September, 1913. 



American T^ee Journal j 



313 



ours, no one who has not experienced 

 it can know how entrancing it is. And 

 how even a lazy man will work, always 

 urged on by the thought, "More work 

 more gold," and " I'll strike it rich yet." 



And what can you say of a good 

 honey-flow, when every flower blooms 

 to perfection, each one filled with that 

 sweet secretion of nectar inviting the 

 bees to come and work, even unto 

 death, often in a few short days or 

 weeks; that is the time when the bee- 

 keeper gets busy, all day and half the 

 night, nailing hives, wiring frames, set- 

 ting foundation, with perhaps the wife 

 and children (if he is fortunate enough 

 to have them) ? All are busy, and per- 

 haps this is not enough. He sends a 

 rush order for supplies; wants them 

 right away; bees swarming; no room. 



A supply man told me he had re- 

 ceived an order for supplies, and also 

 a letter asking why his goods had not 

 been shipped the same day. Talk of 

 anticipation ; any one can anticipate 

 that way. If you are in the business, 

 10 colonies or 1000, it makes no differ- 

 ence. What are you going to run them 

 for, comb honey, extracted, or in- 

 crease ? It makes no difference, you 

 will need supplies, and you cannot get 

 them, much less prepare them for the 

 bees in a day. During the winter and 

 spring months we have many spare 

 hours, when this work can be very 

 profitably done. Suppose you are 

 "tight" enough (we call it tight out 

 here in the West, and it is a very fitting 

 word many times), so that the interest 

 is calculated on the investment ? 



Many supply dealers give a liberal 

 discount on early orders. But sup- 

 pose we figure in this way: A colony 

 becomes crowded for room, gets out of 

 normal, and prepares to swarm. Per- 

 haps it was a young queen which, if 

 given plenty of room, would not have 

 tried to swarm that season. It was 

 good for say six, eight or ten dollars 

 if you had been ready with supplies. 

 Another one swarms. With everything 

 ready any one will hive it, often saving 

 a colony that would otherwise have 

 been lost. I find short, heavy honey- 

 flows are the rule rather than the long 

 drawn out steady ones, and when honey 

 comes in with a rush that way, if you 

 have anticipated, and have everything 

 in readiness to put plenty of surplus 

 room on every colony, one day will 

 sometimes make enough difference to 

 pay all the interest, to say nothing of 

 the annoyance and over-time work by 

 not having everything ready. 



Of course we who produce honey by 

 the carload must figure a little differ- 

 ently from the farmer with a dozen 

 hives. But we e.xpect to put on plenty 

 of help during the busy season, and 

 devote all our time to the business. I 

 sometimes think the small bee-keeper 

 loses more proportionately per colony 

 than we who make honey production 

 our business, by not anticipating the 

 needs of his bees beforehand. 



" Procrastination is the thief of time," 

 says an old proverb. Overcome it by 

 anticipating. Better by far have a few 



'ii*' 



720 Colonies, Together With Flill Ecjuipment for Extracting Ready to Ship. 

 Wii.i. they Go in Two Cars ?— L. L. Andrews., 



All Loaded and Ready to Go to the Sweet Clover and Alfalfa Fields of 

 Utah.— L. L. Andrews. 



too many supplies on hand than to be 

 short when you need theuL "Time 

 and tide wait for no man." Neither do 

 big, strong colonies of bees. When 

 the honey-flow comes, they are going 

 to do something besides lie idle in a 



hot, close, thickly-populated hive. And 

 the chances are, ten to one, they will 

 anticipate a tree in the woods if you 

 have not anticipated plenty of room 

 for them in the hive. 

 Corona, Calif. 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal or direct to 



Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, III. 



He does not answer bee-keeping auestions by mail. 



Prevent Increase— When Do Virgins Begin to Lay? 



1. What id the best plan of management 

 where no increase is desired? 



2. How long after the prime swarm is- 

 sues before the first virgin will begin lay- 

 ing? Wisconsin. 



Answers — 1. What's best for one may not 

 be best for another, but one good way is to 



run for extracted honey and then follow the 

 Demaree plan of preventing swarming. The 

 plan is: As soon as there is danger of 

 swarming, or about the time when the first 

 natural swarms begin to issue, put all the 

 combs of the colony in a hive-body, except 

 one. That one you will leave in the old 

 hive, and it may be one with the least brood. 



pct top notch prices 

 ulB for your honey 



BY 



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