290 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



go to the field as workers ; so it is very important that all the bees should 

 be saved. 



The second day after hiving, take the board from over the holes 

 in the top and turn bottom side up over the holes a box eight inches 

 square and six or seven inches deep. Put a weight on it to hold it 

 in place. I should have mentioned that the hive should be set in the 

 shade or shaded with boards, and if an inch block is placed under each 

 corner of the hive and left there until the hot weather is over, it will 

 give ventilation. When the swarm comes out, they are warm with 

 excitement and after they have been hived, should be set in a cool place, 

 lest they get too hot and come out. 



The object in waiting two days before putting the box on, is if 

 the box is on when they are hived, the bees will sometimes go on up 

 in the box and begin comb building, and the queen will lay her eggs 

 in the comb and it will be used as a brood chamber. But by waiting 

 until they have started their comb in the brood chamber, the chances 

 are that the queen will never go up in the honey box. 



When this box is filled, take a fine wire, raise the box just a little, 

 draw the wire between the box and top, empty the box and place it 

 back, or put on another, setting the full one in a warm, dry place. 

 Never put honey in a cool, damp cellar. Instead of using a box, place 

 a small sized wooden water pail upside down and let the bees fill it. 

 It makes a beautiful bucket of honey and is so easy to handle and if you 

 wish to sell it, it can be carried to market just as the bees stored it, 

 which is quite a curiosity to the merchant. 



I know a farmer who has just such hives as I have described and 

 uses a bucket on top and has honey on his table at all meals. He has 

 only five or six "stands of bees." If he is about the house when they 

 swarm, he hives them and if he is not there his wife hives them. That 

 is all he ever does to them, winter or summer, except to change the 

 buckets when full. 



Never take any honey out of the "hive" when it is made the size 

 given. Leave the bees alone in this hive and let them have it for a 

 brood chamber. They will need all they store in it, and if they gather 

 more than they need, they will store it above. 



It is not necessary to be fussing with the bees all the time to get 

 honey. Even the so-called expert, fusses and handles his bees more 

 than is necessary; in fact, many times if he handled them less he would 

 get more pounds of honey. 



While it is true that the man who has made the bee a study and 

 keeps his bees in the best latest improved movable frame hive and un- 

 derstands how to control swarming, when to crowd, when to give more 



