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A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to the Interests of Honey Producers. 

 $L00 A YEAR. 

 W. Z, uuTCfliNSON. Editor and Propiieloi 



\^0L. XVI. FLINT, MICHIGAN, MARCH 10, 1903. NO. 3. 



ANAGING AN APIARY 

 WITH ONLY FOUR VISlTvS 

 A YEAR. BY E. D. TOWN- 

 SEND. 



Friend Iliitcliinsoii: In response to 

 .niir request for particulars about my 

 aanasenient of out-apiarios, and a 

 inv words regarding my views and 

 iH^tliods in general, I would say that 

 [ eonmienced bee-keeping in 187G, and 

 lavo since been reading the bee jour- 

 1.1 Is, and trying to keep abreast of 

 he times. During the first twenty 

 ^(•ars, l)ee-keeping was carried on as 

 I side-issue, I having only a home- 

 apiary; but it gave me plenty of op- 

 lortunity to exiDeriment and decide 

 ipon the proper size and style of hive 

 iror my locality. I also practiced 

 spring stimulative feeding; spreading 

 Che brood to get as large colonies as 

 bossible before our clover season 

 ;)l)ened (about .Tune 15th here); then 

 ■ontracting them down to foui- or six 

 >ombs duiing the honey flow to force 

 he bees above into the surplus apart- 

 nent; then when they swarmed I 

 lived them on five frames with dum- 

 hies on lioth sides, and foundation 

 tarters only in the frames, etc. 1 



write this so you will see that I have 

 been all through the period of inten- 

 sive bee-lieeping, so much in vogue 

 fifteen or twenty j^ears ago. 



FUSSING WITH THE BEES IN SPRING OF 

 NO BENEFIT. 



During all of these years, a part 

 of the colonies were worked for ex- 

 tracted lioney, and these colonies 

 were always allowed their full brood- 

 nests. Part of them were not dis- 

 turbed at all, but were allowed to 

 build up without any assistance 

 wliatever, and when extracting time 

 came no one could see an.y difference 

 in tlie colonies. Neitlier was thei-e 

 any material difference in the amount 

 of Iioney stored. 



TEN-FRAME EANGSTROTH THE BEST SIZE 



FOR EXTRACTED HONEY 



PRODUCTION. 



After trying many kinds and sizes 

 of hives, from eight-frame Langstroth 

 to ten-frame Quinby, I have decided 

 upon the ten-frame Langstrotli as the 

 best for Ihe production of extracted 

 honey in this locality, as there is no 

 size tliat produces any more honey. 

 Fesides. everything larger has to be 



