BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
There are several different sizes of sections that are used, some with the bee-way cut in them and perfectly square, while others are plain, without the bee-way and are taller than their width. Though the latter contain no more honey than the perfectly square ones, yet they appear to, and sell more quickly, and these things have led an increasing number of bee-keepers to adopt them. A perusal of the catalogues of the various supply houses will enable the beginner to make such selection as suits his fancy, as tastes differ.
The fall flow of comb honey is harvested the same as the early flow, and should be taken off as soon as finished, or when theHow to keep bees for profit
weather indications point to a cessation of the flow.
**In** the production of comb honey there will be a greater likelihood of swarming than in the production of the extracted; but giving the hives shadeboards, and open entrances full depth and width, and, last, treating each hive according to the "shock swarm" plan, will reduce it to a minimum and lessen the work and worry of the beeman.
The proper way to prepare the sections for market will be treated fully in the chapter on "Marketing the Honey Crop."
## Chapter XI how to produce extracted honey
The method of producing extracted honey differs so materially from that employed for comb honey that we treat it under a separate chapter.
When the colonies are run for comb honey it becomes almost a necessity to resort to the "shook swarm" plan to keep down swarming, and this compels us to handle the brood body of the hive in an entirely different manner.
The matter of swarm control becomes easy when we run our colonies for extracted honey, as we can extract from time to time and thus keep the bees from feeling crowded, with the consequent swarming.
The extracting supers differ from the comb honey super cases in that, instead of beinghow to keep bees for profit shallow and filled with little section boxes, the bodies are full depth, and have in them the same size of frames as the brood nest.
When the colonies are strong and the tops of the combs in the brood nest show the presence of newly gathered honey, we are ready for the extracting bodies. When the honey flow comes on with a rush, happy is the man who is the possessor of a lot of surplus combs, as this means the immediate storage of the surplus, and does away with the attendant waste and delay when frames with but full sheets of foundation are at hand. This, however, is not a serious matter, and only prevails for the first season, as at the end of the season after the surplus is gathered, the fully drawn combs are in hand for the next season's crop, and for a number of seasons, for that matter, as these combs are capable of being used for a period of years. Many beekeepers make it a point never to use in the extracting supers combs that have ever been used in the brood nest, as they claim that such combs invariably
**PROducing EXTRACTED Honey**
**result in a somewhat darker honey, owing to the darker color of the brood combs; but in my experience I have found that it makes but little difference, and a host of beekeepers use their frames interchangeably with the brood body and the supers.**
**One thing, however, is an absolute necessity, and should not be overlooked, and that is to see that the foundations in the extracting combs are properly wired in, full directions for doing which come with the hives from the manufacturers, as this prevents the combs from becoming broken as they are rapidly whirled around in the extractors, a breakage that is almost sure to occur in the case of new combs.**
* **HOW TO KEEP BEES FOR PROFIT**
is more easily controlled, and that the queen has ample laying-room.
The beginner had better adopt the regulation ten-frame size hive, as the expense will be considerably less, as these goods are always carried in stock by the supply houses; and as experience is gained, the larger hives can be tried out according to one's own ideas, but these experiments should be very carefully made, for it is a waste of time and money to try out hives of one's own invention when the very ideas may have been tried and found wanting many years ago.
Now that you have the queen-excluder in place, proceed to put on top of it a full-sized body filled with extracting combs, and, if combs are not at hand, then use frames with full sheets of foundation wired in. The extracting super will of course be of the same size as the hive body, but it will be best not to crowd the former with its full capacity of frames, as experience has proved that it is best to use but eight frames in a ten-frame ex
**PROducing EXTRACTED HONEY**
**tracting super, pulling them a little apart from each other so that the bees will have ample space to cluster while storing their surplus and working on the combs.**
**I cannot tell why, though I know from experience, that a colony likes to build a certain amount of comb, and this may have a great deal to do with their desire to swarm, as by swarming they have ample opportunity to build new combs in their new homes, and by spacing the frames apart it enables them to satisfy this propensity by building the combs in the super out to a point where they are decidedly fat and bulky, thus holding swarming in restraint.**
**When filled with honey these fat combs are not an encumbrance when it comes to extracting, but on the contrary they render their uncapping particularly easy, as the capping knife can be sunk deep into the comb, and when the honey has drained from the cappings that are thrown into the uncapping boxes, it can be drawn off, and a fine lot of wax thus secured each season.**How to keep bees for profit
Now that you have your super in position place on it its covering board, replacing the lid, and treat in like manner all colonies that are ready for supers.
If the flow is good, an examination of the super body will tell how rapidly the bees are filling it, and if you find that about two-thirds of each comb is filled and capped over, the frames are ready for extracting.
Some beekeepers never use more than one extracting super for each colony, and by frequent extracting, keep the colony from being crowded for room, but there is another class who prefer to tier up, and in some cases as many as three or four supers are used.
Where tiering up is to be resorted to, it requires that the beekeeper, as soon as he finds that the first super is nearly filled, shall gently lift it and place between it and the hive brood body another super with eight frames of combs or frames of wired foundation sheets, leaving the excluder still over the brood body. When the second body is nearly filled, and the indi
**PRODUCING EXTRACTED HONEY**
**cations point to a continuance of the flow, a third body may be added under the second, and all left in place until the flow is ended and operations for extracting begin.**
**Running the bees for extracted honey has this advantage over the production of comb honey, namely, there is no risk of having a lot of unfinished sections on hand if the flow should suddenly cease, as it often does, for in producing extracted honey it matters not at all if a lot of cells should be uncapped if the bees have possession of the combs long enough to thoroughly ripen it.**
**Whether the extracting is done frequently with the use of but one super, or done all at once about the last of July, it is a waste of money not to extract the early white honey and keep it by itself, as it is sure to be more or less mixed with the inferior and cheaper fall honey that comes from the fall flow if the supers are left on from spring till fall. For this reason it is wiser to extract during or at the close of the flow from clover, basswood, and
early bloom, and give the empty combs back to the bees for the later flow.
When your supers are ready to extract, it becomes necessary to free the combs of the bees, and, as it makes little difference if a few combs should be uncapped by the bees when we smoke them down, we need not use bee escape boards as in the case of comb honey, for in the matter of comb honey there would be a noticeable loss in the appearance and salability of the combs if the bees should in their fight at being smoked at the time of emptying the supers, uncap many cells on what would otherwise be perfect sections.
To get rid of the bees on the extracting frames, open the hive and smoke them until they run down into the body below; what few bees remain can be shaken from the frames in front of their hives and the frames of honey placed in an empty hive body on a wheel-barrow handy for the purpose.
To prevent robbing, cover the body on the wheel-barrow with a large cloth thoroughly
**PRODUCING EXTRACTED HONEY wet, for the robbers are very sharp about crawling up under a wet cloth, and as soon as the carrying body is full, cover it immediately. When two or more bodies are filled, take them to the extracting room for extracting. Do your extracting in a room the doors and windows of which are securely screened, and in the top corner of the screen door or window screen have a bee escape, so that any stray bees that may be carried into the extracting-room may escape without possibility of returning.**
There are a good many extractors and uncapping knives on the market, and the novice, after reading the various catalogues, will have to make his choice, but there are certain principles that go to make up an effective extractor, and these should not be overlooked. By all means secure an extractor that is reversible; this will save much work and trouble in the matter of extracting, as it is a nuisance to have to take out each frame after one side of the comb has been extracted, and turn itaround by hand to put it into the extractor again.
There are extractors on the market that reverse automatically by a lever pressure, so that when one side of the combs is emptied, they are, at the will of the operator, reversed in a second, and the opposite sides emptied also.
While the two-frame extractors will perhaps do for the novice having a half dozen hives, yet the four-frame extractor is decidedly preferable, as it can be used just as effectively in a small apiary, and as the number of colonies increase, it is ample for the increased output.
There are a few beekeepers, whose colonies are numbered by the hundreds and whose surplus runs up into the thousands of pounds, who use an extractor of eight-frame capacity, and have it geared to a small gasoline engine. Where the size of the apiary warrants it, this is a decided saving in time and labor, but where no more than one hundred coloniesare kept, the four-frame hand-power extractor will meet all the requirements, and it is astonishing how much honey can be extracted in a day with them.**
**The Bingham improved uncapping knife is about the best that can be used, as its square wooden handle and projecting metal shoulder on the blade enable the operator to secure a firmer grip than with the old style round handle knife. A small oil or alcohol stove is a positive necessity, and on it should be a pan filled with water kept hot, so that while one knife is being used, the other is resting in the hot water, being heated and cleansed of adhering honey and particles of wax. Personally I use an alcohol stove of special construction, and thus avoid all danger of spoiling the delicate flavor of the honey by the fumes of an oil stove. As one knife becomes cool it is placed in the pan of hot water, and the other used until it cools. The constant heating of the uncapping knives makes all the difference in the world, and renders uncapping a compar
across the rack for the purpose and clean it of honey and wax that are sure to adhere to some extent. Now reverse the frame of honey and uncap the opposite side, and when it is all uncapped, place it in one of the wire baskets of the extractor, and proceed to uncap another and place it in another of the baskets. When the four baskets are filled, extract by turning the handle of the extractor, and don't be afraid to get up considerable speed, for there is little danger to the combs if the original foundation was wired in. If you have widely spaced your combs in the extracting supers, you will find uncapping a pleasure. As the baskets whirl about, the honey is thrown out by centrifugal force, and there is no more pleasant sound than the rain of well-ripened honey against the sides of the extractor.
The extractor should be elevated at least a foot above the floor of the extracting-room, and two feet would be better, so as to permit the placing of some vessel to catch the honey as it runs from the honey gate on the extractor.
A piece of cheesecloth made into a bag about six inches long can be tied to the honey out let gate of the extractor, and as the honey runs out it is strained of all sediment or dirt, and is in first-class condition for putting into cans, keys, or vats, as the case may be. Some large beekeepers, like Mr. Alexander of Delanson, New York, place the extractor on the floor, running a large tin funnel through the floor and permitting the honey as fast as extracted to run through the funnel into a pipe that conveys it to a vat in the room below. At the end of the pipe just over the vat is hung a pair made of wire cloth; the honey is strained through the pair into the vat holding about five thousand pounds, and when one vat is filled, another section of pipe is slipped on and the honey carried to another vat.
Where the output does not run over five thousand pounds, it is just as well to elevate the extractor, using the cheesecloth, and run the honey into pails from which it can be poured into whatever vessels are to be used to store or market it, or it can be run directly into the vessels in which it is to be sold.
We have seen a good many receptacles used for storing extracted honey, from old milk cans to stone rocks, but there is nothing so satisfactory as the square five-gallon tin cans made for the purpose, two of which come packed in a reshipping case.
These cans, if new, -- and second-hand cans should never be used, -- are the very best receptacles, as there is no danger of contaminating the honey, and no fear of leakage. Moreover, when put up in this shape they are just right for the buyer who bottles honey, as honey, which is almost sure to granulate, can be conveniently liquefied by simply placing the cans in hot water. Where the honey is so packed, it often brings a considerably greater price than honey run into kegs and barrels, which has to be scooped and shovelled out to be liquefied. Again, honey in these cans can be packed in storage compactly, and when the caps are screwed on, there is no leakage How to keep bees for profit or danger of robbing being started by the bees.
Shall we return the extracted combs to the bees as soon as they are emptied? That will depend upon the chances of robbing being started by the bees getting at the empty combs. If the flow is well on and care is exercised, it will do no harm to return them at once, but there are a number of beekeepers who prefer to wait till toward evening, when the bees have stopped flying, and return them all at once. Local conditions will guide the beginner as to which method he had best pursue.
When all of the early light-colored honey has been extracted, the empty combs can be allowed to remain on the hives until the late flow in late summer and fall has been gathered, when the same methods of taking the surplus that were used for the early flow should be followed as soon as the late flowers cease to secrete nectar. After the late flow has been extracted, the combs may be set outdoors in
## Chapter 3 How to make increase
Swarming is nature's method of increase, but it is so uncertain and this with the possible loss of swarms emerging during the beekeeper's absence, has led professional beekeepers to adopt artificial methods of increase that are absolutely under the control of the operator. Generally speaking, natural swarming is a very uncertain dependence for increase, as there are many years when it will hardly more than make up for winter losses, and he who would increase his colonies materially must adopt methods of division that will give him the desired number of extra colonies.
When it comes to a matter of simply doubling the number of colonies, division is comparatively easy and safe even in the hands of
## How to make increase
an amateur, but when the increase is rapid, involving a splitting up of a ten-frame colony into five or ten little colonies, great care should be used or failure is sure to follow.
The late Mr. E. W. Alexander of Delanson, New York (than whom there was no better beekeeper in the world), had a method of doubling his colonies for increase, by which he did away with all possibility of loss of brood, and was still able to secure a good surplus at the same time, whereas under most of the methods followed, increase was carried on at the expense of the honey crop, for it is almost an axiom with beekeepers, "The greater the increase, the less honey for that year."
It can be readily seen that in the splitting up of colonies for increase there would be no surplus gathered, as each of the divisions would require the entire season to draw the frames of foundation out to full combs, and get strong for winter quarters.
While in rapid increase there is an entireHow to keep bees for profit
loss of the honey crop, yet the increase of one colony to five or even ten would represent an increased equipment many times the value of the surplus that would have been gathered by the colony had it been run for honey. There is, therefore, a gain and not a loss, though the gain is in bees and not in honey.
Mr. Alexander's method of course meant the increase of but one more colony for each strong colony in hand, but as it carried with it the assurance of a surplus at the same time, it is a most excellent plan to follow where a rapid increase is not desired.
In **"** Gleanings in Bee Culture,**" an illustrated bee journal published by the A. I. Root Co. of Medina, Ohio, we find in the issue of one of the months of 1906, page 423, the method outlined as follows:--
**"** When your colonies are strong enough to swarm naturally, and you wish to divide them so as to make two from one, go to the colony you wish to divide; lift it from its and put in its place a hive containing frames of comb or foundation, the same as you would put the swarm in providing it had just swarmed. Now remove the centre comb from your new hive, and put in its place a frame of brood, either from the hive you wish to divide or some other colony that can spare one, and be sure you find the queen and put her on this frame of brood in the new hive; also look it over very carefully to see that it contains no eggs or larvae in any queen cells. If it does, destroy them. Now put a queen-excluding honey-board on top of this new hive that contains the queen and frame of brood with their empty combs, then set your full queenless colony on top of the excluder; put the empty comb or frame of foundation into the body from which you took the frame of brood; and close the upper hive except the entrance they have through the excluder into the hive below. Leave them in this way about five days, then look over the combs carefully, and destroy any larvae you may How to keep bees for profit
find in the queen cells in the top body, unless they are of a good strain of bees that you care to breed from, for they frequently start the rearing of queens above the excluder very soon after their queen has been placed below the excluder. If so, you had better separate them at once; but if they have not started any queen cells above, then leave them together ten or eleven days, during which time the queen will get a fine lot of brood started in the lower hive, and every egg and particle of larva that was in the old hive on top will have matured, so it will be capped over and _saved;_ then separate them, putting the old hive on a new stand. It will then be full of young bees mostly, and capped brood, and in about twenty-four hours they will accept a ripe cell, a virgin, or laying queen, as they will then realize that they are hopelessly queenless. I would advise you to give them a laying queen, as I never like to keep my full colonies for even a day longer without a laying queen than I can help. In
**How to make increase**
this way you have two strong colonies from one, as you have not lost a particle of brood nor checked the laying of your queen; and with me it almost wholly prevents swarming. This is the way we have made our increase for several years, and we like it much better than any other way we have ever tried. In doing so you keep all your colonies strong during the whole summer, and it is the strong colonies that count in giving us our surplus.
The mere fact of having a large number of colonies does not amount to much unless they are strong in bees and are _well_ cared for at all times. This is a fact that many have sadly overlooked; and when the season comes to a close, giving them a small surplus, they feel disappointed and lay the fault on many things that have had but little to do with their failure.
In making your increase in the above way, your new swarm on the old stand is in fine shape for a clamp of sections, as it has a large working force backed up by having its hive
nearly full of brood, and but little honey, as the bees have been in the habit of storing their honey in the old hive that was on top. They will soon go to work in the sections, with no intention of swarming. Then the old hive that has been set away can usually spare fifteen or twenty pounds of honey, which can be taken with the extractor, giving its new queen plenty of room to lay, and in a short time will be one of your best colonies, with no desire to swarm.
**Now, if you have done your duty by your bees since taking them from their winter quarters, as I have recommended above, keeping them snug and warm, and feeding them a little thin warm syrup nearly every day for the first thirty days after they have begun to fly, you can have two good strong colonies in the place of one, ready to commence work on your clover harvest, which will probably come about June 15.**
From an extensive experience along this line I find I can get nearly twice the amountHow to make increase
of surplus by dividing as above stated, over what I was able to acquire either by letting them go undivided or dividing in a way that caused the loss of a greater part of their brood. This losing of brood we must guard against at all times if we expect to secure a fine surplus. It costs both time and honey to produce it, and it is the principal factor in obtaining those strong colonies that give us tons of honey.
Far too many beekeepers think that the value of their apiary consists in the number of colonies they keep. This is so only to a certain extent; for if you had one thousand colonies and they were all weak in bees, so they would give you no surplus, they would not be worth as much as one good strong colony that would give you two hundred or three hundred pounds of honey.
Several years ago one of my sons bought nine colonies of bees in common box hives, about the first of June. He brought them home and transferred them at once to movable-frame hives, and in about three weeks divided
How to make increase
**Now,** in regard to the criticism on this way of making our increase, which has been published in " Gleanings." I find that nearly all who have made a failure of the method have taken colonies that had already made some preparations for swarming by having eggs or larvae in their queen cells, as did J. D. Ronan, of Chesterville, Mississippi, and also Don Mills, of Highland, Michigan.
During the summer I received a few letters from persons who had made a failure of this method in much the same way. Some had taken colonies that had capped queen cells in their hives at the time they put the queen in the under hive, and, of course, they swarmed in a day or two. I cannot see that these failures are any proof of fault in the method. When we work with our bees we must always use some discretion in such matters. If a colony is very strong in bees, it certainly requires different management from that given to one rather weak.
The above plan is a most excellent one;How to keep bees for profit