112 



THE BEE-KEEPER'S REVIEW 



Some twelve of the colonies had 

 swarmed during the season, and were 

 hived by a neighbor, so there were at 

 this time 150 colonies in the yard. The 

 150 colonies had 245 ten-frame upper 

 stories on at this visit. Something like 

 ten of the colonies, on account of their 

 swarming, or, for other reasons, did not 

 need upper stories— that left 245 upper 

 stories on 140 colonies. This is as they 

 were left after a day's work with this 

 yard, shifting stories around from colony 

 to colony, until every colony in the yard 

 needing room had it. Those that had 

 swarmed, or, for any reason had more 

 room than they were likely to use, their 

 part-full stories were taken from them, 

 and given to colonies in need of room. 

 In shifting about upper stories in the 

 yard, a considerable part of the bees are 

 smoked out, sometimes as many as half 

 of them are carried with the stories to 

 the new location. Many of the bees thus 

 removed will return to their former loca- 

 tion, but, if some of these young bees do 

 remain in the new location, no harm will 

 occur, as, in this case, they are of as 

 much use in one hive as the other. By 

 thus shifting around the upper stories in 

 this yard, rather than giving empty 

 stories of combs to the third, or so, that 

 would have needed them, much more of 

 the crop of honey was sealed and 

 finished, thus making a much better 

 quality of honey. 



Right here is where many "fall down," 

 in the production of a crop of good ex- 

 tracted honey; as honey must be quite 

 well sealed all through the yard, or the 

 quality will be low. A poorer quality of 



honey is likely to be produced in a season 

 of nearly a failure, as with the best of 

 management, about so much honey is 

 left unfinished in each colony. That is, 

 no matter whether a colony fills one, 

 two, or more, stories with honey, one will 

 be only partly full, as a rule. 



It is evident that, the better the season, 

 other things being equal, the better the 

 quality of the honey produced. 



In harvesting the crop, if anything like 

 a fourth of the honey on the hives is 

 unsealed, those unsealed stories are 

 sorted out and extracted by themselves, 

 the honey put in a grade by itself, and 

 sold at a less price than our best grade. 

 I now have reference to our best white 

 honey for table use; the buckwheat, or 

 low grades for manufacturing or baking 

 purposes, is extracted in one grade. 



The colonies at this yard averaged a 

 little more than 70 pounds of surplus 

 honey, each. The 245 upper stories 

 of honey, averaged a little over 40 

 pounds of honey, each, at extracting 

 time. This amount includes what was 

 taken from the cappings later in the 

 season, as will be explained later. 

 Handled as explained above, with a dry 

 season, so large a per cent, of this honey 

 was sealed, and cured so well, there 

 was no need of making two grades of it, 

 the quality being good when all was 

 extracted together. 



Honey produced along these lines, is 

 the kind that brings one or two cents 

 per pound above market price, with a 

 ready sale. 



Remus. Mich. Feb. 5, 1910. 



Is One Branch of Bee Keeping More 

 Honorable than Another? 



J. E. HAND. 



CD 



'R. Editor: — Your editorial in the 

 January Review on changes in 

 bee keeping touches upon a sub- 

 ject of vital importance to bee keepers 



in general, and to the readers of this 

 journal in particular; a subject that has 

 caused me no little anxiety as to the 

 future status of bee keeping. 



