344 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



May 30, 1901. 



frame-prying instrument — an old chisel — in one hand, and 

 smoker in the other. I saw a merry twinkle in my friend's 

 blue eyes, but otherwise he looked supremely unconscious 

 of having said anything at all funny or improper. 



"Mr. Bond," I said, " I don't blame you for making 

 that remark. But my family and one or two of my neigh- 

 bors know that what I have stated is true. Besides, here is 

 another evidence — come here and see." 



Mr. Bond hastily replaced his hat and readjusted his 

 bee-veil before he complied. I then said, pointing to a card 

 which was tacked to the inside of the cover of the hive : 

 "On that card, Mr. Bond, you can read a complete record of 

 this colony up to date, from the time it was put into winter 

 quarters. At the top end of the card you see the figure 4, 

 which denotes the number of the colony." 



" Why don't you put the number on the front of the out- 

 side ?" queried Mr. Bond. 



" Because I think it is better to number the colony in- 

 stead of the hive," I replied. " When a certain number is 

 once painted on the outside of a hive I can't very well 

 change it to another number, though I may have the best of 

 reasons for wishing to do so. I know of excellent bee- 

 keepers who do paint the number on the outside of the 

 hive, and they have the right so to do. But I think a better 

 way would be — if they must have the number on the outside 

 — to tack pieces of tin with the numbers painted on them on 

 the front of the hive ; then it would be easy to change them 

 from one hive to any other when occasion required it." 



" Your idea looks reasonable and sensible to me," re- 

 marked Mr. Bond. "But," he continued, " will you please 

 tell me what kind of an occasion would require the change 

 you speak of ?" 



"One such occasion would be, when the colonj' casts a 

 swarm," I answered. " Take, for illustration, the swarm 

 we have just hived. The hive it came from is numbered 9, 

 on the card inside the cover. That number designated the 

 colony, or more correctly, the queen. But the colony left 

 the parent hive, and the queen went with it ; hence, I take 

 the record-card from the old hive and tack it inside the 

 cover of the hive the swarm is in. In that way I keep track 

 of the mother-queen as long as she lives, without confusion, 

 and with the least possible trouble. But there is another 

 reason why I transfer the number from the old to the new 

 hive, which I shall explain when we get back to it to look 

 after that drone-brood, and to do one or two other things 

 that will be found necessary, I think, within a week — I don't 

 think we can more than finish the lesson I have for you 

 here this afternoon." 



" Why, you don't intend to keep me here till dark, do 

 you ?" anxiously inquired Mr. Bond. 



"No," I answered. "And that is just the reason why 

 we can't finish the lesson to-day. You see, I make it a rule 

 in my apiary-work never to molest my bees, in any way, 

 after sunset." 



"That's queer," remarked Mr. Bond ; "I had a notion 

 the night-time was the best to monkey with bees. My 

 father thought so, I'm sure, for he never touched a hive 

 during the day, except to hive a swarm." 



" That merely proves that you and your father knew 

 nothing about the nature and habits of bees," I replied. "I 

 know lots of people who think a cloudy day is a better time 

 than a sunshiny day, and a rainy day the best of all days 

 to 'monkey with their bees,' as you style it. Well, they 

 are all wrong ; and for the same reason just stated. 



"The fact is, Mr. Bond, the very best time that can be 

 chosen when any kind of a tedious or complicated job is to 

 be done in the apiary — such as putting on or taking oif 

 supers, looking for queens or drone-brood, or exchanging 

 and interchanging brood-frames — is between sunri.se and 

 noon on a clear, warm day. The bees are then nearly all 

 busy at their work — a large number of the workers out in 

 the fields. Hence, there are less stings and less labor for 

 the manipulator, and less annoyance for the bees. There 

 is only one exception to this, when regarded as a standard 

 rule, and that is, in the case of robbing going on in the 

 apiary. In that case all regular work among the hives 

 must be suspended until the fracas is settled, and every- 

 thing is restored to its normal state in the apiary. I will 

 tell you more about robbing and robbers some other time. 

 We must hurry and attend to the lesson in hand. 



" Well, you can see that this record-card indicates the 

 age of the queen, and that she is full-blood Italian. It also 

 shows that she is " clipped." , ' 



"'Clipped?'" queried Mr. Bond, doubt and wonder in 

 the tone of his voice as he spoke the word. " I don't under- 

 stand what you mean by that." 



" I suppose you don't," I replied, " but I haven't time 



just now to explain. Besides, should I proceed to do so I 

 would probably forget where I am in the course of our 

 lesson. 



" Well, the next thing the card shows is the interesting 

 fact that the colony had sealed brood on several frames in 

 February ; and the next, that it cast a large swarm April 

 12; and the nest, that before the end of the month the 

 colony was doubled up " — 



"What's that?" interrupted Mr. Bond, eagerly, com- 

 ing a step nearer. 



" Never mind now, Mr. Bond ; it's quite a little story, 

 and a very important thing to know — but I'll have to put 

 you off for a full explanation because it's getting late. 



" What I am trying to get at in an orderly way is that 

 proof which I mentioned concerning the honey-yield from 

 this hive. But first — lest you lose a part of the lesson this 

 card teaches — notice, please, the next items on record : 



" ' April 20 : Storing white-clover honey in the frames.' 

 Following that item you see here a record of dates when 

 the five supers were put on, successively. 



" Another thing : Please notice there is a little card on 

 this end of this super" — directing Mr. Bond's attention to 

 the super which I was preparing to remove from the hive 

 when the swarm interrupted us. 



"Well, on this card, as you see, is the number of the 

 colony ; and next, the number of the super in the order it 

 was placed on the hive. The other four standing in the 

 honey-house are marked in the same manner as this. 



" This is the special proof I wanted to direct your atten- 

 tion to in order to satisfy you that bees can, and do, per- 

 form wonders in honey-gathering when they have a first- 

 class chance." 



"What do you call a first-class chance?" inquired Mr. 

 Bond. 



"Now, you've asked a hard question," I replied. "A 

 hard question in the sense that a full, comprehensive an- 

 swer would cover nearly the whole range of successful bee- 

 culture. I can, therefore, give you onlj' a crumb, as it 

 were, of the whole loaf : 



"One factor in the first-class chance, in this particular 

 case, was, an uncommonly rich growth of white clover, 

 yielding nectar very profusely and continuously for a long 

 time. And another, plenty of young bees in the hive to 

 gather it ; in this case not less than 40,000 before April 12, 

 and thousands more crawling out of their cells every day. 



" But the bee-keeper also has a share in the first-class- 

 chance program, if he knows his business and attends to it, 

 and that is, he must know exactly when to give the colony 

 supers ; and he must watch very closely to be sure that they 

 never lack honey-storing room above the brood-chamber 

 while the honey-flow is on. 



" These are, I think, the main points. But numerous 

 other things are important also, which, if ignored, or neg'- 

 lected, or not recognized, will cut an a^toundingly large 

 hole in the honey crop, whether the crop is from one or 50 

 colonies." 



" Do you put all the supers, needed by a colony, on at 

 once ?" 



" I glanced at my friend sharply, when he asked this 

 question, to see whether he was in earnest or in fun. Satis- 

 fied that he meant it seriously, I answered : 



" No, indeed, Mr. Bond. I put one on first. When that 

 is about full, and I see that the bees are sealing the sec- 

 tions over, I take it off and put an empty one in its place, 

 replacing the full one by putting it on top of the other. 

 Thus I continue to put on supers as needed, Mr. Bond." 

 (To be continued.) 



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