82 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



storifying'. I never add two stories at 

 a time as this is wronff. Put on one 

 story at a time, and tliat just wiiere it 

 should be. It stimulates the colony to 

 work; it adds industry and vigor to 

 the bees, and as soon as they need it 

 I put on another story. I keep my 

 bees working as well as a colony that 

 was a prime swarm the day before; 

 and there will be no swanmng. 



Three years ago was a good season. 

 Mj' home yard colonies were all three 

 or four stories high — nearly all four — 

 the two upper stories were filled and 

 nearly all sealed. I commenced ex- 

 tracting, and I took an average of 70 

 pounds per colony at the first extract- 

 ing; and, although, for the want of 

 cans, it was five days before I finished 

 the yard, of course I got 70 pounds 

 from each colony extracted the last day. 

 As fast as I extracted I gave the col- 

 onies more room, and when I had fin- 

 ished extracting, the colonies extracted 

 the first day had from 30 to 40 pounds 

 more honey than those extracted the 

 last day. Here was a loss of over 4,000 

 pounds in my home yard. The yard 

 was large, and, of course, I only lost 

 on those needing room. Many times 

 we think our bees have plenty of room, 

 but, if we look carefully, and do a lit- 

 tle figuring, we will find that five or 

 six pounds of honey will fill every cell 

 full in the extracting supers The bees 

 should bring in from five to seven 

 pounds per day, but you have got them 

 where they store less than one. Care- 

 ful attention at this time furnishes you 

 the hammer that will drive the nails 

 every time, when you are building for 

 a large crop of honey: and, during the 

 honey season, you must make up your 

 mind to live iviih your bees. 



I.IGHTNING MKTHODS OK KXAMINA- 

 TION. 



I like to work with my bees. When I 

 examine my colonies to find out if 

 they need more room, I go over Ihem at 

 the rate of four a minute, or one in 

 15 seconds, and I don't hurry to do 



this. Of course, if a colony needs an 

 extra super put on, that would take 

 more time. You may laugh at me, but 

 here is my way: I always keep a 

 smoker going, so that if it is necessary 

 to put on more supers I can use it. In 

 working with the bees I prefer rubbers, 

 or shoes with rubber soles, as I wish 

 to slip up to the bees so quickly, yet so 

 quietly, that they do not know that I 

 am in the yard. At the first examina- 

 tion in the spring I clean all the pro- 

 polis from the under side of the covers, 

 and we have no more to bother here till 

 in August. M3' covers are two inches 

 longer than the hives, and extend one 

 inch in front and back, when on the 

 hives. Now we are ready for business. 

 I always approach the hives so that 

 my right hand is towards the entrance. 

 Grasping the front end of the cover 

 with the right hand, and the back end 

 with the left. I jerk instantly, and 

 hard enough, to bring the cover clear 

 from the hive. I can move the cover in 

 any direction till the larger part of the 

 hive or extracting super is exposed, 

 and then bring it back to its place. 

 This operation requires /^^.s than two sec- 

 onds, and I have 13 seconds left to ^o 

 eight feet to the next colony. Why did 

 I do this way ? The very second that I 

 jerked the cover loose, I let in daylight 

 on those bees, and saw the exact condi- 

 tion of the colony. I saw the number 

 of spaces occupied, and if an extracting 

 super, I judged very accuratelj' as to 

 the amount of honey in the super. I 

 closed the hive and did not even dis- 

 turb the bees; if I did, I was gone and 

 they never knew anything about it. 



Not long ago I visited a young bee- 

 keeper, and he wanted to show me his 

 bees. He was on one -side of the hive 

 with a screw driver, and I on the other 

 with a jackknife. But before the cover 

 would loosen, he had to get a chisel. 

 Now every jar, every bunglesome move 

 we made about the colony was ?ii challenge 

 to fight, and when we did get the cover 

 off, the first thing I could smell was— 



