whole, all will be well;
but if it be concave or convex, the unfinished comb facing it will be
drawn out in conformity with the surface of the finished comb. If two
unfinished surfaces, in the same stage of completion, are brought facing
each other near the center of the super they will be drawn out and
sealed straight and true and alike; if they are near the outside, the
chances are that the comb nearest the center of the super will grow faster
than the one further out, and a bulge will be the result. Combs near
the center of the super are drawn out quicker and finished sooner than
those at the outside and corners; hence [ place at the outside those
sections that are the nearest completion; and especially do I take pains
to have sealed surfaces come next to the sides of the super, while combs
that are furthest from completion are placed in the center. By this
management, all of the combs are finished at about the same time.
Unless some of the combs begin to show signs of travel-stain it is better
to leave on the super until all or nearly all of the sections are completed ;
for, as the combs near completion, this matter of adjustment becomes
more difficult. When separators are used, all of these troubles vanish.

When foundation is used, and comb honey produced “right from
the stump,” so to speak, by the feeding of extracted honey, we have
none of this patching, bulging difficulty to contend with, as all of the
combs grow alike; and some of the finest, straightest, plumpest and
most handsome comb honey can thus be produced that the eye ever
The Feeding of Bees 85

beheld; but I have never found it profitable, except by placing a few
cases on top, near the close of finishing up a lot of unfinished sections,
to give the bees room, and thus induce them to seal up nearly finished
combs, as has been already explained.

I know of only two objections to the feeding-back of extracted
honey. One is that fed honey has a slightly different taste from that
stored directly in the combs from the flowers. There seems to be a
sort of “off” taste, or lack of flavor. This lack of fine flavor is not
very pronounced, but it can be noticed by those who are experienced
in the matter. It is possible that this taste comes from the thinning
of the honey and the handling of it about in different vessels, as well
as the continued use of a wooden feeder. The other objection to fed
honey is that it will candy much quicker than other honey. \When the
sections are nearly completed, and feeding is done simply to have them
completed and sealed over, the proportion of fed honey is so small that
these objections are not very serious. Fed honey ought to be sold early,
and in a market where it will be consumed before it candies.

Taking one year with another, I have secured about two pounds of
comb honey from the feeding of three pounds of extracted. With the
right kind of weather and colonies, I have done much better—secured
four pounds from the feeding of five.

The advantages of feeding back honey can be stated in a few words:
Comb honey is more salable, and at a higher price, than extracted; and
if the latter can be changed into the former at no great expense, there
are quicker sales and greater profits. The greatest advantage, how-
ever, is in securing the completion of nearly finished sections.

I think that the feeding-back of extracted honey is on the wane,
as bee-keepers are learning how to lessen greatly the number of unfin-
ished sections at the end of the season; and my object in describing the
practice is not to recommend it for general use, but to furnish the neces-
sary instructions should circumstances arise making it desirable to follow
them.

When bees require feeding in the fall, almost any kind of feeder
will answer the purpose. If nothing better is at hand, a tin pan or any
open dish may be set in an upper story, and a piece of burlap laid in
the feed as a float for the bees to stand upon. A good-sized feeder, one
that will hold from fifteen to twenty pounds, like the Heddon, for in-
stance, greatly facilitates the work, however. Bees can be fed with the
Heddon feeder when it is so late and cool that no other feeder would
answer. Fill the feeder with syrup as hot as it can be and not burn the
bees; then set the hive over the feeder, when the heat from the syrup
will warm and rouse up the clustered bees, and they will come down and
carry up the feed in short order.
86 Advanced Bee Culture

The idea seems to prevail that all winter stores must be sealed.
This is an error, and probably arose from the fact that late-gathered
stores are often of poor quality—not because they may be left unsealed,
but from the quality itself. A good thick syrup made from granulated
sugar is an ideal winter food whether it is sealed over or not; in fact,
bees in a warm cellar may be successfully wintered on sugar syrup
supplied to them daily by means of a feeder. .\ large flat cake of candy
laid over the cluster, and covered with enameled cloth, with packing
of some kind over that, is a handier method of winter feeding; but,
aside from that, it is not superior to the use of syrup when the bees
are in a warm cellar, but it would be out of doors.

In closing let me caution the bee-keeper to beware whence comes
the honey that he feeds. Let him be sure that it contains no germs of
foul brood. To buy honey in the open market and feed it to the bees
would be a most risky proceeding. For stimulative feeding, and for
winter stores, better buy sugar. It is cheaper, safer, and better—espe-
cially so for winter stores.

 

 

 

Photographed by H. I. Hill.
The Production of Comb Honey

Having now considered some of the most important points in modern
bee culture, such as locality, hives, supers, sections, increase, feeding,
varieties of bees, use of comb foundation, etc., let us begin at the opening
of the season, and go briefly over the ground, showing the relation of
these different features to one another, as they are employed in the
production of comb honey.

We will suppose that the early spring has passed; that the bees
have received sufficient protection; been supplied with ample stores; and
that the hives are now teeming with life as we stand upon the threshold
of the main honey-flow. And right here let me say that unless the
colonies are strong and populous, simply overflowing with bees, it is
folly to expect a paying crop of comb honey. If there is any time
when weak colonies may be united to advantage, it is at the opening of
the main harvest, when comb honey is to be the product. Better gather
together, into one hive, three-fourths or even all of the bees and brood
from two, three, or even four hives, and thus have one rousing colony,
than to attempt to secure a crop of comb honey with weaklings. A
comb or two of brood and bees, and a queen, left in a hive at the begin-
ning of the harvest, will build up into a good colony by fall, and possibly
store some honey that may be extracted. No matter how it is accom-
plished, one thing is imperative; and that is, that the brood-nest be
crowded with bees and brood at the opening of the honey harvest.

This condition tends greatly to make the bees begin promptly to
store honey in the supers. And this is important, as, otherwise, the
bees are inclined to crowd the brood-nest with honey as the bees hatch
out, also to “loaf,” and develop the “swarming fever.” If bees can be
induced to begin working in the sections at the opening of the main
honey-flow, it relieves the “‘pressure,’’ so to speak, upon the brood-nest,
which results in more brood, while the turning of the energies of the
colony into the storing of honey does much to keep down the swarming
fever. The greatest attraction that can be placed in the supers is that
of drawn comb. Unfinished sections saved over from the previous season
are excellent for this purpose. As has been explained in a previous
chapter, the honey must be extracted, and the bees allowed to clean up
the combs, when the latter must be packed away in supers where no
88 Advanced Bee Culture

dust nor mice can get at them. I have given supers full of these partly
drawn combs to colonies (one super to a colony) ard had these combs
filled and capped, and ready to come off, just as other colonies supplied
with sections containing foundation only were only making their first
start in the supers. In this case a super of partly drawn combs was
worth as much as a case of finished honey. There is, however, a still
better method of managing this part of the business. It is that of
putting on an extracting-super first; and when this is filled and removed,
the bees are always ready to go to work in the sections tinediately.
For this purpose, shallow supers are preferable; those containing frames
half the depth of the regular brood-frame being the size that is usually
employed for this purpose. The greatest objection to the use of the
full-sized combs is that it requires so much honey to fill a super of them
that it would materially reduce the crop of comb honey. The use of a
shallow extracting-super removes this objection. Again, the beginning
of the white-honey flow is sometimes mixed with an earlier, darker flow,
and the taking of the first of the white flow in the extracted form insures
the perfect whiteness of all honey stored in the sections. Still further,
these half-depth extracting-supers can be used to fully as great advantage
at the end of the harvest as at the beginning—perhaps to greater ad-
vantage. As the time approaches for the close of the harvest, instead
of giving more sections simply set on top of the sections one df these
half-depth extracting-supers. If more honey comes in than is needed
to fill and complete the sections already on the hive, it will “overflow,”
so to speak, into the extracting-super that is on top: thus the honey that
would otherwise go to the making of a lot of unfinished sections is
secured in the extracted form. Getting extracted honey at the opening
and closing of the season, as just explained, certainly has some very
decided advantages. It leads the bees to begin work promptly in the
supers at the opening of the season, keeps all “mixed” honey out of
the sections, and practically does away with unfinished sections at the
end of the season.

When the first case of sections placed on the hive at the beginning
of the harvest is partly finished, it is raised, and another case placed
hetween that and the hive. At what stage of completion the sections
should be when a second case is added depends upon how crowded the
hees are and the rate at which honey is coming in. I usually add an-
other super when the sections in the one next the hive are from one-half
to two-thirds completed. I have not found it profitable to tier up
sections more than three supers in height. .\s a rule, the upper super
is ready for removal before it is necessary to add a fourth. If it is
not, and honey is coming in rapidly, I would transfer it, bees and all,
to some other colony having a less number of cases rather than tier
The Production of Comb Honey 89

up four cases high. With any system in which the sections are finished
close to the brood-nest, their removal is necessary soon after comple-
tion, to prevent their being soiled or “travel-stained” by the bees passing
over them directly from the brood-nest; but with the tiering-up system
the finished combs are so far from the brood-nest that they remain
unsullied until a whole case can be removed at once. During a regular
“honey-shower,” such as we have sometimes, when the nectar all but
drips from the fragrant golden blossoms of the linden, I have seen a
colony draw out the foundation in twenty-eight sections and fill them full
of honey (and here is where I believe foundation is very valuable) in
less than three days, yet scarcely a cell would be sealed. To give the
bees another super next the hive is the work of only a moment. At
such times it may be advisable to remove the upper case, after they
have been tiered up three high, even if there are one or two unfinished
sections in each corner; and, when crating, have an empty super at
hand in which to put the unfinished sections; and when it is full, place
it on a hive.

When a super is ready to come off, there is no easier or less
troublesome method of freeing it from bees than by the use of a Porter
bee-escape, which consists of a tin frame-work or box, inside of which
are two delicate brass springs so nicely adjusted that a bee can easily
squeeze out between their points, but can not return. Openings in the
upper and lower sides of the box allow the bees to pass through. The
escape is fastened into an opening cut in the center of a thin board the
size of the top of the hive, a 3 rim around its edge holding the super
bee-space above the board. To’ use the escape, simply raise the upper
super, lay the escape-board upon the top of the next lower super, replace
the removed super upon the top of the escape-board, and the work is
done so far as the bee-keeper is concerned. The bees, finding them-
selves shut off from the rest of the hive, become excited and make
frantic efforts to escape. Finding one opening by means of which they
can reach “home” they crowd through as fast as possible, when, in a
few hours, the super is free of bees. If escapes are put on at evening,
the supers above them will be free of bees in the morning.

If there is not time to use escapes. or if, for some reason, it is
not desirable to use them, the supers can be freed of bees by other
methods. My practice has been as follows: Have the smoker in good
trim; take off the cover and drive a perfect deluge of smoke down
among the bees. This starts them out of the combs at a lively rate,
and before they have time to come back I have the super off the hive.
The super is then tremulously shaken in front of the hive until most
of the remaining bees are dislodged, when it is taken to the honey-house
and set on end. In a short time the few straggling bees leave the
 

Sprig of Basswood in Bloom.
The Production of Comb Honey gl

super and escape by way of the window, which should have wire cloth
‘over it on the outside, letting it
extend several inches above the
window, and terminate in a small
cone-like opening from = which
the bees can easily find their way
out, but not be very likely to
find their way back. If the
shaking process is found too laborious, and robbers are not troublesome
(and they will not be until the close of the season), the super may be
leaned against the side of the hive, near the entrance, when the bees
will desert the super for the hive. When robbers are troublesome the
stragglers may be driven out with smoke and brushed off in front of
the hive.

By shading the hives, allowing generous entrances, also abundance
of room in the supers, swarming is greatly delayed, and often avoided
entirely with many colonies. I have known seasons when, with this
management, not more than one-half of my colonies swarmed, and I
have frequently had seasons when not more than two-thirds of them
swarmed. When a swarm does issue, | hive it in a contracted brood-nest,
with starters only in the brood-frames, on the old stand; put on a
queen-excluding honey-board and transfer the supers from the old to
the new hive. In twenty minutes, at the outside, the bees are back at
work in the sections that they recently deserted in such a hurry. The
old colony is placed by the side of the new one for a week, when it is
moved to a new stand, thus throwing all of its flying bees into the
colony having the sections, and so depleting the old colony, just as the
young queens are hatching, that there is seldom any after-swarming.
If the swarming takes place early in the season, the old colony may
do something in the way of storing surplus; but, as a rule, it simply
becomes a most excellent colony, with a young queen, for carrying
through the winter.

As the harvest draws to a close, an extracting-super is put on top
of the sections, as has been already explained, or the unfinished sections
may be finished up by feeding back extracted honey, or the sections
nearest completion may be sold in the local market, and those not suffi-
ciently finished for this purpose may be extracted, and cleaned up by
the bees, when they will be ready to use as “baits” to induce the bees to
make an early start in the supers the following spring.

 
Producing Good Extracted Honey

What is it that gives to honey its value? It is not simply its
sweetness, which is of low power, but it is its fine flavor and rich aroma.
These are the qualities which make honey what it is—a luxury—and if
we wish its use continued as a sweet sauce, we must learn to produce
and care for it in such a manner as to preserve its ambrosial, palate-
tickling qualities. Freshly gathered nectar is one of the most silly-tasting
and sickening of sweets. To be sure, it has the flavor of the flowers
from which it was gathered; but that smooth, rich, oily honey taste that
lingers in the mouth must be furnished by the bees. Honey extracted
when “green,” and evaporated in the open air, is not only lacking in the
element that comes from the secretions of the bees, but its blossom flavor
is half lost by evaporation. To be sure, evaporation must take place if
left in the hive; but evaporation in the open air and evaporation in the
aroma-laden air of the hive produce different results.

One reason why comb honey is, in so many instances, found to be
more delicious than the extracted, is because the former is more thor-
oughly ripened, and then sealed up from the air. Seldom do we find
extracted honey equal to that dripping from and surrounding the section
of comb honey that is being carried upon a plate. Many of those who
produce extracted honey in large quantities, extracting it before it is
thoroughly ripened, admit that such honey is inferior, as a table sauce,
to that ripened by the bees, but they say they can not afford to produce
the best article possible. The quantity of honey is not materially lessened
by thoroughly ripening it; if larger crops are secured by extracting it
“green,” it is the result of the stimulus given the bees by furnishing
them such an abundance of empty combs. By the use of plenty
of store-combs and supers, the same results, or nearly the same, may
he obtained, and the ripening of the honey secured, by tiering up. The
interest upon the cost of extra combs and supers is a small thing com-
pared with the putting of unripe honey upon the market. By the use
of plenty of combs, tiering them up, the work of extracting may be put
off until the busy season is over. The great trouble is the lack of in-
centive for producing well-ripened honey for the general market. The
production of extracted honey to be shipped away for some commission
merchant to sell is much like making butter to be sold at a country store.
Producing Good Extracted Honcy 93

All brings the same price. White-clover honey brings so much, buck-
wheat so much. The honey with the fine delicate flavor, the thoroughly
bee-ripened, well-preserved, superior article, will not bring one cent more
in the general market than the ordinary pretty good honey. Perhaps for
manufacturing purposes there is no advantage in having such a superior
article; but for table sauce there is; and the only way in which the man
who produces a really superior article can hope to receive pay for his
extra trouble is by selling direct to consumers or by establishing a repu-
tation for his honey among dealers and their customers. The only secret
in producing a superior grade of extracted honey—honey that will be
the equal of that which drips from the delicate morsel of comb at the
tea-table, is that of leaving it on the hive until it is sealed and thoroughly
ripened. Leaving the honey on the hive a few weeks after it is sealed
seems to give an added ripeness or richness. Here is the plan:

There must be an abundance of empty combs and supers—enough
io hold all of a possible crop—so that the bee-keeper can put on supers
of comb at any time with no hesitancy—just as though the supply were
limitless. Of course, these combs and supers cost something; but they
have to be bought only once, so that their real cost is only the interest
on the money. ‘There is no attempt whatever to extract the honey
during the harvest. All of this hustle and bustle and hurry and worry
to extract in time to give the bees room during the harvest is done away
with. Ifa colony or a whole apiary needs more room, simply give more
supers of comb. This is a quick operation. One man could look after
five or six apiaries, even during the honey-flow, if all he had to do was
to put on supers when they were needed, while one apiary would keep
him busy if he had to extract the honey to give the bees room. If the
hives, or some of them, become piled up too high, it is an easy matter
to remove some of the top supers by the use of bee-escapes, and store
the supers of honey in the bee-cellar—there is no need to extract at the
time of removal unless there is plenty of time for doing the work.

After the harvest is over, comes the work of extracting; but there
is no hurry about it; there are probably two months in which to do the
work. The honey is all on the hives unless some of it has been removed,
as suggested, when that which has been removed should be extracted
first. That which is on the hives is not only safe but daily improving
in quality. Without the invention of the bee-escape this plan would not
be feasible. It is not practical to remove honey and brush off the bees
after the close of the harvest; but by the proper use of the bee-escape
the whole crop can be taken off with no commotion, no stinging, no
robbing, and safely landed in the honey-house without a bee in the
vard fairly realizing what has been taking place.
94 dldvanced Bee Culture

The bee-escape is an important link in this chain; but there is an-
other one equally important, and that is, the use of artificial heat in
warming honey so that it can be extracted when taken off late in the
season by the use of escapes. Honey left on the hive all the season
becomes well ripened and thick, and the ccol weather makes it still
thicker and stiffer; and it would be difficult to extract if the work were
done immediately upon its removal. If taken off in large quantities
by the use of escapes it would be simply impossible to extract it
without warming it up. When it is properly warmed up to the right
degree it can be extracted more readily, easier, and cleaner than when
taken right from the bees in hot weather. As such honey is thoroughly
ripened, there is no necessity for any settling-tanks; the honey can be
run right from the strainer into the cans or barrels.

Perhaps this system of management might be called the gentleman's
system. It certainly is an easy, pleasurable, leisurely way of producing
large quantities of first-class honey at a low cost. There is no hurry,
hurry, hurry to get the honey extracted because the bees are needing
more room; and there is no shaking and brushing of angry bees out in
the boiling sun.

ONE DRAWBACK TO THE PLAN.

There is just one kind of locality where this plan will not work
out so satisfactorily, and that is where the white-honey harvest is fol-
lowed by a dark flow. We have one apiary in such a location—one
where the flow from buckwheat is likely to start in before that from
the berries is finished, and we have to watch it very closely and hustle
off the white honey the very day that the bees show a tendency to begin
work on the buckwheat. It does not take very much dark honey to give
some color to a whole lot of white honey. Work it the best we can,
there will always be some berry honey not ready to extract, and we are
compelled to leave it on the hives to go in with the buckwheat. A fall
flow of honey, even if dark, is considered a great advantage, and usu-
ally it is, but I am not certain but I should prefer a locality without
the fall flow, simply because it would allow me to put in practice my
system of management whereby I could take care of so many more
apiaries than with the management that requires the removal of the
white honey before the close of the harvest.

Having gone briefly over the plan, and shown that the principal
features of the combination are plenty of combs and supers, and the use
of bee-escapes and artificial heat in extracting, let's go back to the
beginning of the season and take up the work, step by step, and give
the more important details.
Producing Good Comb Honey 95

SECURING WORKERS FOR THE IARVEST.

When taken from the cellar, the stores of the colonies are equalized
and the hives protected by being wrapped in tarred felt. No more
attention is required until it is warm enough to remove the tarred felt.
More equalization of stores may be needed, or, if there is a general
shortage, some feeding; and it is almost certain that there must be
more or less equalization of brood before the opening of the harvest.
In a home apiary this equalizing of the brood might not be necessary,
but in an out-apiary it goes a long way toward preventing swarming
too early, by some of the colonies, and helps to make all of the colonies
ready for the same treatment at the same time—a most important factor
in out-apiary management.

When all of the hives are comfortably full of bees, brood, and
stores, upper stories of combs are added, one on each colony strong
enough to need it. No queen-excluder is used at this time. The queen
is allowed full swing in both stories, and this abundance of room at
this time has a great tendency to forestall the swarming fever. Once
the main harvest is on, and the bees at work in two or three stories,
the great danger of swarming is past. In an apiary of 150 colonies,
managed last vear on this plan, only seven cast swarms.

When the upper story is nicely filled, or nearly filled, with bees,
brood, and stores, and the main harvest has fairly begun, a queen-
excluder is placed between the two stories. No time is spent in hunting
up the queens. We simply wait four or five days, when freshly laid
eggs disclose the presence of the queen. As a rule she will be found
in the upper story; if so, we simply transpose the two stories, putting
the upper one below and the queen-excluder on top, and then set on
top what was formerly the lower story. Usually, at this visit most of
the colonies will be ready for the third story.

This plan gives the greatest opportunity for the production of a
lot of bees previous to the harvest, then curtails the rearing of brood
after the harvest has opened, when the production of brood is at the
expense of the surplus. As the bees hatch from the combs above the
queen-excluder, the cells are at once filled with honey. Many of the
colonies will build queen-cells in the supers above the queen-excluder.
I have taken pains to go through the supers and tear out these cells,
and I have paid no attention to them and allowed the queens to go on
and hatch, and I could not see that any harm resulted from either
course—that is, there did not seem to be any difference.

As the season advances I keep on tiering up, adding the empty
supers at the bottom, next to the brood-nest. I have often tiered them

up three supers high, and, in a few instances, four supers high, with
ten-frame Langstroth hives.
96 dldvanced Bee Culture

One object in adding the empty combs at the bottom, and keeping
the oldest, ripest honey at the top, is that, if it should be desirable at
any time to remove any of the supers of honev, either to extract the
honey at once, or because the hive was becoming piled too high, the
oldest honey would always be on top, where it could be removed the
most readily by the use of bee-escapes.

When ten-frame Langstroth hives are piled up four and five high,
the putting-in of the escape-boards is no light task, especially for one
man; and I have tried to plan all of my work so that one man can go
to an outyard, all alone, go on a wheel or in a trolley car. or in some
such manner, and go on and do the work to advantage without any
assistance. I would have a honey-house and full complement of tools
and appliances at each yard; then, during the working season, all that
has to be carried from one yard to another is simply the man himself.

After the escape-boards are in place I go over every hive carefully,
carefully, CAREFULLY, to see that there are no cracks that will let bees
into the super after the inmates have gone down through the escape.
One who has never used escapes will be surprised how small a crack
will let in a bee. The best of any thing that I have ever found to stop
up these cracks in soft clay. Find some stiff clay, just about such as
would be used for making bricks; moisten it, stir it, and work it until
it is of just about the consistency of putty. Take a ball of this in the
hands and go around and examine all the hives, plastering some of the
clay putty into every crack. [I never knew the bees to try to dig out
the mud, and it soon hardens down as hard as a marble.

At each one of our apiaries we have a place to sleep and cook,
even if it is only a tent, and we can go the day before we are to begin
extracting, and put a bee-escape under the top super of every hive. The
next morning most of the supers will be free from bees, and we can
begin taking them off and putting the escapes in under the next story.
As we begin taking off the honey we also begin warming it up, and,
when warm enough, we begin extracting. You will notice that there
are really four operations: Putting the escapes in place; wheeling the
honey into the honey-house; warming up the honey and then extracting
it; and, once the work is begun, it is easv to follow out a sort of routine
in the work.

WARMING UP THE HONEY.

The first year we warmed up the honey with a base-burner hard-
coal stove. This gives a very even, steady, desirable heat; but it is
too expensive, and not very practical, to have a hard-coal stove at each
aplary in the woods of Northern Michigan; so, last vear, we used a
Perfection oil-heater, costing about $5.00, capable of burning a gallon
Producing Good Honey 97

of oil in about eight hours, although much less can be burned. This
is the first oil-burning stove, using a wick, that I ever saw that could
not be made to smoke. It has a cylindrical wick, and just above the
wick is a round plate of iron called the ‘‘flame-spreader,”’ and the wick
is turned up until it strikes this spreader, when it can go no higher,
and it won’t smoke, and can’t be made to do so.

One end of the honey-house or cellar is partitioned off, making
an “oven,” as we call it, large enough to hold fifty or sixty supers. We
fill this up at night, for instance; light the stove before we go to bed,
turning the wick up part way so that the temperature in the upper part
of the room will stand at about 100 degrees. In the morning we refill
the stove, turn it on full blast, and go to extracting, taking the first
supers from the top of the room. As some of the piles are lowered,
more supers are taken from other piles and added to these, thus bring-
ing more honey up into the heated “zone.” As fast as there is vacant
room, more supers are brought in; and a sort of routine is followed
whereby one always has hot honey to work on while more is heating.

UNCAPPING BARRELS AND TANKS.

A cheap cracker barrel set down into a tub makes an excellent
uncapping outfit. Some grocers give the barrels away, if you are a
customer; some ask five cents apiece for them, and I never paid over
ten cents. The cappings can be allowed to stand and drain for weeks
and weeks—no hurry about the barrel; simply pay ten cents for another
one.

I bore three or four holes in the bottom of the barrel for the honey
to run out. This may not be necessary, as such barrels are not water-
tight; but it is a wise precaution to be sure there is a place for the
honey to get out. Then I nail a wooden cross-piece just inside the top
of the barrel; but before nailing the cross-piece in place I drive through
it a ten-penny nail; and when putting the cross-piece in place I turn
the point of the nail upward.

In uncapping a comb the end of the frame is rested upon this nail-
point, which comes as near being a universal joint as any thing with
which I am acquainted. The frame can be turned “every which way,”
and it will not slip about. The barrel is supported over the tub, or
slightly below the top, by means of double hooks made of heavy wire.
In the accompanying engraving one of these hooks is hung outside,
upon one of the handles, to show its shape and make-up. Four hooks
are used, placed equidistant around the edge of the tub, and the barrel
lowered down upon them, the hooks catching just inside the “chime.”
There is still another plan of supporting the barrel that has the ad-
vantage of furnishing handles with which to lift the barrel, and that
  

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Producing Good Honey , 99

is to nail two slats of wood to the sides of the barrel, about four inches
from the lower end. The slats are nailed to opposite sides of the barrel,
at right angles to the staves, and are long enough so that the ends rest
upon the upper edge of the tub. The only objection to this plan is that
the ends project out slightly beyond the edges of the tub, and are just
a little in the way.

A much better uncapping arrangement is the McIntyre uncapping
box as modified by E. D. Townsend. He describes it as follows:

This is a stock-watering tank, made of galvanized steel. It is two
feet deep, twenty-two inches wide, and six feet long, with a gate near the
bottom at one end. A slatted bottom provides for the drainage of the cap-
pings. This slatted bottom of the uncapping-tank is built of %4-inch-square
pieces of white-pine lumber, 21% inches long, spaced %-inch apart, nailed
to two longitudinal pieces of the same material, 2144 inches wide, and a
half-inch less in length than the inside length of the tank. The aforesaid
%4-inch-square pieces are nailed on the edges of the longitudinal strips,
thus forming a 2%-inch reservoir under the frame, to catch the drip from
the cappings.

A COMB-RACK AT THE TOP OF THE TANK.

A frame of %-inch-thick lumber, 2% inches wide, composed of two
Iongitudinal pieces one inch longer than the tank, and two transverse pieces
of the same material, cut 44-inch less in length than the inside width of
the tank. To assemble: Place the two short pieces of material parallel
with each other, the distance apart of the inside length of the tank, less
¥% inch, standing on edge. Transverse of these, and parallel with each other,
18% inches apart at their inside edges, nail the two longitudinal pieces.

Built this way, the two cross-pieces of the frame are on the under side,
and drop down into the tank, and hold the frame in place. Some of our
later tanks have corner-braces at the top; this necessitates placing the cross-
pieces in from the end of the tank. The illustration will show this style
of tank.

The longitudinal pieces of the frame, being placed 18% inches apart,
are the same width as the inside length of the Langstroth hive, and are
built this width to accommodate the frame after being uncapped. Although
this width will allow of the frame of honey being placed down in the same
position as if in the hive, it is rarely used this way, for it is much more
handy to allow but one end of the frame to go down into place, the other
end resting on the bottom-bar.

A rest for the frame of honey while uncapping is made of two pieces
of this same %-inch material, and a 20d spike cut off 14% inches long and
sharpened. The main cross-piece for the rest is cut 22 inches long. This
cross-piece is tacked on with only a small nail at each end, as, when in use,
it is placed at different positions over the tank, at the option of the operator.
The other piece is cut three inches long, and is to hold the sharpened spike
that the frame rests upon while uncapping. This pivot that the frame turns
on when uncapping is driven through from the under side, near one edge.
The pivot-block is nailed on permanently, at the upper place; then, when
the uncapping is to be done from the opposite side of the tank, the whole
cross-piece is tacked on the other end too.
“SUIPeITXY JO SpoyJoP yso}e’] SIE] ul puesumoy, ‘q “A Aq pas~, syueurejdwy

 

   

 

 

 

 
Producing Good Honey 101

Some of the advantages this uncapping-tank has over the cracker-barrel
tank, placed over a wash-tub, as we have been using in years back, are,
first, the greater capacity; second, larger drainage surface, thus leaving a
less per cent of honey in the cappings; third, sanitary, as the honey as it
drains from the cappings is enclosed, and away from the bees, etc., except
as it runs out into the pail under the gate; fourth, convenience. One of the
most disagreeable and “sticky” manipulations about the harvesting of a crop
of extracted honey, where cracker-barrels are used for uncapping-tanks, is
the lifting of the tanks, heavy with honey and cappings; then, each night,
sometimes oftener, the emptying of large tubs heavy with honey.

UNCAPPING.

After the honey is off the hives, and warmed up, the biggest part
of the remaining work is that of uncapping the combs. If they are
thick and “bulging,” they can be uncapped much more easily. If only
eight combs are used in a ten-frame super they will be of this class,
when, by cutting deeply, so as to leave the combs only about one inch
thick, each side can be uncapped with one ‘fell swoop.” It was hard
for me to get over the feeling that I ought to uncap as thinly as pos-
sible—that thick cappings were like thick parings from a potato—but
it really makes little difference whether the honey goes through the
extractor or drains from the cappings.

Very new combs or very old ones do not uncap as easily as those
that are between the extremes. An old comb that has recently been
drawn out thick—that is, the bees have lengthened the cells, partly with
new wax and partly with wax taken from the old comb, is about the
nicest comb to uncap. The lower part of the comb has a stiffness or
stability, while the upper part has sufficient softness to make it cut
easily. A man can afford to go to a lot of pains and expense to get
exactly the right kind of combs to use in his supers—old combs spread
wide out—as the saving of time in uncapping is very important.

To uncap a comb, rest one end upon the nail-point of the cross-piece
over the tank. Stand the comb in a nearly upright position. Hold it
with the left hand, grasping it near the upper end. Begin at the lower
end to uncap, giving the knife a sort of slanting, shaving movement,
such as a barber gives his razor, drawing it back and forth as it cuts
its way upward, at the same time slanting the comb slightly forward
(toward the knife) so that the cappings, as they break off, will drop
into the barrel instead of upon the surface of the comb.

To do the best work when uncapping, the knife ought to be sharp,
hot, and wet. Only the man who has tried it can realize the difference
between such a knife and one that is cold, dull, and dry. I formerly
used a little two-burner oil-stove standing upon a barrel at my elbow,
and upon the stove a tin or pail filled with water. When through un-
102 Advanced Bee Culture

capping a comb I simply laid the knife in the hot water, as it is just as
easy as to lay it down somewhere else. When I begin uncapping the
next comb, the knife was hot and wet.

THE STEAM HEATED UNCAPPING KNIFE A GREAT INVENTION.

But I much prefer the steam heated uncapping knife that keeps hot
continuously. No bee-keeper who has much uncapping to do can afford
to be without one. Many bee-keepers know how a knife will slip through

 

the comb when the knife is first taken from hot water, while it is still hot,
but they know that the knife soon cools, and must be again returned to
the hot water in order to regain its efficiency; well, the steam-heated
knife is hot all of the time; it stays hot—just as hot as steam can make
it—and it .does the work quickly, easily and perfectly. The steam is
generated in a tin can. The size does not matter. We used a gallon

can with a screw cap, having a long, slim tube soldered over a hole made
in the top of the cap. Over this tube is slipped a piece of small rubber

hose, the opposite end being slipped over a tube near the shank of the
knife. The knife is hollow. The steam enters the tube near the shank
and spurts out of a small opening near the point. A single-burner, blue-
flame oil stove, or a single-burner gasoline stove, or an oil burning lamp
stove with two wicks, may be used to generate the steam. The water
must boil considerably so that a good, generous supply of live steam is
constantly passing through the knife. You have no idea how easily it
cuts; then the cappings don’t stick to the knife. About how long will a
piece of butter stick to a hot knife? Just about as long as cappings
will stick to a steam-heated knife. How can they stick when the knife
is just as hot as steam can make it? One man with a steam-heated
knife can uncap honey faster than another can extract it with a four-
frame, automatic extractor. I tried uncapping for a while, and my
nephew couldn’t keep up with me. Then I tried running the extractor,
and he soon had a lot of combs ahead of me. I think one man could
upcap the honey and take away the full cans and box them up and put
empty cans under the strainer gate, as fast as one man could extract
the honey. The steam-heated knife is a practical, efficient tool, and
leaves nothing to be desired in the way of an uncapping machine. If one
man can uncap as fast as the extractor can handle it, what more is
needed?

WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE CAPPINGS?
After the combs are uncapped, the next serious problem is what
to do with the cappings. Until very recently we have uncapped into
Producing Good Honey 103

barrels, and allowed the cappings to drain for weeks, or until they would
drain no more. One objection to this plan is the room occupied by the
barrels, but more serious still is the loss of the honey that does not drain
out. The bees can be allowed to dig out this honey, and carry it home,
but it would be more profitable to sell this honey at market prices, and
feed the bees sugar if they needed feeding. Besides, if there is any
possibility of there being a case or two of foul brood in the apiary, there
is then a possibility of sowing the seeds of the disease throughout the
apiary. For every ton of honey extracted, about fifty pounds of honey
will remain in the cappings after they have drained, and I know of no
method of getting it out in marketable condition. When the wax is
rendered the honey is ruined except for the making of vinegar or for
use in feeding the bees.

EXTRACTING THE’ HONEY.

In Northern Michigan we have, or did have, three four-frame Root
automatic honey-extractors. In the past our idea has been to have a
complete outfit at each yard. As we use a two-horse team in going
to the out-apiaries, we have been considering the plan of having an
eight-frame extractor driven by a gasoline engine. Where only one
or two supers to the hive are employed, and the honey extracted before
the harvest is ended, to give room for more honey, thus calling for
expeditious work, I can see where the power-driven extractor of large
capacity would be of great help. Where men must be hired to help in
the work it might be used to advantage.

The most of our extracting would be done in the fall or after the
hottest weather had passed, and I doubt if the honey would be so warm
as we make it in our warming ovens. I think much more honey would
be left in the combs than when the honey is heated up artificially. Now
then, it is just possible, yes, probable, that the power-driven extractor
might clean out those combs cleaner, even if the honey is not warmed
up artificially, than they could be cleaned by hand when the honey is
warmed. If the honey is extracted without warming, I think it is safe
to assume that the power-driven extractor would secure at least two
ounces more of honey from a Langstroth comb. To be safe, let us put
it at one pound from a ten-frame super. If we get 4o pounds of honey
from a ten-frame super we do well. In producing 20,000 pounds of
honey, our usual crop, we extract 500 supers. If my estimates are
correct, the use of power would save us 500 pounds of honey; thus an
engine would about pay for itself in one year. The expense of running
the engine would probably be not far different from that of warming

the honey.
104 Advanced Bee Culture

 

EXTRACTOR DRIVEN BY GASOLINE-ENGINE.

Another question follows on: Is the honey that is left in the combs
lost or wasted? I know that mast producers of extracted honey
have these combs cleaned up by the bees—either by putting them out in
the open air, or allowing the bees to have access to the honey-house,
or by placing the combs on the hives. I question 1f any of these
steps are taken at a profit. It is a lot of work to carry out hundreds
of supers and put them on the hives, then free the combs of bees, and
get the combs off the hives. and back into the honey-house. If the bees
are allowed to have access to the combs out of doors, or in the honey-
house, there is excitement, commotion, and demoralization in the apiary
at a time when the bees ought to be settling down for winter. Perhaps
the excitement causes the consumption of as much more honey as is
secured. Yes, I know that the honey will cand, unless it is removed;
and, in the spring, the bees will consume very little of it. They will
dig it out and kick it out of the hive. The honey left in the extracting
combs is practically lost. As I look at it, the use of a power extractor
would enable us to dispense with the warming of the honey, and leave
the combs cleaner than when we did warm it and extract it by hand
power.

If I were to adopt the eight-comb and power, 1 would get only one
extractor and one engine, and then move them from one yard to an-
ether, as the work was completed at each yard. This, of course, would
Producing Good Honey 105

require a team, while | am trying to work out a system in which there
is no transportation from one yard to another during the entire season,
except that of the man who does the work.

The manner in which the extractor is set up to do the work will
depend upon the surroundings. We have three extractors, and each
is set up in a way different from the others. Where we extract in the
cellar the extractor is set nearly a foot above the floor, and then a hole,
or pit, nearly two feet deep is dug, in which to set the strainer-tub and
cans to be filled. Of course, the sides of this pit are boarded up. At
another apiary the honey-house is built over the cellar, and here the
extractor stands directly upon the floor, the gate being placed over the
hatchway, the straining and canning of the honey being done in the
cellar. The honey runs out of the gate, falls down through the hatch-
way, and drops upon the strainer below. At the other yard a solid
platform, nearly three feet high, is built in one corner of the honey-
house. This platform is large enough for the extractor, for the man
to stand who turns the crank, also for one or two supers of combs to
stand, side by side. An extractor at this height from the floor allows
room for the strainer, and for a man to stand upon the scales below the
honey-gate of the strainer-tub.

 

Cheese-cloth Strainer on Top of a Tub.

This tub is set under the honey-gate of the honey-extractor,
and the cans are filled from the honey-gate in the side of the
tub. Extracting, straining, and canning are all in operation at
the same time.

STRAINING THE HONEY.

An extractor with a strainer in the bottom probably possesses some
advantages. One is, that it can be set at a less height from the floor,
106 Advanced Bee Culture

as no space has to be used for the strainer-tub. We have always used an
ordinary galvanized wash-tub, with a honey-gate in one side near the
bottom, and the top covered with cheese-cloth sewed to a wire hoop
slightly larger than the top of the tub. We have several of these
cheese-cloth, strainers; and when one becomes so filled up or covered
with pieces of wax that it strains slowly we remove it and lay it over
another tub, or a barrel of cappings, until the honey has all drained
through, when the accumulation of cappings and thick honey is scraped
off with the honey-knife. I have been told that it would be better to
have the cloth strainer more in the nature of a sack, nearly large enough
to fill the tub and rest upon its bottom; then the sides of the sack would
remain free from cappings; and act as a strainer without becoming
clogged. In a horizontal strainer, such as we have been using, the
trouble is that the cappings settle upon the strainer and soon clog it,
while the sides of a sack, being perpendicular, remain free from cap-
pings, and do not clog in a long time.

After the honey has been thoroughly ripened, is extracted, and
found to be in possession of all the fine qualities I have mentioned,
what shall be done with it? How shall it be treated that it may retain
its flavor? The key to success in this direction is ec.rclusion of the air.
Seal it up in glass jars or tin cans, or in clean barrels; and the sooner
this is done (after the particles of wax and scum have raised to the
top) the less the escape of aroma. My preference is a round jacketed
tin can with a flat top and a large screw-cap in the top. .\ five-gallon
can of this kind, holding 60 pounds of honey, can be bought for about
thirty cents. This style of package can be rolled on the floor. .\ barrel
is really the cheapest package for storing or shipping honey; and when
we know that honey is to be shipped to some manufactory, there is no
objection to the use of barrels if they are well made.

Upon the approach of cool weather, most honey will candy; and,
if sealed up tight and put away in a cool place, it will remain in that
condition for years; and when brought slowly and carefully back to its
liquid state it will be found to have retained its original ‘flavor. aroma,
and bouquet.” Too much stress can not be placed upon the care
necessary in liquefying candied honey. Many think if honey does not
boil it can not be injured. The temperature of boiling water will ruin
the flavor of honey. When a can of candied honey is placed over a
stove, or in any other hot place, the outside of the cake of honey soon
melts, and this may become very hot before the rest of the cake has
dissolved. In a tank of hot water is the best place to liquefy a can
of honey; but the temperature should never go above 160 or 170
degrees; and, by the way, when melting the honey, don't loosen the
screw-cap and leave it open, as it only allows the escape of the aroma.
Producing Good Honey 107

FILLING THE CANS.

Honey produced according to the plans described in the previous
pages, is ready to go directly from the extractor into the cans or
barrels; in fact, it is better that it should be canned up at once, as there
is less loss of flavor or aroma. There is also a saving of time, as it is
only necessary to remove a full can and put under an empty one while
doing the work of extracting. To know when a can was full, without
standing by watching it, was one of the problems that I had to solve,
and I did it by using an electric alarm, on the principle of an electric
door-bell; in fact, I used the identical outfit that is used for a door-bell.

 

 

 

 

 

The Electric Door-bell Alarm to Indicate When the Can
Is Nearly Full.
The plan of wiring up the battery, bell, and scales is here clearly

shown. The contact at D is made when the beam
lifts, connecting the electric current.

Almost every one is familiar with this arrangement that rings a bell
when a current of electricity is sent through its mechanism. When
the button in the door is pressed, an electric circuit is completed, and,
as a result, the bell rings out in the kitchen, or wherever it is placed.
If the complete filling of a can or barrel could be made to complete an
electric circuit within which is an electric bell, then an alarm would
be given. I solved the problem by so arranging matters that the raising
of the brass beam of a pair of platform scales closed the circuit. The
battery used is one of the ordinary dry-cell batteries, such as are used
103 -ldvanced Bee Culture

for telephones, door-bells, or for furnishing a snark for a gasoline-
engine. be sure to g.t a good battery. If you can get only the cheapest
kind, better get two cells and connect them, as the connections upon
the scale-beam are net as close as are usually made upon a door-bell,
and it requires a good strong current to overcome these imperfect con-
nections and ring the bell. It won't answer to depend upon a bell that
dees not always ring—better not have any bell at all. As soon as the
requisite amount of honey has rua in, the beam will rise and touch the
end of the wire above it, thus completing the circuit and ringing the
bel. The scales may be set a pound or two short, and then set at the
correct weight after the alarm has been given, and the filling completed.

 

 

 

 

A Glimpse of a Montana Apiary.
The Marketing of Honey

To raise a good crop of honey cheaply, and to sell it to the best
advantage, are two quite different processes, requiring greatly varving
qualifications. Seldom do we find all of these qualifications in the high-
est degree in one person. I believe that the majority of bee-keepers are
better bee-keepers than they are business men; or, perhaps, salesmen
is more properly the word to use. Many of them can’t get far enough
away from a bee-hive to sell the honey that has been stored in it—or
think they can't. Every energy is bent the securing of a great crop.
Having secured it, many a bee-keeper is actually puzzled how to put it
on the market in the best shape, or how or where to sell.

Of course, the first step in the marketing of honey is its preparation
for the market. About all the preparation needed for comb honey is
to clean the sections of propolis and pack them in shipping-cases having
corrugated paper in the bottoms, and glass fronts. If it is to be sent
to a distant market, and the shipment is less than a car load, the cases
should be packed in crates—not boxes, as these would hide the honev,
but crates with slats on the side that will allow a view of the honey.
A crate may be made to hold nine, twelve, or sixteen cases. A little
straw in the bottom helps to break the force of jars. The ends of a
slat on each side, near the top of the case, are allowed to project and
thus form handles. The position of the handles shows which side up
the crate should be kept. In fact, these handles are so inviting that
there is no disposition to put the crate in a wrong position. The handles
are so short that it can’t be “dumped” without dumping it upon the
toes of the carriers. Cases of honey crated in this manner never tumble
over, and they reach their destination free from even the finger-marks
of a dirty*hand. When honey is shipped by freight it is quite important
that the combs stand parallel with the track. If they are crosswise of
the track, the bumping-together of the cars breaks the combs much
easier than when the combs are parallel with the track. For this reason
it is well to have a large label pasted upon the top of the crate, with a
large hand pointing lengthwise of the combs, and accompanied by the
following in bold type: “Load with the hand pointing toward the end
of the car or the side of the wagon.”
1IO Advanced Bee Culture

Aluch, both wise and otherwise, has been said about developing
home markets. Much depends upon the kind of home market there is
to develop, and the kind of honey there is to be sold; yes, and upon
the man. The best honey-producing fields are often far distant from
the best markets. The best place in which to produce honey is not
always the best in which to sell it. Such being the case, there is not
much encouragement in trying to build up a home market, particularly
for the finer grades of comb honey,
and especially if the home market is
supplied with ‘farmer-honey”’—that
raised with a lick and a brush—that
is selling at retail for two-thirds what
a first-class article will net when
sold by a commission man in a dis-
tant city. Many bee-keepers have
been able to sell to advantage, in
the home markets, unfinished sec-
tions and lower grades of honey.
In many local markets, such grades of honey will sell for as much
as the choicest honey put up in gilt-edge style, while the commission
markets of a large city are a poor place in which to sell off grades
of honey. To many grocers, in country towns, honey is honey, much
the same as butter is butter. In selling honey to retail dealers they
must be visited regularly, and kept suvplied with honey. In short,
they must be followed up and looked after as carefully as commercial
travelers look after their customers. Grocers must be educated to
know that honey can't be sold unless it is kept in sight—and it should
be kept under glass to protect it from flies and dust. A handsome dis-
play in a front window is a drawing card.

The putting-up of extracted honey for the market calls for a large
amount of thought, care, and skill. Mr. McKnight, of Canada, once
said, “The product of no other industry is put upon the market in such
a cumbrous, uncouth and slovenly form.” This may seem a little
overdrawn, but it is worth thinking of. The majority of people prefer
extracted honey in the liquid form, although this is largely a matter of
education. There is probably no more attractive form in which it
can be put up for the retail trade than in the liquid form in bottles of
clear flint glass, with tin-foil caps and dainty labels. A much cheaper
package is that of tin; but it hides the beauty of the honey. ‘The
friction-top cans are the best tin package. They do not leak, yet they
can be easily opened and the honey examined. The lack of attractive-
ness in the package must be made up in the label, as is the case with
all goods put up in tin cans. Quite a little candied honey has been

 
 

Aikin’s Paper-bag Honey-package for Candied Honey.
Pie zldvanced Bee Culture

sold in paper sacks. The sacks are made of heavy manila paper, para-
fhned, the honey put in while in the liquid state, and then allowed
to granulate. The sacks can be set into small boxes, egg-crate fashion,
the boxes holding them square until the honey candies, when the sacks
of honey can be packed for shipment like so many bricks. The pur-
chaser can peel off the sack and melt up the honey if he prefers it in
that state. The cost of the package is only about one-tenth that of tin.
Every package of liquid extracted honey intended for the retail trade
should have an explanatory label stating that honey will candy upon
the approach of cool weather, and all packages of extracted honey,
whether liquid or candied, should bear labels explaining how to liquefy
the honey without injury. Right in this line let me say that candied
extracted honey can be put up in a very attractive package. Let it
candy in ths square 60-pound tin cans, or it may be bought in these
cans already candied; cut off the tin can with a pair of tinner’s snips,

 

Candied Brick Honey, Wrapped and Ready for Market

then cut up the cube of honey into blocks of one pound each; wrap
them in paraffin paper to prevent soaking; put a sheet of parchment
paper of this to prevent breaking; over this slip a paper carton, and,
last of all, a wrapping of white paper printed in gilt letters, raised
or embossed. The A. I. Root Co., of Medina, Ohio. has been the
leader in putting up honey in this “de lure” style. For cutting up the
honey into blocks they use an ordinary butter-cutter such as is used
in the dairy trade. Thousands of pounds of honey put up in this style
have been sold at retail in Cleveland at 25 cts. a pound. The beauty
and novelty of the package and its contents, combined with judicious
but generous advertising, made the product sell like the proverbial
“hot cakes.”

Many men have made large wages selling honey direct to con-
sumers. They systematically canvass a city, or portion of a city, carry-
The Marketing of Honey 113

ing honey with them, giving “tastes,” or small samples, taking orders
and having regular days of delivery.

Of course, all men are not adapted to the retailing of honey. Mr.
M. A. Gill, of Colorado, who produces about two carloads annually
of comb honey, says he prefers to sell it in a lump to some man who
wishes to retail it, while fc will turn his attention to the production of
another crop of honey. But even if a man does not retail his crop of
honey, there is no reason why he should not use care and good judg-
ment in selling it at wholesale. If the honey is to be sold on com-
mission, the most important point of all is that the commission mer-
chant be reliable. If in doubt, consult the editors of bee journals.
Of course, they may sometimes make mistakes, but usually they are
quite well informed regarding the reliability of the principal dealers in
honey. After all, an out-and-out sale of the entire crop, at the end of
the season, is the most satisfactory, although so high a price is not
usually realized as when the crop is sold on commission. Some bee-
keepers make a business of wholesaling their own honey, that is, selling
it to the same class of buyers as patronize the commission men. It
requires some little time to work up such a trade; but, once secured,
it is easily held. The first thing is to get a list of those men who use
large quantities of honey. .\ local druggist can usually furnish the
names of many of the manufacturing druggists; the grocer can give
names of the bakers; and an advertisement in the journals will probably
reach all of the bottlers of honey. These lists of names should be
arranged systematically. Probably the card system would be as good
a form to have them in as any that could be found. Samples of honey
and prices should be mailed out to these lists; and to those who inquire
for samples. Where a man has the time and ability to look after the
matter this is really a very satisfactory method of disposing of large
crops of honey, year after year, at a substantial advance over what
would be secured were the honey consigned to commission merchants.
Developing a Mail Order Trade for Honey

SELLING TWENTY THOUSAND POUNDS OF HONEY AT THREE CENTS ABOVE
THE MARKET PRICE.

The first year that my brother and myself produced honey in
Northern Michigan we sold it to bottlers and consumers at 8)4 cents
a pound. This was about two cents above the market price. The
advance was secured because the raspberry honey was something of a
novelty, of superior quality, and was extensively advertised.

The next year a short crop, combined with a general upward
tendency in the price of most commodities, enabled us to sell our crop
of honey to the same class of customers at an advance to 10 cents a
pound.

FINDING THE RIGHT CUSTOMERS THE FIRST STEP.

In 1908 there was a fair if not a bountiful crop of honey, and
many bottlers who really preferred our honey found it impossible to
pay ro cents a pound for it. Honey nearly or quite as good could be
bought at from six to seven cents per pound. We advertised our honey
at ten cents, but orders were few and small; and we were not long in
deciding that some change must be made. Either the price must be
lowered or a different class of customers secured. Once a man has
tasted the joys of ten cents a pound, they are relinquished with reluc-
tance; besides, we felt sure there were men (actual consumers) to
whom the honey would be cheap at ten cents: but the difficulty was in
finding such men who would buy in large quantities. Heretofore our
advertising had been confined to the bee-journals; but we now decided
to venture into a new field, such as might be reached by advertising
in the Saturday Evening Post. When the cost is nearly $4.00 a line,
the story must be exceedingly short, and the whole effort was aimed
at inducing the reader to send for a sample of honey. Here is the
advertisement that cost us nearly $25.00 for one insertion in that paper.

 

HONEY gathered from the blossoms of the wild red
raspberry, in Northern Michigan, has a raspberry flavor;
shipped in tin cans, securely boxed, at ten cents a pound.
Particulars and a generous sample by mail, ten cents.
W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Flint, Mich.

 

 

 
Developing a Mail-order Trade for Honey 115

IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT KIND OF ADVERTISING.

Let’s analyze it. First, the word “Honey” is printed in large type
to catch the eye. Next, there is the reference to honey from the “wild
red raspberry of Northern Michigan.” Here is something of a novelty,
with a tinge of romance. “Northern Michigan” alone calls up a picture
of vine-wound thickets, mossy carpets, and “the cedar’s dim cathedral ;”
the “wild red raspberry” gives an additional touch to the picture; then
to have offered honey gathered from this source, honey with a “raspberry
flavor,” there is conjured up a taste and a longing that can be satisfied only
by actually tasting the honey. “A generous sample will be sent for only
ten cents; but before sending for a sample the prospective customer
would like to know the price and how the honey is put up for shipment;
and this information is given in the advertisement.

It may seem that undue importance is attached to this little adver-
tisement, but it must be borne in mind that this is the foundation of the
whole scheme. Once a reader’s interest is sufficiently aroused to lead him
to send ten cents for a sample, the right kind of after-management will
often lead to a sale.

GETTING PAY FOR SAMPLES.

By the way, the first two years that we were trying to build up a
mail-order trade in honey we offered to send samples free; but this is a
great country when things are “free,” and we probably gave away hun-
dreds of samples to people who had no intention whatever of buying.
Last year we asked ten cents for a sample, which just about covers the
cost, but offered to allow the ten cents to apply on the first order. Ejach
sample sent out was accompanied by a slip printed like this:

 

This slip is good for ten cents in payment for

honey ordered of
W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Flint, Mich.

 

This, too, may seem like a small point; but the spirit of fairness and
generosity thus betokened arouses in the prospective customer a feeling
of friendship, or good will; makes him feel like saying, “That’s the kind
of man I like to patronize,” and it may even be the turning-point that

brings the order.
NEW CUSTOMERS MUST BE EDUCATED.

It. must be remembered that the majority of the readers of the Sat-
urday Evening Post, the public in general, know very little about bees
or honey. Outside of the bee-keeping ranks, probably not more than one
1G ldvanced Bee Culture

person in ten knows about extracted honey—how it is secured and how
it differs from strained honey. To sell to this class to the best advantage,
all this must be explained in such a way as to be readily understood.
In short, the getting of an order from a man of this class, one who has
sent for a sample, depends largely upon the kind of reading-matter that
accompanies the sample. \We sent out a circular in which were used
illustrations of our bee-yard, of a honey extractor, etc.

THE RASPBERRY HONEY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN.

Northern Michigan, the home of the huckleberry and the speckled
trout; where the wild deer drinks deep from little sparkling lakes with
pebbly beaches; where forests of magnificent beech and maple stretch
away for miles unbroken; where still lingers some of nature’s wildness—
here is a region fast becoming a veritable paradise for the bee-keeper. -As
the lumberman cuts away the grand old forests, the wild red raspberries
spring up in myriads, the blossoms of which furnish bee pasture that is
simply incomparable. The honey is thick and heavy, white in color, and
has a delicious flavor all its own—a flavor that smacks of the wild rasp-
berry of the woods.

.\ brother and myself have five apiaries in this region, he devoting
his entire time to the business, and we are making a specialty of pro-
ducing the finest table honey that it is possible to obtain. The honey is
not taken off the hives until it is thoroughly ripened and all sealed over,
thus securing a product that is thick, rich. and delicious—as far superior
to ordinary honey as ripe fruit is more palatable than green.

EXTRACTED HONEY.

This honey is not sold in the comb, but in the liquid form—“extracted
honey” it is called, because it is thrown out of the comb with a machine
called a honey-extractor. herewith shown. ‘To those who are not bee-
keepers I would explain that large frames filled with combs of honey are
taken from the bee-hives, the cappings of wax all shaved off with a
long sharp knife, then the uncapped combs are hung in wire-cloth baskets
that are made to revolve quite rapidly inside of a large tin can. Centri-
fugal force throws the honey from the sides of the combs on the outside,
next to the walls of the can, where it runs down to the bottom, and is
drawn off through a faucet. When the combs have been emptied on one
side the baskets are reversed, bringing the other sides out, when the
motion is again applied, thus leaving the combs entirely empty, to be
returned to the hives, where they are refilled by the bees. As the bees
have no combs to build, they can store more honey; hence it can be suld
at a lower price. Extracted honey must not be confounded with the:
ald-fashioned “strained” honey, in which the combs (bee-bread and all)
were mashed up, and hung in a muslin bag before the fire to drain or
“strain.” Extracted honcy is simply the pure honey thrown out of the -
combs, as has been explained, and is free from impurities.

This honey is put up in five-gallon square tin cans containing 609
pounds, and boxed, either one or two ina case. ‘The two-can cases are iron-
bound at the ends, and we guarantee all shipments to reach their desti-
Developing a Alail-order Trade for Honey 117

nation in perfect condition. We are often asked if we do not furnish
smaller packages. Small packages are all right for a retail trade near
home; but it would cost too much in proportion to their value to ship
them long distances. Freight on 25 pounds would be as much as on 200
pounds. If a customer does not care for as much as 60 pounds, an ex-

cellent plan is to get some acquaintance or friend to join in and take part
of it. W. Z. Hutchinson, Flint, Mich.

References, Citizens’ Commercial and Savings Bank.

The foregoing circular was printed upon the finest cameo plate paper,
of a sepia tint.

There was some little hesitation as to the advisability of using my
portrait; but there is quite a little satisfaction in seeing what kind of
looking person you are patronizing. It helps to remove that feeling of
dealing with a stranger, and replaces it with confidence and a feeling of
acquaintanceship. F

APPEALING TO THE “FANCY.”

A picture was given of one of the beautiful little lakes of Northern
Michigan, of the magnificent forests of maple that are made to give place
to the raspberries, also of one of the apiaries in the northern wilds. ‘These
illustrations and the accompanying reading-matter help to strengthen in
the reader’s mind the romantic picture that he has already formed of
Northern Michigan and her honey resources. ‘This, too, may seem like
a small point; but we are all more or less influenced in our purchases
by what might be termed “fanciful reasons.” Honey from the wild red
raspberries of Northern Michigan is quite different from just ordinary
“honey.” But, friends, it would be possible to take clover honey, or bass-
wood, or any first-class honey, and by illustration and description hold it
up to the purchaser in a very attractive light.

Then by word and picture the production of extracted honey was
made clear, and the manner of packing it for shipment was treated in a
similar manner.

As prices are likely to fluctuate, they were not given in the descriptive
circular, but printed separately on a small slip, and enclosed with the
circular.

There is one more point that it might have been well to mention
in the circular; but we wished to avoid confusing customers at first with
too many details, and that is the candying of honey; but here is what
we did: Attached to each package is the following sticker:

In short, every effort was made to please customers—not only from
a desire to please, but that these customers might return vear after year.
118 advanced Bee Culture

MORE PROFIT IN A MAIL-ORDER TRADE THAN IN SELLING TO JOBBERS.

We had about 20,000 pounds of honey, and at least half of it was
sold as the result of this one advertisement, and the proper handling of
the replies that came in response.

 

TAKE NOTICE! This honey will candy, or become
white and hard, as soon as it becomes cool, or cool
weather begins, and this candying is, in fact, the best
proof of its purity. To restore it to the liquid form, set
it in hot water (not hotter than you can bear your hand
in). To overheat or boil the honey spoils the flavor.
When melted, remove and cork or cover again. If
sealed up while quite hot with a cork dipped in melted
wax (or with the inside of the cover waxed), it will
usually not candy again. When putting the bottles in
hot water, place them on strips of wood to prevent
breaking.

 

 

 

‘The rest of the honey was sold mostly to old customers, who used it
largely on their own tables; in short, it might be said that we sold most
of our honey at wholesale to actual consumers. In other words, we took
such a course as to find customers who were able and willing to buy honey
in large quantities for their own use; in fact, it was noticeable that the
orders came largely from bank cashiers, superintendents of factories and
other men occupying positions that enabled them to buy honey in large
quantities if they so desired.
SMALLER PACKAGES NEEDED.

If a sheme does not turn out so well as expected, it may be worth
while to find out why. The knowledge thus gained may be worth all that
it costs to try the scheme; so we took pains to find out why men sent for
samples of honey and then did not send in an order. It was as we ex-
pected. There were various reasons given, but none worth mentioning,
except that of the size of the package. Sixty pounds is too large a pack-
age for the trade to which we were catering; or, rather, there ought to
be smaller packages. It is all right to have two sixty-pound cans in a
case; also one in a case; but there ought to be varying sizes of smaller
packages with prices according to the size—the smaller the package, the
higher, relatively, the price.

Quite a number have written, and several at the Detroit convention
said, “Hutchinson may get ten cents for his honey, but when he comes
to figure up his cost of advertising I doubt if his honey will net him
more than if he had sold to a jobber at seven cents.’ All of the cost of
Developing a Mail-order Trade for Honey 119

advertising, including periodical, circular, postage, etc., was less than
$200. A difference of three cents a pound on 20,000 pounds amounts to
$600. In other words, the honey netted us nine cents a pound. There
is one more point in this connection that is worthy of consideration; and
that is, that our selling our honey at ten cents helped, at least in a
small degree, to hold up the price. When some man objected to the price
that was asked, it was not within its effect to say, “Why, Hutchinson is
selling his honey right along at ten cents!”

A NEW FIELD READY FOR THE HARVEST.

We are satisfied that we have broken into a field that, with careful
cultivation, will yield bountiful profits—a mail-order trade in honey direct
to consumers. If our little advertisement of half a dozen lines, inserted
once in a single publication, led to the sale of more than 10,000 pounds
of honey at ten cents, when put up in sixty-pound packages, what couldn’t
be done with extensive advertising and honey put up in packages suitable
for this trade? The field is white for the harvest.
Migratory Bee-kecping

It is seldom that one locality abounds in all of the honey-producting
plants that may be found by making short journeys in different directions.
A locality unequaled for early bloom may be sadly deficient in the clover
and basswood blossoming so profusely at mid-summer only a few miles
distant, while a few miles further on may be a swamp or river bottom that
is of little value as a bee pasture until gorgeous with the purple and gold
of autumn flowers. It will be readily seen why some bee-keepers occasion-
ally find it profitable to move their apiaries once or twice during the sea-
son. Some notable successes in this line have been made in Florida,
where the honey from the orange-blossom comes in March; then a move
of perhaps fifty miles allows the bees to enjoy the bloom of the saw-
palmetto, and, later, another crop may be secured by moving to the man-
grove region. After the harvest of sage honey is over in California, and
vegetation in the mountain canyons has turned dry and brown, a move
of twenty or thirty miles will, in some localities, place the bees among
thousands of acres of blooming bean-fields from which may be gathered
a white honey of fine flavor. In Canada several bee-keepers make a good
profit each fall by moving their bees to buckwheat regions. In Europe
bee-keepers move their bees to the heather-fields, and then, later, to the
buckwheat: in fact, so many move their bees to the buckwheat that a train
is sometimes made up expressly for carrying the bees to these pastures.
Several years ago a younger brother of mine, who had not left home,
came to my place early in August and carried home with him twenty
colonies of my bees, as there was an abundance of goldenrod, boneset,
and willow-herb in his locality and none in mine. .\n empty story filled
with empty combs was placed over each colony, and the top covered
with wire cloth. A hay-rack was covered with hay to the depth of about
two feet, the hives set upon the hay, and held together in a bunch by
passing a rope around them. The journey of twenty-five miles was made
without mishap. Those twenty colonies furnished 400 pounds of surplus ;
besides, they need no feeding for winter, while the bees kept at home
stored no surplus, and each colony required feeding, on the average,
about fifteen pounds.

Had buckwheat yielded well, which, in this locality, happens about
ence in a dozen years, nothing would have been gained by the move.
 

Willow Herb (Epilobium) in Full Bloom.
122 Advanced Bee Culture

The inability to foretell the honey-flow in any locality is the greatest
obstacle in the way of successful migratory bee-keeping. Local showers
sometimes cause a great difference in the yields of honey in localities
only a few miles apart; but migratory bee-keeping does not allow us to
take advantage of this, as, by the time we have moved to the locality that
is furnishing honey, the flow there may be over, and, possibly, started up
in the home yard. There is nothing to be gained by changing one possi-
bility for another of equal value. But moving to another location which
promises well at a time when we know nothing will be gathered if the bees
are kept at home, is a far different thing. For instance, only forty miles
from here, on a direct line of railroad, is a locality where it is nothing
uuusual for 100 pounds of comb honey per colony to be secured, yet
nothing is in bloom here at that time. The expense of moving to and
from a locality no further away than this need not be so very great. From
thirty to forty colonies can be moved on a hay-rack; or a special rack
might be made which would accommodate fifty colonies. .\n apiarist who
is going to practice moving his bees to secure better pasturage must have
hives, fixtures, and other arrangements suitable for that purpose. The
arrangements ought to be such that three or four minutes would be
sufficient for preparing a hive for moving. One of the greatest advan-
tages of fixed or self-spaced frames is that they need no fastening when
the apiary is to be moved. Of course, bees moved in hot weather must
have abundant ventilation; but this alone will not save the brood if they
are long confined. To save the brood the bees must have plenty of water.

Some localities are blessed with an almost continuous flow—spring
flowers, white clover, basswood, and fall flowers; and, by the way, a man
who is to make a specialty of bee-keeping ought to seck such a locality;
but many who are already engaged in bee-keeping are permanently located,
have friends and relatives living near, and prefer not to seek a new
location, even if the profits would be thereby increased. Then, again, it
is difficult to find a first-class locality for clover and basswood that is
equally good for fall flowers; and the better the locality the greater the
danger of its being overstocked by its very attractiveness bringing together
so many bee-keepers.

There is no question but that many bee-keepers can secure a bounti-
ful crop of fall honey by moving their bees at the right time; but a word
of caution may not be out of place right here. Some fall honey, that from
aster, for instance, is sadly unfit for winter stores. So disastrous has fall
honey proved for winter stores, in some localities, that the bee-keepers
there have given up trying to winter their bees unless they substituted
early gathered stores, or fed sugar. I know of one bee-keeper in such
a locality who secured bountiful crops of fall honey from the surrounding
swamps, but was utterly unable to winter his bees, prepare them as he
‘sainjseg Joog 0} Suraojy

 
124 Advanced Bee Culture

might, and he finally fell to shaking them off the combs at the close of
the season (thus saving the honey), and restocking his apiary in the
spring with bees from the South. So I say, beware when you move your
hees to fall pastures of asters and swamp flowers.

There is another form of migratory bee-keeping that has long been
the dream of apiarists—that of starting with an apiary in the South at
the opening of the honey season, and moving northward with the season,
keeping pace with the advancing bloom, thus keeping the bees ‘‘in clover’
the entire summer. The difficulties to be overeume are largely those of
transportation. There is no single line of railroad running north and south

 

BESS, gern

On the Road.

for a sufficiently long distance to make a success of migratory bee-keeping.
When shipping bees by freight, on the migratory plan, the delays at
junction points are not only vexatious but disastrous. It is for this reason
that longing eves have been cast at the Mississippi River and her steam-
boats, and once Mr. C. ©. Perrine tried moving several hundred colonies
up the Mississippi on a barge towed by a tug. The plan was to run up the
river nights, and “tie up” during the day to allow the bees to work.
There are several reasons why the plan was a failure. The start was
made too late in the season, and accidents to the machinery of the tug
caused delays. In order to overtake the bloom it became necessary to
confine the bees and run day and night. The confinement for so long was
Migratory Bee-keeping 12

on

very disastrous to the bees. Those who aided in the enterprise believe
that, rightly managed, the plan might be made a success. Mr. Byron
Walker, who has had much experience in moving bees from the South,
greatly favors the Mississippi plan of migratory bee-keeping. He would
not put the bees on a barge and tow them with a tug, but would load
them upon a regular steamer running up the river, setting them off at
some desirable point, and then shipping them by another boat to another
point further up the river, as the flow begins to wane. In the fall he
would take the bees back south for the winter.

Right here a hypothetical question comes to mind. Suppose an apiary
moving up the Mississippi secures as much as six ordinary crops of
honey—six times as much as a stationary apiary—would this be more
profitable than six stationary apiaries? In other words, which is the more
promising field for enterprise—following up the season, or establishing
out-apiaries? Upon this point there are many things to be considered,
and varying circumstances would lead to different decisions. To establish
six apiaries would require considerable capital, and the labor of caring
for the honey crop would all come at one time, while there would be only
one chance of securing a crop. With the migratory plan, only one apiary
would be needed, and the work of caring for the surplus would not come
all at the same time. With the stationary apiaries there would be no
expense for transportation, which is a big item.
Out-Apiaries

When a man starts an out-apiary it is because he thinks his home
yard overstocked; that he will get enough more honey for the division
to pay for the extra labor incurred. Overstocking is one of the most
puzzling questions connected with bee culture. We all know that a
locality can be overstocked; but localities, seasons, and bee-pasture are
so variable that it is impossible to lay down any set rules in regard to
the number of colonies needed to overstock a locality. It must not be for-
gotten that the yield per colony, ves, and in the aggregate, may be dimin-
ished to a considerable extent by overstocking ere the establishment of
an out-apiary would be a profitable move. At times of great honey-
flows it is probably practically impossible to overstock a locality. The
overstocking occurs during the lighter yields. ‘There is occasionally a
man, notably Mr. EF. W. Alexander, of New York, who made a success
of keeping a very large number of colonies in one apiary by feeding
during times of scarcity. AIr. Alexander secured as high as 75 pounds
of extracted honey per colony from 700 colonies in one yard. This ques-
tion of how many colonies will justify the starting of an out-apiary is
one that must be settled according to the circumstances of each individual
case, and can never be: decided with more than approximate correctness.

I have had no experience with out-apiaries; but I believe that the
majority of the inexperienced have erroneous ideas as to the difficulties
and expenses attending the estabtishing and management of out-apiaries.
Land must be bought or hired; some sort of building or shelter secured;
and a conveyance of some kind will be needed for carrying bees, tools, and
supplies. Then in the Northern States there is the preparation of a cellar
for wintering the bees, or they must be carted home in the fall and back
in the spring, or else protected upon their summer stands. But when a
man begins to number his colonies by the hundreds he knows that some-
thing must be done. Even if out-apiaries are not so profitable as home
apiaries, they are not usually run at a loss, while the removal of the
surplus bees at the home yard allows that to make better returns.

When it is finally decided to start an out-apiary, how far away shall
it be located? We have been repeatedly told that, ordinarily, three miles
mark the limits of a bee's foraging-grounds; hence if apiaries were placed
six miles apart there should be no encroachment. But it must be remem-
"KN ‘wosuvjaq ‘epuexapy “AA “YY Be] ey 0} Sursucjag Aserdy Auojoy-ooZ eB Jo Weg

    

 
‘sated -JNQ) WV WWOLY, Suyovsjny sv os JOP uoSs"A\ posorv,

 

 

 

 
Out-apiarics 129

bered that the pasture ground of each apiary is somewhat circular in form,
hence they might be moved toward each other to a considerable extent
without one encroaching very much upon the other. Dr. Miller has given
a very happly illustration: Lay two silver dollars side by side. Lift the
edge of one and slide it over the edge of the other. Notice how far it
may be pushed over without covering a very large portion of the other.
Notwithstanding all this, those who have had experience in the matter
are not inclined to place out-apiaries nearer together than four miles, and
prefer to have them five or six miles apart. When the team is hitched
up and on the road, a mile or two more travel does not take so very
much time, and the increased yield may more than make it up. We can
not always secure the exact spot desired for the location of an out-apiarvy,
and it would probably be well to go a little further than really necessary,
rather than to crowd some other apiary.

The mode of travel to and from out-apiaries will depend upon cir-
cumstances. Seme men have a honey-house, with extractor and kit of
tools at each apiary, and ride a bicycle to and from the work, storing the
honey at or near the apiary, and hauling it home at their leisure. A few
men have been fortunate enough to be able to locate out-apiaries near
some trolley line by means of which they can go and come any hour of
the day. Probably the majority find horses the most desirable means of
travel, in which case one set of tools will answer for several apiaries.
It is even possible to dispense with honey-houses at the apiaries, a tent
being carried, and slipped over a light framework kept standing at each
yard. A covered wagon is sometimes made to answer as an extracting-
room.

After locating an out-apiary, and deciding upon the mode of travel
to and from it, the matter of management brings up several questions.
Shall comb honey be produced, or shall the honey be taken in the extracted
form? Shall it be managed upon the visiting plan, or shall a man be kept
there during swarming time? I believe that, in the majority of
cases, extracted honey is produced in out-apiaries, as by this plan swarm-
ing can be nearly controlled, and the apiaries visited only at intervals.
Mr. E. D. Townsend, of Michigan, has successfully managed an apiary
for extracted honey by visiting it only four times a year. The bees were
in ten-frame Langstroth hives. .At the approach of the white-clover flow
he visited them to remove the packing and put on two upper stories of
combs. He visited them twice to extract and again to pack them up for
winter. His profits averaged $150 for each visit. He approves of visiting
an apiary oftener than this, but his experience shows what can be done.
The reason for not visiting this apiary oftener was that it was fifty
miles from home. And this brings up another point in connection with
out-apiaries: If they are widely scattered, with varying kinds of pas-
130 Advanced Bee Culture

turage, there is almost a certainty of securing a crop each year from some
of them.

The difficulty in the past in managing out-apiaries for comb honey
has been that of controlling swarming; but the discovery of “shook
swarming” changed all this, and gave a wonderful impetus to the estab-
lishment of out-apiaries. Ly visiting an apiary once a week, and “shak-
ing” every colony that has started queen-cells, there will be little if any
swarming. A few bee-keepers succeed in preventing swarming by re-
moving the queens at the beginning of the swarming season, but the
practice has never been generally adopted.

As many colonies ought to be placed in an out-apiary as the location
will bear—certainly enough to make a day’s work at each visit during the
busy season, as it would be unprofitable to drive off five or six miles to do
only part of a day’s work.

In those parts of the country where outdoor wintering is uniformly
successful there need be no question as to how bees shall be wintered at
an out-apiary; but where cellar wintering must be depended upon, a
choice must be made between building a cellar at each apiary and that of
carting the bees home in the fall and out again in the spring. If the
bee-keeper knows positively that an apiary is permanently located it may
be worth while to consider the construction of a cellar on the ground;
but usually there is more or less shifting about of out-apiaries, and, unless
too far from home, I should be inclined to follow Mr. P. H. Elwood, of
New York, in bringing them home in the fall and carrying them out in
the spring. Mr. Elwood sometimes has as many of 1,000 colonies in one
cellar. Mr. E. D. Townsend, whose out-apiaries are widely scattered,
buries his bees or puts them in “clamps,” as it is called; and where the
soil and location are suitable this is an excellent method of wintering bees.
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House-Apiaries

A house-apiary, as indicated by its name, is an apiary kept in a house,
the bees passing out through openings in the walls. Formerly the hives
were built permanently in the house, the shelf upon which they set form-
ing the bottoms, the walls of the building forming one side, and each
division-board between any two colonies forming one wall for both col-
onies. Eventually it was discovered that building the hives into the build-
ing in this stationary manner curtailed or complicated many of the manip-
ulations. For instance, if a colony swarmed and it was desirable to hive
the swarm upon the old stand, moving the parent colony to a new stand, it
could be accomplished only by removing the combs one by one and carry-
ing them to a new location. When the ordinary hives are used, any colony
can be picked up and carried to any location. .\ swarm can be hived out
of doors, then the hive picked up and carried into the house. Still another
point: Some bee-keepers like a house-apiary for summer, but find it a
very poor place in which to winter bees, hence they build a cellar under
the house and winter the bees in the latter, this course being possible
only when the hives are movable.

It will be seen that, although we have a house-apiary, we also need
the regular hives, just the same as though they were to be kept out of
doors, with this exception, that, if they are to be used exclusively in the
house, they may be made of cheap lumber and left unpainted. The same
may be said of thé supers or upper stories. If we must have regular
hives, why have a house-apiary? Well, here are some of the advantages:
The house can he locked against thieves; the colonies, apiarist, and his
tools are brought close together, and under shelter; and this latter point
is very important, especially in the management of a series of out-apiaries
that are to be visited periodically. Rain puts an end to bee-work in the
open air, and three or four days of rainy weather sally demoralizes the
plan of visiting an apiary once a week when there is an apiary for each
day in the week. In a house-apiary the work can be continued regardless
of the rain. Of course, there would be the traveling to and fro in
the rain, but rubber coats and blankets overcome that difficulty. Shelter
from the hot sun is often a great comfort. In taking off honey there is
never any trouble from robber bees. Dees are more peaceable, that is,
less inclined to sting, when handled in a house. In short, the advantages,
House-upiarics 133

with one exception, are nearly all with the house-apiary, and this ex-
ception is the cost of the building. Formerly there was the objection that
the removal of the surplus liberated many bees inside the building, where
they were a great annoyance upon the windows and under foot. The
introduction of the honey-house bee-escape has removed this most serious
objection. By means of the escapes surplus can be removed with scarcely
a bee entering the building, and these few find their way out through the
escapes with which the doors and windows are provided at the top.

 

  

 

 

 

Vy a eee Pale
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4 ule a e

General View of Mr. Ludington’s House Apiaries.
( Honey-House in the Center—Shop in the Background)

 

Probably the only really serious objection to the house-apiary, aside
from its cost, is the great likelihood of queens being lost while on their
wedding flight; that is, of their entering the wrong hive upon their
return. The trouble arises from the greater number, similarity, aad reg-
ularity of the entrances. To help to overcome this difficulty, different por-
tions of the house are often painted different colors, and different designs
are placed about the entrances. Some bee-keepers have found it desir-
able to rear their queens outside of the house and introduce them when
needed.

Mr. A. A. Ludington, of Verona Mills, Michigan, uses small house-
apiaries made of cheap lumber, and winters his bees in a cellar. Instead
of setting his hives upon shelves he hangs them up against the walls bv
means of heavy wire loops. The bottoms to his hives are hinged so that
they can be let down. This allows of an easy examination of the lower
edges of the brood-combs where the bees are almost certain to build
queen-cells if preparing for swarming; thus he is able to foretell swarm-
‘A CN ‘o]ftaAmor’yT ‘syono’yT “Fy peaq jo Arvidy osnozy

 

 
House-apiaries 135

ing very quickly without so much as opening a hive. The bees can easily
be driven up among the combs by the means of smoke, when, by using
a hand mirror, if necessary, a view can be obtained that extends up quite
a distance between the combs. If the light is insufficient, some one can
stand out of doors with another mirror and throw a flood of sunshine
under the hive that is being examined.

 

 

 

Lake of the Woods, in the Raspberry Region of Northern Michigan.

Perhaps few can understand the longing there is in the heart ef the author of this
book to build himself a real log cabin, with stone fireplace and chimney, on the shore
of some one of the beautiful little inland lakes of Northern Michigan, establish an
apiary hard by, right in the woods, and pass at least a portion of each summer in that
sylvan retreat. What a place to take bee-keeping friends in the autumn, when the
evenings could be spent around a fire, of blazing pine knots in the fireplace!
Foul Brood

Foul brood is a bacterial disease of the larvae or brood of bees.
(nce a single spore of the disease comes in contact with a larva, or is
fed to it, it begins to increase with wonderful rapidity, the bacteria feed-
ing upon the larva as maggots feed upon the carcass of a dead animal.
The larva soon dies and turns a dull brown, something about the color
of coffee after milk has been added and it is ready for drinking. The
dead larvae soon lose their shape, and settle down into ropy, gluey
masses having an odor somewhat similar to a poor quality of glue when it
is warming on the stove, being made ready for use. In the earlier stages
this odor is seldom noticeable; but as the disease increases this odor be-
comes quite pronounced. If a match or a wooden toothpick, or some-
thing of this nature, be thrust into a dead larva, and then withdrawn, the
dead matter will adhere to the stick, and draw out in a ropy. striny,
perhaps an inch in length, when it will break and fly back. The dead larva
finally dries down into a thin brown scale upon the lower side of the cell.
A large share of the larvae reach that stage where the bees seal it over,
but, for some reason, the cappings often become sunken, and sometimes
contain holes. © course, the healthy brood hatches while the diseased
brood does not, and soon the combs present a peculiar speckled appear-
ance from part of the cells being empty, while others are sealed with dark
ragged cappings. When the bees attempt to rear another larva in a cell
where a larva has died of foul brood, it is certain to be a failure. This
larva, too, dies of the disease. If hone, is stored in the cell it becomes
contaminated with the germs of the disease; and if fed to larvae, it infects
them with the disease. The combs finally become so contaminated with
the disease that scarcely any brood can be reared. The old bees die off
from natural causes, and, there being no young bees reared to take their
places, the colony dwindles away until it becomes a prey to robber bees
who carry home the honey, and thus start the infection in their own hives.
In this way the disease is spread from hive to hive and from apriary to
aplary.

Such, in brief, is foul brood; and as there is no apiary in which
there is not a possibility that it may appear, every bee-keeper ought to be
able to distinguish it and to know what to do when he is so unfortunate
as to find it in his apiary. From reading the published descriptions, many
Foul Brood 137

bee-keepers have formed exaggerated ideas regarding the appearance of
foul brood, especially of its appearance in its first stages. They are look-
ing for combs black with slime and rottenness, a stench strong enough to
knock a man down, and colonies dwindled away to mere handfuls. The
possession of these exaggerated ideas by bee-keepers has allowed foul
brood to gain a strong foothold in many an apiary long before the unfor-
tunate owner ever dreamed of its presence. At first, only a few diseased
cells will be found. Of course, it is not advisable that a bee-keeper be con-
tinually opening brood-nests, and critically examining combs for foul
brood, but there are certain danger-signals that it is well to bear in
mind. If a colony shows signs of listlessness; or many dead bees are
found in front of the hive; of if a peculiar, unpleasant odor is noticed,
it would be wise to make an examination. [Vhenever handling combs of
brood it is well to glance wnderstandingly at the brood. Notice if the
“pearly field” of unsealed larvae is unbroken. If there are desolate
patches, and the sealed brood is scattering and in patches instead of in
solid sheets, examine more critically. If some of the larvae are discolored,
shapeless, ropy, ill-smelling, some of the cappings sunken, perhans per-
forated, foul brood is present. The one sure symptom of foul brood is
the ropiness of the larvae. If a splinter be thrust into a dead larva, and
withdrawn, the matter will adhere to the splinter, and “string out,” per-
haps an inch or more, then break, and the two ends fly back to the points
of attachment. Without this viscidity there is no foul brood—with it
there is always foul brood.

Right here it might be well to say that all dead brood found in the
combs is not foul brood. There is chilled brood, starved or neglected
brood, “pickled” brood that comes and goes, from what cause no one
yet knows; but in all of these the ropiness is lacking. In the majority of
cases the outer skin of the larva does not seem to decay, and enables the
operator to draw the whole larva from the cell. Then there is black
brood, that has caused so much havoc in New York. In this the dead
larva is more of a gelatinous nature than anthing else. It may some-
times string out a quarter of an inch, but never more than that, while
foul brood will string out at least an inch, and sometimes much further.
Black brood, also called European foul brood, turns slightly yellow, then
a dark brown, and finally becomes black, hence the name. It does not
emit that gluey or “old” smell that comes from foul brood. There is
scarcely any odor, and what little there is might be called a sour or fer-
menting smell, like that from decaying fruit. Black brood is very similar
to foul brood. It spreads in the same manner, and treatment is the same
as that for foul brood. I shall have more to say about this disease later on.

To come back to old foul brood once more. The symptoms enumer-
ated above will be seen only during the breeding season. In a strong
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An Advanced Stage of Old-fashioned Foul Brood,
Foul Brood 139

colony, after the breeding season is over, the cappings are all cleared
away, and the dead brood is entirely dried up—mere scales almost the
color of old comb itself, lying fast to the lower sides of the cells, and
drawn back more or less from the mouths of the cells. There is probably
no symptom of foul brood that is more difficult for the novice to detect
than these dried-down scales, and, as just explained, except in the breed-
ing season, they are the only evidence that can be found of the disease.
Here are the instructions given by Mr. N. E. France, Inspector for Wis-
consin, for finding these scales: ‘Bring a brood-comb up from the hive
to the level of your chin; then tip the top of the comb toward you, so your
view strikes the lower side walls (not the bottom) of the brood-cells
about one-third distant from the front end of the cells. Then turn so
that the rays of bright light will come over your shoulder, and shine where
your eye is looking. Gas or electric light will not take the place of good
daylight. On the lower side wall, a little back from the front end of
the infected cell, will be seen the dead larva bee, nearly black, with a sharp-
pointed head, often turned up a little, the back portion of the bee flattened
to a mere lining of the cell, often no thicker than the wax in the wall of
the comb. The base, or bottom of the cell, likely looks clean; also all of
the other side walls of the cell.”

Honey is the means by which the disease is usually carried from one
hive to another. Mr. Frank Cheshire says that the mature bees, the
queen, and even the eggs, are infected in a diseased colony, but our best
authorities now believe that this is a mistake. Be this as it may, where
the bees of an infected colony swarm, or are shaken from their combs
into a new or clean hive, and given no combs in which they can store the
infected honey that they have brought with them, the brood hatched after-
ward in this newly formed colony remains free from disease. Foul brood
is often brought into an apiary by the bees robbing some diseased colony
in a neighboring apiary, and bringing home the honey. The buying of
second-hand honey-cans often brings foul brood into an apiary. If the
bees gain access to them they soon lick up any honey that may have
dripped upon the outside of the cans; or the bee-keeper may rinse out
the cans and throw out the water upon the ground where the bees will
come and suck it up. I have known a bee-keeper to clean out a lot of
second-hand cans and feed the honey directly to the bees, with the result
that foul brood developed in every colony that was fed. In rare instances
the buying of queens from a distance has introduced foul brood into an
apiary. The queens themselves had nothing to do with disseminating
the disease, but the bees and honey that accompanied them brought with
them the germs of the disease. It is a safe plan to put the new queen into
a clean cage and destroy the accompanying bees and cage. After foul
 

 

Looking for the Dried-down Scales of Foul Brood.

The white lire shows the argle of vision, and at which the light should fall.
Foul Brood 141

brood is once introduced into the apiary, it is disseminated by robbing, by
the careless exposure of infected honey, by changing combs from hive
to hive, or by extracting honey from infected combs, thus contaminating
the extractor and other combs that may be brought in contact with it.

When foul brood is discovered in an apiary, what shall be done? In
the first place, don’t “lose your head,” as the saying is. Don't be in
such haste to be rid of the pest that a crop of honey is lost, and the work
of eradication imperfectly performed. Curative operations can be carried
on only during a successful honey-flow, when bees will not rob. If foul
brood is discovered after the honey season is over, treatment must be
postponed until the following year.

The entrances of all weak colonies should be contracted, and any
colony too weak to make the proper defense, or so weak that it is not
likely to pass the winter, had better be destroyed at once.

The spraying of the combs with acids, the fumigating of them
with formalin gas, the feeding of the bees with medicated honev, are
all of little avail. Weak colonies had better be united, but there must
be caution in doing the work, gradually bringing them together that
the bees may not be scattered into other hives until they are side by
side before the union is made.

Finally, the main honey-flow comes on. With us this is the last
of May or fore part of June. Now is ‘he time for treating the dis-
eased colonies. Any colony that is strong, and almost or nearly in
a condition to cast a swarm, may be treated as follows: Set the
colony just back of its old stand, and upon the stand place a hive
the frames of which are furnished either with full sheets of comb
foundation or with starters of the same. Remove the combs from the
old hive and shake off most of the bees in front of the new hive.
Nothing more need be done to the colony in the new hive. Ere it
can rear brood it will have consumed any infected honey that the bees
may have brought with them. Don’t use drawn combs instead of
starters or foundation, because the bees might store some of the in-
fected honey in the comb, where it might remain until brood was
being reared, when, if this honey should be fed to the brood, the dis-
ease would be again started. I have never found it necessary to give
the bees a second set of frames and a second shaking, as is practiced
by some. Neither have I found it necessary to boil or otherwise dis-
infect the hives. The old hive, with the combs of brood, is placed upon
a new stand. Sometimes two sets of combs from which the bees have
been shaken are united. In ten days a young queen or a ripe queen-
cell may be given the old colony. In twenty-one days from the time
the bees were shaken off, just as all of the healthy brood has hatched,
and the young queen is beginning to lay, the colony may be again
142 Advanced Bee Culture

treated exactly as it was at the first shaking, when the result will
be another healthy colony, while the old combs will be entirely free
from brood, and should be taken to some place of safety (where no
bees can gain access to them) and eventually treated as may seem best.

Colonies not populous enough to make a good colony each, when
shaken, may be treated in “pairs.” ‘We select the first pair, set one
of them aside, as was done with the strong colony, and put a hive
containing frames, furnished with foundation, in its place. We now
shake out the bees into the new hive, as before, only we get all of
the bees, as well as the queen. We next put the old hive with the
brood on the stand of the other hive of the “pair,” bringing the latter
to the location where the first ‘‘shaking’” took place, and shake out
the bees and queen in front of the hive into which the bees from the
first hive were shaken, the combs of brood being taken back to their
old location and united with the combs of brood from the first-shaken
colony. We thus get only one “shook swarm’ from two colonies, but
it is stronger for that reason. The united colonies of brood will be
given a young queen in ten days, and then shaken upon a new set
of frames in twenty-one days, as was done with the populous colony
first described.

There is still another method of treating foul-broody colonies in
which there is no shaking-off of the bees; and it has always been a
wonder to me that it has not come into more general use. The plan
originated with Mr. M. M. Baldridge, of St. Charles, Illinois, and is
called the Baldridge method. It is based upon the fact that, when a
bee leaves a hive naturally, in quest of honey, its sac is free from
honey, and it might enter a healthy colony without infecting it with
disease. Of course, when it returns with a load of newly gathered
nectar it is still in that harmless condition. Here is the method of
management: Close the entrance and then bore a hole in the front of
the hive, just above the entrance, and near the side of the hive. Over
this opening fasten a bee-escape in such a position that bees can pass
out of the hive through the escape, but can not return. Next cage
the queen of the colony, laying the cage on top of the frames. ‘The
following morning go to some healthy colony and select a comb of
sealed brood, either with or without the adhering bees; place it in an
empty hive, filling out the hive with frames filled with foundation, and
set the hive thus prepared upon the stand of the diseased colony, set-
ting the latter to one side, so that the two hives will stand side by
side, close together, and fronting in the same direction. Have the bee-
escape as near as possible to the entrance of the new hive that is on
the old stand. It will be seen that all flying bees will return and enter
the new hive on the old stand; and, as fast as the bees leave the old
Foul Brood 143

hive by means of the escape, they will return and join the newly
formed colony upon the old stand, as it will be impossible for them
to enter the old hive. At sundown of the first day after setting the
old hive upon a new stand, open the hive carefully, take away the
caged queen, being careful to take no bees with her, and let her run
into the entrance of the new hive. All of this work of closing the
entrance of the old hive, setting it upon a new stand and removing
the caged queen, should be done as carefully as possible so as not to
disturb the bees and induce them to fill themselves with honey. Noth-
ing more need be done for about a month, by which time the brood
will all have hatched and the bees have left the hive and joined the
new colony. The hive should be opened in some close room from
which no bees can escape; and, should a few stragglers remain in the
hive, they should be destroyed. The combs are now free from bees
and healthy brood, and ready to be treated as seems best, while there
is a healthy colony in the apiary where once stood the one diseased
with foul brood.

When freed from bees and healthy brood, no matter what the
method employed, the combs may be emptied of honey with the ex-
tractor, and then melted into wax. Of course, an extractor thus used
must be most thoroughly cleansed before it is again used for extract-
ing combs of honey from healthy colonies. For disinfecting the ex-
tractor I would use a strong solution of salicylic acid, pouring it on
boiling hot from the spout of a tea kettle. The matter of cleaning the
extractor is one about which one can not be too thorough. Honey
from such combs ought not to be placed upon the general market, as
consumers are liable to throw out an empty package where neighboring
bees will come and clean it up. Some bee-keepers ship such honey to
bakers where the heat used in baking will destroy any germs that may
be in the honey. Thorough boiling of the honey will kill the germs
and make it safe for use in feeding the bees; but before the honey is
boiled it must be mixed with an equal quantity of water. Some advise
boiling the hives, or burning them out on the inside by painting them
over with kerosene and setting it on fire, but IJ have seen so many
hives used without taking any such precautions that I have come to
doubt their necessity. Mr. McEvoy, inspector of apiaries for Ontario,
says that he has cured thousands of cases of foul brood without any
such disinfecting, and considers it wholly unnecessary. Some have ad-
vocated the burning of the combs with no attempts at saving the honey
and wax. If only a few colonies are to be treated, this might be ad-
visable; but the owner of a large apiary quite generally affected with
foul brood can well afford to take the necessary precautions whereby
the honey and wax may be saved. Whoever undertakes such a job must
T44 -ldvanced Bee Culture

remember, however, that eternal vigilance is the price of success. One
drop of the infected honey secured by a robber bee means disease once
more in the hive to which it is carried. It has been suggested that the
extracting, etc., be done down cellar. It is a cool place in which to
work, and the bees can the more easily be kept out. Others have
melted up the combs at night when no bees were flying. There is
really no necessity of destroying the combs and the honey they con-
tain. If a man can not or will not exercise sufficient care, it would
certainly be better to burn them; but if he has “‘gumption” enough
to succeed as a bee-keeper he can save the combs from destruction. It
would be well, however, for all to bear in mind that one little “forget”
may compel a repetition of the whole business.

Of late the bee-keepers in some parts of Colorado have been fol-
lowing a plan whereby a man may keep his apiary fairly free from
foul brood, even though located in a foul-broody district. It is well
known that shaking the bees of a foul-broody colony into a clean hive,
and allowing them to build a new set of combs, frees them from the
infection; well, these Western men, just at swarming-time, treat every
colony in the apiary in this manner—make a wholesale sweep of the
matter. .\s this is done at a season when the honey-flow has com-
menced, and there will be no more robbing until the season is over, the
apiary remains free of the disease for that season. It is simply forced
swarming on a wholesale scale. The old hives are given new loca-
tions, and perhaps the combs of two or more colonies are put together
upon one stand. Perhaps it ought to be mentioned that the combs are
not shaken entirely free of bees, some being left to care for the un-
sealed brood; and caution is exercised that the work be not done too
early in the season when there would be danger of chilled brood or from
robbers. At the end of three weeks the brood has all hatched, when
the combs are shaken entirely free of bees, the latter, of course, going
back into the hives and building new combs, thus establishing colonies
that are free from the disease. The honey is then extracted from the
old combs, and the latter rendered into wax. It is asserted that the
wax will pay for the labor, while the new combs are built a¢ a profit.
T believe that this plan can be successfully followed in the East as in
the West; although, of course, the Western harvest is much longer
than ours.

Having given the treatments that are applicable for either Euro-
pean or .\merican foul brood, it will now be in order to give a treat-
ment that applies to European foul brood (black brood) only. This
has the advantage that neither brood nor combs need be destroyed.
While the late E. W. Alexander was the first to bring it before the
public, Mr. $. D. House is one of the most successful users of the
Foul Brood. 145

plan. I can do no better than to insert a recent article of his right
here:

There is a vast difference between black brood (European foul brood)
and American foul brood; the former being more virulent and destructive,
yet yielding to milder treatment. What I have to say in this article will have
reference to European foul brood.

About four years ago I discovered some diseased brood in a colony that
had been purchased the previous autumn. The same day that I made the
discovery, one of the inspectors called, pronounced it “very suspicious,” and
advised treatment by the shaking method. That evening, hoping to prevent
any spread of the disease, the whole colony, bees, brood, combs and hive, was
buried deep in the earth. But I was doomed to disappointment, as, during
the season, eight more colonies showed the disease in a mild form.

The next spring my troubles began in real earnest. By June 15th there
were 160 diseased colonies in my home-apiary. I sent for Inspector Mortimer
Stevens, and he came, accompanied by Inspector Chas. Stewart. They pro-
nounced it black brood in its worst form, and advised shaking off the bees,
stacking up the brood to let what there would of it hatch, burning out the
inside of the hives, and the melting up of the combs. They also advised
Italianizing.

Having three out-apiaries, with no one to help me, the item of labor was
an important factor; so I decided to give the Alexander plan a trial on part
of them. I dequeened 40 colonies, and, 10 days later, gave each a ripe queen
cell from healthy Italian stock. I did the work carefully, and was full of hope,
but the disease appeared again with the second filling of the combs. I then
shook the greater part of them and doubled them up. A few were dequeened
and given the Alexander treatment* the second time, and those colonies cleaned
up and stayed cured.

Later experience has taught me that it was not the second treatment
that effected the permanent cure, but the presence of Italian bees that were
hatching out. If I had given them more time they would have cleaned up
without the second shaking. The rest of the colonies in this apiary were
shaken, the combs melted and the frames burned, but the disease reappeared,
that same season, in some of the colonies.

The following season the disease appeared in one of my out-apiaries;
also in a good many of the colonies at the home-apiary; even among those
that had been shaken the previous year but not requeened. Upon studying
over the situation, I noticed that it was the hybrid and black colonies that
did not stay cured, no matter what kind of treatment was given. There were
some pure Italian colonies in all of the apiaries, and, with a single exception,

*Go to every diseased colony you have and build it up either by giving frames
of maturing brood or uniting two or more until you have them fairly strong. After
this, go over every one and remove the queen; then in nine days go over them again,
and be sure to destroy every maturing queen-cell, or virgin if any have hatched.
Then go to your breeding-queen and take enough of her newly hatched larvae to
rear enough queen-cells from to supply each one of your diseased queenless colonies
with a ripe queen-cell or virgin just hatched. These are to be introduced to your
diseased colonies on the twentieth day after you have removed their old queen,
and not one hour sooner, for upon this very point your whole success depends; for
your young queen must not commence to lay until three or four days after the last
of the old brood is hatched, or 27 days from the time you remove the old queen.
In regard to those old queens that were formerly in your old hives, I think it
best to kill them when you first take them from their colonies—not that the queen
is responsible for the disease, for I am sure she is not; but a young Italian queen

that has been reared from a choice honey-gathering strain is worth so much more
to you that I can not advise saving these old queens.
146 Advanced Bee Culture.

not a single diseased cell had been found in them, even with diseased colonies
all about them. This exception came from the giving of a comb from a sup-
posed healthy colony that afterwards proved to be diseased. As a test, this
colony was left undisturbed, and it cleaned up during the season, and has
remained healthy since. I have witnessed several instances where a single
‘colony of Italians has survived without care or treatment, in some farmer’s
‘small apiary; not even shown a trace of the disease, when the rest of the
apiary of blacks or hybrids died with black brood.

WHY THE ALEXANDER PLAN HAS FAILED.

‘There has been much discredit given the Alexander plan of treating
‘black brood, but I believe the failures have arisen not so much in the treatment
as in the race of bees. Let me give an illustration: Mr. Howard Mills, of
Syracuse, had an apiary of 100 colonies of blacks. When the disease appeared
in his apiary, he called in the inspector, who instructed him to shake off the
bees, destroy the combs, etc., which was done at considerable expense, yet, the
same season, the colonies became so badly diseased, again, that Mr. Mills
destroyed all of them in the fall, and went out of the business.

Again: Mr. Irving Kinyon, of Fairmount, bought an apiary of black bees
that were badly diseased. In the fall he dequeened and doubled up about
25 colonies, expecting to introduce Italian queens, but the dealer of whom the
queens were ordered failed to furnish them, as the season became so far
advanced that it was not safe to ship them. As a result, these colonies went
through the winter queenless. In the spring the Italian queens were intro-
duced, and those colonies freed themselves of the disease. A few colonies
showed traces of the disease in the second hatching of bees, but the Italian
bees soon cleaned out the dead larvae, and the disease disappeared entirely.
I could mention many similar cases showing that there is more in the strain
of bees (Italian) in combating the disease, than in any method of treatment.

There is one more point: Don’t be alarmed if a few diseased larvae
show in the second filling of the combs after introducing an Italian queen.
Give the Italians time, and they will clean these out.

METHODS OF TREATMENT VARY WITH THE SEASON.

As to the most desirable treatment, much depends upon the time of the
year. Those that show the disease in the spring, I would dequeen at once, on
the Alexander plan. If the disease does not show until just prior to the honey
harvest, then I would shake the colony.

I have shaken colonies during the honey flow, tiered up the brood, de-
stroyed the queen cells at the tenth day, given a ripe cell from healthy, Italian
stock, then, later, selected the section that the bees were occupying the
strongest, placing it, with the queen, at the bottom, with an excluder over it,
and the other chambers above. The bees would clean out the combs, and
later use of the combs, both as extracting combs and as brood combs, failed
to resurrect the disease.

FORESTALLING THE DISEASE.

My bees have now passed through one season free from European (black)
foul brood, and experience leads me to say to bee-keepers, thoroughly Italianize
your stock before the disease appears in your territory; you then have very
little to fear from the disease. As one of the inspectors puts it: “Black brood
is a blessing in disguise. It does away with the careless bee-keeper and the
old box hive.”

Camillus, N. Y., March 7, 1910.
Apiarian Exhibits at Fairs

For fifteen years I did not miss making an annual exhibit of bees
and honey at our State fair; and for three or four years I also made
exhibits at the State fairs of Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Mis-
souri. It will not pay to travel from State to State with an exhibit
unless the exhibit is unusually large and attractive—enough so as to
win the lion’s share of the premiums. On the other hand, it will not
pay to get up a large, expensive exhibit unless it is to be exhibited at
several fairs. In order thus to make a “circuit” of several State fairs
it is necessary to charter a freight car and travel with the exhibit. In
no other way is it possible to avoid fatal delays at transfer points. The
work is terribly hard. There is the packing-up at night, and traveling
nights in a freight-car; the “hurrah boys” of getting upon the grounds
and the exhibit set up in time, and the friendly rivalry with competi-
tors; but there is a fascination about it that, to an old exhibitor, is
almost irresistible..

There has been, in times past, some opposition to these apiarian
exhibits on the ground that they were often made by supply-dealers
who, in their eagerness to do business, did not hesitate to urge a man
to become a bee-keeper in order to effect a sale. If the fruit of the
seed sown at these gatherings were a crop of producers, I might ad-
mit that, possibly, there would be some injury to existing bee-keepers ;
but after the experience that I have had, I am thoroughly convinced
that nothing of the kind occurs; in fact, the exhibition of hives, imple-
ments, and large quantities of honey tastily put up, impresses the crowd
with the true importance, magnitude, and complexity of modern bee
culture, imparting the idea that the bee business is quite a business—
one that can not be picked up and learned in a day by some Tom,
Dick, or Harry.

Anything that increases the consumption of honey is a benefit to
the pursuit; and, as usually managed, these bee and honey shows call
the attention of crowds of people to the excellence and deliciousness of
honey as a food; and the producer and consumer are brought face to
face. At a fair, people are abroad with a disposition for sight-seeing,
investigation, and the purchase of novelties and nick-nacks; and a fine
display of honey, together with its sale in fancy packages, can not
‘uoIsodxy uvotsawy-ueg ay} ye Luojod euQ Aq parrojg AouoZ{ quI0D

 

 
Apiarian Exhibits at Fairs. 149

help benefiting the exhibitor as well as the pursuit. Honey to be sold
at fairs ought to be put up in small packages. It may be difficult to
put it up in packages so small as to be sold at five cents each, but I
believe it has been done, while there is no difficulty in putting honey
in packages that may be sold for 10 or 25 cents each. People at fairs
don’t wish to be burdened with heavy or bulky packages, and the honey
must be put up in such shape that it can be eaten on the grounds or
else carried in the pocket or hand-bag with no danger of leakage. I
remember that, one year at the Michigan State fair, Mr. H. D. Cut-
ting sold nearly $40 worth of honey put up in pound and half-pound
square glass bottles and in small glass pails. One year, at the Detroit
Exposition, at least 1500 pounds of “honey jumbles” were sold at a
cent apiece, by three exhibitors in the bee and honey department. ‘These
jumbles are made with honey instead of sugar, and, for this reason,
retain the desired amount of moisture for a long time. In selling them
at a fair, a box of them is opened, placed on the counter, and tipped
slightly outward so that visitors can easily look into it. The cakes
are round, with a hole in the middle, and the upper side is of a golden
yellow,*with a sort of granular appearance that is very inviting. This
side of the cakes is turned uppermost. Paper sacks are filled with
cakes, putting five in a sack, and a neat placard announces: “Honey
Jumbles, Made with Honey Instead of Sugar. Five in a Sack, and
Five Cents a Sack.” Another thing that may be sold at an apiarian
exhibit with even greater profit than the honey jumbles is honey lem-
onade—if the weather is hot; if it isn’t, there is no use of attempting
its sale. Here is the way to make it: Into 12 quarts of water squeeze
the juice of 12 lemons; add 2 pounds of basswood honey and a teacup-
ful of sugar. Basswood honey, being of such a strong flavor, gives
more of a honey flavor. Keep the lemonade cool with ice in some
large vessel. I used a stoneware churn. [Keep on the counter a glass
pitcher filled with lemonade, putting in small pieces of ice, also a few
slices of lemon. Then have a placard read: ‘Honey Lemonade. Most
Delicious Drink on the Grounds. Only Five Cents a Glass.” I have
sold as high as $20 worth of this in one hot afternoon, and the profits
are at least three-fourths. Such exhibitions and sales certainly do the
pursuit of bee-keeping no harm, while they bring a profit to the ex-
hibitor.

Neither ought the social feature to be overlooked. Every bee-
keeper attending the fair hunts up the “Bee and Honey Department,”
and only one who has been at an exhibition knows of the many new
acquaintances thus formed, and the old ones that are renewed. It is
well to have one day set apart as “Bee-keepers’ Day,” giving the date
in advance in all of the bee journals, then all bee-keepers will be pres-
150 eldvanced Bee Culture.

ent on the same day. When possible to do so, it is an excellent plan
for two or three or more exhibitors to club together and take a tent
or a portable house, each bringing his share of bedding, provisions,
and utensils, and live a Ja picnic during the fair. Some of the happiest
hours of my life have been spent in going through just such experi-
ences with boon companions.

I doubt very much if the exhibition of bees at fairs is any great
advantage to the pursuit. ‘The most that can be said in its favor is
that they attract attention. There is certainly no necessity of ex-

 

 

 

 

Honey Exhibit of the Author as Shown One Year at the Detroit
_ Exposition.

hibiting full colonies unless it might be at some permanent exhibition
that is to last several months, when the bees can be allowed to fly, a la
house-apiary, provided the apiarian department is on the second floor.
A single-comb nucleus with a queen and a few drones and workers,
together with brood in different stages of development, can be made
to show more that is really interesting than can be shown with a full
colony.
Apiarian Exhibits at Fairs. ISI

Of course, it is impossible to go on and cover in detail all the
points in regard to planning and putting up an apiarian display, as
circumstances vary greatly, but here are a few hints: Extracted honey
should be shown in glass—not common green glass, but in white flint
glass. Have tin-foil over the corks, and small tasty labels. Aim to
get a white or light-colored background for extracted honey. A dark
color gives it a dull or muddy appearance. I know of nothing better,
or more appropriate for this purpose, or as a background for any

 

Exhibit of Mr. M. H. Hunt, as Shown One Year at the Detroit
Exposition.

apiarian display, than honey-producing~ plants pressed and mounted
on white card-boards, and the cards tacked upon the wall back of the
exhibit. A pyramid of extracted honey in bottles, in front of a win-
dow, is a beautiful sight, the light “shimmering and glimmering” as it
passes through the bottles and their contents. Comb honey must be
in cases with glass next the comb. For several years I exhibited
honey built up into a circular pyramid. First there was made a stout
board wheel, perhaps eight feet in diameter. This was placed perhaps
152 Advanced Bee Culture.

two feet from the floor, being supported by blocks or boxes. Attached
to the edge of this wheel, and hanging down, for all the world, like a
woman's skirt, was a sort of valance made of thin blue cambric orna-
mented with some neat design of gilt paper fastened on with paste.
Around the edge of the wheel, upon its upper surface, was set a row
of shipping-cases of comb honey, with glass sides turned out. On top
of this row was set another row, the cases of this row breaking joints
with the one below. Perhaps four rows were placed in this manner,
then the cases were turned so the long way of the cases faced out-
ward, a fewer number of cases making a row that was slightly smaller
than the others. Perhaps four rows were put up in this style, then
they were again changed so that the narrow ends were outward, which
again reduced the size of the circle. In this manner the size of the
circles was gradually diminished as the pyramid increased in height,
until its top was only two feet across. That these cases might not be
jarred out of place they were fastened to one another by means of
small wire nails. Upon the top of this pyramid was set a large number
of two-pound square bottles of honey. On top of the bottles was laid
a platform of glass made by putting together two sheets of double-
strength glass, bound together at the edges with cloth pasted on and
covered with gilt paper. Upon the glass platform were set more bottles,
then another sheet of glass a little smaller than the first one, and so on
up, until a pyramid of extracted honey was constructed upon the top
of the pyramid of comb honey, the former being surmounted by a
huge bouquet of goldenrod. I remember building one such pyramid
that was 16 feet in height. The spaces between the outer ends of the
cases in the comb-honey part of the pyramid were filled with small
“dime” bottles of honey. By thus combining the comb and extracted
honey display, one “‘sets off” the other; in fact, my competitors some-
times complained of this, but it was their privilege to have taken ad-
vantage of this fact had they so chosen. Mr. M. H. Hunt one year
had a castle in which the pillars were cases of comb honey piled up,
and the balustrade was formed from panels of beautifully molded bees-
Wax,

There is seldom a fairground with no bees near it, hence no honey
should be exposed. All honey should be shut up close, and no stickiness
left on the outside of the package. \Wax should be molded into fanci-
ful shapes—statues, or something of that sort, if the exhibitor has the
skill to make them. Fruits, vegetables, ears of corn, and the like,
may be made of wax by first making molds, of plaster of Paris, from
the objects themselves. It is not necessary that the articles be solid
wax. First soak the molds in water, then pour in a small quantity
of melted wax; close the molds, and then immediately shake them vig-
Apiarian Exhibits at Fairs. 153

orously while the wax is cooling, thus coating the inside of the molds
with wax. When the wax is cool it will come out all in one piece.

Let the beginner not try to show a multitude of things, but let
what he does show be as good as it is possible for him to make it.
Competition is so very keen, at least where the premiums are liberal,
that it is folly to expect premiums upon second-class articles.

Now that I have reached the subject of premiums, it may be well
to give what I would call a “model” premium list. I may have placed
the premiums at higher figures than most societies would care to use,
but the amounts can be easily reduced, preserving the proportions.

1 2 3
Most attractive display of comb honey................000 000 $35 $20 $10
Specimen of comb honey, not less than ten pounds, quality
and manner of putting up for market to be considered... 10 5
Most attractive display of extracted honey................... 35 20 10
Specimen of comb honey, not less than ten pounds, quality
and manner of putting up for market to be considered... 10 5
Most attractive display of beeswax..............ccc ee ee eee 20 10
Specimen of beeswax, not less than ten pounds, soft, bright-
yellow wax to be given the preference.................. 6 3
Single-comb nucleus Italian bees............ 0.0.0 c cee eee eee 10 5
Single-comb nucleus black beeS......... 0.00 cece cece eee eeees 10 5
Single-comb nucleus Carniolan bees............0 000 cee cee vues 10 a
Single-comb nucleus Caucasian bees..............000cceeeeuae 10 5
SWEEPSTAKES ON BEES.
Display, in single-comb nuclei, of the greatest variety of the
Gierent TACES OF DOSS isssice wwacow daw cad aig tinaaat are ek arose 10 5
Collection of queen bees of different varieties................ 16 8
Honey vinegar, not less than one gallon, shown in glass...... 6 3
Assortment of honey candies........... 0... cc cece cece cee eee 4 2
Pastry made with honey instead of sugar.............2-00-0e 4 2
The best specimens of honey-producing plants, pressed and
mounted, not to exceed 25 varieties..............4...055 15 8
SWEEPSTAKES.
The largest, best, most interesting, attractive, and instructive
exhibition in this department, all things considered...... 35 20 10

I think bee-keepers would prefer to have “sunplies’” included in
the premium list; but the managers of fairs have decided against the
offering of premiums on such things, on account of the difficulty of
securing satisfactory decisions. The best we can do is to have a
“sweepstakes” premium offered upon the largest and best exhibit; then
supplies will count.

A judge should never be compelled to take an exhibitor’s word
for anything. Let the article exhibited show for itself. Don’t offer
premiums on samnles of different kinds of honey when they can be
154 Advanced Bee Culture.

so easily gotten up for the occasion by mixing. Don't put at the head
of the list such requirements as: “Honey must be of this season’s
crop;” or, “must be the product of the exhibitor,” when there is no
way of knowing whether they have been lived up to or not.

In my experience, one man to award the premiums, and he an ex-
pert, has given better satisfaction than three judges. It is difficult and
expensive to get three men who are experts, and even then the work is
not always done so conscientiously, because it is not so easy to place
the responsibility, each being able to shield himself behind the other two.

There is only one way to judge honey satisfactorily, and that is
by a scale of points, the same as butter or cheese is judged. One
sample may be of good body, but lacking in flavor or in color; another
sample may be of excellent flavor but lacking in body; and the man
who attempts to carry all these points in his mind will surely be all

at sea.
In judging extracted honey there are three characteristics to be

considered: flavor, body and color. Let flavor represent 50 points,
body 30 points, and color 20 points in a possible 100 points. Gather
the samples in front of you, giving each a number, then decide, by
tasting, which has the finest flavor, and give this sample 50 points on
flavor. Then decide which has the next best flavor—possibly 45 points.
By continued tasting decide how many points may be assigned to each
sample, as compared with the one given 50 points. Deciding in regard
to the flavor is really the most difficult point to decide in judging honey.
After tasting of different samples of honey, for a while, one seems to
lose the power of discrimination to a large extent. Where there are
several grades of honey to be judged, and the number of entries large,
I have found it advisable to judge of only one grade at a time, then
work at something else for an hour or two, when the taste will regain
its normal condition to a large degree. I at one time spent two days
in awarding the premiums at the Toronto Industrial Fair, and the
time was largely used in deciding in regard to the honey, there being
many grades and a large number of entries in each grade.

To decide in regard to the body, take a bottle or jar of honey in
each hand, invert the vessels, and note in which the bubble of air rises
the slower. Retain this one, and pick up another bottle, and test these
two, retaining the one in which the bubble is the slower in rising.
Continue in this manner to test all of the samples, and give 30 points
to the one having the slowest bubble of all. Then compare each sample
with this one as a standard, giving each the appropriate number of
points, as compared with the best.

The decision in regard to color is made in a manner similar to
that of deciding the points of body or flavor. Select the sample having
Apiarian Exhibits at Fairs. 155

the most desirable color, give it 20 points, then give the next best 18
points, or 16, or whatever you think it deserves, and so on through
the whole lot.

No one, not even the judge, will know which sample will receive
the first prize, until the scores are added up, when the one receiving
the greatest number of points is awarded the first prize; the one with
the next greatest number of points is given the second prize, etc.

In judging comb honey there are several more points to be con-
sidered than in judging extracted honey. Here are the different char-
acteristics, and the points that I would allow for each. Completeness
of filling of the sections, 20 points; flavor, 15; freedom from travel
stain or propolis, 15; straightness of the combs, 10; uniformity, 10;
neatness of the sections (the wood) and of the case, Io.

The deciding of all these fine points is sometimes very difficult, as
two specimens may be so nearly alike on some point that there is prac-
tically no difference—they may differ, however, on other points.

If a bee-keeper is going to make an exhibit of apiarian products,
it often happens that he can also make exhibits in other departments
of the fair. I have exhibited photographs in the art department, canned
fruit in the fruit department, and the wife and children have sent
things to their respective departments. In addition to this, when mak-
ing a “circuit” of the fairs I used to write them up for the Country
Gentleman, getting paid for the work. Fairs come in the fall, after
the busy season is over with the bees; and if a man has the time, taste,
and ability for this kind of work, going from one State to another, as
I have done, he can probably clear $10 a day for five or six weeks in
the fall. It is scarcely worth while to prepare for the work, however,
unless there is some expectation of following it for several years.

Just a few parting words to the beginner: If you make an exhibit
at a fair, don’t get excited. keep cool and have patience. Many un-
pleasant things may occur, but don’t worry over them; and, above all,
don’t let the loss of expected premiums so “sour” you as to spoil your
own enjoyment and that of your comrades. When you leave home
have everything in readiness, as nearly as possible, to put right up.
Pack everything carefully, but in such a manner that it can be quickly
and easily unpacked. I used to pack the square bottles of honey in
boxes furnished with partitions of cellular board, a la egg crate, and
to pack the bottles it was only necessary to drop them into the openings
and nail down the cover. If the package does not indicate its contents,
then mark it in some way. Never be compelled to open box after box
in an exasperating hunt for something that must be had at once. And
when fair is over, don’t go crazy to get off the grounds the next minute.
I have known of men sitting up all night, swearing and sweating and
156 Advanced Bee Culture.

fuming because “their car didn’t come,” or something of that sort, and
we all went out on the same train the next morning. At the close of
a large fair, an immense amount of goods are on the grounds; they
have been several days accumulating, and it is impossible to move them
all in an hour’s time.

 
The Rendering of Beeswax

In nearly every apiary there are more or less odds and ends of
combs which are well worth saving to be made into wax. When an
apiary is run for extracted honey the wax from the cappings is no
small part of the income. If there are many combs to be rendered,
as is often the case when foul brcod gets into an apiary, the manner
of doing the work becomes an important question. The small bee-
keeper who has only a few scraps to melt up may resort to almost any.
make-shift; and, by the way, here is one such primitive plan: Take
an old dripping-pan or any large flat metal dish that is of little value,
and punch a hole in one corner. Set the dish in an ordinary stove
oven, letting the end with the hole in it project from the oven. Put
the scraps of comb into the pan, where they will melt, and the wax
will run out of the hole, where it may be caught in a dish set upon the
floor. If the scraps are of nearly pure wax, like cappings or new comb,
this plan will answer quite well for rendering wax upon a small scale;
but if the combs are old, the cocoons will absorb so much of the wax
that a large portion will thus be lost. A plan that will secure a larger
percentage of wax from old combs, but requiring some more labor to
put into operation, is that of crowding the combs into a sack made of
cheese-cloth or burlap, tying up the mouth of the sack, and immersing
it in a boiler of water set upon a stove, and then bringing it to the
boiling-point. While the water and the sack and its contents are still
hot, the sack should be thoroughly turned and pressed with something
like a garden-hoe, thus stirring up the contents and pressing out the
wax. The water will largely take the place of the wax, which, being
lighter than the water, will rise to the top, where it may be taken off
in a solid cake after it has cooled. A weight of some kind, like a big
stone or some bricks, must be laid upon the sack to hold it at the bot-
tom of the boiler while the wax is cooling, otherwise the sack will be
embedded in the wax when it is cooled. This plan may be employed
upon a large scale, even to the extent of using a large kettle out of
doors, and the use of the sacks may he dispensed with by making a
sort of pail or basket out of fine wire cloth, setting it down in the
melted wax, inside the kettle, and then dipping off the wax with a
dipper by dipping inside the wire-cloth basket, the wire cloth straining
158 Advanced Bee Culture.

out the coarser impurities. This method of rendering wax by the use
of boiling water will probably get out as much of the wax as it is pos-
sible to secure without the use of pressure upon the residue, or “slum-
gum,” as it is called. Old combs are largely made up of cocoons—
more cocoons than wax—and they absorb and retain the melted wax,
much as a sponge will hold water, and pressure is the only thing that
will cause them to give up the golden treasure.

Another plan particularly feasible for melting cappings, new combs,
or scraps that are nearly pure wax, is by the use of the solar wax-
extractor, which is simply a shallow box painted black inside and out,
and furnished with a false bottom of sheet iron a few inches above the
real bottom, a cover of glass completing the arrangement. ‘The box
is placed in a slanting position, facing the sun, and the refuse combs,
etc., placed upon the false bottom of iron, or in a sort of basket ar-
ranged at the upper end for the reception of the cappings, scraps, ete.
The direct rays of the sun, aided, sometimes, by the reflected rays from
the cover, to which is fastened a sheet of bright tin, melt the wax, and
it runs down to the lower end of the metal shute, where it drops off
into a vessel set there to catch it. A small solar wax-extractor standing
in an apiary is an excellent thing, as into it may be thrown all scraps
of comb that would otherwise be thrown away, or perhaps be thrown
into a box or barrel to stand around until destroyed by the bee-moth
larvae.

All of these plans of rendering wax fall short of perfection, how-
ever, as too much wax is left in the residue. Pressure of some sort must
be used or a large part of the wan is lost.

RENDERING OLD COMBS INTO WAX, WITH GREAT EASE, SPEED AND
PERFECTION.

Mr. W. J. Manley of Sandusky, Michigan, has perfected a method
of wax making that I would recommend in preference to those already
mentioned. The characteristic features of the plan are that of pressing
only a small amount of material at one time, doing it very thoroughly,
yet with such a svstem that one batch can follow another in rapid suc-
cession, pressing the slum gum under water that is boiling hot; releas-
ing and re-applving the pressure, getting the wax up on top of the
water, away from the slum gum and the burlap packing; then pouring
the wax and hot water off into a cooling tank; and, last, but not least,
drawing off the hot water from under the wax, in the cooling tank,
and using this hot water over again for melting the next batch, thus
saving the heating of another boiler of water.

First, let’s describe the implements, or utensils. For heating the
water he uses a common, six-griddle cook-stove, with a reservoir. The
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160 Advanced Bee Culture.

old combs are melted in two common wash-boilers. The one thing that
must be built with the greatest care is the press. He first tried presses
sent out by manufacturers, only to meet with disappointment. They
couldn’t ‘‘stand the pressure.” The outside jacket is 15 inches in diam-
eter, 18 inches deep, and made of heavy, galvanized iron. round the
top, inside of the can, is bolted, very solidly, an iron hoop an inch and
a half wide, and 4% inch thick. Bolted to opposite sides of the can, at
its upper edge, the bolts passing through the iron hoop just mentioned,
are two strips of iron, 34 inch thick, about 4 inches long, having one
end turned outwards and formed into a hook that will receive a bolt
% inch in diameter. The cross-piece, above the can, through which
passes the screw, is about 4 inches wide, and 2% inches thick, of hard
wood, and reinforced by a piece of wagon tire iron 1% inch thick and
as wide as the piece of wood. Mr. Manley says that only the man who
has been through the mill can realize the necessity for making every-
thing very strong. The pressure that can be exerted with a screw is
something tremendous. In each end of the cross-piece is a 5@ bolt with
a heavy nut on the lower end. When the cross-piece is put in place
and swung around in the right direction, these bolts slip into the hooks
already mentioned, the nuts catching below the hooks and holding down
the cross-piece.

The next most important feature of the press is what Mr. Manley
calls a “spider,” which is put in an inch or two from the bottom of the
can. The name is very appropriate, as it certainly resembles a huge
spider with its legs fastened to the sides of the can. It is made of
pieces of iron about 3-16 thick and one inch wide, bolted together at
the center, and the ends bolted to an iron hoop that just fits inside the
can and is bolted to its sides. This iron hoop is of the same size and
weight as the one at the top of the can. Don't think that it will answer
to rivet these hoops to the can. It won't. They will pull off. Use
bolts, with washers on the outside, and have the washers thoroughly
fastened to the can with solder. Even when all this care has been
taken, Mr. Manley says that the screw-power must be used with dis-
cretion.

Fastened to the bottom of the screw is a plunger, or follower, made
of heavy cast iron, and reinforced on the lower side with two layers of
bars of wood; these layers crossing each other at right angles. .\side
from the added strength, there is an advantage in having two lavers
of bars crossing each other. If the slum gum in its covering of burlap
is forced up between the bars of the lower tier, there are still openings
in the upper tier through which the wax can escape.

Perhaps half an inch less in diameter than the can, is an inner
basket of perforated iron. Inside of this basket is used a sack of burlap
The Rendering of Beeswax. {61

for holding the slum gum. This, I believe, completes the description
of the press, and I think I now better go back and tell how the wax is
melted and pressed, and bring the process up to the point where the
wax leaves the press, before going further with any description.

First, the combs are all cut out of the frames, and the frames
scraped clean, before any wax rendering operations are begun. After
steam is up, and work begun, there is no time for cutting out combs.
They are all cut out and thrown in a huge pile in one corner of the room,
from whence they can be readily scooped up with a shovel and thrown
into the boilers as needed. We will suppose that the combs are cut out,
a good fire in the stove, and the two boilers and the reservoir full of
hot water. The equivalent of about eight Langstroth combs is put into
the boiler that sits upon the hottest part of the stove. As the combs
melt they are stirred and thoroughly broken up with a large stick.
When the wax has thoroughly melted, the perforated metal basket is
set inside the press, the burlap sack hung inside the basket, and the
contents of the boiler dipped with a gallon dipper into the burlap sack.
That is, it is dipped at first, until the operator is able to pick up the
boiler and pour out the rest of its contents into the burlap sack. After
the melted combs and hot water are all in the press, the burlap sacl is
grasped with both hands, at its upper edge, lifted up somewhat, and
twisted about, until the bulk of its contents has been reduced so that
the top of the sack can be folded down upon the body of the sack. The
screw and follower is then put in place and screwed down upon .the
sack. While this batch is pressing, the boiler is filled with combs and
set to melting upon the stove. The screw is then loosened, and the
water allowed to enter the slum gum, when pressure is again applied
a la Hershiser. Before the follower is screwed down the second time,
it is turned around part way, by means of an iron rod thrust down
upon its upper surface. The bars upon the lower surface do not then
go back into the same old grooves in the sack of slum gum. This.
loosening of the screw, and re-applying of the pressure, may be repeated
as often as thought advisable. It will be noticed that the pressure is
applied under boiling hot water; that the wax rises to the top of the
water as fast as it escapes from the slum gum; that it is not entangled
nor retained by the burlap.

We will suppose that we have secured all of the wax possible by
pressure. The slum gum is in the sack; the press is full of hot water,
with the wax floating on top; Mr. Manley then pours off this hot water
and wax into what might be called a cooling, or separating tank. The
screw is then loosened and removed, the sack of slum gum taken out,
and the slum gum shaken out into some old box or barrel. There is
162 eldvanced Bee Culture.

no wax, propolis, nor stickiness about the sack after it is emptied—just
as nice and clean as when first put into the press.

This cooling, or separating tank, will probably hold a barrel. It
is perbaps two feet high, and a trifle more than that in diameter. It
is made of galvanized iron, with a gate or faucet at the bottom, and
another perhaps six inches from the top. There is also a vlass gauge
in its side, through which can be seen the line of demarcation between
the water and the wax. It will be seen that, from the lower faucet,
hot water may be drawn from beneath the wax, leaving the wax in the
tank, and using the water for melting the next batch of wav. This is
one of the biggest points of the system, that of using the same water
over and over again before it cools. Keep dumping the melted wax and
hot water into this tank, and keep drawing off the hot water from
beneath the wax, as the water is needed. Some water will be lost by
evaporation and some will be absorbed by the slum gum, hence the
necessity of hot water in the reservoir to replenish the loss. The upper
faucet is used to draw off the melted wax if the tank becomes too full,
or at the end of the “run.” A look through the glass gauge will show
when the body of wax is at the right height to be drawn off. The lower
surface of the wax ought to be a.short distance below the faucet, so
that little or no sediment will be drawn out through the faucet. Ii it
is not quite high enough, boiling water can be added until the body of
wax is at exactly the proper height. At the end of the day, or of the
“run,” the wax can be drawn off in this manner, simply leaving a little
wax below the faucet. This thin sheet of wax can be allowed to cool
in the tank; and, by this plan, all of the sediment for the whole day's
work will be in this one place, under this one thin cake of wax.

For thoroughness, rapidity, and ease of operation, 1 doubt if any
system of wax-rendering can compare with this plan of My. Manlev’s.
He says that he can render from 150 to 209 pounds in a day, depending
upon the character of the old combs. While cost is not of so very great
importance, the outht is simple and inexpensive. Except the press,
nearly everything can be bought at an ordinary hardware, and the press
can be made by a tinsmith. Mr. Manley savs that his cost him about
SS. : :

For cleaning any utensils that are daubed up with wax, use a cloth
saturated with benzine. Benzine will dissolve wax much as water will
dissolve sugar.

For some mysterious reason, sulphuric acid will cleanse or clarify
heeswax that is brown or black, or almost any color, bringing it back
to a nice bright yellow. The bee-keeper who renders his wax according
to the methods here described will probably have no need for using
acids: but those who buy wax for making into foundation find the use
The Rendering of Beeswa.. 163

of the acid almost indispensable. .\ kettle or some other vessel is filled
perhaps one-third full of water, and then filled up with cakes of wax.
By the use of steam, or by setting the vessel on a stove, the wax is
melted, when acid is added at the rate of about one pint of acid to twelve
gallons of water. Soon after the acid is poured in, the wax will be seen
to change to a lighter hue, when the heat may be stopped and the sedi-
ment allowed to settle, after which the pure wax can be dipped, off the
top. If a metal vessel is used, it must be thoroughly washed after use;
and it would be well to rub it over with grease to prevent any further
action of the acid.

 

  
  
 

  

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Automatic Transferring

Years ago Mr. James Heddon used a method of transferring bees
from box hives that he called “Modern Transferring.” It consisted
in drumming the bees out of the box hive, and hiving them in a hive
furnished with wired foundation. He then set the old hive by the side
of the new one, where it was left for three weeks, or until all of the
brood had hatched, when he again drummed the bees from the old hive
and united them with those in the new hive. The old hive was now
free from brood and bees, and the combs could be cut out at one’s leisure,
and rendered into wax.

There is another “modern” plan that does away with the drumming
out of the bees. ‘Turn the box hive upside down, set a hive of combs
over it, and the bees and queen will soon go up into this hive of combs
and start to rearing brood. This action on the part of the bees and
queen can be hastened by placing a comb of brood in the upper hive.
They will go up without the brood, but probably not quite so soon.
When the queen is found above, place a queen-excluding honey-board
bencath the upper hive, between that and the old box hive. This will
prevent the queen from returning to the old hive, and, as the brood
hatches in the box hive, the young bees will join those in the upper
hive, until, at the end of three weeks, all of the brood will have hatched.
An inverted bee escape-board (containing a bee-escape) can now be
placed between the two hives, when all of the bees will soon find their
Way up into the upper hive, and the old box will be entirely free from
brood and bees and can be removed to the honey-house, and the combs
made into wax. Of course, the queen-excluder and the bee-escape will
be removed from under the new hive, which will now sit in the place
occupied by the old box hive.
The Relation of Food to the Wintering of Bees

In the Southern States, and other places not blessed with a stern
winter, where bees can enjoy frequent flights, it matters little what the
food is, so long as it is not actually poisonous. By this is meant that
any kind of sweet like sugar, honey, or even honey-dew, will answer
as food. In these mild climates, little or no protection is needed; but
as higher latitudes are reached, chaff-packed hives, or their equivalent,
are needed, and there must be some care exercised in regard to food.
As we journey still further from the equator, it is only cellars and the
best of food that bring forth uniform results.

It has been asserted that honey is the “natural” food of bees, and
that nothing can be gained by substituting something else. It must be
remembered that the ‘natural’ home of the bee is that of a warm climate,
where there are no long spells of confinement caused by continued cold.
Honey is, of course, the “natural” food of bees, but this fact does not
prevent their dying sometimes as the result of its consumption, when a
diet of cane sugar would have saved their lives.

In my opinion, food is the pivotal point upon which turns the
wintering of bees in our Northern States. Food is the fulcrum, and
temperature the long end of the lever. The whole question in a nut-
shell is just this: The loss of bees in winter, aside from that caused
by diarrhea, is not worth mentioning. It is diarrhea that kills our bees.
What causes it? An overloading of the intestines, with no opportunity
of emptying them. Cold confines the bees to their hives. The greater
the cold the larger are the quantities of food consumed to keep up the
animal heat. The more food there is consumed, the sooner are the
intestines overloaded. A moment's reflection will make it clear that
the character of the food consumed has an effect upon the accumulation
in the intestines. In the digestion of cane sugar there is scarcely any
residue. Honey is usually quite free from nitrogenous matter, being
well supplied with oxygen, and, when practically free from floating
grains of pollen, is generally a very good and safe winter food, although
not as good as properly prepared sugar syrup, which never contains
nitrogen, but possesses more oxygen. The excreta from diarrhetic bees
is almost wholly pollen grains in a digested or partly digested state,
with a slight mixture of organic matter. What overloads the intestines
166 Advanced Bee Culture.

of the bees is this nitrogenous matter which they consume, either as
grains of pollen floating in the honey or by eating the bee-bread itself.

Repeated experiments have proved beyond a doubt that, as a winter
food for bees, cane sugar has no superior. With this as an exclusive
diet bees never die with the dysenterry; and, if kept in a temperature
ranging from 35 to 42 degrees, they are all but certain to winter suc-
cessfully. This being the case, the question naturally follows, “Why not
take away the honey in the fall, and feed the bees sugar?” (ne objection
to the use of sugar as a winter food is that every pound of sugar so
used puts one more pound of honey on the market. Another objection
is that the bee-keeper is thereby compelled to pay out money for sugar
while he may have on hand a crop of honey that is meeting with slow
sale. Some object to its use on the ground that it lends color to the
cry of “adulteration.” Perhaps the greatest objection is the labor of
extracting the honey and feeding the sugar.

Let’s consider these objections. The use of sugar as a winter food
for bees unquestionably does put a little more honey on the market;
but this ought not to weigh so very heavily against the certainty of
wintering the bees. Neither need there be any labor of extracting the
honey in the fall if the summer management has been conducted with
a view to feeding sugar in the fall. By contraction of the brood-nest,
nearly all of the honey may be forced into the supers, leaving the brood-
combs nearly empty at the end of the season. It only remains to feed
the bees, and, with proper feeders (the Heddon, for instance), tin cans,
and oil-stoves for making the syrup, feeding is neither a long nor a
tedious task. What little honey remains in the corners of the combs is
not likely to be consumed until spring, when frequent flights will pre-
vent all troubles that might arise from its consumption. In regard to
causing the public to believe that, hy some hocus-pocus, the sugar that
is fed gets into the surplus, no one need know of the feeding, except
it might be in some cases an immediate neighbor, and the bee-keeper
ought to enjoy his neighbor's confidence to: that degree that the exact
truth can be told him, and it will be believed. As in regard to the
increased amount of honey that the use of sugar as winter stores puts
upon the market, so any possible talk about adulteration is over-balanced
by the certainty of carrying the bees through the winter.

If the feeding is done early encugh so that the bees will have time
to work the honey over and ripen it, no heat will be needed in making
the syrup. Simply stir into cold water all of the sugar that it will dis-
solve; feed it to the bees, and they will reduce it to the proper con-
sistency ; and, by the addition of their secretions, change the cane sugar
into grape sugar, thus practically making it into honey. Tf fed too late,
something may he necessary to prevent the granulation of the syrup.
Relation of Food to IVintcring of Bees. 167

For this purpose I never found anything better than honey—from 10
to 20 per cent is sufficient. September is early enough to feed; but
when feeding has been neglected until it is so late and the weather so
cool that the bees will not leave the cluster and go into the feeder, it
may be managed, as explained in the chapter on feeding, by filling the
feeder with hot syrup and placing it wider the hive. The heat from
the syrup will warm up and arouse the bees, when they will come down
and carry up the feed.

But all can not or may not wish to use sugar for winter stores, and
many do not need to use sugar to insure the successful wintering of
their bees. There is a great difference in localities regarding the chiar-
acter of the honey. Where one has successfully pursued the same course
year after vear, it is doubtful if a change would be desirable; but what
shall the man do who loses heavily nearly every winter, vet can not or
will not use sugar? Possibly he can so manage that his winter stores
are secured from a different source. Mr. O. O. Poppleton takes the
ground that the best winter stores come from the most bountiful yields.
It is possible that there is something in this. Bountiful yields of any
crop are usually of fine quality; but I know of at least one locality
where the fall flow of honey is always the most abundant, and I might
almost say a/wavs abundant, yet so surely will it kill bees that the most
extensive bee-keeper in that locality, after an experience of many years,
kills his bees in the fall rather than attempt to winter them on this honey
by any method.

But bee-keepers can do this: Notice if any particular kind of honey
is more likely to cause trouble, and then avoid its use as winter stores.
Part of the bees may be protected upon the summer stands, and part
put into the cellar. In a warm open winter the bees out of doors will
stand the better chance. In a severe winter the odds will be in favor
of the cellar, and their owner must take his chances.
Out-door Wintering of Bees

WINTERING BEES IN THE OPEN AIR.

In a warm climate there is no reason for wintering bees elsewhere
than in the open air; and that, too, without special protection. As we
come north, say to the latitude of Cincinnati, the open air is still a desir-
able place in which to winter bees, but some protection is a decided
advantage. .\s we come further north, say to the south line of Michigan,
it is about an even thing as to whether to put the bees in the cellar or
to protect them upon their summer stands. In New York, Ontario,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, ves, and in the New England States, the advan-
tages are with the cellar. .\nd this is net saving that bees can not be
wintered out of doors in these higher latitudes. They can, but it is
expensive both in the matter of protection and in the extra stores con-
sumed. In spite of this, there are advantages in out-door wintering.
If there comes a warm day the bees have an opportunity to fly, and out-
door-wintered bees usually get to breeding earlier in the spring. The
hard, disagreeable work of carrying them into and out of the cellar is
avoided. Sometimes the soil and “lay of the land” are not suitable for
the building of a desirable bee cellar, and the wintering of the bees in
the open air becomes almost a necessity.

Some winters are “open,” or there are January thaws, allowing the
bees to enjoy cleansing flights, while other winters hold them close
prisoners for four or five months. It is this element of uncertainty
attending the wintering of bees in the open air that has driven so many
bee-keepers to the adoption of cellar wintering. Still, there are some
bee-keepers who, from some peculiarity of location or management, are
able to winter their bees in the open air with quite uniform success:
others are compellcd, for the present at least, to winter the bees out of
doors. In short, a large portion of the bees, even in the North, are
wintered in the open air, and probably will be for a long time to come;
and while my preference is the cellar, there is much to be said in favor
of outdoor wintering. Let me give one or two instances of success:
Ira D. Bartlett, of East Jordan, Michigan, which is away in the northern
portion of the lower peninsula, began keeping bees when only fourteen
years of age—began with only one colony—and when twenty-one years
Out-door IVintering of Bees. 169

of age he had 150 colonies, and had never lost a colony wintering them
out of doors. His method of protection was very thorough. He packed
four colonies in one box, putting packing not only at the sides and on
top, but also below the hives. The packing was fine dry sawdust, and
the roof of the box had eaves that extended over like the eaves of a
railroad station, which allowed the roof to be raised up a short distance
above the box, for ventilation; yet the snow would not get in to any
great extent. There was a sort of vestibule in front of the entrances,
and this vestibule was kept closed by means of a board, it being removed
only when there came a day warm enough for the bees to fly—something
that rarely occurred in the winter. So warm and comfortable were the
bees when so snugly housed that they even brought the dead bees out
and dropped them in the vestibule. I suspect that the thorough pro-
tection, combined with the perfect ventilation, allowing no accumulation
of moisture, is the secret of this wonderful success.

Another instance was that of two ladies who began bee-keeping
in Northern Michigan before the iron horse had invaded that region,
and who were uniformly successful, for a long series of years, in win-
tering their bees out of doors, packed in chaff. Like Mr. Bartlett, they
furnished abundant upward ventilation, above the packing. .\n opening
a foot square was cut in the top of the box containing chaff that was
placed over the colony, and this opening was covered with wire cloth to
keep out mice; and then, over all, to keep out the storms, was a large
roof. So successful were these ladies, that, from first to last, I have paid
them nearly $1000 for bees.

It does not seem as though the question of whether bees should be
protected here in the North need receive any consideration whatever ;
vet it has been objected to on the ground that the packing becomes
damp, that it deprives the bees of the warmth of the sun, and that they
sometimes fail to fly in the winter, because the outside warmth is so
slow in reaching them, when bees in single-wall hives may be in full
flight. There is occasionally a still mild day in winter, upon which the
sun shines out bright and strong for an hour cr two, and bees in single-
wall hives enjoy a real cleansing flight, while the momentary rise in the
temperature passes away ere it has penetrated the thick walls of a chaff
hive. On the other hand, there are days and weeks, and sometimes
months, unbroken by these rises in temperature ; and the bees must dépend
for their existence upon the heat generated by themselves: and the more
perfect the non-conductor by which they are surrounded, the less will be
the loss of heat. When bees are well protected, there is less necessity
for flight than when the protection is slight. If a bee-keeper thinks,
however, that bees in a chaff hive ought to fly on a warm day, and they
‘stadaay-v0g JNDUOTY APe’T OMY, JO UCT] PIO UL,

 
Out-door IPintering of Bees. 171

don't fly, he has only to remove the covering over the bees and allow
them to fly from the top of the hive.

For several winters I left a few colonies unprotected; and I dis-
continued the practice only when thoroughly convinced that, in this
locality, the losses were lessened hy protection. In mild winters the
bees came through in pretty fair condition. In severe winters the bees
in the outside spaces, or ranges of combs, died first; the cluster became
smaller; the bees in more ranges died; and by spring all were dead, or
the colony so reduced in numbers, and the survivors so lacking in
vitality, as to be practically worthless.

I have never seen any ill effects from dampness; but I have always
given abundant ventilation above the packing. When the warm air from
the cluster passes up through the packing, and is met by the cold outer
air, some condensation of moisture takes place. ‘This moistens the sur-
face of the packing, but it remains comparatively dry underneath. With
a good strong colony of bees, and ventilation above the packing, I have
never known trouble from moisture.

In the giving of protection, chaff hives have the advantage of
always being ready for winter, and of doing away with the labor and
untidiness of packing and unpacking; but they are expensive and cum-
bersome. It is some work to pack bees in the fall and to unpack them
again in the spring; but light, single-wall, readily movable hives during
the working season are managed with enough less labor to more than
compensate for that of packing and unpacking. Then there is another
point: The work of packing and unpacking comes when there is com-
parative leisure, while the extra work caused by great unwieldy hives
comes at a time when the bee-keeper is working on the keen jump.

For packing material I have used wheat chaff, forest leaves, planer
shavings, and dry sawdust. I have never used cork dust, but it is prob-
ably the best packing material. Its non-conductivity is nearly twice
that of chaff, while it never becomes damp. The only objection is that
it is not readily obtainable, and usually costs something, while the other
substances mentioned cost nothing. What they lack in non-conductivity
can be made up in quantity. And this brings up the point of the proper
thickness of packing. I have often thrust my hand into the packing
surrounding a populous colony of bees, and found the warmth percept-
ible at a distance of four inches from the side, and six inches from the
top. This would seem to indicate the thickness when sawdust or chaff
is used. I presume that packing has been condemned when it was not
more than half done—that is, when not enough material is used. I
don't appreciate the arguments of those who advocate the use of thin
packing. I don't believe that the benefit of the heat from the sun during
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Out-door IVintering of Bees. 173

an occasional bright day can compensate for the lack of protection dur-
ing months of extreme cold.

Hollow walls with no packing have had their advocates; and it has
been asked if these dead-air (?) spaces were not as good non-conductors
of heat as those filled with chaff. They are not. In the first place, the
air is not “dead;” it is constantly moving. The air next the inside wall
becomes warm, and rises; that next the outer wall cools, and settles; thus
there is a constant circulation that rabs the inner wall of its heat.

If chaff hives are not used, how shall the packing be kept in place? I
know of nothing better than boxes made of cheap lumber. If there is lack
of room for storing them in summer they can be made so as to be easily
“knocked down” and stacked up when not in use. Of course, bees can
be packed more cheaply by setting the hives in long rows, building a
long box about them, and filling it with the material used for packing.
With this method the packing ought to be postponed until it is so late
that the bees are not likely to fly again until they have forgotten their
old locations, else some of the bees will be lost or some of the colonies
get more than their share of bees. When they have a “cleasing flight”
in winter there is also a likelihood of some bees returning to the wrong
hive. Then when the bees are unpacked in the spring there is more
confusion and mixing; but I don’t lock upen this as so very serious a
matter. At this time of the year, other things being equal, a bee is
worth just as much in one hive as in another. If there is any difference
in the strength of colonies, the weaker ones might be left nearest to
where the bees were unpacked.

Speaking of being compelled to wait about packing the bees until
they are not likely to fly again until some time in the winter, reminds
me that advantages have been claimed for carly packing; that bees in
single-wall hives only wear themselves out with frequent flights that
are to no purpose, while those that are packed are not called out by
every passing ray of sunshine; that the early-packed bees sooner get
themselves settled down fer their winter’s nap, and are in better condi-
tion for winter when it comes. It is possible that there is something
in this; but there were two or three years in which I tried packing a
colony or two as early as the first of September, and I continued to pack
a colony every two or three days until the fore part of November, and
I was unable to discern any advantage in very early packing. If the bees
are protected before freezing weather comes, I believe that is enough.

There is one other point that ought not to be neglected in preparing
the bees for winter, whether in doors or out, and that is the leaving of
a space below the combs. When wintered out of doors there ought to
be a rim two inches high placed under each hive. This not only allows
the dead bees to drop away from the combs to a place where they will
174 Advanced Bee Culture.

dry up instead of molding between the combs, but if there 1s an entrance
cut in the upper edge of the rim there will be no possibility of its becom-
ing clogged. This empty space under the combs seems to have a
wonderful influence in bringing the bees through in fine condition, and
I am not certain wy.

Weak colonies can seldom be wintered successfully out of doors.
They can not generate sufficient heat. In the cellar, where the temper-
ature seldom goes below 40 degrees, quite weak colonies can be success-
fully wintered.

As I understand it, this whole matter of outdoor wintering of bees
might be summed up in a few words: Populous colonies; plenty of
good food and thorough protection. Simple, isn’t it? Yet there is a
world of meaning wrapped up in those few words.

 

 

 

 
The Relation of Moisture to the Wintering of Bees

Is it an advantage to have the air of our bee-cellars dry? or do the
bees winter more perfectly in a moist atmosphere? or is this an unim-
portant factor? If it is important, how shall we determine what degree
of moisture is most conducive to the health of the bees? and, having
decided this point, what shall we do about it? How can we control the
amount of moisture in the air of our bee-cellars? All these queries,
and many more, come to the man who is thinking of wintering his bees
in a cellar.

Whether bees can be successfully wintered in a damp cellar, de-
pends largely, almost wholly, upon the temperature of the atmosphere.
“Tf the repository be damp, a degree of temperature higher in proportion
to the dampness should be maintained."—.’. []” /cLain. Referring to
this statement, Mr. Frank Cheshire says: “The reason being that the
water has an enormous capacity for heat (specific heat) whether in the
liquid or vaporous form, the latter abstracts heat from the bees and
intensifies their struggle.” Dr. Youmans says, “Air which is already
saturated with imoisture refuses to receive the perspiration offered it
from the skin and lungs, and the sewage of the system is dammed up.”

A moist air very readily absorbs heat, and more quickly robs the
bees of that element so essential to life; hence it will be seen why a
moist atmosphere must also be a warm one if disastrous results are to
be avoided.

There is also another point in the wintering of bees upon which
moisture has a bearing, and that is in regard to its effects upon the
exhalations of the bees. If the exhalations are not taken up readily,
the “sewage of the system is dammed up.” But little moisture is re-
quired to saturate cold air; that is, it will absorb but little moisture,
the point where it will receive no more being soon reached. As the
temperature rises, the absorbing capacity of the air increases. When
air of a high temperature, as that of our bodies, or nearly that, is
saturated, or nearly so, with moisture, the exhalations from the lungs
and skin are taken up but slowly; we are oppressed, and say the weather
is “muggy.” This explains why we feel better on bright clear days.
176 Advanced Bee Culture.

Heating air increases its power of absorption, hence we enjoy a fire on
a damp day. If the air of a cellar is dry, it will be readily seen that
the temperature may be allowed to
go much lower. In other words, a
cold dry atmosphere or a damp
warm one may be about equal, so
far as effects are concerned. This
is a point that bee-keepers have not
sufficiently considered.

\Ve have many reports of the
successful wintering of bees at such
a degree of temperature, but noth-
ing is ever said as to the degree of
saturation. Bee-keepers ought to
use a wet-bulb thermometer in their
cellars; then let the degree of satur-
ation be viven with that of the
temperature, and we would have
something approaching accuracy.
I say “approaching accuracy,” be-
cause the strength of the colonies and the manner in which they are
protected have a bearing. A populous, well-protected colony can warm
up the inside of the hive, expelling the moisture and increasing the
absorbing capacity of the air. Building a fire in a room on a damp
day is the same thing in principle.

\s mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the way to decide in
regard to the amount of moisture in the air is by the use of a wet-bulb
thermometer. The arrangement is very simple, and any of my readers
could make one. Attach two ordinary thermometers, side by side, to
a piece of board. Just below them fasten a tin cup for holding water.
Make a light covering of candle-wicking for one of the bulbs at the
bottom of the thermometer, allowing the wicking to extend down into
the water in the cup. The water will ascend the wicking and keep the
bulb constantly wet. There will be, of course, evaporation from the
wick surrounding the bulb. Evaporation causes a loss of heat: hence,

 

 

 

 

 

the drier the air the greater the evaporation, the greater the loss of
heat, and the lower will go the mercury in the wet-bulb thermometer.
The greater the difference in the readings of the wet and the drv bulb
thermometers, the drier the air. In the open air there is sometimes a
difference of 26 degrees; but this is unusual. When it is raining the
air is then saturated. There is then no evaporation, and both thermom-
eters show the same degree of temperature. In the cellar in which I
used the wet-bulb thermometer the difference in the readings of the two
Relation of Aloisture to the IWintering of Bees. 177.

thermometers was usually about three or four degrees, with the wet-
bulb instrument standing at about 36 degrees; but this difference could
be increased two or three degrees by warming the air with an oil-stove.
If the mercury in the wet-bulb thermometer stands at 36 or 40 degrees,
and that in the dry-bulb as much as four degrees higher, I think there
need be no worry about moisture; but if the difference is only two
degrees or less, either the temperature ought to be raised or the air
dried in some manner.

Ventilation of cellars has been objected to on the ground that it
brought moisture into the cellar. This may be true, but not in freezing
weather. Frozen air, if the expression is allowable, has a very low
point of saturation. That is, it will hold very little moisture; and when
it is brought into the higher temperature of the cellar, and becomes
warmed, its capacity for absorption is greatly increased—it is ready
to receive water instead of giving it out. When the outside air comes
into the cellar, and deposits moisture upon objects therein, it is evident
that the in-coming air is warm and moisture-laden—warmer than the
cellar and its contents.

Mold in bee-repositories is usually looked upon as something un-
desirable, and I will admit that its appearance is far from pleasant;
but we must not forget that, in a certain sense, it is a plant—the child
of warmth and moisture—and that the conditions necessary for its
development may not be injurious to the bees—may be more beneficial
than a condition under which mold does not develop, viz., one of mois-
ture and cold. A very damp cellar ought to be warm enough for the
development of mold. But the cellar need not be damp. It can be
made both warm and dry. These matters of temperature and moisture
are under our control. Either by fires or by going into the earth,
preferably the latter, we can secure the proper temperature; and by the
use of lime to absorb the moisture, a dry atmosphere can be secured.
Certainly, it is not much trouble to keep unslacked lime in the cellar.
A bushel of lime absorbs 28 pounds of water in the process of slacking.

While it is evident that moisture in ordinary cellars is not injurious,
provided the temperature is high enough, it is a great comfort to know
that there is nothing to fear from a dry atmosphere; that we can indulge
our fancy, if you choose to call it that, for dry, sweet-smelling, moldless
cellars, and know that the results will be harmless.

Some bee-keepers have asserted that cellars dug in clay or hard
pan are more difficult to keep dry than when dug in a sandy soil.
Mr. J. H. Martin, when living in New York, said that a cellar in hard
pan, or even in clay, could be much improved by digging down two or
three feet, filling in with stones, then with gravel, and finishing up with
a covering of cement.
The Influence of Temperature in Wintering Bees

Prof. .\twater says that the production of heat in the human body
is so great that, if there were no way for it to escape, there would
sufficient accumulate, in an average well-fed man, to heat his body to
the boiling-point in 36 hours. This heat is gradually passing off by
radiation. To prevent too rapid radiation, we cover our bodies with
clothing. For the same reason we surround our bees in winter with
chaff or some other non-conductor of heat; but there is no way in
which the radiation of heat can be so completely controlled as by sur-
rounding the heat-producing body with an atmosphere of the proper
temperature. There is no method by which the most desirable tem-
perature for wintering bees can be.so completely secured as by placing
the bees in a cellar or special respository.

The ordinary house-cellar, where the temperature remains above
freezing, is usually a good place in which to winter bees. Men who are
engaged extensively in bee-keeping where cellars are needed for the
wintering of bees, usually find it to their advantage, perhaps a necessity,
to build a special repository. The more completely the cellar is below
the surface of the earth, the more perfectly can the temperature be
controlled. It should be remembered that not only is there the winter's
cold with which to contend, but the warmer days of late winter may
arouse the bees and make them uneasy before it is time to remove them
from the cellar, unless the cellar is deep in the ground beyond the in-
fluence of outside temperatures. The walls of a cellar are usually laid
up with brick or stone. but there are other methods of making a cellar.
Mr. T. F. Bingham, of Farwell, Michigan, has a cellar that has been
compared to a cistern. The walls are made sloping, and then plastered
over very heavily with cement, after the manner in which cisterns are
sometimes made. Over the cellar is laid a floor covered several inches
with dry sawdust, while a roof keeps all dry. Mr. Bingham is a be-
liever in having fresh air for the bees, even though they use only a small
amount, and he has a ventilator 17 inches square running up through
the ceiling and roof. He also finds this ventilation of great help in
keeping the bees quiet during the first warm days of spring, before he
considers it late enough for their removal.
Influence of Temperature in IWintering Bees. 179

Some parts of the country are too low and level to allow the
building of a cellar below the surface of the earth, when some sort of
structure above ground is the only resort. Some of these above-ground
cellars have double walls built of brick, others have walls of stone, and
still others are made of cedar or pine logs after the manner of a log
house, and the whole structure then covered with earth. A cellar thus
surrounded by earth is almost as thoroughly proof against the changes
of temperature as though built under ground.

BUILDING .\. CHEAP CELLAR THAT MAY BE MADE PERMANENT.

We built three out-of-door cellars in the fall of 1906, in Northern
Michigan, and I'll tell you how they were built. Each location had a
sandy hillside near the bees—the location was chosen with this end in
view. In two of the locations we were able to use a team and scraper
for doing most of the excavating. If the soil is loose and sandy, one
day’s work with a good team and scraper will scoop out pretty nearly
all of the earth that needs to come out of a 14x16 cellar. It may
need a little trimming up at the corners, but not much.

WALLS OF POSTS AND CHEAP LUMBER.

After making the excavation, the next step was to set up some
eight-foot cedar fence-posts, selecting nice, straight, round posts about
eight inches in diameter at the large end. ‘These were set in the ground
about one foot deep and three feet apart, and each “pair” of posts con-
nected by a 2x6 14-ft. scantling, being spiked on their sides level with
their tops. A 16-ft. 2x6 scantling was then laid along on top of the
row of posts at the sides, and spiked fast, thus forming a place for the
support of the rafters.

A hatchway was built at the end of the cellar opening out upon
the hillside, and a door put in at both the outer and inner ends of the
hatchway. Cull hemlock lumber was then nailed to the outside of posts,
thus forming a support for the earth in banking up the walls; most of the
banking being done with a team and scraper. Some of the same kind
of lumber was nailed to the wider side of the joists, and then this floor
was covered with sawdust to the depth of perhaps 15 to 18 inches.

A hatchway, probably two feet square, was left for ventilation up
through the floor and sawdust. The gable ends were single-boarded, of
cull lumber, and the roof was of the same kind of lumber laid two
thicknesses. There was no ventilator placed in the roof, as we thought
that the cracks in the gable ends and in the roof-boards would be
sufficient, and, so far as I am able to judge, the ventilation was suffi-
cient. At the Morey yard we placed our honey-house right over the
cellar, and allowed the moisture from the cellar to come up into it, just
 

 

An Outdoor Bee-cellar, Costing Only Fifty Dollars.
Influence of Temperature in IVintering Bees. 181

as we did with the other cellars. It was all right, so far as the bees
were concerned, but it caused the combs to mold that were stored in
the house, and we shall put in a ventilator this coming fall to carry the
moisture up through the rcof.

These cellars, costing only $50.00 each, were built in the cheapest
manner possible, because we were yet undecided as to whether we should
continue to keep the apiaries in exactly those localities. If we should
decide to move them, it would not be very much work to pull off and
out the lumber and posts that we had put into the cellars, while, if we

 

 

decide to remain permanently at these locations, we could simply board
up on the inside of the posts and fill the space between the outside and
inside walls with cement, when we would have permanent walls at very
little additional cost.

USING A CELLAR FOR AN EXTRACTING-ROOM.

We used one of these cellars as an extracting-room, and the most
serious objection is that the bees gather about the door, when we are
extracting after the close of the season. We could use a glass door
instead of one of wire cloth, only it would shut off the ventilation. The
OQ

182 Advanced Bee Culture.

bees gather about the door, and rush in when it is opened. We made a
big smudge and set it in the doorway, and it enabled us to work with
very few bees getting in; but when the wind blew toward the cellar
we had to give it up. Then we took the honey off after the bees had
stopped Aving at night and stacked it up in the cellar; then there was

so little going in and out that we managed it.

 

 

 

Covering Floor with Sawdust Before Putting on Roof.

HOW THE REES “SLEEP IN SUCH A CELLAR.

Come with me to my bee-cellar, up in the edge of the woods.
What's the temperature outside? Twelve degrees above zero. I'll
unlock the little door in the gable end of the roof. We crawl in. but
can't stand upright, as the roof is too low. The dry, planer shavings
and sawdust that cover the ceiling to the cellar, a foot and a half deep,
come clear up and meet the reof and lap on it a foot or more down
at the eaves. The roof overhead, and the boards of the gable ends are
covered with frost from the moisture that has come up through the hatch-
way that opens down into the cellar below. We'll crawl along to that
hatchway. What a whiff of warm air comes up through it. Listen. Not
a sound comes up from below. There's a pile of hives of combs just below
this opening, and, by dropping down upon them we get into the cellar:
Influence of Temperature in [Vintering Bees. 183

but, before going down, let’s light this candle. A candle is safer and bet-
ter than a lamp. The light is not so bright and does not seem to disturb
the bees in the least. They will not leave the cluster and fly at it as they
will at a bright lamp light. Now we are down in the cellar. Listen again.
Yes, there is a faint murmur; like a cataract miles and miles away—
like the soft winds at night blowing through the tops of tall pines.
First, let’s look at the thermometer. Dry bulb 45 degrees, wet bulb,
42. That's good. There was only one degree difference when the bees
were first put in the cellar, but a barrel of lime put into eight or ten
pails and set around in different parts of the cellar soon dried out

the air.
No, there are no bottom boards on the hive, nor any covers. The

tops of the frames are covered with two thicknesses of old carpet.
Let’s turn up the corners of some of these pieces of carpet. See the
little vellow fellows tucked away there so snug, row after row between
the white combs. See how quiet they are, how slim, how clean. If
they stir at all it simply is to raise slowly a wing, or a leg or the point of
the abdomen. Let’s look under a hive. Is there any sight in bee-keeping
more beautiful than that? See that great, golden-brown cluster of bees
hanging down beneath the combs until it actually touches the covering
of the hive two inches below. Let’s watch them. Do you see a bee
move? My little grandson was up here with me a few days ago, and
he said, “Grandpa, your bees are all dead.” I asked him what made
him think so. “Why, they don’t stir,” was his reply. His previous
experiences with bees had been with those that “stirred.”

Can you doubt for one moment that bees in this condition are
wintering perfectly? When I wake in the night there is actually a com-
fortable feeling comes over me when I think of those bees snuggled
away there, sleeping away the winter with their heads pillowed on snowy
combs of sweetness. Some people talk about the cruelty of wintering
bees in a dark, dismal cellar. Of course, there are many cellars which
are not fit for the wintering of bees, but, with conditions ideal, there is
no more comfortable place in winter for bees than in a cellar, and no
manner of wintering them in which their energies are more perfectly
conserved for the coming of spring.

TEMPERATURE.

Having briefly considered cellars, let us come back to the subject
of temperature; and, by the way, I am certain that I can do no better
than to quote a few paragraphs upon this subject from an article con-
tributed by Mr. R. L. Taylor to one of.the early numbers of the Bee-

keepers’ Review. Among other things, Mr. Taylor said:
I think it a truth not to be forgotten that no one can determine, except
approximately, the best temperature for bees in another’s repository. The
£ ~

Ye YM potosod pure ‘s80'y jo yma
Inq, FeID

 
Influence of Temperature in IVintering Bees. 185

condition of the bees as to numbers, the warmth and ventilation of the hive,
the character of the hives, and the state of the repository as to moisture, have
each to be considered in deciding upon temperature.

Of course, the bee-keeper cares nothing about the temperature itself; what
he is interested in is in knowing what the condition is in which the bees pass
the winter with the least loss of vitality. In what manner temperature affects
this condition is really a subsidiary question. If we could agree upon the
primary question, I think there would be little difficulty in solving the sub-
sidiary one.

What are the distinguishing marks of the condition most desirable for the
well being of the bees?

We know that, at the beginning of their season of rest, bees cluster
closely; and we know that, so strong is this instinct, that this state, late in
the fall, continues in a temperature that at another season of the year would
cause extreme activity. There is no doubt that this is the state best suited
to the preservation of the physical powers of the bees. Labor, activity, anxiety,
are wearing to mortal flesh. To live long, one must live slowly. We wish our
bees to have the same degree of physical vigor in April which they possess in
November. I would emphasize the adverb in the phrase “‘‘cluster closely,” in
using it as an earmark of the condition desired. The quietness sought should
be a quietness to the eye and not to the ear alone. The right cluster is knit
together, and the individual bees thereof only aroused to full consciousness
by positive disturbance. Bees in a loose cluster, or spread through the hive,
often make little sound when wearing themselves out by premature brood-
rearing or by over-feeding. How does temperature affect the desired condition?

Most bee-keepers know that temperature below a certain point causes
activity among the bees on account of the necessity they feel of keeping up the
warmth of the cluster by exercise, in order to prevent themselves sinking into
such a degree of chilliness that they shall no longer have the power to resusci-
tate themselves; and all know that, as the period of rest lengthens, the bees be-
come more and more susceptible to a high temperature, and are very likely to
be pushed by it into unseasonable activity. Again, the temperature may be so
low and so long continued, that, notwithstanding their efforts, they perish
either of cold or starvation.

Of course, the temperature that determines the welfare of a colony is
that within its own hive, so it becomes very important in fixing the tem-
perature to consider the strength of the colonies, and size, warmth, and ven-
dilation of the hives. A temperature that would enable a weak colony to
winter safely would almost surely greatly injure a strong colony in a hive of
like size and condition unless its stores were of good quality, and vice versa.
Weak colonies should be protected by contraction; and a closer hive—the
stronger—ziven more ventilation. A moist atmosphere conveys away animal
heat much more rapidly than a dry one, so that the best temperature in one
cellar might vary many degrees from that which would be best in another.

J need scarcely add anything more upon this part of the subject, and
shall only say further, that, in my own cellars, where the air is neither very
moist nor very dry, and where there are no drafts, I consider a temperature
of 40 to 44 degrees the best for good colonies in hives from which the bottom-
boards are entirely removed. If the bottom-boards are not removed I think
that five degrees lower would be about equivalent.
186 wldvanced Bee Culture.

In order to have the temperature as desired, it becomes important to
have one’s bees in a repository of which the temperature is nearly inde-
pendent of outside changes. This is, I think, secured far more satisfactorily
by having the repository entirely, or at least very largely, below the surface
of the earth.

As the temperature is higher at the upper part of a cellar, the weak
colonies should be placed in a topmost tier of hives.

It has been urged that, as spring approaches and breeding begins,
the temperature of the cellar should be raised. With a large number
of colonies the increased activity would of itself have a tendency in this
direction. If there are only a few colonies, artificial means of raising
the temperature are sometimes employed. Some have used oil-stoves
in the hatchway of the cellar; others have warmed the air with wood
or coal stoves. If an oil-stove is used, there ought to be a metal hood
over it, and a pipe connecting with a stovepipe in the room above, or
else with the open air. Of course, an oil-stove can be used without
such an arrangement, but it overloads the air with the gases of com-
bustion. I mention these make-shifts with something akin to reluctance,
as I feel that the proper way to do is to have a cellar so constructed
that there will be no necessity for their use.

Mr. H. R. Boardman, who has had much successful experience
in wintering bees in cellars, prefers to have a bee-cellar with two apart-
ments, in one of which is a stove. If he ever finds it necessary to resort
to artificial heat he warms the air in the ante-room, and then admits it
to the room. In the use of artificial heat he does not find it necessary
to employ it constantly, or every day; in fact, he says that the best
results are secured by giving the bees the benefit of a summer tem-
perature for a short time once a week, and then letting them alone.
They will, after being warmed up, become quiet in a short time, and
remain so for several days, and no serious results may be apprehended
from cold if in a frost-proof cellar.

WINTERING IN CLAMPS.

There is still another method of securing the proper temperature
for wintering bees, aside from that of packing them in chaff, or putting
them in the cellar, and shat is that of burving them in “clamps,” as thev
are called, the sa ne a» potatoes and apples are buried in pits. A long
trench is first. ¢ a «tlhe wider and deeper than a hive. In the bottom
is placed a Jaye: «i straw, then two pieces of scantling upon which to
set che hives. Rais, fence-posts, or any kind of supports, are then
wid over is hives, and covered with straw upon which the earth is
thrown to 2 sufbcicnt depth to exclude the frost. Sometimes ventilation
is given these clainps, but it does not seem to make any material differ-
ence whether ‘icy are ventilated or not. It does make a difference,
however, in re rd to the soil and situation. In a sandy or gravelly
Influence of Temperature in MWintering Bees. 187

 

 

 

 

 

Wintering Bees in a “Clamp.”

knoll, where the water will never stand, the successful wintering of the
bees is almost assured. In heavy clay, the loss of the bees is equally
certain. I say this from numerous experiments. Bees in a clamp, in
the right kind of soil, in a good condition, winter as well as in a cellar;
sometimes it seems as though they winter better, and the only possible
objections to this method are the labor and untidiness.
Care of Bees in Winter

If they were properly prepared for winter the preceding autumn,
given plenty of good stores, properly protected out of doors, or placed
in a cellar or other repository having the proper temperature, and
precautions taken against depredation by mice, bees require almost no
care in winter.

No bee-keeper worthy the name will allow his bees to go into winter
quarters short of stores. They ought to have at least enough to last
them until the first warm days of spring, when they may be handled
upon their summer stands, and fed if necessary.

However, if, by anv hook or crook, bees huve gone into winter
quarters short of stores, and there are fears that some of them may be
starving, it is better that they be examined and fed if needed, even
though the task may be unpleasant. There need be no hesitancy in thus
disturbing the bees for fear that it may do them some injury, for, as a
rule, it will not.

Probably the best method of feeding a colony of bees in winter
is to give them a frame of honey. Tf no honey is available, and some
of the colonies must be fed, the best substitute is candy made from
granulated sugar. Put in sufficient water to dissolve the sugar, then
boil the syrup until it will harden in cooling. To learn when to remove
the candy from the stove, take out a spoonful every few minutes, and
allow it to cool. As soon as it begins to show signs of hardening, draw
the vessel containing it to the back of the stove, where the heat is less.
Watch it carefully and try it frequently. .\s scon as it is sufficiently
hard, remove it from the stove and pour it into shallow dishes to cool.
Be careful not to get it too hard. If it is hard enough to retain its
form when placed over a colony of bees, that is sufficient. A thin cake
of such candy laid directly upon the frames over a colony of bees, and
fie the whole top of the hive covered with a piece of enameled cloth,

iwo or three thicknesses of old carpet over that, will enable the bees
‘yo “hold the fort” as long as the candy lasts. If, for any reason, it is
inpossible or undesirable to place the candy in this manner upon the
tops of the frames, the candy may be “run” directly into empty brood-
frames, and the franivs hung in the hives adjoining the bees. To fill a
frame with candy, |. it upon a smooth board with a piece of paper
under the frame, and jour in the candy, after first waiting for it to
Care of Bees in I inter. 189

cool until it is as cool as it can be, and yet be made to “run.” To keep
the frame down close to the paper, so that the soft candy will not run
out while cooling, tack the frame down with some nails just long enough
to hold the frame down nicely, but not long enough to make it difficult
of removal. If a frame full of candy is more than a colony needs, a
less amount may be given by tacking a crossbar in the frame, part
way up from the bottom, and filling the upper space only with candy.

Mice sometimes do some little damage, both to colonies wintered
indoors and those in the open air. This damage is confined principally
to that of gnawing the combs. If bee-keepers would only remember
that bees can pass through a space that is less than 1% inch, and that a
mouse needs a space nearly twice this, it would seem that there need
be no trouble in keeping mice out of doors. Simply contract the entrance
until it is only 4 inch the narrowest way, and no mice can enter. This
should be done quite early in the fall, as cool frosty nights often drive
the mice into the warm retreat to be found inside a hive. When
bees are wintered in the cellar, many bee-keepers practice raising the
hive about two inches from the bottom-board; others remove the bottom-
board entirely. This allows plenty of ventilation with scarcely any es-
cape of heat. All dead bees and rubbish drop down away from the
cluster of bees, where they dry up instead of becoming moldy and rotten
from contact with the warmth and moisture of the cluster. If a colony
docs die, the combs are left dry and clean, instead of being stuck to-
gether with a mass of damp, moldy, rotting bees. All who have tried
raising hives in this manner are enthusiastic in its praise; but it will
be seen that this plan gives the mice, if there are any in the cellar, free
access to the hives. The remedy is to trap the mice, or poison them.
For the latter purpose I have found nothing better than equal parts of
flour, white sugar, and arsenic, mixed, and placed in shallow dishes in
different parts of the cellar.

Unless the cellar is well under ground, where it is well beyond the
influence of the outside temperature, it is well to keep watch and not
allow the temperature to run too low in protracted cold spells. .\ lamp-
stove, burned all night in a cellar, will raise the temperature several
degrees. During the fore part of winter a low temperature is not so
dangerous as it is toward spring, when brood-rearing may have com-
menced. From 35 to 45 degrees may answer until toward spring, when
it ought not to be allowed to go below 4o degrees, and may with safety
go as high as 48 or 50. So long as the bees remain quiet I would not
disturb them with artificial heat. If the cellar becomes foo warm in the
spring, before it is time to remove the bees, it may be cooled down by
carrying in ice or snow, or the windows and doors may be opened at
night and closed in the morning.
190 Advanced Bee Culture.

Years ago many bee-keepers practiced taking their bees from the
cellar if there came a warm day in the winter, and allowing them to
fly, returning them again to the cellar, but this practice has been pretty
nearly abandoned. If the-bees are in a quiet normal condition it often
rouses them and sets them to breeding in mid-winter, which is far from
desirable. Rapid breeding late in winter, or very early in the spring,
is decidedly objectionable; nothing so quickly wears out bees as the
rearing of brood; and the more unfavorable the conditions, the greater
the wear. It is better that the bees should remain quiet until warm

 

 

 

 

 

Colony of Bees Protected with Building-paper.

weather furnishes the most favorable conditions for brood-rearing, when
the same expenditure of vitality will produce two bees instead of one.
Therefore, don’t allow a warm day or two in the winter to tempt you to
the removal of the bees from the cellar. Wait until the snow is gone,
and there is occasionally a day warm enough for bees to fly, then take
them out to remain permanently. On the other hand, nothing is gained,
and much may be lost, by leaving the bees in the cellar until /ate in the
spring. Alany claim superior advantages for outdoor wintering, as-
serting that the colonies build up earlier in the season. They won't if
Care of Bees in [inter. 1QI

the bees are taken from the cellar early enough; and certainly it requires
no argument to show that bees successfully wintered in the cellar are
better able to bear the rough weather of spring than bees that have
endured all of the rigors of the entire winter out of doors. In most
of our Northern States the main honey harvest comes early in the
season; and to secure this harvest there must be a goodly number of
field workers at the right time, and the eggs from which these workers
are produced must be laid several weeks previous to the opening of the
harvest; hence the element of fic is an important factor, and nothing
stimulates a colony in a healthy manner, and sets it to brood-rearing,
as does a flight in the open air, even if nothing is brought in. Hence
it will be seen that early removal from the cellar gives the bees largely
the advantages of both outdoor and indoor wintering.

There is no danger of the cold injuring the bees when they are first
removed from the cellar. The trouble comes from late freezes coming
after two or three weeks of fine weather. At this time the combs are
filled with brood, the cold drives the bees into a compact cluster in the
center of the hive, and all of the brood outside of this perishes. All
of this loss may be avoided by giving the bees some sort of protection
after taking them from the cellar. First see that each colony has a
queen and plenty of stores, and then protect it. This spring protection
need not be an elaborate affair. A sheet of tarred building-paper folded
down over the hive, and fastened at the lower edges by tacking on
strips of lath, will answer every purpose, while it costs only three cents,
and can be put in place in less than five minutes. This makes a covering
that is both wind and waterproof, and will absorb every particle of the
sun’s heat; but, more important than all this, it will save the loss of
brood and weak colonies if there comes a “squaw winter” in the month
of May.

If spring protection is so important that it is advisable to give it
after taking the bees from the cellar, it may be asked, ‘“Why not practice
outdoor wintering, then winter protection will answer for spring, and
the expense of a cellar, and of carrying the bees in and out, will be
avoided?” In the first place, the saving of stores in cellar wintering
will pay for the expense twice over; and, in the next place, and of far
more importance, it is only by the cellar method that the wintering of
bees in a cold climate can ever be reduced to a perfect system. By a
selection of natural stores, or, better still, by using sugar, we can secure
uniformity of food; but it is only in the cellar or special repository that
uniformity of temperature at a desirable point can be maintained.

Carrying the bees from the cellar is not a very agreeable task, and
most of bee-keepers make it much worse by attempting it upon such
a warm day as to set the bees fairly crazy the moment the outdoor air
192 Advanced Bee Culture.

strikes them. It comes into the cellar and sets the bees to flying, and
often there is a general mix-up in the yard by the bees of one colony
joining with those of another in full flight and following them into
their hive. To avoid these troubles, some bee-keepers carry their bees
out in the night, when the indications are that the following day will
be fair. If the bees have wintered perfectly, and are quiet, all of these
annoyances and losses may be avoided by carrying out the bees upon a
day so cool that the bees will not think of flying. This idea that bees
must fly the moment that they are taken from the cellar is one of those
old notions that is a notion, and that is all. If bees have to wait even
a week or two after being placed upon their summer stands, before
having a flight, no harm will come as the result, providing they have
not wintered poorly, and are so anxious for a flight as to leave their
hives when the weather is so cool that they will never return.
Miscellaneous Sparklets

In picking out recent editorials from the pages of the Bee-keepers’ Review
to graft on old matter, as explained in the Preface, I ran across certain items
that could not be well “hitched on” without destroying the general connection.
As they were too good to lose I have grouped them here under the head of

“Miscellaneous Sparklets,” at the close of the general matter.
E. R. ROOT.

Look out for yourself, or you won’t see very much.

Back of every successful business or enterprise are somebody's
bright brains.

No other man’s experience is as good for you as your own. Some
one else can only point the way. You must travel it yourself to really
know.

Stings near the eye are always the most painful, also the most diffi-
cult to remove by the one who receives them, unless he has access to a
mirror; for this reason I always carry a small mirror that can be slipped
into the vest pocket.

Two wheelbarrows used for wheeling honey into the honey-house
for extracting allows one of them to remain in the house while the other
is being filled in the yard, thus the saving of unloading each time the
“outside man” comes in with a load.

Honey strainers are not needed if the honey can stand in large
tanks until the pieces of wax, etc., rise to the top. If a bee-keeper had
two 50-gallon tanks, so that he could run the honey into one while tha!
in the other was “settling,” he would need no strainer.

Scraping the honey knife across the rack to clean it of cappings is
not necessary when uncapping honey. I have frequently watched bee-
keepers when uncapping honey, and some of thémi will stop and scrape
the knife clean between each stroke. This is simply so much time
wasted, as each succeeding stroke will force from the knife its load of
cappings. By the way, the cappings never adhere in this manner to a
steam-heated knife.
194 Advanced Bee Culture.

The successful man is the one who succeeds in spite of difficulties.
How many times J think of this. As some unpleasant, discouraging
feature comes up, the first thought is: “If only things were different,
I would be all right ;’" then comes up the thought: ‘““The successful man
succeeds in spite of these difficulties. He overcomes them. Don’t give
up; instead, set your wits to work, summon up your courage and go
at your troubles like a thousand of brick.”

The odor in a bee cellar is one indication of how the bees are
wintering. In a cellar where the bees are suffering from dysentery, or
bees in large numbers are leaving the hives and dying on the cellar
bottom, the stench is decidedly unpleasant and characteristic. The air
in the cellar here at Flint is on the damp order, but is kept dry with
lime. The bees are wintering perfectly; scarcely any are leaving the
hives, and the air is as sweet and wholesome as a June morning.

Honey knives, whether they shall be hot or cold, are discussed by
H. E. Crowther in Gleanings. For honey recently gathered, and un-
capped directly as taken from the hives, he prefers a cold knife, but
for extra thick honey, especially if it is not as warm as it should be, he
prefers a hot knife. There is then a clearner, smoother cut, and the
smoothness of this job has much to do with the quality of work done
by the extractor, and the quantity of honev that will be left sticking to
the combs.

HOW THEY TALK.

I doubt if any class of people can talk longer or with more enthusi-
asm than bee-keepers. To illustrate: Upon my recent visit to the
hospitable home of Mr. S. D. House, a neighbor-boy of three summers
dropped in, as was his frequent habit; after hanging around Mr. House
and myself for a while he finally went into the next room and said to
Mrs. House: “Auntie, how much longer are they going to talk?”

ITALIAN BEES AND BL.\CK BROOD.

If there was any one point brought out with more emphasis than
another at the New York conventions, it was the importance of having
Italian bees in combating black brood. One inspector after another got
up and stated with emphasis that it was simply impossible to cure black
brood with black bees. The first step in getting rid of black brood is
to introduce Italian queens to every colony.

DON’T EXTRACT UNRIPE HONEY.

What would we think of a fruit grower who would put half-ripe
strawberries on the market? MHalf-ripe honey is no better. I know it
Miscellaneous Sparklets. 195

is sacrilegious, but I do sometimes feel like exclaiming: “For God’s
sake, don’t extract green honey!”

Where a white honey harvest is immediately followed by a dark
flow, the temptation is great to extract unripe white honey to get it
out of the way of the dark flow that is to follow, but I would allow the
white honey to go over and mix with the dark before I would extract
unripe honey. It is the bane of our business.

PREVENTING SWARMING BY CHANGING BROOD-COMBS AND UNCAPPING
DRONE BROOD.

A Canadian bee-keeper says, in a private letter, that, for six years,
he has practically prevented swarming, and secured large crops of comb
honey, by transposing the brood combs in the brood nest, putting the
middle combs of solid brood next to the outside, uncapping the honey
in the outside combs, and placing them in the center, at the same time
uncapping all drone brood, with an occasional patch of worker brood.
He has had as few as three swarms from 83 colonies. He is now estab-
lishing out-yards; expects to run 500 colonies the coming season for
comb honey, and he says that this plan of management will save all
trouble from swarming. I don’t give his name, as there is no permission
in his letter that I may print it.

HOW TO LIGHT A SMOKER.

Lighting a smoker when planer shavings are used for fuel is a slow
job unless you know how to do it. You may think it is well to going,
and yet, unless there is a little bed of live cinders in the bottom, it is
almost sure to go out when set down. I have used kerosene oil to start
the fire—squirt it on the shavings from a spring-bottom oil can, such as
is used to oil machinery. This works very well, but it leaves an odor
of kerosene about the fire for a while. Recently I have been starting
the fire by wadding up a piece of newspaper, lighting it, dropping it
down in the smoker, then sprinkling on a few shavings, puffing the
smoker meanwhile. Sprinkle on a few at first, then, as these take fire,
a few more, and so on until I have a good fire going. I like it the best
of any plan I have yet tried. After a shavings fire is once well under
way, there is no trouble from its going out.

PREVENTING FOUNDATION FROM STRETCHING.

At one of the conventions of the National Association of Bee-
keepers, several members mentioned the use of a new, or not very well-
known, method of treating foundation in brood frames, so that it will
not sag, and that without the use of wires. ‘he process is simplicity
itself, and consists in painting the upper half of the sheet, on both sides,
196 Advanced Bee Culture.

with a thin coating of wax. The wax is put on hot with a wide, flat
paint brush. Just dip the brush into melted wax and apply it to founda-
tion as one would apply paint to a board. Of course, it adds to the
thickness of the foundation, and it is this feature, mainly, that prevents
the sagging. The added wax is of a different character—softer and
more brittle—and is very easily drawn out.

KEEPING BEES WITHOUT A BEE JOURNAL.

Most of the subscriptions to the bee journals expire with the year;
and there are always more or less of these subscriptions ordered dis-
continued. Sometimes reasons for this step are given. The one most
frequently given is: “I can’t afford to take it another year.” When a
bee-keeper can’t afford to take a bee journal there is something radically
wrong. If he hopes and expects to succeed he can’t afford not to read
all of the bee journals published. It is knowledge of his business that
helps a man to succeed; it is from ignorance that he often fails. A man
can’t know too much about his business. The successful bee-keepers,
poultrymen, farmers, gardeners, etc., all read the leading journals de-
voted to their businesses. The man who drops his bee journal because
he thinks he can’t afford it, is almost as foolish as the sailor who ven-
tures out to sea without a compass. I am not writing this so much
because I hate to lose subscribers as because I know it is true, and that
some men have not given it sufficient thought.

SELLING THE HONEY CROP TO TEE BEST ADVANTAGE.

“Did you ever stop to think that you spend all of your season pro-
ducing your crop of honey, and then sell it in about fifteen minutes?”
I came across the foregoing sentence in a circular just sent out by the
energetic, enterprising secretary of our Michigan State Bee-keepers’ As-
sociation. It is true that we bend every energy to the successful win-
tering of our bees; we make chaff hives, or protect the bees with some
kind of packing, or we put them in the cellar and then watch the tem-
perature as a mother watches her sleeping child; we feed the bees in
the spring if they need it; we coax them into the supers by means of
“bait” sections; we lift and sweat and suffer stings; and, finally, crate
up our beautiful product with loving care; and then, as Bro. Tyrrell
says, some of us sell it in about 15 minutes.

The indifference exhibited by some producers in disposing of their
crop is certainly exasperating. We can't all peddle our honey; we can’t
all sell it to retailers; we can’t all build up a mail order trade; some of
us must sell to wholesale dealers, or consign to commission men; but,
in any case, there is no excuse for the lack of interest, the indifference,
the “Pll-take-whatever-you’ll-give-me”’ spirit.
M scellaneous Sparklets. 197

KEEP THE STRAY BEES IN THE HONEY HOUSE.

With almost any system of management a few bees will be carried
into the honey-house when extracting honey, and, with some methods,
a good many will be carried in, and the most of us try to get these bees
out again just as soon as we can; in fact, our honey-houses are rigged
up with bee-escapes at the windows to allow the bees to pass out as fast
as brought in. If the extracting is done during a honey-flow, this
practice is not objectionable, but during a dearth of honey, the turning
loose of these bees loaded with honey raises the very Dickens; so long
as no bee carries home a load of honey all is quiet, but the coming home
of a loaded bee at a time when bees will rob, no matter whether that load
was stolen, or whether it was acquired during the excitement of carrying
a super to the honey-house, will start out hundreds of robbers in hot
haste. Keep these loaded bees in the honey-house, let them cluster and
cling to the window casing until the work is done at that yard, then give
them to weak colonies. These bees are loaded with honey and could
hang there for days without starving. Some of them may return to
their original home, but no great harm will be done, as the work of
opening hives is over.
Index to

Advertising of the Right Sort...... 115
Advertising at Fairs...........-.4. 147
After-swarming a la Heddon....... 46
After-swarming, How to Avoid.... 66

Aikin’s Paper Bag for Extracted
FIGHEY ase cewadmacis KES oa Rau ele 111
Alexander Feeder .............- 79, 80
Alexander Plan of Curing Euro-
pean Foul Brood ............-++- 146
Alexander Plan, Why Failed ...... 146
Alexander’s Apiary of 700 Col-
GINNES sepuid iite foci anoeenagasiced dee 146
Alley trap for Controlling Swarm-
THEY seas oe ec amaA eaeee 68, 69
American Foul Brood. See Foul Brood.
Apiarian Exhibits .............-..- 147
Apiaries and Buildings .......... 42-46
Apiaries, Avoiding Uniformity in
Arrangement of Hives in ....... 46
Apiaries Should be Some Distance
from the Highway ............. 42
Apiary, Level Ground for.......... 42
Apprenticeship in Bees, Serving.... 14
Arrangement of Hives and Build-
THES cdi si duia cree sewenaoeaw eS 42-46
Author's Apiary oo... ec ciee en enene 43
Automatic Transferring 164
Bait-sections for Supers ........... 30
Baldridge Plan of Curing Foul
Brood: suwaiersacecie paswe onc muniesin's 142
Balling Induced by Clipping........ 74
Balling of Queens in Introducing... 73

Bartlett’s Method of Packing Bees
for Winter
Basswood in Full Bloom...........
Battery for Running Electric Bell. ..108
Bee Business, Learning from some
Professional Bee-keeper .........
Bee-escape for Extracting after the

Harvest ........ Seared noceuvisnansronsitosen 93
Bee-hats and Bee-veils........... 48, 49
Bee-hunting .............. 16, 17, 18, 19
Bee-journal, Necessity of ......... 195
Bee-keepers’ Clothing ............ 48, 49
Bee-keepers, How they Talk.......194
Bee-keeping as a Business..........7, 12
Bee-keeping as a Sole Pursuit...... 11
Bee-keeping, Making a Start in.... 14
Bee-keeping not a Royal Road to

Wealth s.amravannienns sanien wanes 20

Contents
Bee-keeping on too Small a Scale..
nade ye Sua Sine estates 7, 9, 11, 21
Bee-keeping Poorly Adapted for
Rarming? coscesraguns hiss kar ees
Bee-keeping, Starting on too Large
a (Stale ccnaaseyisnsdosareeianate 22
Bee-keeping, the Importance of
Learning from Others ..........- 20
Bee-keeping When not an Exclusive
Business: —cecck pies cones peelaasignra 12
Bees: at Fairs .....0. 08.0000 ssnseee8 150
Bees Bringing Good Returns on In-
Westivent «44:19: ess nurwwsrsnneam bo 9

Bees, Carrying from the Cellar.....191
Bees, Discarding Undesirable Strains. 30

Bees, Great Difference in Strains... 30
Bees, How Soon to Remove from
SL VT ee se vp cseescs ober Sa aciagres 5 190, 192

Bees, How they Sleep in the Cellar. 182
Bees, How to Coax into Comb-honey

SUpets: oc: earescnamnateu@ ae Knees 87, 88
Bees, How to Load on Wagons for

NLOVING ccasanciewebany orcas aay 120
Bees in the Walls of a House...... 15
Bees, Keeping in Honey-house Dur-

fie Extracting sdiiasse suse cares 198
Bees, “Lining” to a Bee-tree........ 18
Bees, Loading on Wagons......... 124
Bees, Many Instead of Few........ 7
Bees-smoker a Necessity............ 50

Bees, Moving from one Locality to
Another
Bees, Races of Compared .........
Bees, Starting Them in the Supers.. 30
Bees, Two Varieties Worthy of Con-

SIGERATION. co. vy <a cwee Sen atad 29
Beeswax. See Wax.
Bees, Why Swarm .............+4. 64
Bee-Trees, How Found ............ 19

Bee-veil, How to attach to Clothing. 49
Beginners Trying to Invent Hives.. 22
Benzine for Cleaning Wax off Uten-

SSS sees agen sett ems eneah re AT aera ec 162
Black Bees Easily Driven out of Su-

DELS: ig 5: Poe eb aseaete cc thapares ORE A Boia 30
Bee-smoker a Necessity ............ 50

Black Bees not Capable of Resisting
European Foul Brood .............146
Black Brood. See European Foul Brood.

Boardman Feedet w..... ccc cece ens 78
Boardman Hivecart ................ 47
Bottom-board “Dirt-cheap” ......... 33
200

Brood-combs from Starters, How to
GEE gag ckicin ase tice 6 eRe 62, 63

Brood-nest, Contraction of........56-58

Buckwheat Regions of New York.. 26
Business, Large vs. Small One....7, 8, 9

Cage for Introducing on a Comb... 75
Caging Queen to Prevent Swarms. 67
California, Immense Crops in....... 26

Candied Honey, Liquefying
Candied-honey Packages, Aikin’s....111
Candied Honey put up Like Butter. .112
Candy for Winter Feeding.......... 188
Cane Sugar has no Superior for
WU RELIIE sg. ceseecern gst Gaveinnind avers ane 166
Cans, Filling with Extracted Honey.107
Cans for Storing Extracted Honey
Cine ee Raine ee eee 114A eee ROREReS 106, 107
Cappings, Melting of............ 157, 158
Cappings, What to do with Them...102
Cards for Record-keeping of Colon-
ICS ew ias en claro maectny 30
Carniolans too Inclined to Swarm... 29
Caution about Liquefying Candied
Honey
Caution in Feeding Honey.......... 86
Caution in Introducing Queen from
a Distance
Caution Label on Comb-honey Cases.109
Cellar, Arrangement of Colonies in..186
Cellar Bees, Stirred up by Warm
Days
Cellar, How Soon to Remove Bees
from
Cellar, How to Build a Cheap One.179
Cellar, Odor in
Cellars Entirely Below Ground or
Partly Above Ground ....... 178, 179
Cellars in Clay More Difficult to
Keep Day veces sas aha aslenwieunnarcs 177
Cellars, Ventilation of
Cellar, Temperature at the Top... ...186
Cellar, Using for Extracting Room.181
Cellar, When Wintering Bees Well.182
Cellar-wintering at out-apiaries ..... 130
Cellar, Wintering, Dampness, When
not Prejudicial s.c2xcces de secce.c ct
Chaff Hive not Equal to Single-Wall-

ed Hive and Winter-case ........ 35
Choice of Hives......... 82, 33; Bak 85:
Circular Sent out to Honey-Buyers.116
Clamps, Wintering in ............. 186
Clay for Stopping up Cracks in a

PLA Gy ae hee escbntcee arts shatter ang teee abes ap ia 96
Cleats upon the Sides of Hives..... 47
Closed-end Frames ...... 3

Clothes-basket for catching Swarms. 71
Clothing for Bee-keepers, Light-col-

OPER! sya os Mm edhe deasthavsusn su eiecnaen 48
Coggshall Bee-brush ............... 51
Coggshall, Specialist Bee-keeper..... 11
Colonies, Arrangement of in Cellar.186
Colonies for Feeding Back ......... 81

Advanced Bee Culture

Colorado Cure for Foul Brood.....144

Colors of Hives . 54, 55
Comb-builders Poor ..............4. 30
Comb-building by Bees .......... 59, 60
Comb-building not Keeping Pace
with the Honey-flow ............. 63

Comb-building, When Worker and

When Drone ................006. 61
Comb Foundation, Use and Abuse

OW eeeioe tad rash ay baere pee een cnn hdres cay eto 59-63
Comb-honey Marketing and Ship-

UCL ei .t 4 tseceanerouvaraagt selene tan elaleabunnase 109
Comb-honey Packed in Crates...... 109
Comb-honey Production ..........87-91

Comb-honey Production; Importance
of Large Entrances and Shade... 91

Comb-honey Production over Foun-
dation in the Brood-nest

Comb-honey Production, Strong Col-

OWES: FOR Si. end ccseoer een eich goa gnarodes 87
Comb-honey Production With or
Without Separators .............. 41

Comb-honey Stored by One Colony. .148
Comb or Extracted Honey, Which?. 26
Combs, Importance of Big Supply of
for Extracted Honey
Combs Objectionable for Swarms... 59
Combs, Old, Rendering Into Wax. ..158
Combs Should be Interchangeable... 62
Comforts and Conveniences in the

ANPIGRY! < pase snotsearen sas yee y aac teed
Contracting for Feeding Back...... 81
Contraction as a Means of Prevent-

Ing INCPEASS: osc cncravoimntngaiease zs 4 67
Contraction, Extensive, Causing

SWALMING” je cp es 3.5-4 saiscnanieudsudare. aver 57
Contraction for the Prevention of

Drone-comb .................... 61, 62
Contraction of the Brood-nest.. ...56-58
Contraction of the Divisible-brood-

chamber Hive .................... 35
Contraction Resulting in Small

DIWVATMTISS «chris denen ene abe actde co ou2 58
Contraction When not Needed...... 56
Conveniences in the Apiary........, 47
Covers of a Plain Simple Board.... 32
Crane’s Method of Grouping Hives.
“Cross-lining” of Bees ............. 18

Cyprians and Syrians Undesirable... 29

Dampness, How it Affects Tempera-
DUS. ted SaaS aol ft a reoncul ahaa hen tatalelas cst 176
Dampness, in Cellar, How Measured.176
Dampness, When Prejudicial to Cel-
Jar-wintering 2.0.0.0... 2... TS
Dead Brood not Necessarily Foul
Brood

oF iliae SL FORS Ne 8 aiartancng ascites ye 137
Decoy ELIVES: feats oc e iancch conimteraviewivienw x 15
Divisible-brood-chamber Hives .. 34, 35

Doors of Honey-houses ...........,, 4
Drawn Combs for Comb-honey Su-
pers
Index to Contents 201

Drawn Combs Objectionable to
SWarnis: - anctag aiodaudolotataescane 59
Drone-brood the Result of Old
QUCENS cians a8 seaesioeainarnenake 62
Drone-brood, Uncapping to Prevent
SWAaLMINng 5 +222u0 vdieiasaeeesee we 194
Drone-comb, When Bees Build...... 61
Dummies for Contracting the
Brogd-nest aan cueicke see cave Said 57
Dysentery in Cellar Indicated by
OMG — (dead aaricoseietwlb eres ae weds denise 193
Electric Bell to Determine When
Gans: are: Filled ..cccciccawcaene 107

Elmer, When he Kept More Bees... 12
Empty Combs, Importance of for

Extracted: Honey .cs<senedeunx ex 93
Entrance for Hive Large.......... 55
Entrances, the Arrangement of for

Hives in the Bee-yard .......... 45
Equipment for Bee-hunting ..... 16, 17
Escape for House-apiaries ........ 133
Escape, Putting under four or five

Supers: 2. sobias aes Mnunctiag bos canes 96
European Foul Brood and _ Italian

BeeSh tan aime tense comes eee eckee 194
European Foul Brood Cured by

Alexander Plan .....2...00.0000- 146
European Foul Brood, Curing with-

out Melting Combs ............. 145

European Foul Brood Forestalling.146

European Foul Brood, How to
Treat! as cicacwaogs tana 137, 145, 146
European Foul Brood like American.137
Excluders, two Styles of........ 37, 38
Exhibit of Bees ..............005- 150
Exhibits at Fairs .............-.05 147

Exhibits of Comb Honey From One
Colony

Experimenting on too Small a Scale. 22

Extracted Honey, Cans for....106, 107
Extracted Honey, How to Adver-
TSE! SAE: ccseaeinseareee-a ih auniaaueuaus 115

Extracted Honey, How to Prepare

fOr MARKEE cieccatede notes inane & Senne 110
Extracted Honey, How to Pro-

GUCE “gem yseyawenk ks eee 92-108
Extracted Honey, How to Retain

the: Hlayior 2ccoecaees ts so a coca 106
Extracted Honey, How to Sell

Above Market ......... 114, 115, 116
Extracted Honey, Importance of

Empty Combs for
Extracted Honey, Italians best for. 30
Extracted Honey, Queen-excluders

LO scszyax hemes cade cet eee 37
Extracted Honey Selling in Large

Lots or Retail in Small Way..... 113
Extracted Honey, Spring Manage-

METIE, TOR se decane we acnwentananhamacittro.s 95
Extracted Honey, Straining........ 105

Extracted Honey, the Importance of
Producing a Fine Well-ripened

aTtiCle: s.isewaygoecece gs SweRwa 92, 93
Extracted Honey Green and _ that

which is Well Ripened ......... 92
Extracted or Comb, Which?....... 26
Extracting After the Harvest...... 93

Extracting and Extractors..... 103, 104
Extracting and Feeding Sugar... ...166
Extracting-combs Heated to Extract. 94
Extracting-combs, Warming up..... 96
Extracting in a Cellar
Extracting, Keeping Stray Bees in
Honey-house
Extracting, Putting on Supers for.. 95
Extracting-supers for the close of a

Comb-honey Harvest ............ 91
Extracting-supers to Start Bees up
into Sections .............000e eee 88
Extracting Unripe Honey ..........194
Extractor Driven by Gasoline En-
PINE oo xeune cya ce membomiaw aes 103, 104
Extractor, Power-driven, How it
Saves Honey ...........2.4. 103, 104
Fairs, Beeswax Exhibited at....... 152
Fairs, Exhibits at ................. 147
Fairs, Judges at.......... 153, 154, 155
Fairs, Premiums for ............... 153
Fairs, Social Features at ......... 149
“Farmer-Honey” ... daeawaesa dO
Feeder for Feeding Back. Mabie Gh 81, 82
Feeders for Fall Work ........... 85
Feeding Back as Syrup ........... 82
Feeding Back Colonies, Record
INEPT OP coo caighiviry dy as Guang chal 82
Feeding Back, Honey Thinned Down
ROU s. crecerseieatnmatvictavad aie Gie oun whine 82
Feeding Back, how to avoid Blotchy
GOmiDS? zeae, 8 Séase ouseateacn acdaeuons 84

Feeding Back, Objections to....... 85

Feeding of Bees ................ 78-86

Feeding Back, Selecting the Col-
onies for

POR “rcarepvaresten wearasie tm en eeacgnnt-h seeatuaete 84
Feeding Back to finish Unfinished
Sections
Feeding, Caution about Transmit-
ting Foul Brood
Feeding in the Fall Preferred to
Feeding in the Spring..........
Feeding Early in the Spring Objec-
tionable
Feeding in Winter ................ 188
Feeding to Stimulate Brood-rearing. 78
Feeding Thick Syrup for Fall..... 86

Fence Separators .. 2.6.62 c0ceneecs 39

Food for Wintering Bees ......... 165

Foul Brood, American, How to
Recognize .136, 137

Foul Brood Carried - from Feeding
Honey
202

Foul-brood Carried in Honey....... 139
Foul Brood Carried in Queen-cages. 77
Foul Brood, Consideration of...136-146
Foul Brood Cured by the Baldridge
Plan
Foul Brood Cured by the Shaking

PBI 4.5: Suastisarrcnciss acct aeealeed Suckers 141, 142
Foul Brood, Dried Down Scales of.139
Foul Brood, European, How to

WRG: aaseaenss aasens atin SG oc hatestoneese 145
Foul Brood, European, Importance

of Vigorous Italian Stock........145
Foul Brood, How Transmitted..... 13
Foul Brood Methods of Treatment

Vary with Season............... 146
Foul Brood, Nature of............ 136
Foul Brood, Photograph of, by

Cowal patgonsnasux ian oee eee hein 2 138

Foul Brood, the Colorado Cure for.144
Foundation a Boon to Bee-keepers.. 59
Foundation a great Advantage in
Comb-honey Supers
Foundation for Swarms . 60, 61
Foundation, Hiving Swarms Upon. 59
Foundation, to Prevent from Stretch-
ing’
Foundation, why better than Combs
fot’ Swarts, 6 soso 5cace seus wees 60, 61
Frames Most desirable to Use..... 32
Frames, Small, for Queen-rearing
Scattered About Promiscuously.. 46

Frames with Self-spacing Projec-
PLOWS? gg 9 otldeceas dy SSda Rie Cie Pony omelet 33
Fuel for SmOK€R oc ee cers saves 50
Gasoline Engine for Driving Honey-
CX OLAE LOM ai swayze tisecerse sits a iaapueree wanna 103, 104
Gloves for Bee-keepers’ use........ 49
Grouping Hives ...............5. 44, 45

Hammer a Comfort in a Bee-yard. 51
Harvest, Preparing for ....... 95
Heat for Warming up Extracting-
combs
Heddon Feeder for Feeding Back.81, 82

Heddon Method of Transferring. ..164
Hexagonal Arrangement of Hives.. 44
Hive-body Only a Simple Box..... 32
Hive-cart, Boardman: 2:22. +ea¢us< 47
Hive, Double-walled vs. Single-
WANG» aha Guarantee tenes ceeauneeeecen 35
Hives and Buildings, Arrangement
OW Jeera d Nath ica eu, aeareearers ated Seale 4 42
Elives and = Implements, Choosing
the Right Kind. .....csssdcmawes 21
Hives and Tools Handy for the
Sce-man Rather than for the Bee-
ROOM sock iias-cahepace sh nnd mem ek weimudaints 2a
Hives, Choice of........32, 33, 34, 35
Hlivies;, DOGONE - saeccacsacecw wa-atere encterraeieiers 15
Hives, Distance Apart in a Bee-
NAL soiiptctdcaneetin aera Arouienns ov edveiwen 46
Hives, Easy Contracted ........... 57

Advanced Bee Culture

Tives, Shadéd: o.0s:eecuwseeweraaa ne 46
Hives, Shall we Disinfect for Foul
BOO) soasnenince a nercancyinend atin aed 141, 143
Hives, Small vs. Large........... 26, 32
Hives with Cleats on Convenient... 47
Hives Without Bottom-boards..... 33
Hive well Shaded .............-.-- 52
Honey-board Queen-excluders. ...37, 38
Honey, Comb or Extracted? ...... 26
Honey-crop not the Measure of Suc-
cess in Bee-keeping ............. 21
Honey-flow, Can we Foretell?..... 122
Honey-flow late in Some Localities. 26
Honey-flow When Comes on....... 25

Honey Harvest, Length of Modified

Dy LOGI essen sca ctcran manmeadenias 25
cena Location for in Apia-
fy ss eget 42
Honey in ‘Glass Sold at Fairs...... 149
Honey-jumbles Sold at Fairs....... 149
Honey-knife, not Necessary to
CLADE: | Goduleraiuin slau qungidc cuenta ayes s 193
Honey Left in Cappings........... 103
Honey Loss in Feeding Back...... 85
Honey Saved by Gasoline Engine
over Hand-power Driven ....... 103
‘ Honey, Selling by Mail ...........114
Honey, Selling to Best Advantage. .196
HOMES SOURCES: coco ccacaseoeianade 9

Honey-strainers When not Needed..193
Honey Thinned Down for Feeding

Back: cadena annexe ake veedeones o24 82
Honey to be Sold Should be in
Sinall Packages: 221. cc eumanw ene 149
Honey, to Warm up for Extract-
WG! coco 95, 96
Honev Unripe, ‘Don't. Extract. secre): 194
Honey vs. Sugar for Feeding Bees
AN WATER: wn Ss aecia aj nasi antereornded 165, 166
Honey, When Suitable for Winter-
IGS oieriatebnanier sry eared vedas Sace-asta 167
House-apiaries .. .........0000, 132-135
House-apiaries, Advantage of.......132
House-apiaries, Hives for should be
Same as Outdoors ...............132
Hlouse-apiary, Louck’s ............. 134
House-apiary, Objections to........13
House, on Curing Foul Brood...... 145

Hunting Bees. See Bee-hunting.

Increase, How Forestalled by Shook

SWARM? 3-ncsocwsaccintsate vm ds digas 65
Increase, How Prevented by Con-
tRACtIOM: snenges eee eecctiine bos ieee 67
Increase in Bees, Rapid ........... 15
Increase in Management and Con-
ETO], Seen tia tab hed Neder sin tai a steams O4-71
Increasing too Rapidly............ .. 20
Influence of Locality........24, 26, 28
Intestines of the Bees Overloaded. .165
Introducing a Jaded Queen........ cs
Introducing a Queen from a_ Dis-
COED) Aces f hacins big har rand gawk 76
Index to Contents

Introducing by Caging on a Comb.. 75
Introducing by the Simmins Method. 73

Introducing, Caution About......... 77

Introducing, Danger of Carrying
Foul Brood in Cage.. v7

Introducing Fresh Queen. ‘from the
Same ADPaLy ces. ccea sd ciawinae nae 74

Introducing on Hatching Brood.... 77
Introducing Queens
Introducing Queens from a Distance
More Difficult .............000. 74, 75
Introducing to a Colony Long
Queenless ..... 74
Introducing to a ‘Colony ‘with Cells

Partly: Baile aoc coche geasaiocusus anbsceracesh 76
Introducing to Bees Shaken into a
BOR. sitauie lei pacera oat es acer guess 76

Introducing with Tobacco Smoke.. 77
Introduction of Queens Guaranteed. 77

Investment in Bees, Moderate at
ESE: | catuaravanrecennaenuse aise mayenennaveae epastt Beate 14
Italians and Black Brood.. 194
Italians: not Excelled for Extracted. 30
Journal, Bee, Necessity of......... 195
Judging at Fairs............... 153, 154
Keep More Bees........... 7, 9, 11, 12
Kerosene Oil for Starting Smokers. 50
Knife Heated by Steam............ 102

Labels on Comb-honey Cases........109

Lake of the Woods, in the Rasp-
berry Region

Langstroth Frames Most Generally

WSeCl ’ usician mn penne Relais galewers 32
Langstroth Hive and Frames Com-
pared with the Divisible-brood-
chambé® Hive cas < snacun opie 35
Lawn, for Apiaty ce, cacauiamesn naw 50
Leaders, How we are Following.... 22
Lemonade Made of Honey......... 149
Liquifying Candied Honey......... 106
Loading Honey onto Cars or Wag-
ONS: Anausy sak a ey male estesonieagud 44 109

Localities for Bees, Difference in. ..120

TU CATED: © a.th.c eee Wiaasdvbceionannatan seer acace Bis 9
Locality and its Relation to Outdoor
Wanitering® sc. saligntietdly goa nt 168, 169
Locality. Influence of.. veer 20
, Locality, the Importance “of “Secur-
ing the Right Place.............. 23
Location Most Desirable............
Location, Poor can not be Made
COO skis. iiantgeaneeereeds teins me 23
Loss in Feeding Back.............. 85
Ludington’s House-apiaries ........ 183
Mail-order Trade for Honey....... 114
Mail-order Trade Profitable........ 118

Management Modified by Locality.. 28
Management Varied According to
Locality

203

Manley’s Methods of Rendering Old
Combs into Wax
Market, Delevoping Home.......... 110
Marketing and Selling, Two Differ-
ent Propositions
Marketing at Wholesale or Retail. .113
Marketing of Honey............ 108-119
Marketing of Inferior Honey Around
Home
Matches Kept in a Safe Place...... 51
Mice, Damage in Cellars and Else-

WHNCER: 2055 acest. d 4 he a armenatenavnence cies 189:
Migratory Bee-keeping ........ 120-125.
Migratory Bee-keeping from the

South to the North and_ vice

WG ects eh hs Wa he ds Ow ee edn Awe RIES 4c 124
Migratory Bee-keeping vs. Out-

ADIATI CS? cqtcncis: tet aceusticlpdut amv aes 125.

Mistakes in Bee-keeping. .20, 21, 22, 23
Moisture and its Relation to Win-
tering
Money in Bees............. 7, 8, 9, 11
Moving Bees from one Locality to
Another
Moving Bees to Better Pastures. ...123

Nature, not Always a Safe Guide.. 22
Nectar, How it Differs from Honey. 92°

Out-apiaries and Cellar-Wintering. ..130

Out- apiaries, Distance Apart...126, 129
Out-apiaries, How to get to and
From

eveiinostoie erat dea ah Pies Rai an anand atbsee aliens 129
Out-apiarics, Management of...129, 130
Out-apiaries, Portable Extracting

WAPOHS TOK ace e uw tieie-aicticeisndmaeensos. ace 128:
Out-apiaries, the Outgrowth of

Overstocking ...........0.0 cece es 126.
Out-apiaries vs. Migratory Bee-keep-

HG? inmeontanea cain on he incteres qeavaets 125.

Out-apiary in Raspberry Region....131

Outdoor Wintering of Bees........ 168°
Outdoor Winter. See Wintering
Outdoors.

Overstocking and _ its
Out-apiaries

Relation to

Packages for Extracted Honey.110, 111
Packing for Outdoof Wintering. .
dios nena tits o Wnt dyes 168, 169, nee
Paper Winter-cases
Plain Sections and Fence Separators
Preferred
Pneumatic Tires for Wheelbarrow... 51
Porter Bee-escape
Power-driven Honey-extractors..103, 104

Premiums at? Fatrs.c2.0c244s enaseas 153
Press for Rendering Wax.......... 160°
Producing Good Extracted Honey.
BSED acai "Wes doe cake aaa capnbca ee ah 92-108.
Production of Comb Honey...... 87-91

Protecting Colonies in the Spring. .190°
Pyramid of Honey-bottles at Fairs.15i.
204

Queen-cells Naturally Built......... 72
Queen-excluding Honey-boards. ..37, 38
Queen-rearing Hives Scattered About

Promiscuously ............0 00000 46
Queens from a Distance more Dif-

ficult to Introduce............. 74, 75
Queens, Introducing ............. 73-77
Queens, Rearing One’s Own for In-

CFCASE! j-com aauyediainiays tuesdhys salen wanemcmre 15
Queen, When She can be Released

from thé Cage. i ocscewes pce vents 75, 76
Races of Bees Compared........... 29
Raspberry Honey of Northern Mich-

AAMT arc a cainene pon nseatatoaene mam avasiveds 116
Records, Keeping of Colonies...... 30
Repository for Wintering oe How

to Build a Cheap One.. 2. 179
Root Brick-honey .......... 02.2... 112

Scales of Foul Brood, to Recognize. 139
Sections and Their Adjustment on

PSS TAT VCS vey senavtisivednausnoiorn suas deu-nt 39, 41
Sections, Beeway vs. Plain......... 39
Sections, Getting Bees Out of...... 89
Sections, How to get the Bees into.

.87, 88

Sections, Unfinished, How to Avoid. 61

Sections, Unfinished, How to get
the Bees to Cap Well............ 83

Sections, Unfinished, Various Ways

of Feeding .................000 ee 79
Self-spacing Frames, eee and
Disadvantages .33, 34

Selling Direct to Consumers. . wlt2
Selling Honey to Best Advantage. .196

Separators Necessary in Feeding
BAC tit recede abana oan enee bees 84
Separators vs. No Separators...... 41

Several Swarms Coming Out at a

WUME. xo:50 6 eneateyaeuare uke eee e val
Shade-boards better than Trees or
Shrubbery .... bara okehn Ae
Shade-boards for Hives............ 46
Shade for Bees..............0... 53, 54
Shavings, Fuel for Smoker........ 50
Shipping-cases for Comb-honey..... 109
Shipping Comb Honey, How to Pre-
Pare x stoveeconimgeaaesn? asad eee 109
Shoes for Bee-keepers............... 48
SHOOK ‘SWAGINE cacsssnneeees coc umdses 65
Shop for doing Work.............. 44
Simmins Method of Introducing... 73
Sleeping at the Extracting-yard.... 96
Slumgum from Wax....... pos sage cat 161
Smoke for Getting Bees out of Sec-
TIONS: gies snacnwakwessnisn eyes thera 89
Smoker a Necessity.......... 02... 50
Smoker, How to Light... susie coeanel OM
Smokers, Igniting with | "Kerosene
Oil. Geretts vais dee Gian ela raat 48
Specialty vs. Mixed Industry. . 7

Spring Management for Extracting. 95

s

Advanced Bee Culture

Spring Protection .................190
Staples and other Metal Attach-
ments for Spacing Frames........ 34
Starters for Swarms.........-...... 61
Steam Uncapping-knife ............ 102
Stock, Best, How Secured......... 29
Stock, Importance of Good........ 9

Stoves for Warming up Extracting-

COMBS 2... ewrganseuny oeaeowwaneees 97
Straight Worker-combs from Start-
BE” noel Anca a aaEa eH DD Daley oem ate pee 63
Strainers, When not Needed....... 193
Straining Extracted Honey......... 105
Success not Measured by Pounds of
Honey ...... : 21
Sugar has no Superior “for Winter-
HMO? 5 Lins eecemmemeea nica. als anemia ts 166
Sulphuric Acid for Clarifying Wax.162
Supers, Coaxing Bees into....... 30, 87
Supers, Getting Bees out of........ 89

Supers, Partly Finished, Raising up. 88

Supers, Putting on for Extracting... 95
Supplies, Securing too Late........ 22
Surplus vs. Increase............2.-. 64
Swarm-catcher to catch natural
SWannS:. vcs snare cuae wav alanine 70
Swarming, After, on the Heddon
Platt ars stag hein cee ahaa 46

Swarming Artificially by Shaking.. 65
Swarming Caused by Extensive Con-

ERATION. “ive <ngegvininiovshtcsbenchin Ma chee PR 57
Swarming Controlled by Caging
GITCERD. ct eects cat acd ssiagtedenel Sine a ha 67
Swarming Controlled by Clipped
Queens or Queen-traps .......... 68
Swarming, How Reduced in Comb-
Honey Production 2c.sissgseaaaas 91
Swarming, How to Control at Out-
ADIATIOS: «2 cos v accaxnaauienie cam dieu 130
Swarming, its Management and Con-
TGOL. cde wabahhcra ust ue venue waa s 64-71

Swarming Modified by Locality.... 26
Swarming More Difficult to Control
in Production of Comb-honey.... 65
Swarming, Natural, Forestalled by
Artificial Methods’
Swarming to Become a Thing of
TINE ROS Cacao weaned aati atce meena 68
Swarming to Prevent by Uncapping

Drone-brood. a duasex 0s 448 duadon , 194
Swarming with Unclipped Queens

not Approved ................... 70
Swarms, Controlled by Sntaas of

Water s..ces .70, 71
Swarms Hived on Starters......... 61
Swarms, Hiving on Empty Combs. 5

Swarms, Hiving Upon Foundation... 59
Swarms in a Contracted Brood-
nest

Swarms in tall Trees in an apiary.. 71

Swarms, Second, How to Avoid.... 66
Swarms, Stray, Alighting on One’s
PREIUISESE anata infeed xine ore cucetomicet “15
Index to Contents

Swarms, Two or More Coming Out
at a Time
Syrians and Cyprians not Desirable. 29

Syrup, How to Make.............. 166
Syrup Should be Thick for Fall
PCCM Ses Souba acescad dodiaiaserduyloactiehueeeeo 86
Temperature, How Affected by
Moisture or Dampness... 176
Temperature, How it Affects the

Wintering of Bees............... 178
Temperature in the Upper Part of

Cell at, earmcndsenccawaiigematiastiumands 186
Temperature, R. L. Taylor on..... 183
Temperature, Watching ...........
Tenement Hives .... . es. 168, 169
Thermometer, Wet Bulb 2 eiainlokare ros 176
Tiering up Comb-honey Supers.... 88
Tiering up for Extracting.......... 95
Tobacco for Introducing........... 77
Townsend Uncapping-box ...... 98, 99

Transferring, Another Modern Plan
LOD sdnaumnanry rears mamunegeees 164
Transferring, Automatic ............164
Travel, Mode of to Out-apiaries...129
Trees, Few in the Apiary for Apia-

ESE ud a Salers an she Mate gente tah Meet heater 54
Uncapping-barrel .... 02... eee eee 98
Uncapping-barrels and Tanks....... 97
Uncapping-box, McIntyre .......... 99
Uncapping, How to Handle Soft

and Old Combs.................. 101

Uncapping-knife Heated by Steam. .102
Uncapping-knife, How to Heat.... 98
Uncapping-knife, not Necessary to

Scrape: eisai nuieys cea Bunce 193
Unfinished Sections Filled out by
PECUING®  cccarergra cairn dniimennguanweire 79

Unfinished Sections for Baits...... 87
Unfinished Sections, How to get the

Bees to Cap Well................ 83
Unfinished Sections to Avoid...... 61
Unfinished Sections with Uniform

Cappines? ai wirdeno ad gee teecmuicers 84
Uniformity of Arrangement of

TEI WESHS “ase sdada cen ovens sages nc sahdianptiaied oes 46
Uniting for Comb-honey Produc-

HOM poeaddedeeretuavers Dtenesatin i. pele Beige oc ee 87

Upward Ventilation .......... 169, 171
Use and Abuse of Comb Founda-
tion

Veil, How Adjusted to Hat....... 49

Ventilation of Cellars........... ah lT

Ventilation Upward Through Pack-
IIE edeueteeey ta dueedaor aera eiclioutea’ 169-171

Wagon for Out-apiaries ............128
Warming up the Combs to Ex-
{TOOL ¢ pawens dduaciawiisawecw ged 95, 96

Water for driving Swarms while in
the Aly gcc teiieomaeeeeeds 70, 71

Wax Clarified by Sulphuric Acid. .162

Wax from Old Combs.............. 158

Wax, How to Clean off Utensils. .162
Wax in Fanciful Shapes at Fairs. .152
Wax, Old Methods of Rendering. .157

Wax-press, How to Construct...... 160
Was, Rendering Of wii n.ccncenanean 157
Wax Rendering, Separating-tank for. 162
Wax Secretion during Feeding Back. 83
Wax Secretion Involuntary .- SS haaniees 63
Wax, When Bees Secrete the Same. 59
Wax, When Secreted for Comb-
building
Wheelbarrow for Bee-yard Work.. 51
Wheelbarrows for Carrying Honey.193
White-honey Harvest Followed by
Dearth
Willow-herb in Northern Michigan.121

Winter Care of Bees...............188
Winter Feeding ................05. 188
Winter Losses too Heavy for Spe-
cialty Bee-keeping ...............
Winter Outdoors, Advantages of.. ‘as
Winter Packing-cases Preferred to
(Chath FIRES. ca ea a sgennaeemavonsentena 35
Wintering Bees, Food for.........165
Wintering in Clamps............... 186
Winterine, Indoors and Out, Space
tinder RY aTHeS! o2 o< casiianaed aaganesean 173
Wintering of Bees Outdoors....... 168
Wintering Outdoors, Packing Mate-
BL AOR scareatorccecioun Banna te Seaver 171, 173
Wintering Outdoors, Packing vs.
THON OW Wrallls ceca dan incacscinsiee vecsena 173
Wintering Outdoors Where Prac-
HAC ATES “sanss-dusoset a aay piecknasaammnacte 168, 169

Wintering, Relation of Moisture to.175
Worker-comb Building Favored by
Contraction
Worker-comb, When Bees Build... 61
Workers for the Harvest.......... 95
Gleanings in

 

 

 

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