346 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



each colonj' should be fed a few ounces of sj^rup or dark honey each 

 evening. Feeding late in the day prevents the excitement of day- 

 time feeding and leaves the bees free to search the fields for nectar 

 or pollen. And brood raising, once commenced, is never allowed to 

 stop for wet or cold weather, and by the time clover blooms we will 

 have giant swarms waiting for the harvest. At that time, or a little 

 before, the sawdust packing should be removed from tlie hives, and 

 each hive be given one or more supers, or sections. If working- for 

 comb honey, these supers should be at least half filled with sections 

 containing finished combs saved froin last j'ear, and on which the 

 comb leveler has been used to reduce all to a uniform size, and the 

 honey in them will be equal in all respects to that built on thin 

 foundation, and will sell in any market at the highest price. 



We should fill the supers entirely with these combs, if we have a 

 large enough supply; if not, a part of each super should be filled with 

 sections with full sheets of thin foundation. When the bees swarm, 

 the new swarm should be hived in a hive containing not more than 600 

 or 800 inches of comb space, and set on the ^and previously 

 occupied by the parent colony,which should be inoved to a new stand, 

 the supers being removed from the old to the new swarms, and 

 others prepared like the first, to give plenty of room until the end 

 of the white honej^ season. 



By this management we secured last year more than 100 pounds 

 per colony, in a season when bees managed in the old waj' generally 

 j'ielded no surplus. 



Now, friends, I have told you how to work to get bigearly swarins, 

 and then we shall hear less about the failure of the honey crop. We 

 can boast of our improved iinplements, but when it comes to get- 

 ting an extra force of workers in season for the white honej^ harvest 

 we are not much in advance of the bee-keepers of fifty years ago. 

 Now, you need not doubt that all this can be successfully done in 

 the outyard; feeders can be packed on top of single hives by using 

 an extra hive body or a cheap box to hold the sawdust, and keep 

 the top of the hive warm so the bees will cluster up against the 

 feeders. But the house is the cheapest and most perfect place in 

 mj^ opinion for breeding bees earl}"- in the spring and securing 

 mammoth colonies in season to gather the white honej^ crop. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Taylor: At the time I spoke of I had twelve colonies in 

 the hoffse. I did not use the house apiary, but a little apiary I 

 was using at that time; it was not built for that purpose at all; 

 but it is a fact that the bees wintered in there in better shape 

 than they did in the house apiary. 



Mr. Brackett: I am impressed with the value of bees as an 

 agency for fertilizing fruit, but I would like to ask any one, 

 does it really take too much time, so that it would not make it 

 profitable to a man to spend his time caring for his bees? I 

 just want to ask in a general way. I am impressed with the 



