A Good Report—Bee Management.
My 18 colonies of bees came through the winter in good condition last spring. They gave me a surplus of 2,000 pounds of white and sweet clover honey, 1,400 pounds of extracted, and 600 pounds of comb honey. The former sold here at $1.00 a gallon, and the latter at 13 cents a pound. I run 5 colonies a different way for extracted honey, and those 5 gave a surplus of 800 pounds. It was done as follows:
I watch until they prepare to swarm, and the honey-flow is close. I take out all frames from the brood-chamber, except the one the queen is on, which I put in the center, and fill the chamber with new frames of full sheets of comb foundation. I then take a full sheet of Root's perforated zinc, with ¼-inch bee-space between the frames and zinc, and put it over the brood-chamber. I then put a chamber on top of the zinc, and put the frames with the bees and brood in this top chamber, and cover it up. Now I have a laying queen and lots of room for brood below, and as fast as the brood hatches above, they fill it with honey if the flow is here. It was here this year, for they filled the top chamber, after the first extracting, in four days—6 frames two-thirds capped.
My increase is from 18 to 25 colonies, which are in double-walled hives, and in as good condition for winter as I ever had them.
Henry Bohlmann.
Defiance, O., Jan. 1, 1894.
Uses of Perforated Zinc.
In reading the short item by Mrs. Jennie Atchley, in regard to the different uses of Dr. Tinker's perforated zinc, I thought I would add a little of my experience to those already given.
1st. In hiving young swarms, I have found it to be excellent to place over the entrance to keep them from leaving or returning to the home hive.