New Comb Honey Frame

Here is a new development in the production of comb honey. Shallow frames can now be secured in the divided form, as pictured, so that the frames can be sawed apart when filled with honey and ready for market. Each half will hold from 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of honey. This frame should meet with wide acceptance and should increase the sale and production of comb honey because 2 to 3 times as much comb honey can be produced in these frames as in the sections and the quantity and selling price will fit into the average family budget.

Queen Excluders

All beginners prefer to use queen excluders because it gives them control on the activities of the queen. Whether this control, even by experienced bee men, is wisely used is debatable but queen excluders are available to all beekeepers to use at their discretion. The queen excluder is an accurately spaced screen that is placed above the brood nest, through which the worker bees can pass but which excludes the queen and the drones from the supers above.

Zinc queen excluders were formerly much lower in price than wire excluders but now due to advances in welding technique this is no longer the case. The sharp edges of the zinc excluders tend to cut the bees wings and they cannot go through them as readily as through the wire type excluders.

Zinc queen excluders were formerly much lower in price than wire excluders but now due to advances in welding technique this is no longer the case. The sharp edges of the zinc excluders tend to cut the bees wings and they cannot go through them as readily as through the wire-type excluders.

The quicker you throw away your queen and drone traps the better off you will be. Better still never buy them.

The quicker you throw away your queen and drone traps the better off you will be. Better still-never buy them.

Queen And Drone Traps

In supply catalogues queen and drone traps are listed and while you may read in some of the older books about using them to catch the drones and the queen when the swarm comes out, we do not recommend the use of these at any time. In fact, we rate them as a nuisance that have no place in any apiary.

If you have too many drones in the hive you should have replaced your drone combs with full sheets of comb foundation the year before. Instead of waiting for your bees to swarm you should divide your colonies, give them more room and ventilation, or do something else to prevent swarming. The queen and drone traps will so impede the work of the colony that they may not store enough honey to winter on.

The Use Of 9 Frames In 10 Frame Bodies

While it is necessary to place 10 frames in the 10 frame hive bodies and supers in order to get them drawn out without burr and brace combs it is advisable to reduce the number of brood frames to 9 when they are drawn out.

When 10 frames are used in a 10 frame body the end bars must be pushed close together and as a result every time that you enter the body you must pry the frames apart. This prying takes time and the bees have a very strong glue, known as propolis, with which they stick the wooden parts together and often this propolis is stronger than the end bars so parts of the end bars are pulled off.

When the first frame is pried loose from its neighbors there is but little room to remove it and the bees are squeezed, a few killed and occasionally a queen is killed or injured.

When 9 frames are used in the brood nest it is possible to remove any one of the brood frames without prying the others away and pinching or killing any bees and if space is needed it is available.

After your combs have been drawn out in the brood nest remove one frame to another hive and thereafter use only nine frames in a ten frame brood nest. This will give better ventilation and cut down on the swarming. In extracting supers that hold drawn combs only, 9 frames are commonly used although a few use only 8 frames and a very few use 7 frames in 10 frame supers. Wide spacing gives thick combs that are easy to uncap and produce a maximum of wax.

After your combs have been drawn out in the brood nest remove one frame to another hive and thereafter use only nine frames in a ten frame brood nest. This will give better ventilation and cut down on the swarming. In extracting supers that hold drawn combs only, 9 frames are commonly used although a few use only 8 frames and a very few use 7 frames in 10 frame supers. Wide spacing gives thick combs that are easy to uncap and produce a maximum of wax.

Your author does not believe that a single brood nest is practical except for short periods in the production of comb honey and possibly the first season with new colonies where it is imperative to produce some comb honey to defray the heavy starting expenses. Certainly a good young queen will lay more than 10 frames of brood and the more workers during the honey flow the larger the honey crop will be. Then too, the bees need to store quantities of pollen and honey for the coming season and the operator will find that the single hive body colonies do not have enough storage capacity to carry over big colonies that produce the big crops. These colonies with double hive body brood nests, solid with honey and pollen in the fall, will not starve out or have to cut their brood rearing down during the late cold or rainy springs as do those cut short on stores in the fall.

Every spring we hear about tens of thousands of colonies starving, sometime only a few days before the honey flow begins, because they were robbed too closely the fall before. This is a very foolish practice and is a waste of time and effort to take away honey and then have to feed bees sugar syrup the next spring.

Another very important aspect of using 9 frames to the body is to the commercial beekeeper who saves 10% on his investment in frames and comb foundation plus the effort in assembling this equipment plus the annual depreciation.

Probably the most important feature of using only 9 frames in the 10 frame brood nest is that it permits much better ventilation thereby doing away with much of the swarming tendency, provided that a second body is used to give the queen ample room in which to lay, and plenty of supers are provided for the storage of the nectar.

It takes lots of equipment to properly super strong colonies during a heavy honey flow as this picture indicates. Keep the grass cut and the hives painted to make your bee yards show places.

It takes lots of equipment to properly super strong colonies during a heavy honey flow as this picture indicates. Keep the grass cut and the hives painted to make your bee yards show places.