Beekeeping in the Buckwheat Region. 23 
expense of the buckwheat honey-crop, because of the superior quali- 
ties of clover honey. 
(a) When outapiaries are maintained—At the time increase is 
made, divide the colonies into two or three parts, according to their 
strength, leave the ones with queens on the old stands, and move the 
other parts to outapiaries, thus preventing the return of the field 
bees to the original stands. Then provide each queenless portion 
with a ripe queencell. This should be done in time so that the young 
queens will begin to lay not later than August 15, in order to provide 
the requisite bees for the winter colony (see p. 13). 
(6) Where outapiaries are not maintained.—After supers contain- 
ing the clover honey are removed, the colonies should be in two hive- 
bodies. On or before August 1 take away the hive-body containing 
the queen and most of the brood to a new stand and close the en- 
trance with fresh grass, which will retard the return of the bees to 
the former location. The grass will dry out and release the bees 
for flight within a few hours and it is unnecessary to do anything 
further with this colony for the present. Leave some brood in the 
hive-body on the old stand (at least one frame) and provide this 
portion of the original colony with a queencell from which the queen 
is almost ready to emerge. About August 10 to 14 examine the 
colony on the old stand to see if the young queen is laying. If she 
has failed to mate, provide this colony with a queen mated in a 
nucleus, as described above. The buckwheat honey-flow will pro- 
vide conditions for the rapid development of both colonies, and each 
must be given a second hive-body for the storing of the honey for 
winter and spring use. Sometimes a little surplus may be obtained 
from these colonies, but care must be exercised to see that they have 
the requisite amount for their own use (see p. 16). 
EXTRACTING 
The outfit needed for extracting and the methods to be employed 
will depend on the size of the apiaries maintained. Special atten- 
tion should be called to the necessity of having abundant supers 
so that the honey may be well ripened before extraction. A failure 
to provide these is at present responsible for the marketing of much 
poor-quality buckwheat honey. While efficiency in methods of ex- 
tracting is important in enabling the beekeeper to maintain a large 
number of colonies, this phase of the work has been so fully dis- 
cussed in the books devoted to beekeeping that it does not seem best 
to attempt to include it in the present bulletin. This plan is adopted 
because this part of the work is the same in the buckwheat region 
as in other beekeeping regions, and especially because it is far more 
important to produce honey to extract. 
