266 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



ity with white clover as the dependence for a harvest. 

 In the year 1880 I took 1,200 pounds of honey from 

 twelve colonies and increased them to eighty-one ; but the 

 honey taken was extracted buckwheat, and I never knew 

 such a buckwheat harvest before or since. Perhaps it 

 will be well to tell more explicitly how that increase was 

 made. The success achieved will be somewhat dimin- 

 ished when I say that the bees were supplied with ready- 

 built combs, so they had no combs to build. But they 

 had no help from other colonies in the way of bees or 

 brood except a few eggs from which to rear queens. 



The twelve colonies were taken from the home 

 apiary to the Wilson apiary, and were prepared in ad- 

 vance for dividing. From part of them the queens were 

 taken and queen-cells thus secured. Ten-frame hives 

 were used at that time, and by some help from others of 

 the twelve, a hive would contain ten frames of brood 

 and bees without any queen, a sealed queen-cell on each 

 frame of brood. After standing a day or so this hive 

 would be taken to the out-apiary, and the ten frames put 

 in ten different hives. Of course every bee staid just 

 where it was put. To each of these was added another 

 frame of brood and adhering bees that had been brought 

 along, and whether these bees were queenless or not there 

 was nothing for them but to stay where they were put. 

 In the course of time these first-formed nuclei were 

 strong enough to help others, and the latest nuclei were 

 built up at once into fair colonies. 



INCREASING 9 WEAK COLONIES TO 5(3. 



In the year 1899, at the Hastings apiary, I increased 

 nine colonies to fifty-six, making them rear their own 

 queens, and building up mostly on foundation. Xo ad- 

 vantage was taken in the way of hauling colonies from 

 home to divide, and the same plan would work just as 

 well if I had had only one apiary. The increase was 

 very satisfactory, considering how weak the colonies 



