GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE May, 1919 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



a little in time of comparative dearth, we 

 shall be able to keep a more uniform number 

 of colonies from year to year, not only getting 

 some honey in lean seasons, but coming thru 

 to the good seasons with a full equipment of 

 good colonies. How many times has the 

 writer seen people become enthusiastic over 

 bees during a good season when almost any- 

 thing in the line of bees would yield some- 

 thing, only to lose most or all their bees a 

 year or two later following a more unfa- 

 vorable season! This is, in my estimation, 

 one substantial reason why the farmer 

 should not try to keep bees. He will not, as 

 a rule, breed bees, but will undertake to 

 keep mongrels which can not thrive except 

 in favorable seasons. 



If any think I am fanciful in this, just 

 turn your mind to any kind of stock. Let 

 your stock breed hit or miss, you doing no 

 selecting as to parentage, and what kind of 

 stuff will you have in a few years? Yet this 

 is just "nature's way," so much lauded by 

 some when it comes to bees. 



Dunlap, la. E. S. Miles. 



MANAGEMENT OF OUTYARDS 



A Very Successful Beekeeper's Methods in Running 

 Many Apiaries 



There comes a time in every beekeeper 's 

 career when he gets more bees than his 

 home location will support, and it becomes 

 necessary to start a series of out-apiaries. 

 The first move in this direction will be to 

 select a location for the out-apiary. This 

 should have an abundance of honey-bearing 

 llora for early feed as well as for the main 

 or surplus yield. In our section we have elm. 

 and soft maple for early pollen, and fruit 

 bloom and dandelions a little later. Some 

 years these yield amply so that no feeding 

 need be resorted to, but most years I think 

 it pays to feed between fruit bloom and 

 clover, especially if the colonies go into win- 

 ter light. After finding a favorable locality 

 as to honey plants, I look for an apiary site. 

 This should be well protected by hills, trees, 

 or brush, or all three, and should be so 

 situated that the flying bees will not inter- 

 fere with passers-by, or farming operations, 

 as there is nothing that so exasperates the 

 public or the landowner as an occasional 

 sting, or a mad bee following him about. If 

 one is so unfortunate as to be so located, and 

 his bees trouble his neighbors, I find that 

 a liberal dose of honey applied before said 

 parties have time to enter complaints will 

 nearly always forestall any ill feeling. 

 The site should also be easy of access by 

 auto-truck, as the time for working out- 

 yards otherwise has gone by. A small 

 stream or other good water supply should 

 be near the apiary, as bees consume more 

 water than many suppose, and having it 



handy saves many bees and much time car- 

 rying it. 



Now for the outfit. We will need first an 

 extracting house to store supers, etc., and 

 to extract honey in. I find a 12xl2-ft. house 

 about right as to size for an apiary of 100 

 colonies. Then, of course, we must have our 

 pet hive. Probably for out-door wintering 

 the lO-frame Langstroth is best; but for 

 cellar wintering I find nothing better than 

 the 8-frame hive, as it is easy to move, and 

 by adding the necessary supers I fiiid it am- 

 ple for my locality. 



In the spring, the first warm day after 

 the bees have been set out of the cellar, and 

 have had a cleansing flight, I examine all 

 colonies as to stores, strength, disease if 

 any, and mark them as strong, medium, and 

 as weak or diseased, if any. Then I take 

 my quota for each yard, according to 

 strength. I have some yards where the flow 

 begins 10 days before others. So I take 

 the strongest colonies to the earliest yards 

 first; the medium, next; and the weakest 

 last, to the latest locations. My reason for 

 this is to give them time to build up for 

 the harvest. I also see that ea< h one has, at 

 this time (May 1 to 15, a little before fruit 

 bloom with us) ''millions of honey at our 

 house." To facilitate rapid breeding I 

 close down the entrance to 1 inch by % on 

 the weak ones and % by 4 inches on the 

 strong ones. 



I also cover the weak ones and medium 

 with black neponset building paper, held 

 in place by a strip tacked around the bot- 

 tom. This helps to raise the temperature so 

 with plenty of honey they need no attention 



One of the Beaver mit-apiaries. 



till near the clover flow. Of course, the 

 medium and strong ones should be looked 

 after at regular intervals and given room as 

 needed by adding supers. I give the queen 

 the freedom of the hive till clover bloom 

 when she is put below an excluder with two 

 frames of unsealed brood, and the brood- 

 nest filled with drawn combs or full sheets 

 of foundation. Nine or ten days later I 



