THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



151 



My friend writes that a trial of the 

 above plan on a small scale makes him 

 very sanguine that excellent results might 

 be secured by a number of honey pro- 

 ducers thus combining their interests 

 and working together with improvement 

 of stock as their sole aim— not the num- 

 ber of queens that can be reared. The 

 man who does the work should not be 

 dependent for his living upon the queens 

 that are sold. 



The reading of the above just makes 

 my blood tingle. How I would enjoy 

 establishing just such a breeding station. 

 Sometime — who knows? In the mean- 

 time, if there is some one else so situated 

 as to take up the work, let him speak out. 

 The Review stands ready to do all in its 

 power to make a success of such a 

 scheme. 



Working for Increase — and Some Honey. 



Mr. S. P. Taylor, of Boyd, Wisconsin, 

 writes me as follows: 



I am going to take your advice to 

 "keep more bees." and I would like your 

 advice as to how to get them. If you 

 had 25 colonies in eight-frame, Lang- 

 stroth hives, 25 extra set of combs, 30 

 pounds of foundation, and wanted to 

 increase to 100 colonies, how would you 

 proceed in a white clover locality, where, 

 in some seasons, there is some basswood, 

 willow herb and goldenrod? Do you 

 think it would be necessary to feed for 

 winter? Would you rear queens, or buy 

 them? 



My friend's problem is almost exactly 

 the one that I expect to work out the 

 coming season. I now have 40 strong 

 colonies, with plenty of honey in the 

 combs. The spring has been unusually 

 early, and they have a lot of brood 

 started. That this may not be injured 

 by some late freeze I have packed the 

 colonies, lightly, with tarred felt and 

 sawdust — on the sides and on top. After 

 f-ruit bloom is gone, if much sealed honey 

 remains in the hives, I shall probably 

 uncap some of the outside combs. If 

 there is any need for it I shall certainly 

 feed between fruit bloom and clover. If 

 a colony has plenty of bees and stores 



and a queen, and is protected against 

 the changes of weather, the best thing 

 to do in early spring is simply let it alone. 

 After warm weather has come, and 

 everything is booming, then matters may 

 be pushed for all there is them. Stimu- 

 lative feeding is all right then. 



1 expect to buy queens from the South 

 for the first lot of increase that I make, 

 which will probably be sometime this 

 month. The old queen, a comb or two 

 of brood and bees, perhaps one of honey, 

 will be left on the old stand, the hive 

 filled out with empty combs, and the old 

 queenless colony given a new stand and 

 the new queen. For future increase 

 queens will be reared, fertilized in nuclei, 

 and when nicely laying I shall simply 

 change places with a nucleus and some 

 strong colony. The empty combs will 

 be used first, as foundation is drawn out 

 to better advantage during a honey flow 

 in hot weather, 



I shall make my increase first— to 

 about 150 colonies, as that is about all 

 that my cellar will hold. After the 

 increase is made, future operations will 

 depend entirely upon the season. I shall 

 have in readiness an upper story for 

 each colony, the frames being wired and 

 filled with medium brood foundation. If 

 the honey flow continues, as often as I 

 find a colony strong enough I shall put 

 on an upper story, raising half of the 

 combs from the lower story, thus the two 

 stories will contain both combs of brood 

 and honey and sheets of foundation, 

 placed alternately. At the close of the 

 honey flow, I shall confine the queen to 

 the lower story by means of an excluder. 

 At my convenience, later in the season, 

 after the brood in the upper stories has 

 all hatched, I shall remove the upper 

 stories. I shall sort out and save two 

 full combs of honey for each colony. 

 This honey will be kept over until next 

 spring to use in supplying any colonies 

 that may be short of stores. For early 

 feeding nothing equals a full comb of 

 honey. If there has ever been a time 

 when I have taken solid comfort, derived 



