BEES. 33 
PREPARATION FOR THE HARVEST. 
An essential in honey production is to have the hive overflowing 
with bees at the beginning of the honey flow, so that the field force 
will be large enough to gather more honey than the bees need for 
their own use. To accomplish this, the bee keeper must see to it that 
brood rearing is heavy some time before the harvest, and he must 
know accurately when the honey flows come, so that he may time 
his manipulations properly. Brood rearing during the honey flow 
usually produces bees which consume stores, while brood reared 
before the flow furnishes the surplus gatherers. The best methods 
of procedure may be illustrated by giving as an example the condi- 
tions in the white-clover region. 
In the spring the bees gather pollen and nectar from various 
early flowers, and often a considerable quantity from fruit bloom 
and dandelions. During this time brood rearing is stimulated by 
the new honey, but afterwards there is usually a period of drought 
when brood rearing is normally diminished or not still more increased 
as it should be. This condition continues until the white-clover 
flow comes on, usually with a rush, when brood rearing is again 
augmented. If such a condition exists, the bee keeper should 
keep brood rearing at a maximum by stimulative feeding during 
the drought. When white clover comes in bloom he may even find 
it desirable to prevent brood rearing to turn the attention of his 
bees to gathering. 
A worker bee emerges from its cell 21 days after the egg is laid, and 
it usually begins field work in from 14 to 17 days later. It is evident, 
therefore, that an egg must be laid five weeks before the honey flow 
to produce a gatherer. Since the flow continues for some time and 
since bees often go to the field earlier than 14 days, egg laying should 
be pushed up to within two or three weeks of the opening of the honey 
flow. In addition to stimulative feeding, the care of the colony 
described under the heading of ‘‘Spring management” (p. 26) will 
increase brood production. 
THE PRODUCTION OF HONEY. 
The obtaining of honey from bees is generally the primary object 
of their culture. Bees gather nectar to make into honey for their 
own use as food, but generally store more than they need, and this 
surplus the bee keeper takes away. By managing colonies early in 
the spring as previously described the surplus may be considerably 
increased. The secret of maximum crops is to ‘‘Keep all colonies 
strong.” 
Honey is gathered in the form of nectar secreted by various flowers, 
is transformed by the bees, and stored in the comb. Bees also often 
447 
