THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



279 



sources of surplus honey, no man can 

 achieve success in practical apiculture, no 

 matter how perfect his fixtures or how 

 well "improved" his bees. So it be- 

 hooves everyone contemplating entering 

 the bee-business to ascertain, farst, that 

 his locality is thus supplied. It is doubt- 

 ful if bee-keeping can be made a success- 

 ful business in a locality having but one 

 source of surplus, no matter how heavy 

 that surplus may be in some seasons; for 

 some seasons it will fail; and, for that 

 reason, we should have two or three 

 sources of surplus. For instance, take 

 this locality: We have three sources of 

 surplus, namel}', the different clovers, 

 basswood, and fall flowers. In the eight 

 years I have kept bees here I have never 

 known all three sources to yield in one 

 season, nor have 1 ever had them all fail 

 entirely in any year. Thus we get some 

 surplus in almost every year; and winter 

 stores, at least, even in the poorest year. 

 Having decided on a locality, let us 

 next consider how it will influence our 

 management; or in other words, shall 

 we run for comb, or for extracted honey, 

 • or for part comb and part extracted? If 

 our main honey flow, that is, the one 

 that is the most sure to yield, and also 

 the heaviest, comes in the fall, or if it is 

 not light honey, we should decide to run 

 for extracted. But if it is white honey 

 and comes at midsummer, or a little be- 

 fore, we may run for comb honey if we 

 so incline. I saj' if we so incline, be- 

 cause we must have a decided inclination 

 toward any business in order to make it a 

 success. In discussing this matter of 

 locality we are taking it for granted that 

 the person interested is not only decidedly 

 inclined toward the bee business, but de- 

 sires to shape his management in accord- 

 ance with an intelligent understanding of 

 his locality. 



Another knotty question to many is, 

 the size of hive to use, or, rather, the size 

 of brood chamber, as most all agree that 

 a hive should be expansive enough in the 

 surplus ar-angement to hold any crop 

 that is likely to be gathered. I believe 



that the size of the brood chamber is 

 directly or indirectly a question of lo- 

 cality. It may be said that the manage- 

 ment has a good deal to do with deciding 

 ho V large a brood chamber to use. This 

 is, no doubt, true, but as our manage- 

 ment is largely decided by our locality, 

 or ought to be, it is thus seen that the 

 locality indirectly decides the size of 

 brood chamber to be used. 



Then, again, there is reason to believe 

 that locality affects the prolificness of 

 queens; thus, again touching on the size 

 of brood chamber. 



Where one is almost certain of fall 

 honey enough for winter stores, and 

 where such honey is good for that pur- 

 pose, it would seem foolish to use a brood 

 chamber larger than the average queen 

 would fill with brood by the time the 

 main honey flow arrives; and while good 

 authorities have placed that size at ten 

 Langstroth frames, and even more, eight 

 such frames seem to be ample for the 

 average Italian queen in i/iis locality. I 

 have noticed that a good many queens 

 would enlarge the brood nest at the be- 

 ginning of the main honey flow if given 

 plenty of ready built comb; whereas, if 

 compelled to build in sections, the brood 

 nest would become smaller. Here, again, 

 our locality must be taken into considera- 

 tion; do we want more brood at this time 

 or not? My friend, you needen't smile if 

 I tell you that that depends on your 

 localit3\ If you have a reliable source of 

 fall honey you want all the brood you can 

 get up to the beginning of the fall flow; 

 otherwise, we do not care for so much 

 brood toward the latter end of the main 

 flow. To sum up, it stands about this 

 way: If your locality favors comb honey 

 production, and you are inclined that 

 way, use as large a brood chamber as 

 your queens will have filled with brood 

 at the beginning of the flow from which 

 you expect your main crop; and, remem- 

 ber, a large brood chamber of liseZ/v/ill 

 not prevent swarming when running for 

 comb honey; but when running for ex- 

 tracted a large brood chamber will uo 



