January, 1914. 



23 



American Hee Journal 



most desirable features in section- 

 honey production, I stoutly maintain 

 that the perfect filling and capping of 

 section honey is highly desirable. Since 

 the perfect filling of sections is the ex- 

 ception and not the rule, it would 

 seem that the evils, so eloquently por- 

 trayed by our worthy friend, are more 

 imaginary than real ; and it seems un- 

 generous to deprive Bridget of the 

 privilege of licking the knife after cut- 

 ting out a section of honey. Mr. Doo- 

 little would go still further and deprive 

 her of the pleasure of licking the plate 

 after the " Quality " has consumed the 

 honey. Oh, G. M. ! 

 Birmingham, Ohio. 



-^♦^ 



Is It Necessary to Start Small 

 To Be Successful? 



BY GEO. F. LE.STER. 



I HAVE read many articles advising 

 beginners to start with one or two 

 colonies, and build up as they get 

 experience. But is it necessary ? 

 1 am not advising all beginners to 

 start in on a large scale, but if a person 

 has a "knack" for handling bees, to- 

 gether with good common sense, and 

 the help he can get from bee journals 

 and books on beekeeping, I believe he 

 can attain success. 



In January, 1909, I bought 40 colo- 

 nies of bees in all kinds of hives, to- 

 gether with 40 extracting bodies with 

 drawn combs, extractor, tiO comb honey 

 supers, etc., paying $200 for the outfit. 

 I knew nothing about beekeeping, 

 but sent for " Langstroth on the Honey 

 Bee," subscribed for two bee journals 

 and started in. Of course, I made 

 plenty of mistakes, but did not make 

 the same one twice. The winter had 

 been warm and the bees were out of 

 honey, so I had to feed from the start 

 until June 15, when the alfalfa began 

 to bloom. By this time they had built 

 up good and strong. I ran them for 

 extracted honey, and they made me $6 

 a colony. I increased to 00 by divid- 

 ing, and did not lose any the next 

 winter. 

 The next year I had about the same 



'The earmarks ' of a successful season. Mr. Lester believes that success can be attained 

 through attention and perseverance. He uses this policy. 



luck. I ran for extracted honey mostly 

 and increased to 90, introduced four 

 dozen Banat queens that I got from 

 Texas, and received about $450 for my 

 honey. 



The next winter I only lost two col- 

 onies, and in the spring bought 19 at a 

 sale. As foul brood was getting so 

 bad around the county, I decided to 

 quit extracting and run for comb 

 honey almost entirely. Last year was 

 a very poor season, but I increased to 

 165 and harvested $900 worth of honey. 



This brings me down to the present 

 year, 1913. Last year my bees were in 

 three different places, and I put in so 

 much time on the road that I decided 

 to movethem all to one yard, and move 

 out there and stay during the summer. 

 This is the yard in the picture with my 

 work tent in sight. My wife was called 

 to Michigan, so I had to do my own 

 cooking. She expects to be with me 

 next summer. 



A very nice lay out for a " Beginnner." Mr. Geo. F. Lester in his apiary. 



Last winter was the coldest ever 

 known here, the mercury going down 

 to 35 degrees below, and as the bees 

 were all wintered on the summer 

 stands, it was hard on them. But I 

 came through with only two dead, but 

 had several weak ones, and when I got 

 through doubling up I only had 150 

 left. 



The spring was cold and backward, 

 and no honey from fruit bloom, so I 

 had to feed from May 10 to June 10. 

 This I did by making a flat trough 2 

 inches deep out of a plank (3 feet long 

 and 12 inches wide. I spread a piece 

 of burlap over this, filled a 5-gallon can 

 with syrup and inverted it in the trough, 

 letting it rest on two strips, so that the 

 opening in the can was about '/i inch 

 from the bottom of the trough. This 

 made a self feeder, and the burlap kept 

 the bees from drowning. I presume 

 some people will ask, did you not feed 

 a lot of your neighbors bees ? I sup- 

 pose I did feed a few, but as it only 

 took my bees two hours to empty the 

 can, they did not get much, and what 

 they did get was more than over-bal- 

 anced by the good that the outdoor 

 feeding did. I fed 5 gallons a day after 

 I had divided all the honey in the hives, 

 and had them practically clear of 

 honey. 



The weather was getting warm, and 

 the outdoor feeding made them build 

 up rapidly so that when alfalfa started 

 to bloom (June 10) my bees were in 

 fine shape. 



As I had had poor luck getting good 

 queens from queen breeders to start 

 new swarms, I concluded to try and 

 rear my own. This I did by the Doo- 

 little method, and had good luck, get- 

 ting as high as 30 out of 38 cells ac- 

 cepted at one time. I used these for 

 starting new colonies and for requeen- 

 ing. I did my requeening in August. 

 I would watch my queen-cells and see 

 how many were accepted, and then go 

 to the same number of hives and kill 

 the old queens. In six or eight days I 

 would put in a ripe queen-cell in a 



