24 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



more such associations; Colorado has 

 one; and Bro. Putnam mentions an- 

 other, the St. Croix Vallej^ of Wis- 

 consin and Minnesota. I might also 

 mention that the bee-keepers of New 

 York, or some of them, have banded to- 

 gether and appointed a co.nmittee to 

 buy supplies for the members. In this 

 way bee-keepers can do much to save 

 money and improve their condition. 



SECURING WORKERS FOR THE HARVEST. 



The Importance of Having Them at Ex- 

 actly the Right Time. 



Common sense would teach us that 

 the time to have the workers is when 

 the harvest is on, and that at other 

 times they are of no value, are a detri- 

 ment, as they are consumers, except 

 that there must be sufficient numbers 

 to keep up the economies of the hive. 

 There is an old saying, or proverb, 

 among bee keepers, which is like many 

 other proverbs, only a half-truth, and 

 this one says "Keep all oolonies 

 strong " There are times of the year 

 when populousness in a colony of bees 

 is a real disadvantage; but, before 

 saying more on this subject, let me 

 quote from Mr. G. M. Doolittle, as he 

 expresses himself in the American Bee 

 Journal. Here is what he says: — 



A bee-keeper called on me a few 

 days ago, and in our conversation he 

 brought out the idea that it was ini 

 possible to have the colonies in any 

 apiary give anywhere near the same 

 results in honey. He said that some of 

 his colonies give a surplus of only 10 

 pounds of section honey, while others 

 produce from 50 to 75 sections, well 

 filled. Itold himthatlthoughtthiscould 

 be remedied to quite an extent, but he 

 seemed to doubt it; and as I have many 

 letters on tliis subject, perhaps it 

 would be well to have a little talk on 

 the matter through the columns of the 

 Americai. Bee Journal. 



I used to find things very much as 

 this man and others claim they do at 

 this time, but of late years I have suc- 

 ceeded in making each colony produce 

 nearly like re.s'ilts; that is, if one col- 



ony contains 60,000 bees and gives 100 

 sections of surplus honey, I am able to 

 secure about that amount from every 

 colony in the apiar3' having' that num- 

 ber of bees; while a colony having 

 30,000 bees will give a yield of 50 sec- 

 tions. If I fail to secure the 60,000 

 bees in any and all colonies, it is not 

 the bees that are to blame for this state 

 of affairs, but myself; add the bee- 

 keeper who cannot bring each colony 

 up to the standard of o0,0U0 at the be- 

 ginning of the best honey flow, will not 

 meet with as good success as will the 

 one who can. 



Then, the bee-keeper who fails to 

 make the colony with 30,000 bees give 

 nearly half as good results as the col- 

 ony with 60,000, will not meet with the 

 success that he might were he able to 

 do this. I have been years studying 

 on this matter, and this study has 

 shown me that colonies which I pro- 

 nounced "exactly alike" on June 1st 

 would not be so at the time the honey 

 harvest was at its best. The trouble 

 was that I did not have the knowledge 

 that I should have had regarding the 

 working force of my bees at all times, 

 nor of the amount of brood in each 

 hive, which was to give this working 

 force at the time of the honey harvest. 



For instance, the colony which I 

 called my best on June 1st might be- 

 come one of the poorest by June 10th, 

 at which time the main honey-flow 

 from basswood would be on. This, as 

 a rule, would come about by one queen 

 not keeping up her laying capacity as 

 well as another, or, in other words, 

 she would not be laying her maxiinum 

 number of eggs from 30 to 50 days be- 

 fore the arrival of this main hone3'-flow. 

 Let me tr}' to illustrate what I wish to 

 bring out. 



Near me lives a man who is inter- 

 ested in fancy poultry, and the demand 

 for eggs from this stock comes in the 

 spring, the eggs to be used for breed- 

 ing purposes; and the prices which he 

 gets at that time are almost fabulous. 

 Being there a few dav's ago, he came 

 from his chicken-house with two eggs 

 from his spring pullets. I ventured 

 the remark to him. the same as the 

 ordinary barn-yard poultry keeper 

 would do, "Quite lucky that your 

 pullets ha\e begun laying thus, right 

 on the eve of the high winter prices for 

 eggs, as eggs are worth about 3 cents 

 each at the grocery now, and will be 

 still higher before the holidays." 



He gave me a glance which told me 

 that he thought I did not know much 



