THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



81 



upper story, and every egg laid in 

 those upper stories occupies a cell 21 

 days. The ciueen and the bees are 

 both drawinff on the room of the upper 

 stories; and, as the brood hatches 

 in the lower story you have lost 

 the use of it for the season. Worse 

 than that, in some seasons my bees 

 have stored a larg^e amount of surplus 

 pollen in those combs, as the brood 

 hatched; and it will remain there a 

 Ions' time unless at some future time 

 these combs are used as brood combs. 

 Bees will reinove old pollen to jj;ivethe 

 (jueen room, but, when used as surplus 

 combs the bees store the honej' on top 

 of the pollen. 



WHY AN EXCLUDER IS NEEDED. 



When we use the excluder, very little 

 pollen g^ets in the upper stories in a 

 solid form. I would use the excluder 

 if they cost one dollar each ! The loss 

 of the lower story that was the brood 

 nest is probabl3' caused by our cool 

 nig'hts. When the queen g'oes to the 

 first upper stor^' it is not long before 

 she takes possession of the next upper 

 story, and about all the work the bees 

 do for the season will be done in the 

 extracting- supers, leaving your colony 

 in the worst condition possible; not 

 onlj' for extracting, with about 40 per 

 cent, of those combs occupied with 

 brood, (and you can get only a partial 

 crop at the best) but .see the work you 

 must go to, to get \'onr bees into one of 

 the stories, that you may prepare your 

 bees for winter. With the use of the 

 excluder we have our brood nest just 

 where we want it at all times. 



Now, I want your attention for just 

 a few moments. I can pass through 

 my yards, and there may be 60 or 80 

 colonies to my right, and if there is a 

 colony in need of room I will know it 

 ai'-^ glance. Every drop of honey 

 brought in occupies space; and it re- 

 quires twice the space to ripen honey 

 that it does to store it. This is good 

 logic. 



I have noticed that your colony is not 

 flying as it should; there is something 

 wrong; the bees want to work, they are 

 zvilling to work, but they cannot loork. 

 A good colony should bring In from 

 five to eight pounds per day at this 

 time. Let us look at your colony. We 

 find that the upper stories are pretty 

 well filled with honey, though there 

 are portions of fiye or six combs that 

 are not sealed; iji fact the cells are not 

 filled quite full. Now, close the hive, 

 and leave it three or four days. When 

 3'ou examine this colony again you 

 will find it in nearly the same condi- 

 tion that it was in at the previous ex- 

 amination. The bees have stored just 

 a little nectar each day in the cells, 

 and this stops the sealing of the re- 

 mainder of the combs. Right here is 

 where you have lost five pounds of 

 honey each day. At six cents per 

 pound it would be 30 cents for one col- 

 ony, and $30.00 for 100 colonies. When 

 we have a good day for honey, my bees 

 must bring in $100.00 worth. I can 

 see how easy it is to lose one-quarter 

 or one-half of it by neglect. 



I can see one good thing in running 

 bees with four or five visits a year; the 

 the owner would never know or even 

 suspect that he has sustained any loss. 

 While, on the other hand, the man that 

 is after his bees all of the time, always 

 in season with everything that should 

 be done, can plainly see where he has 

 made a big thing. 



THE ADVANTAGES OK TIERING UP IN A 

 PROPER MANNER. 



In putting on upper stories, every 

 empty super should be placed rigb*^ 

 next to the brood nest. There is the 

 best of reasons for this. 1 keep the 

 first super put on at the top, as it con- 

 tains the first honey brought in, and 

 the honey in this upper story is sealed 

 first. Daring the honey season I visit 

 each yard at least twico each week, 

 and three times if honey is coming in 

 rapidly. I do this for the purpose of 



