216 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 4, 1901. 



spring-. As I take them from the cellar, any colonies that 

 seem light in stores are put in a row by themselves, and 

 fed ; but I do not break the sealed covers on the others till 

 near the time of fruit-bloom. I find that all the time spent 

 in trying to build up very light colonies in the spring is 

 thrown away. If they make a live of it they can be 

 handled to advantage later in the season. With us, the 

 time to build up our colonies so that they are strong in the 

 spring, is during the month of August. 



At the beginning of fruit-bloom I examine all of my 

 colonies. From all that need more room, those that have 

 brood in six or seven frames, and as many spaces well- 

 filled with bees, I take one frame of brood from the brood- 

 nest, selecting the one containing the oldest brood. I 

 shake the bees off in front of the hive, and put a frame 

 containing all worker-comb in the middle of the brood-nest 

 in place of the frame of brood I have taken out. I now 

 put on queen-excluding honey-boards, and leave them on 

 till the close of the season. The reason I take this frame 

 of brood from the brood-nest is that I find the queens will 

 lay much faster in the middle of the brood-nest than they 

 will in the outside combs. This being the case, right in 

 the middle of the brood-nest is where we want our queens 

 to do their work. We are after all the young bees we can 

 Ret- 

 Now I will tell you why an eight-frame hive is far the 

 best in building up colonies early in the spring. It is far 

 better to have the brood in six or seven frames in the eight- 

 frame hive than to have the same amount in four frames in 

 a large hive. 



The frame of brood that I remove, is put in an extract- 

 ing-super directly over the brood-nest, and the super filled 

 on each side with empty combs. The bees go right to 

 work in this upper story. If the weather is warm, and a 

 little honey is coming in, I can, in four or five days, take 

 from this same colony another frame of brood. If it is a 

 strong colony I take two. They are put in the extracting 

 super beside the first comb of brood. I take out one or two 

 combs, as I need, that were beside the first frame of brood 

 put in the super, and as the bees have cleaned these combs 

 and put a little new honey in them, they are just right to 

 put in the brood-nest in place of the brood removed. The 

 queen will occupy such combs right away. We must be a 

 little careful not to take too much brood early in the season 

 from the brood-nest, or we may discourage the queen. 

 While our object is to stimulate the queen to lay to her full- 

 est capacity, I sometimes think our best bee-keepers do not 

 know just what a queen is able to do, provided the condi- 

 tions of her colony are just right— and we keep them so for 

 30 days. 



In a short time I take more brood from the brood-nest. 

 This time I put it in another super and set it under the 

 first, or over the brood-nest. At this time I destroy the 

 queen-cells that have been started in the first upper story. 

 The bees will not swarm if a dozen queens hatch in the 

 upper stories, but when I extract I shake the bees from 

 these upper stories in front of the hive, and, if there is a 

 young queen with them she will crawl in the hive and des- 

 troy the old queen, and I lose the use of a laying queen for 

 eight or ten days just at the time I need her most. 



I follow this system of management just as long as the 

 bees zvill be worth anything to me on the raspberry or bass- 

 wood. We must recollect that there is a certain time dur- 

 ing the life of a colony, each season, when we can build it 

 up faster than at any other time during that season. I 

 expect to find not less than 13, and in some of my best colo- 

 nies as many as 25, frames containing brood aiid honey — 

 there is more or less brood in all of them. I think my colo- 

 nies are 40 percent better than they would have been if I 

 had given the queen the two lower stories and let them 

 build up without any of my assistance. 



Two years ago I set apart five colonies that were better 

 than the average of the yard, and I gave the queen of 

 each the lower stories, and let them build up just as suited 

 their notion ; adding upper stories and extracting as they 

 needed. With the remainder of the yard (77 colonies) I 

 used my method of management. At the end of the sea- 

 son I^h ad ISOO pounds of honey, extra, to ray credit from 

 the 77 colonies. This is about 23 pounds per colony ; and I 

 sold this honey at 6K cents on board the cars. I tried this 

 experiment in an out-yard, three miles from home. It took 

 one-half day to go to this yard, put brood in the upper 

 stories, destroy the queen-cells, and return home. I did 

 this eight times, requiring four days of time, and I had 

 this 1800 pounds of honey to pay me for my four days" 

 labor. The showing in favor of the 77 colonies would 

 have been much better if there had not been a number 



that did not amount to much on the raspberry. This is not 

 all; my bees never thin/; of swarming. I am complete 

 master of the situation, under any and all conditions. 

 This alone is worth the four days' time. 



During the last three years, raspberry has yielded 

 about the same each season. My best colonies, those occu- 

 pying four stories, have yielded, each season, from 160 

 pounds to 200 pounds per colony. My three-story hives dur- 

 ing this same time have averaged 90 pounds each ; my two- 

 story hives from 20 to 40 pounds. 



The wild red raspberry comes into bloom not far from 

 the Sth of June, and it yields continually till near the 1st 

 of August ; tho it is on the decline after July 15th. The 

 past season it came into bloom the second ti)>u\ and my bees 

 gathered fully five pounds per colony from the 1st to the 

 10th of October. This is nothing unusual, tho I do not 

 recollect getting so much honey so late in the season from 

 this source. After my bees were in the cellar there was 

 bloom, green and ripe berries, up to November 1st. 



Basswood comes in bloom about the 15th of July ; but 

 we have had little honey from this source the last four 

 years. When basswood yields, it is not those extra-large 

 colonies that veintered the best, that built up early in the 

 season and gave us such large yields from the raspberry, 

 that prove to be the best on the basswood. Far from it. 

 Those large colonies built up rapidly in the spring, but it 

 is impossible to keep our queens laying at their best except 

 for a short time. Tho honey may be coming in every day, 

 the bees are getting old, and those colonies are on the 

 decline, while colonies that were lighter early in the spring 

 have been building up, and by the time basswood comes into 

 bloom they are liable to send out a larger working force of 

 bees that are just the right age to take advantage of the 

 yield from basswood ; that is why our lighter colonies 

 prove the best on the basswood. If we are to make a suc- 

 cess of any colony we must bring it thru the winter in 

 good condition \ then we must thoroly understand our loca- 

 tion ; and a certain time before the honey harvest we must 

 stimulate that colony to build up as rapidly as possible. 

 Remember, the faster the colony builds up, the more vigor- 

 ous are the bees ; so that the colony is able to bring into 

 action the largest possible force of bees that are just the 

 right age to take advantage of the flow. 



From about the 1st to the 10th of July I kill all of my 

 queens. I have practiced this for 16 or 17 years. I would 

 not go to this expense unless I thought I had some pretty 

 good reasons for doing it, as it takes a day in each yard to 

 hunt them up. Where queens are workt as I work them 

 they never prove as good the second year. With my man- 

 agement the average life of the best of queens is not over 

 two years. The first year of their lives, not one queen in a 

 hundred is superseded. The second year, from 30 to SO 

 percent of them will be superseded in the fore part of the 

 season, just at the time we want a good queen in every col- 

 ony. This makes a big hole in my honey crop. At the 

 time I kill my queens my colonies are in the very best con- 

 dition. I am sure of just as good queens as we can get 

 with the most favorable swarming conditions. After kill- 

 ing the queens, for about 25 days, no eggs are laid in the 

 hives. C3ur colonies are not rearing a lot of bees that 

 would be consumers for this leng-th of time. As the brood 

 hatches in the brood-nest the bees fill these combs with 

 honey, leaving the colony in better condition for winter. 

 One of my best reasons for killing the queens is that 

 thereby each colony is furnisht with a good young queen 

 to build them up for winter. 



Experience and a careful study of this matter will show 

 many more reasons why it is profitable to kill the queens 

 each year in northern Michigan. As I said in the begin- 

 ning of this article, the time to build up colonies so they 

 are strong in the spring is during the month of August. I 

 use the same method in the fall that I do in the spring, but 

 not on so large a scale. Near the first of June I select 

 from four to six of my best colonies, and in each colony I 

 put two frames containing largely drone-comb, for the 

 purpose of rearing drones. I do not intend to rear any 

 drones except from these colonies, as I use only worker- 

 comb in the brood-nests, and if a few drones are hatcht 

 they must nearly all hatch in the upper stories, where they 

 soon worry themselves to death or are killed in trying to 

 get thru the queen-excluder. 



If I wish to run a colony or two for comb honey, IS or 

 20 days before the end of the honey harvest I take one or 

 two of these large colonies (they are twice as large as any 

 colony that is run for comb honey from the beginning of 

 the season) and remove the three extracting supers, and in 

 their place I put three section-cases. They will fill three 



