FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 133 



it would do no great harm to leave all sections on till I 

 got back, so I left August 12, getting back the 28th. 



Scarcely had I got out of sight when the bees made a 

 fresh start as fierce as ever, and gave Miss Wilson the 

 busy time of her life. Up at 4 o'clock in the morning to 

 get sections ready, then to one of the apiaries to take off 

 and put on supers, with no let-up in the work of going 

 through colonies to keep down swarming. Yes, indeed, 

 there was swarming galore, and had been all through the 

 season. It is generally understood that when bees are 

 busily engaged at storing they give up all thoughts of 

 swarming. Not in 1903. I'm not sure I ever knew so 

 bad a season for swarming. We fought our best to pre- 

 vent it, but every now and then the bees would get the 

 start of us. 



Some 6,000 finished sections were taken off during 

 my 16 days' absence, and on my return I found every- 

 thing about the work kept up in as good shape as if I had 

 been at home. And Miss Wilson was still alive. 



We didn't get the last sections off the hives till well 

 along in September, and the final footing up was not con- 

 ducive to despondency. From 124 colonies, spring count, 

 we had 18,150 pounds of comb honey (about 20,000 

 finished sections), increasing to 284 colonies ; or, an aver- 

 age of more than 146 pounds per colony, with 129 per 

 cent increase. As the storing was mainly by one set of 

 colonies and the increase by another, it would perhaps be 

 fairer to say that 100 colonies averaged 181^ pounds per 

 colony with no increase, and that each of the remaining 

 colonies was increased to 7 2-3 colonies with no surplus. 

 The best colony gave 300 sections, and several colonies 

 Avere close on its heels. 



NUMBER OF SECTIONS NEEDED PER COLONY. 



That average of 146 pounds per colony was equiva- 

 lent to about 160 sections per colony. With 24 sections 

 to the super, those 160 sections would lack 8 sections of 

 filling 7 supers. There were probably more than 8 unfin- 



