THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



85 



but, be that as it may,' the point that I 

 wish to bring- out is that when there is 

 hone}' in the blossoms, and empty 

 combs in the supers, no extra induce- 

 ments are needed to get the bees to 

 work in the supers. Other objects maj' 

 be attained by this removal of brood to 

 the upper story, it probably has a 

 tendency to prevent swarming^, but it 

 is hard for me to believe that it is 

 really needed to get the bees at work 

 in the supers. But supposing that it 

 does start the bees in the supers a trifle 

 sooner, I doubt the advisability of 

 doing it for that purpose alone. Mr. 

 M. A. Gill, of Colorado, who manages 

 over 1,000 colonies, said, in the Janu- 

 ary Review, that his aim in earlj' 

 spring was not to see how injich work 

 he could do, but how little. You see, 

 it depends upon the point of view, of 

 how we look at things. Mr. Chapman 

 is aiming to see how many things and 

 how much he can do to get as much 

 hone}' as possible from a given number 

 of bees, and I am scheming to see how 

 many operations may be left out in 

 order that I may keep more bees. In 

 a certain sense we ma}' both be right. 

 A man with a limited number of bees 

 is certainly justified in doing every- 

 thing that he can to increase his crop, 

 and, as to the extent that their num- 

 bers may be increased by practicing 

 mure or less "neglect," is a point that 

 each man must decide for himself. 



The illustration that Mr. Chapman 

 gives in regard to giving a large 

 amount of surplus room at once (put- 

 ting daddy's trousers on the kid) is 

 decidedly graphic and humorous. I 

 can just imagine how it would have 

 "l)rought down the house" at a conven- 

 tion. But, seriously, at the time when 

 surplus room is given, the weather is 

 usuall}"^ so warm that the question of 

 loss of heat does not cut any great 

 figure; but Mr. Chapman says that 

 tiering up, raising up one story and 

 putting another under it, acts as a 

 stimulus to the bees. I must confess 



that, from my own experience, I am 

 unable to say whether I can agree with 

 him or not. Supjiose we put one super 

 on one hive, and two supers on another 

 hive. When the super on the hive with 

 a single super is partly full, we will 

 raise it, and put another under it. 

 Query, which colony will produce the 

 greater quantity of surplus ? I must 

 confess that I doa't know. Suppose 

 that tiering up does produce greater 

 results, it brings us right back to the 

 primary question of this discussion, 

 viz , shall we keep fewer bees and do 

 a lot of work with them, or shall we 

 keep more bees and do less work ? I 

 might add, however, that tiering up is 

 not a great deal more work than put- 

 ting on all the supers at once, and it 

 might be advisable, unless a man had 

 a long ways to go to his apiary, to put 

 on one upper story, and then later, go 

 again, make an extra trip, and put an- 

 other story under the first one. There 

 is another point comes up here, and 

 that is, that tiering up gives a differ- 

 ent age to the honey in each super. 

 That in the top super is ready to ex- 

 tract first, and, unless we are to wait 

 about extracting until the harvest is 

 over, this might be a very important 

 point. 



This whole matter can be simmered 

 down in a very few words, and that is, 

 that each man must carefully plan and 

 work out a system that is fitted to him- 

 self and his environments, and what is 

 best for one man may be very bad man- 

 agement for another. 



In closing let me say that such an 

 argument as this 'sone that I heartily 

 enjoy. No personalities, no sarcasm, 

 just plain, straight forward fair argu- 

 ment, that raises each in the opinion 

 of the other, and cements friendships 

 instead of shattering them. Neither 

 may be able to prove that he is wholl}' 

 in the right (and, perhaps, he isn't) 

 but the arguments throw added light 

 upon the subject under discussion. — 

 Ed. Review.) 



