St. Landry democrat., 1884-11-08
How to Get Surplus Honey.

| wish to describe my method of
managing bees for surplus honey. The
first thing is to select the colonies
which are desired to breed from, AMI
then build them up strong by lifting
the brood-chamber with frames well
filled with Matching or sealed brood
from other colonies, and when the
weather is not favorable for gathering
food, / feed them a little every even
ing, so as to keep the queen at Ter
work Then [ examine every colony,
and if any do not equal my eXpecta-
tions, ascertain the cause, and IT the
fault is in the queen, she is killed Just
rs soon as can succeed in gett ng nat
ural queen cells; for prefer the natural
to the artificial queen cells whenever
they can be had, and especially early
in the season.
Now, just rs fast as | get young lay
ing queens | build the bees up, until
the time the honey harvest commences,
either by placing empty combs as fast
as needed in the center of the brool
nest for the queen to fill; or by giving
brood from other colonies to strengthen
up; and as soon as the broodchamber
is well filled with brood, providing the
honey harvest is on hand, put on the
supers; otherwise / sometimes take y
frame of brood to strengthen weaker
colony. I never think of putting on
the supers until the brood chamber is
completely filled with brood.
Every young queen chat begins to lay
in March produces, by the above plan.
an excellent colony for storing surplus,
Il 10
swarm. If the colony is as it should
be, many of those young queens will
SECURE two supers; as one will not give
sufficient room for the amount of bees
she will rear. All the old queens that
are saved in the apiary must be built
up strong, by spreading the combs
judiciously, and inserting an empty
comb in the center OF the brood nest for
the queen to fill with eggs; for remem-
Der that almost double the amount Of
eggs can be secured by so doing, than
if they are left to manage their own af-
fairs.
In a good season every colony can be
brought up to the standard, and the
swarming all done by the middle of
April. | prefer the natural swarmss
if they come early, and when artificial
swarms are made, give the division a
natural and nearly mature queen cell.
If want any increase allow all col
onies that swarm early to swarm two
or three times, because every young
queen that can get breeding early in
March can be brought up to the STAN
dard in time for honey gathering.
If do not want increase, l get as
many young queens in the place of old
ones as possibly can. In poor
season every colony can not be built
up in time for surplus, because | take
brood from some colonies to build up
others for surplus. Those which [ take
brood from [ only calculate to make
into profitable colonies for wintering.
Now understand that if honey is
wanted we must have bees, and any
colony that is strong in bees will store
honey, even if there are not over a five
days honey flow in the season.
| want all the supers taken off by
February /, so as to confne the animal
heat in the brood nest: and supers
should be put On only as fast as the
bees are in condition to occupy them.
Now, providing the weather is fayora-
BILE, we can put in one of two frames of
foundation at time in each hive and
have the queens fill them with eggs. A
frame of foundation filled with eggs by
a good Italian queen is a sight worth
looking at; and have always had the
best satisfaction in having them filled
in the breeding season early before the
honey-f1ow commences.
You will probably say that the above
plan makes work; but for what are We
keeping bees if not for profitP We must
work for it. The man who keeps bees
and does not work with them and yet
expects profit will always be disap-
pointed. In all my lifelong experience
in Bookkeeping, I have always found
that bees are self-supporting in the
poorest seasons if properly managed;
and have had experience in bee-keep-
ing in Canada, Vermont, Wisconsin,
Northern Iowa, and now three years in
California. In some seasons and local
tiles have had to stimulate my bees by
feeding them in the summer, but have
never had to feed them in the fall or
winter. always save the poor honey
which is unfit for market and feed it to
the bees.-Dr. E. Gallup, an Los Anqe-
les NeeOS.
The following curious law was
IN