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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Annual convention of the Southern Idaho and Kastern Oregon Beekeepers' Association held at Cald- 

 well. Idaho, Feb. 9, 1912. 



Stakes about 2 inches square, which should 

 be pointed at one end. Four hundred stakes 

 are required for an apiary of 100 colonies. 

 To arrange the hive-stands I go to one corner 

 of the yard; drive two stakes 20 inches apart. 

 I then drive two similar stakes at the fur- 

 ther end of the yard, and stretch two lines 

 between them, 20 inches apart. Then begin- 

 ning at one end I drive four stakes, forming 

 a level square 16 X 20 inches. I now move 

 forward two feet and drive a second group of 

 four stakes. The next space is six feet, so 

 that the hives in the row will be in pairs. 

 See illustration. 



When I have reached the further end of 

 the yard I take up the lines and arrange for 

 the second row of stands, leaving a space of 

 12 feet between the rows. 



SPRING PROTECTION AND SECURING WORK- 

 ERS FOR THE HARVEST. 



It is possible to have a good flow of honey 

 and yet secure no surplus. The only pro- 

 tection I give my bees in spring is a quilt 

 and tarred felt placed over the brood-frames 

 and under the cover. Soon after the bees 

 have a flight I look each individual colony 

 over and note its condition. The small col- 

 onies are contracted to six combs by the use 

 of division-boards. I make sure that all col- 

 onies have sufficient sealed stores to carry 

 them safely through until May 1, when I 

 get busy. At that time I make it my busi- 

 ness to see all yards once each week. .Tust 

 as soon as the brood-chamber becomes 

 crowded with brood and bees I place over 

 all such colonies a full-depth super filled 

 with worker combs. The queen will soon 



enter this super, and in a few days it will be 

 filled with brood. When the bees are hatch- 

 ing freely in this super, which will be about 

 May 25, I begin to build up the smaller col- 

 onies by drawing combs of hatching bees, 

 and giving them to the small colonies. If 

 it happens the small colony is so weak as 

 not to have at least three combs of hatching 

 bees I then exchange a comb of such bees 

 with them for a comb of eggs. The eggs 

 can be given to a medium-size colony. 



It is my practice to have all colonies fill- 

 ing a two-story eight-frame hive with brood 

 and bees by June 10, for at that date our 

 harvest from raspberry begins. I now con- 

 fine the queens to the lower body of the 

 hive. To do this I remove the cover, give 

 the colony a few puffs of smoke, thus driv- 

 ing the bees and queen below. I remove 

 the super and place a queen-excluder over 

 the hive-body. Over this I set a super filled 

 with extracting-combs. I now look over 

 the set of combs I smoked and removed; 

 and if I find the queen I catch her and run 

 her in at the entrance; then I put these 

 combs on top of the extracting-combs. The 

 colony is now three-story. Should the flow 

 be a moderate one, the colony may not re- 

 quire any more supers; but if it should be 

 fair to good, a third super will be required. 

 Should more storage sjiace be required I 

 give it either by adding a third super or by 

 extracting. If by extracting, I extract only 

 capped honey. It looks nice to see hives 

 tiered up with four or five supers of honey; 

 but I think the bees store best when the 

 hives are not more than four stories high. 



Rapid City, Mich. 



