^tfXtt'S 



Or^how to Realize the Most Money with the Smallest Expenditure of Capital 

 and Labor in the Care of Bees, Rationally Considered. 



PUBLISHED 3IONTHLY. 



Vol. I. 



MEDINA, O., MAY 1. 1873. 



No. 5. 



STARTING AX API A It Y. 



No. 5. 



[•] hope our readers will nut object 

 to tbc Following, simply because 

 they have always been taught differentby, 

 for we assure them that all we here recom- 

 mend wc have carefully tested. 



The entrances to all the hives, in 

 our plan of apiary, should front 

 either east or west, and for several 

 reasons we prefer the former ; also, as we 

 wish to avoid all unnecessary complica- 

 tion and simply aim to derive the "most 

 money with least outlay, labor," etc., we 

 will discard numbering, and treat all hives 

 precisely alike, and make them all as 

 nearly alike as possible. In short, our aim 

 should be to make each hive constitute 

 such a part of the whole Apiary as each 

 individual bee does part of the whole col- 

 ony of bees. 



Now, the true test of skill in an apiarist 

 is the ability to make an apairy of a con- 

 siderable number of hives yield an aver- 

 age of a fair amount of honey per colony : 

 the simple fact that one hive gave two or 

 even three hundred pounds, proves but lit- 

 tle, for many others may have given little 

 or none, and the general average maj T not 

 have exceeded 25 lbs. 



As a colony will labor as well on any 

 other set of combs and brood as their own, 

 we will, when we commence extracting, 

 remove the entire set of combs of each 

 hive forward to the one next it at each op- 

 eration, thus facilitating our work and 

 equalizing our colonies, at the sunn: luxe 

 Of course to do this all combs must fit 

 perfectly any where: if they do not, they 

 must be made to, at once, as well as hives. 

 covers, and everything else. In transfer- 

 »ng (and this is the month for it with most 

 of our readers, flake one comb each from 

 several hives for the transferred bees to 

 cluster on, and as soon as a frame is filled 

 with comb give this to a hive from which 

 one comb was taken, and wc have very 

 little danger of combs tumbling down, for 

 the transferred combs are distributed 

 about, one in each hive; and the trans- 

 ferred bees have all good combs aud ac- 



cordingly are strong, and an old colony 



at once. In all operations we are to bear 

 iu mind as above, that no one colony is 

 to be called upon to furnish bees, brood. 

 or combs, alone, but that all, or many, are 

 to each bear a share of the work. Swarm- 

 ing is not to be allowed at all, but if in- 

 crease is desired, at least ten colonies are 

 to build a comb each: others arc to furn- 

 ish bees, and still others, a queen, Young 

 bees that cannot Hy must have employ- 

 ment besides caring for the brood when 

 hives are populous, we therefore make it 

 a rule that each colony has at least one 

 frame unfilled with comb whenever honey 

 is being gathered, as well as empty comb 

 at all times. 



The great facility offered for moving 

 the combs about, iu the hive we have, ad- 

 vised, is very apt to induce "'putting an 

 empty comb between two brood combs, 

 being over done, especially quite early in 

 the season, and we would caution our 

 readers against spreading the cluster oi 

 bees and brood in this way too far, Or 

 they may get a severe check in brood- 

 rearing from unseasonable weather; bul 

 judidious spreading of the combs may be 

 so done as to oblige the queen to fill nearh 

 a whole comb entirely with eggs, and as 

 these eggs hatch nearly at the same time, 

 the nursing bees can i'eed and attend to 

 them systematically, without skipping 

 about as they usually do for brood that 

 needs care. Sealing over and hatching- 

 out also occur on the "one job" system, 

 the cells are ready for eggs once 

 more, which can be laid by the queen a* 

 methodically as we would plant a field of 

 corn. When a hive has once got into the 

 way of raising brood in this manner it 

 will probably continue thus the whole sefct 

 son, and the ''goldenshowers ' of young 

 bees that such a " mathematically de- 

 posed " queen can send to the fields tor 

 "loads,'' arc truly astonishing. 



In our last we omitted to state that our 

 bee home should be so arranged that a 

 surplus of sawdust kept in the loft could 

 be at any time pushed over between the 

 upright joists to fill up the space caused 

 by the settling ^ hicli occurs as it dries 



