The carob tree, whose cultivation has been commenced in the Southwest, is an excellent honey yielder in late summer. It is an ornamental tree and gives, in addition to honey, another valuable product—the carob bean of commerce.
Sacaline, a forage and ornamental plant of recent introduction, is a great favorite with bees. It blossoms profusely during August, is a hardy perennial, and thrives in wet and also fairly in dry situations, withstanding the ordinary summer drought of the Eastern States because of its deeply penetrating roots.
Buckwheat is an important honey and pollen producer. Its blossoms appear about four weeks after the seed is sown, hence it may be made to fill in a summer dearth of honey plants.
[HOW TO OBTAIN SURPLUS HONEY AND WAX.]
Good wintering, followed by careful conservation of the natural warmth of the colony, the presence of a prolific queen—preferably a young one—with abundant stores for brood rearing, are, together with the prevention, in so far as possible, of swarming, the prime conditions necessary to bring a colony of bees to the chief honey flow in shape to enable it to take full advantage of the harvest. In addition it is only necessary to adjust the surplus honey receptacles in time, making the space given proportionate to the strength of the colony, and, while continuing to prevent as far as possible the issuance of swarms, to remove the accumulated honey fast enough to give abundant storage room.
To secure extracted honey, the requisite number of combs may be in one long hive, or in stories one above another. Preference is most generally given to the latter plan. The brood apartment is made in this case to hold eight to twelve Langstroth frames, and a second, and sometimes a third or even a fourth story, may be added temporarily. These added stories may be for full-depth frames, or, for convenience in handling and in order to be able to control more closely the amount of space given, they may be half the usual depth, and but one of the half-depth stories added at a time. If numerous sets of combs are at hand, or if it is desirable to have others built, additional stories are put on as fast as the combs already occupied by the bees are filled. Before removing the filled combs time should be allowed the bees to ripen and cap the honey; hence enough combs are necessary to give the bees storage room while they are capping others, the honey in combs that are quite or nearly sealed over may be considered sufficiently ripened to be removed from the hive.
