THE BEB-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



315 



it will be seen that I am only a "novice" 

 at the business. Of course, I have been 

 rather successful; the three original hives 

 and one log, or gum, have increased un- 

 til at the close of the past season, there 

 were 305 colonies in chafT hives packed 

 for winter, on their summer stands. The 

 largest honey crop was during the season 

 of 189S, viz. i2,ocK) lbs. secured at an out- 

 lay of labor of 55 days, including the 

 time of team used in moving bees, hives, 

 etc., and also the time of the horse used 

 to carry me to out-apiaries. This is the 

 actual time taken in working with the 

 bees during the summer, but does not 

 count time spent in nailing hives, etc. 



I will now describe as briefly as possible 

 my methods of bee keeping. As I have 

 to oversee the farm-work on two stock- 

 farms of 200 acres each, it is necessary 

 that every motion made in the apiary 

 counts as much as possible. 



Supposing that you have your apiary in 

 a good location with hives in rows ten 

 feet apart, and hives in the row to be in 

 pairs, with a three foot space between 

 each pair of hives, when all are on their 

 stands there will be an eight-foot alley 

 between the rows, and between eveiy 

 other hive in the row will be a three-foot 

 alley, and have the rows straight both 

 ways to avoid dodging hives with the 

 wheel-barrow, and to facilitate mowing 

 the grass or weeds aVjout the apiary. 



Next make a honey house to accommo- 

 date your extractor, uncapping can, emp- 

 ty hives, honey packages, and still have 

 some spare room, as you don't want to be 

 cram jjed for room. One 12 x 24 will be 

 large enough for 100 colonies. Be sure 

 it is bee-tight. Have the windows cov- 

 ered with screen wire, with a bee escape 

 at the top so that bees taken in on the 

 extracting supers mav readily pass out- 

 side. 



Vou also need an extractor, and don't 

 get any thing smaller than a four-frame 

 reversible. I use a six-frame Cowan and 

 would have nothing smaller. 



The first work to be done in the spring 

 in this locality is to look over the bees 



about April first and see that each colony 

 has plenty of stores and a good queen. 

 Remove the burlap covering from over 

 the brood frames and substitute the su- 

 per covers so as to confine the warm air; 

 as no upward ventilation is necessary in 

 summer. Replace the chaff and leave 

 until about May loth, when the chaff 

 should be removed, and, if necessary, ex- 

 tra combs or supers added. 



Every five or ten days look them over 

 and add extra frames or supers as need- 

 ed, until the white fancy harvest is over. 

 One day's work, by using a wheel-bar- 

 row, will be sufficient to look over 100 

 colonies, and place enough empty supers 

 to last 5 or 10 days, if you do not have 

 more than 10 miles to travel from your 

 home to the out-apiary. 



After the honey is all capped you are 

 ready to extract, and not before; use su- , 

 pers with self-spacing frames 5>^ inches 

 deep and have all frames wired; as you 

 can't do rapid work, or wheel, shake; or 

 handle supers filled with loose frames, 

 without killing bees, or bruising the sur- 

 face of the combs. 



Get your wheel-barrow close behind 

 the hive, have your smoker ready, and 

 prj"^ loose your cover, puff in some smoke 

 with the right hand, meanwhile flopping 

 the back end of the super cover to force 

 the smoke down faster; remove the super 

 cover with the left, and set your smoker 

 down and with the right hand pry the 

 super loose from the back end. Pick up 

 the super and give two or three sudden 

 jerks over the hive, to shake most of the 

 remaining bees from the frames, set it 

 on the wheel-barrow, with the frames 

 running lengthwise; never mind if you 

 have left a few bees on the super; take 

 the next super, or go to the next hive, 

 repeat the operation until you have six or 

 eight supers on your wheel-barrow; 

 wheel it into the honey house and pile 

 them cross-ways of each other, so as to 

 let the bees out fa.ster; they will fly to 

 the windows and go out faster than two 

 men could brush them from the combs. 

 By the time you have 500, or 1000, lbs. 



