406 



December, 1913. 



[Amc^rican "B^ .JonrnalJ 



own judgment; we don't need them; 

 but my peace of mind is worth some- 

 thing, and it will not be a very expen- 

 sive matter to have 5000 sections lie 

 idle until next year. 



But the bees must have had an ink- 

 ling that a fresh lot of sections was on 

 hand, for they seemed to put in honey 

 harder than ever, and by July 30, the 

 last of the li60 supers were on the hives, 

 and 1.3 supers more out of the last .5000. 

 On the same date Dr. Miller ordered 

 another .JOOH, not needing any great 

 urging thereto. He had lost all confi- 

 dence in precedents, and didn't know 

 what to expect. 



July 8, there had been 367 supers on 

 the hives, and for some time after that 

 date the number changed but little, be- 

 cause about as many empty supers 

 were put on each round as the number 

 of full ones taken off. The long, even 

 flow is somewhat indicated by the 

 number of supers on the hives : July 

 8, 367; July 30, 368; Aug. 18, 314. July 

 30, there were 2 hives having on them 

 3 supers each; 20 with 4 supers; 31 

 with .5 supers ; 15 with 6 supers ; 3 with 

 7 supers ; 2 with 8 supers ; averaging a 

 trifle more than 5 supers each. When 

 one looked at those supers piled up on 

 the hives, one could not help wonder- 

 ing what difference it would have made 

 on the crop if each colony had been 

 restricted to 2 supers at a time accord- 

 ing to the practice of some. 



About the middle of August white 

 clover seemed to be letting up, although 

 it was hard to tell very much about it. 

 There was no cessation of flow, but a 

 seemingly gradual change from white 

 clover to sweet clover and heartsease, 

 the latter almost as white as white 

 clover, although generally considered 

 amber. 



September 22, we took off all supers, 

 putting back over a few hives some 

 sections that were filled but not quite 

 sealed, and putting over these a lot of 

 sections partly filled but not sealed. It 

 was a fizzle. The bees didn't take our 

 view of the matter, and emptied the 

 honey out of the unsealed cells that we 

 expected them to finish. 



The weather throughout the season 

 seemed to be made especially for the 

 bees. It was not too dry; it was not 

 too wet. When it rained it was gen- 

 erally in the night, clearing off in time 

 for the bees to begin work in the 

 morning. Up to Sept. 20, there were 

 only two days (wet) when the bees 

 showed an inclination to rob. When 

 we took off supers, we could let them 

 stand open on top of the hives all day. 

 September 6 some scraps of honey were 

 placed over the bees' watering-pail for 

 them to clean up. It stayed there all 

 day untouched. A few bees visited the 

 pail, but they didn't want honey; they 

 wanted water. The honey was then 

 placed in front of a hive, and it was 

 more than a day before it was cleaned 

 up. 



Careful account was kept of the 

 honey taken, and each colony received 

 the proper credit. During most of the 

 season the crediting was an easy matter. 

 No super was taken until it was full, 

 and so 24 sections werecredited. Often, 

 however, two full supers were taken 

 at a time, sometimes three, and in a 

 very few cases four. But toward the 

 last of the season the crediting was not 



so easy, when some sections in a su- 

 per were filled and others partly or en- 

 tirely empty. If a super had credit for 

 15 sections, that doesn't mean that 15 

 sections were entirely filled, but that 

 all the honey in the super would be 

 enough to fill 15 sections. 



When everything was footed up at 

 the close of the season, quite a varia- 

 tion was found in the yield of differ- 

 ent colonies — a thing not by any means 

 to be proud of. Number 30, which was 

 queenless a long time, and exception- 

 ally vicious about accepting a queen, 

 gave 68 sections. (That's 68 sections, 

 not pounds, the account being kept 

 altogether in sections throughout, the 

 average section weighing somewhere 

 around liVz ounces.) Next to this 

 came a colony with 112 sections, and 

 from that it rose by degrees to 198 sec- 

 tions, there being just 10 colonies in 

 all that gave less than 200 sections 

 each. Then came 23 colonies yielding 



between 200 and 250 each. Then 19 be- 

 tween 250 and -300, and 15 from .300 to 

 360. The last and best 6 colonies gave 

 respectively the following numbers : 

 383, 384, .384, .390, .39-5, 402. The average 

 for 72 colonies, spring count, was 

 266.47 sections each, the total being 

 19,186 sections. iHow much extracted 

 there will be is unknow-n at the time of 

 this writing, as it is yet in the comb. 

 But that is a separate affair.) 



In all the years previous to this, the 

 largest number of sections from a sin- 

 gle colony was 300, and there was but 

 a single instance of that kind. This 

 year there were 20 colonies that beat 

 that, one of them beating it by 34 per- 

 cent. 



Why did we do well ? Perhaps the 

 largest factor in the case was the phe- 

 nomenal season. Added to this were 

 bees improved by constant selection 

 for best gatherers ; surplus room was 

 always in abundance; and we gave the 



From No. 4 were Taken 402 Sections. Filling 31 i2-Section Shipping-Cases 

 AND Leaving b Sections Over. 



I 



Some of Dr. Miller's Hives When the Crop was On. 



