BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
The condition of the honey crop has something to do with her propensity to move out of the brood apartment. When the honey crop is heavy, and of short duration, there is no danger on this score, as the honey combs are filled as fast as they are built, and the queen, should she move to the super, would soon leave it, owing to her inability to lay there. In localities where the crop is lasting and intermittent, much advantage has been derived from the use of the Collin perforated zine between the brood chamber and the supers. The only obstacle to its use, is that it hinders ventilation and free access for the bees.
The slatted honey board with zinc strips between the slats is probably the best queen excluder made.
The full zinc sheet is more apt to get out of shape by being glued up by the bees when propolis is plentifal.
The greater or less neecessity of queen excluders to prevent the queen from ascending into the sections and filling them with brood, seems to depend mneh on location. We have never found that queen excluders were sufficiently needed to make then desirable, but many other bee-keepers have often asserted that they cannot get along without them. However, such an authority as Dr. C. C. Miller says: "The queen so seldom goes into a super that not one section in a hundred, some times not more than one in a thousand, will be found troubled with brood." Other writers are equally emphatie in favor of the exeluder. So each bee-keeper will have to decide this point for himself.
Aceeding to Doctor Miller, the queen rarely goes into the supers except to seek drone eells in which to lay, when she becomes tired of worker eells. At sneh times, the bees seem to understand her wishes so well that they leave drone eells unoccupied in order to give her an opportunity to lay in them. If at sneh times she finds drone emb in the sections she will be likely to fill it with eggs. Otherwise her laying in seetions will be very rare.
**733.**_4th._Swarming with comb-honey production. As the directions given by us elsewhere (**461**) do not altogether prevent swarming, when comb-honey is raised, and as the swarming of a colony usually ends its surplus production for the season, it has been found advisable to give the surplus cases to the swarm, instead of leaving them on the old hive. (**468**_bis._) To further strengthen the swarm, which is thus depended upon for surplus, it is placed on the stand of the old hive, and the latter is removed to a new loeation. _This is a very practical method_. It is due to Messrs. Heddon and Hntehinson--at least _they_ have popularized it. But the prudent Apiarist, who follows this course, will keep a vigilant eye on the old colony, thus deprived of all its working force, and will help it, if needed.
**731.**_5th._Preventing the bees from propolizing.
"Propolis on sections is a nuisance, be the same little or much, and a plan which will allow of the filling of the section with nice comb honey without changing the clcan appearance which they present when placed upon the hive, will be her-alded with delight by all, and give great honor to him who wcrks out the plan.''--G. M. Doolittle, ''Gleanings,'' page 171. 1886.
We have shown (**238**) that bees propolize every erack, and danb with this yellowish or brownish glue every thing inside of their hive. This is very hard to clean, and it can never be removed sufficiently to restore to the sections their original whiteness.
''All four sides of the sections are sernped clean of propolis, and the edges as well. It is not a difficult job for a careful hand, but a very disagreeable one. The fine dust of the beeglue is very unpleasant to breathe. A scraper should be a careful person, or in ten minutes' time he will do more damage than his day's work is worth. Even a careful person seems to need to spoil at least one section, before taking the care necessary to avoid injuring others. But when the knife makcs an ugly gash in the face of a beautiful white section of honey, that settles it that eare will be taken afterward.''--Dr. C. C. Miller: ''A Year Among the Bees.''
To prevent propolizing, the sections should be fitted tightly together, and as little of their outside as possible exposed to the bees. The honey should be removed promptly, when sealed, before the bees have time to do much gluing.
Not only is it necessary that the sections should be removed early after they are filled, on aecount of the propolis brought by the bees, but it is also useful to remove the other contrivanes employed, such as excluding honey-boards, separators or fences, so they may not be so daubed with the sticky substance as to become useless. Besides, in the present condition of progressive bee-culture and close competition, it is neecessary to have honey which does not show any travel stains from the bees and the whitest honey is often soiled in appearance by the travel of the bees over it. An experienced eye will easily detect eombs which have been left on the hive too long and have become travel-stained.
**735**. _6th._ Securing sealed comb honey. For this purpose no more cases should be given than the bees are likely to fill. The second case should not be added until the first is half filled. The outside seetions, being the last filled, may not be sealed at all, unless the bees are somewhat crowded for room. To remedy this, many bee-keepers are in the habit of _"tiering out,"_ instead of _"tiering up,"_ that is, they put the empty or unfinished sections in the middle of the super, removing all that are filled, or plaeing them on the outside. This is an increase of labor, but some hold that it pays.
There is quite a difference in localities and seasons, as to the time of adding supers. Mueh depends on the yield of honey. Each Apiarist must judge of the probabilities, not only of ordinary seasons, but of extraordinary seasons as well and this knowledge can be gained only by practice. To show what may be expected in a good location, we will quote a passage from Dr. Miller's "Forty Years Among the Bees":
"On the whole, there is a mixture of judgment and guesswork as to putting on supers after the first. Perhaps the nearest to a general rule in the matter is to give a second super when the first is half filled. If, however, honey seems to be coming in slowly, or if the colony is not strong, and the bees seem to have plenty of room in the super, no second super is given, although the one already there may be filled with honey. Ou the other hand, if honey seems to be coming with a rush, and the bees seem crowded for room, a second super may be given, although there is very little honey in the first. These same conditions continued, a third super may be given when the second is only fairly started and the first not half full, and before the first super is ready to take off there may be four or five supers ou the hive. In the year 1897--a remarkably prosperous year--there were at one time in the Wilson apiary an average of four supers to each colony, some colonies with less than four and some with more, and not a finished super in the lot. The supers were all well filled with bees, and although I took some chances as to unfinishcd work, I feel pretty sure that if I had allowed less room it would have been at a loss. But that was a very exceptional case."
Instead of removing the filled sections from the center of the super as by the method above mentioned, Dr. Miller removes the entire super when nearly filled, without waiting for the outside sections to be sealed, and the unfinished sections of several supers are put together and given back to some strong colony to be finished by them. This avoids much handling of sections on the hive.
**Fig. 197.**
**UNFINISHED sections that are not marketable. (Forty Years Among the Bees.)**
**736.** It often happens that the bees fasten the comb only at the top of the section. For safe transportation it is very important that it should be fastened to the section wall, all around. To secure this, not only do Apiarists use comb foundation, but some have devised "reversible" section cases. When the sections are turned over, the empty space now at the top, seems unnatural to the bees, and they hasten to fill it, making a solid comb in the_section. But this is not the only method.
"'Yeqrs ago my secretions were always filled so full by the bees, that they carried vcry securely in transportation. Afterwards I
bottom starters as per Fig. 198 give the best results, the bottom starter being five-eighths of an inch wide, with a space of only a quarter inch between the two. This allows of the slight stretching usual in comb foundation.
**737**. It is held by some Apiarists that the fence with plain sections, fig. 193, secures better filled eombs than the ordinary section with insets and separators, fig. 188. But when the bees are supplied with foundation in full or nearly full sheets, the advantage seems to be on the side of the separator.
**Fig. 199.**
wIDE FRAME, HALF FILLED.
(Forty Years Among the Bees,)
fullest sections that the writer has seen were secured by splitting the sections exactly through the center and placing the sheet of foundation so that it was caught between the two halves of the section and fastened all around. This is the English method.
Miss Emma Wilson, Doetor Miller's able sister-in-law, who has for many years managed a large number of colonies for comb honey says:"I can pick just as well filled sections among those that have insets as among the plain fence sections, and I can find as many ill-filled sections among the latter as among the former. But I much prefer the sections with inset to the plain, because when handling them, I am more likely to damage the cappings of the honey in the plain sections, and the sections are also more likely to topple over while being fixed for market."
Mr. Frank Rauchfuss, the Secretary of the Colorado Honey Producers, handling ten to twenty carloads of honey annually for his stockholders, said: "In selling honey to our Eastern trade we found that they were not so willing to handle honey in plain sections as in the standard sections."
We will now consider a few of the various cases used in the production of comb honey.
**73S.** Trie deep wide frames (fig. 199), have the decided advantage of allowing the Apiarist to use sections in a full size upper story. In limited comb honey production, they can probably be used with satisfaction, especially with the eight or ten frame Langstroth hive.
**739.** The half-story comb honey supers, figs. 200 and 201, are preferable to the full story wide frames. A full story is often too large for surplus and two half stories will always be found more easily handled and more evenly filled, especially if given on:y when needed. Many styles are made, but the leading ones are with bottom and side slats enclosing the sections and with springs crowding them together, an improvement on the Oliver Foster method described in a previous edition of this work, fig. 200.
**740.** Mr. C. C. Miiler places his sections in supers without top or bottom, three-eights of an inch deeper than the sections. To support the sections in these boxes he nails, under both ends, a strip of tin, which projects one-fourth inch inside. Strips of tin, bent in the form of a **1** are supported across the box, by six small pieces of sheet iron nailed at regular intervals, under the sides of the box. The sections rest on these T's, and on the end strips. These supers holding 28 or 32 sections, can be piled upon one another, leaving a bee space between them. The only objection that we have ever heard offered to the T super, as the Miller super is called, is the danger of the bees propoizing the exposed parts of the section. In the supers which,furnish slats for the support of the sections, there is nothing exposed but the edges of a part of each section. Otherwise the Miller plan seems to bring the sections in closer proximity to each other. But the above men
**742.** Although Mr. Foster's methods and implements have been improved upon in the past twenty years, the ideas expressed above are original and correct and it is neecessary that we should consider them. The improvements which go towards a more comfortable situation for the bees while working in the supers are sure to be in the line of progress. Separators are needed to secure straight eombs but the less we will have of them, the better for our success. The fence, the faults of which we have shown, is very certainly praised and used because it gives a more thorough passage from one story to another, since it gives an opening along the entire length of the setion.
**743.** For the same reason of comfort to the bees and also for ease of manipulation, it is advisable to abstain from using the queen exeluder, if the Apiarist finds that he can get along without it. These implenuents are in the way for the travel of the bees over the combs, for the ventilation, and they are also much in the way of the Apiarist.
**744.** So in aeeeping new improvements, we should at all times remember that simplieity in the implements makes for greater suecess, not only because it is an economy of money, but beeause our bees will feel better, fare better and swarm less if not hampered with obstructions.
**745.** All improvements that are made must be based on a full consideration of the instincts of the bees. Like Mr. Hutehinson ("Produetion of Comb-Honey" p. 18), we "have seen bees sulk for days during a good honey flow, simply because the present condition of things was not to their liking." You should make your bees feel, as natural and as much "at home" as possible.
Extracted Honey. *
**746.** To separate the honey from the wax, the bee-keepers of old used to melt or break the eomb and drain the honey out.
Beeswax, as a sweet-seented luminiferous substance, faresuperior to oils or the crude grease of animals, was great!y appreciated by the priests, and plaeed among the best offerings required to please the gods. The eustom of offering wax, or wax candles, continued to this day by some churches, especially by the Greek and Roman Catholic churches, caused for centuries the levy of heavy taxes, payable in bees wax, in countries where the inhabitants kept bees. Some countries, in Europe, had to pay to the elureh, every year, several hundred thousand pounds of beeswax. Such taxes compelled the beekeepers to separate the honey from the wax with as little waste as possible.
Different grades of honey were harvested by the careful Apiarists. The light-eolored combs produced a light-eolored and pure honey; the combs which had contained brood produced turbid honey of inferior quality.
**747.** These primitive methods were afterwards greatly ameliorated, as for instance, in the French province of Gatinais, where the bee-keepers used the heat of the sun to melt the combs, and separate the honey from the melted wax. The eloice honey obtained in Gatinais, from the _sainfoin_, cannot be exeelled by our best extracted elover honey, as to color and taste, and it is sold in Paris altogether.
Owing to these causes, _strained_ honey, of different grades, was a staple in Europe. But the demand being ahead of the supply, especially when the season was unfavorable for bees, Europe imported strained honey from Chili, and Cuba, and lately, extracted honey from California.
**74S.** These causes did not exist in this country. Bees were scarce here at first. The American settlers had too much work on hand to care much for bees. The few who owned a limited number of colonies, brinstoned one of them occasionally, and consumed the honey at home. The more extensive bee owners could sell some broken combs to their neighbors, or a few pounds of strained honey to the drugist, who was not very hard to please, being accustomed to buy tuba honey, harvested with the most slovenly carelessness. Byand by, however, owing to very favorable conditions, the wild woods swarmed with bees in the "hollow trees," and the _b\(\star\)c-hunter_ made his appearance. Thousands of trees fell under his ax, to yield the sweets that they contained. Bee-hunting became an oceupation in some of our forests. The method followed to find the colonies established in hollow trees, was to place a bait of honey in some open spot, attracting the bees by burning a little of the eqnb. When the bees had formed a bee-line from the honey to their abode, a new baiting place was started in a diagonal position to the first. The meeting place of both lines was of course the spot oceupied by the swarm.
This rough-and-ready bee-keeping, or rather bee-killing, produced comparatively large quantities of honey; but, as this honey was nearly always badly broken up and mixed with pollen, dead bees, and rotten wood, it became customary to boil the honey, so as to force the impurities and the wax to rise on top with the seum. Hence the cheap, liquid, dirty and opaque \(strained\) honey, dark in color and strong in taste. By the side of this unwholosome article, a little fancy comb honey was sold, that led to a national preference for comb honey.
But in view of the cost of comb to the bees (**223**), in honey, time and labor, it was earnestly desired by progressive beelepers, especially after the invention of the movable frames, that some process be devised to empty the honey out of the combs without damaging the latter, so that they could be returned to the bees to be filled again and again.
**7.49.** In 1865 the late Major de Hruschka, of Dolo, near Yeniee, Italy, invented "_Il Smelatore,"_ the honey extractor.
It happened in this wise: He had given to his son, a small piece of comb honey, on a plate. The boy put the plate in his basket, and swung the basket around him, like a sling. Hruschka noticed that some honey had been drained out by the motion, and concluded that combs could be emptied by centrifugal force.
This invention was hailed, in the whole bee-keeping world, as equal to, and the complement of, the invention of movable frames; and it fully deserved this honor.
**750.** As soon as we heard of the discovery, we had a machine made. It was not so elegant as those which are now offered by our manufacturers. It was a bulky and ennbersone affair; four feet in diameter and three feet high; yet it worked to our satisfaction, and we became convinced, by actual trial, of the great gain which could be obtained, by returning the empty combs to the bees.
**751.** Let us say here, that the profit was greater than we had antieipated; but we, together with a great many others, first committed the fault of extracting, before the honey was altogether ripened by evaporation. Like "Novice" who thought of emptying his cistern to put the overflow of his extracted honey, we had to go to town again and again, for jars and barrels, to lodge our crop. But experience taught us that we cannot get a good merchantable article, unless the honey is ripe.
## Part 26
**752.** If we give to bees empiy combs, to store their honey, we will find, by comparing the products of colonies who have to build their combs, with those of colonies who always have empty conbs to fill, that these last produce at least twice as much as the others.
A little consideration will readily show, to the intelligent bee-keeper, the great advantages given to the bees by furnishing them with a full supply of empty combs. To illustrate all these advantages, let us compare two colonies of bees, of equal strength, at the beginning of the honey season; one with empty boxes, the other with empty comb in the boxes.
The two colonies have been breeding plentifully, and harvesting a large quantity of pollen, and a little honey, for several weeks past. The brood chamber is full from top to bottom. After perhaps one rainy day, the honey crop begins. The bees that have been given empty combs can go right up in them, and begin storing, as fast as they bring their honey-from the fields. Not a minute is lost; and as they have plenty of storing room, there is no need of crowding the queen out of her breeding cells.
In the other hive, there is indeed plenty of empty space in the upper story; but before it can be put to any use, it has to be first partly filled with combs. Before a half day is over, the greater part of the bees have harvested, and brought, to their newly-hatehed companions, all the honey that the latter can possibly hold in their sacks. What shall they do with the surplus? They have to go into that upper story, and hang there (**205**) for hours, waiting for the honey to be transformed into beeswax, by the wonderful action of these admirable little stomachs, whose work man cannot imitate, despite his science. But, while this slow transformation is going on, while the small scales of wax are emerging from under the rings of the abdomen (**201**) of each industrious little worker; while their sisters are slowly but busily carrying, moulding and arranging the warm little pieces of wax in their respective places, in order to build the frail comb (**206**);during all this time, the honey is flowing in the blossons, and the other colony is fast increasing its supply of sweets. Meanwhile, the few bees, which have found a place for their load, is "back after more, and, finding no room, they watch for the appearance of each hatching bee, from its cell, and at once fill that cell with honey; thus depriving the queen of her breeding-room, and foreing her to remain idle, at a time when she should be laying most busily.
The loss is therefore treble. First, this colony loses the present work of all the bees which have to remain inside to help make wax. Secondly, it loses the honey of which this wax is made. Thirdly, it loses the production of thousands of workers, by depriving the queen of her breeding-room, in the brood-chamber. All this, for what purpose? To enable the owner to eat his honey with the wax; when, as every one well knows, wax is tasteless and indigestible.
One word more in regard to the loss of production, by the crowding of the queen. This loss is two-fold in itself. When the bees find that the queen is crowded out of her breeding-room, they become more readily induced to make preparations for swarming (**406**).
It is then that a large number of young bees would be necessary to make up for the loss which the colony will sustain, in the departure of the swarm; and yet the diminished number of evas laid produces exactly the reverse of the desired result.
Tluere is perhaps a fourth item of loss, in failing to furnish empty combs to this colony, and that when the season is not very favorable. Many practieal bee-keepers have noticed that, in rather unfavorable seasons, it is difficult to induce bees to work in an empty surplus box, in which they would work readily if it were furnished with combs. It is a question which may remain doubtful, whether the bees do not sometimes, in such cases, remain idle for a day "r two, rather than begin building comb in a box which they do not expect to be able to fill (**415**).
**753.** In view of the above \(facts\), and after an experience of many years with the honey extractor, we urge beginners to produce extracted honey in preference to comb-honey, whenever they can sell it readily for half to two-thirds as much as comb honey. We have shown the advantages of its production _to the bees;_ let us now show the advantages _to the Apiarist_.
**754.**_1st._ He can control, and take care of, a much greater number of colonies. The manipulations of an apiary, run for extracted honey, coeupy less than one half of the time required for the production of comb-honey. Our largest comb-honey producers aeknowledge that one man cannot handle more than two hundred colonies successfully, when run for comb-honey, while as many as five hundred colonies, located in different apiaries (\(582\)), are managed successfully by one Apiarist, when run for extracted honey. During extraeting time, of course, additional help is required, but this needs not be skilled labor, which is always hard to find.