BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
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 dust nor mice can get at them. I have given supers full of these partly drawn combs to colonies, (one super to a colony) and 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 _immediately_. 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 advantage. As the time approaches for the close of the harvest, instead of giving more sections, simply set on top of the sections one of 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.
**Abstract.** 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 between that and the hive. At what stage of completion the sections should be when a second case is added depends upon how crowded the bees are and the rate at which honey is coming in. I usually add another 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. As 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 up four cases high. With any system in which the sections are finished in close proximity to the brood nest, their removal is necessary soon after completion, 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 un-sullied 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 28 sections, and fill them full of honey (and here is where I believe foundation is _zero_ 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, less troublesome, method of freeing it from bees than by the use of a Porter bees 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 cannot 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 \(\hat{pprox}8\) 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 themselves 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 de 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 uninished 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 sufficiently 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.
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 be 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 compared 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 incentive 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. All brings the same price. White clover honey brings so much, buckwheat 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, _predly 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 reputation 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 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. Of course, robbers are ready to give trouble after the close of the season, but the use of bee escapes overcomes this difficulty. When the supers are freed from bees by the use of bee escapes, the honey is usually cold by the time it is off the hive, it having lost the heat imparted to it by the bees, and it does not extract nearly as easily as though the bees had been brushed off and the honey extracted immediately. The proper course is to stack the supers up in a warm room, one heated by a stove, until the honey is warmed through, when it may be thrown out with the greatest ease. I am aware that this system is not the one usually followed, but I believe it has decided advantages over other systems, and results in honey of a superior quality. Have plenty of combs and supers; tier up the same as in the production of comb honey; leave the combs on the hive until the honey is thoroughly ripened; remove the honey by the use of bee escapes, and warm it up artificially when ready to extract,
## Chapter 4 Advanced Bee culture
## 111 Advanced Bee Culture.
This plan greatly lessens the work during the busy season, as about all there is to do is to see that plenty of surplus room is provided. If the harvest is prolonged, lasting several weeks, it is quite likely that some of the supers will be ready to come off before the harvest is over, and it may be best to remove them if they are becoming piled up too high.
It seems almost unnecessary to say that I would use a queen-excluding honey board over the brood nest. If bee escapes are to be used, the presence of brood in a super will defeat the plan, as the bees will not desert the brood. If we are going to brush off the bees and extract the honey at once, no honey that is thoroughly ripe can be successfully extracted without at the same time throwing out some of the unsealed brood if any is in the comb. With unusually deep combs in the brood nest, it may be advisable to use shallower combs in the supers, but with combs no deeper than the Langstroth, I doubt the advisability of having any shallower combs for the supers. In the production of extracted honey there is not much to choose between an eight-frame Langstroth live and a ten-frame one, unless out-apiaries are to be established, when the ten-frame hives seem to enable the bees to bear neglect, to shift for themselves, to better advantage. They are less likely to run short of stores. Some beekeepers use only nine combs in a ten-frame super, or seven combs in an eight-frame super, thus inducing the bees to lengthen out the cells and make the combs thicker. The honey ripens more slowly in such deep cells, but the uncapping is thereby greatly facilitated. When the combs are uncapped, the cappings should be given a thorough opportunity to drain, and, if they are kept clean, the water in which they are melted when they are rendered into wax may be made into vinegar. H. G. Sibbald, of Ontario, has the best uncapping box that it has been my good fortune to see. It is five feet long, 16 inches wide, and made in two sections, each nine or ten inches deep. The lower section is for honey, and, with the exception that the corners are halved together, it is simply a well-nailed and neatly made box, waxed inside at all joints, with a honey gate at one end to draw off the honey; the legs being a little shorter at the end having the gate, so that the honey will run off readily. The top half or section is made in the same manner, only that, instead of a board bottom, it has a wire screen bottom which allows the honey to drain from the cappings. The bottom section is halved on the inside, upper edge, and the top section halved on the outside lower edge. Being made in this manner, the lower edge of the upper section fits inside the lower one, and thus no honey runs down outside the lower box.
## 11 Advanced Bee Culture
After the honey has been thoroughly ripened, and 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 _exclusion of the air_.
So far 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. A five-gallon can of this kind, holding 60 pounds of honey, can be bought for about 30 cents. This style of package can be rolled on the floor. A barrel is really the cheapest package for storing or shipping honey, and when we know that honey is to be shipped to some manufactatory, 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 _carce/u/ly_ back to its liquid state, it will be found to have retained its original "flavor, aroma and boquet." Too much stress cannot be placed upon the care necessary in liquefying candied honey. So many think if honey does not boil it cannot be injured. The temperature of boiling water will ruin the flavor of honey. When a can of candied honey is placed over a store, 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.
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 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."
Much, 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 distant city. Many bee-keepers have been able to sell to advantage, in the home markets, unfinished sections, 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 supplied with honey. In short, they must be followed up and looked after as carefully as commercial travellers 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. \(\Lambda\) handsome display 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 that "The product of no other industry is put upon the market in such a cambrous, uncouth and slovenly form." This may seem a little over-drawn, 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 attractiveness 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 candided honey has been sold in _paper sacks._ The sacks are made of heavy Manila paper, paraffined, the honey put in while in the liquid state, and then allowed to granulate. The sacks can be set into small boxes, _a la_ 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 purchaser 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-centh_ 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 candided, 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 the 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, 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 lusc_" 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 consumers. They systematically canvass a city, or portion of a city, carrying 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 car loads, annually of comb honey, says he prefers to sell it in a lump to some man who wishes to retail it, while _hc_ 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 judgment in selling it at wholesale. If the honey is to be sold on commission, the most important point of all is that the commission merchant 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 it is secured, it is easily held. The first thing is to get a list of those men who use large quantities of honey. A local drugist can usually furnish the namesof many of the manufacturing drugists; the groceryman can give the 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.
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 25 miles was made without misbap. Those 20 colonies furnished 400 pounds of surplus; besides, they needed no feeding for winter, while the bees kept at home stored no surplus, and each colony required feeding, on the average, about 15 pounds.
Had buckwheat yielded well, which, in this locality, happens about once in a dozen years, nothing would have been gained by the move. 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 possibility 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 unusual 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 farther away than this need not be so very great. From 30 to 40 colonies can be moved on a hay rack; or a special rack might be made which would accommodate 50 colonies. An 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 advantages 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 _broad_, if they are long confined. To save the brood the bees must have plenty of water.