80 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



for running' a business tliat is to be 

 neglected from start to finish ? That 

 there is just as much of a loss, some 

 years, with such bee-keeping, as there 

 is with such farming, is true, and I 

 will show you where the loss comes 

 in. 



Men, like Mr. Town^end, or Mr. 

 Hutchinson, may make a success at 

 that kind of bee-keeping, as they are 

 two of the best bee-keepers in the State 

 of Michigan. They have the knowl- 

 edge and years of experience to help 

 them out. But can we recommend such 

 methods of management to these new 

 comers ? To men with less experi- 

 ence ? Will tliey make a success of it ? 

 If we are to judge any kind of manage- 

 ment it is necessary that we have some 

 other methods to compare it with. For 

 this purpose I will refer to the plans 

 in the December Review. Not for the 

 purpose of criticism, but I wish to 

 show where many of our bee-keepers, 

 who work for extracted honey, lose 

 from a quarter to a half of what they 

 might have secured. 



About the middle of May I will set a 

 colony over here, and Mr. Hutchinson 

 may set one over there. As there is 

 nothing to do with his colony, at 

 present, he may return to Flint. I 

 will commence working with my colony. 

 I will not give my management here in 

 full, as it would make this article too 

 long, but I wish to show where the 

 loss comes in to the man who runs his 

 bees with four or five visits a year. 

 There are two things that a colony 

 will size up, viz, amount of stores and 

 amount of room. Even a good strong 

 colony lacking in stores will not build 

 up rapidly. The lack of honey de- 

 stroys confidence. Then, when a col- 

 ony has built up, so that it is a strong 

 colony, the want of room destroys the 

 usefulness of that colony. My methods 

 areas follows: I take two frames, con- 

 taining as much sealed brood as pos- 

 sible, from the brood-nest, putting two 

 empty combs in be pi ace of those taken 



out, and put on the queen excluder 

 above the brood nest, where it remains 

 to the end of the season. The 

 two frames of brood are put in an ex- 

 tracting super and set over the colony, 

 filling up the remainder of the upper 

 story with empty combs. In a few 

 days I will take out two or three more 

 frames of brood from the brood nest, 

 and put them in the upper story. The 

 raising of brood to the upper story 

 starts that colony to working there im- 

 mediately; and if it is done at the be- 

 ginning of the honey flow it puts the 

 colony from three to four days ahead 

 of where it would have been, provided 

 we let the bees go up as they take the 

 notion. It seems considerable work 

 for one colony, but on 300 we make a 

 good many dollars. 



Here comes Mr. Hutchinson, and it 

 is near the beginning of the honey har- 

 vest. He has two upper stories for his 

 colony. I see he is going to follow the 

 Townsend plan, as he has no excluder. 

 He smokes his colony, takes off the 

 cover, and places both of the upper 

 stories on his colony. 



Let us take a small boy for an ex- 

 ample. There is a natural growth to 

 this boy. He would soon need more 

 more room if his mother should pro- 

 vided him a new pair of pants that 

 just fitted him nicely at the time. But 

 see here: Mr. Hutchinson has put the 

 father's trousers on \.\\& kid ! He has 

 added 200 per cent, of room to his col- 

 ony at one time. It looks as if the boy 

 had gone from theABC class to the 

 multiplication table at the first recita- 

 tion. "Smart lad I" 



One of the grandest truths known to 

 the bee-keeper is the value of "tiering 

 up." When a colony has an upper 

 story partly filled, raise it up, and put 

 an empty super under it. This stimu- 

 lates that colony to work. In my col- 

 ony, every bee that hatches out in the 

 upper story thereby furnishes an empty 

 cell for hone}'. But in Mr. Hutchin- 

 son's Colony the queen has gone to the 



