178 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



August 



.bees will now extend rapidly, thoiish 

 ai'tiificial pxtonsioii may, if still de- 

 sired, be obtained by placing these 

 combs in the middle. 



Where the brood-nest shows its onter 

 combs next to The pollen combs, well 

 filled with hatching- brood and well 

 covered with bees, a comb may be 

 fairly inserted. The "spreading" must, 

 however — and this is the main con- 

 tention — depend upon tlie quantity of 

 bees and not of brood. When the bees 

 are covering more combs than contain 

 brood, extension may be safely prac- 

 ticed, but where the brood nest has 

 already reached that common condi- 

 tion of early summer, the combs well 

 filled with sealed l)rood, V)ut thinly 

 covered with bees, leave It alone. 

 In other woi-ds. the spreading of brood 

 by the insertion Oi_ more combs may 

 be fairly practiced where the colony is 

 n^aking little or no progress for no ap- 

 parent reason tnan a disinclination on 

 the part of the bees or (jueen to ex- 

 tend. The operation is of value as 

 providing combs free from pollen-clog 

 and drone cells in the V)est place, for 

 while drone comb is often occupied 

 without any ajiparent justification of a 

 desire to swai'ui on the part of a weak 

 colony, drone-rearing and swarming 

 on the part of even strong colonies 

 may be, to some extent, retarded by 

 extension of the brood-nest in propor- 

 tion to the bees. 



If the advance of the season has 

 been well gauged in relation to the 

 sequence of brood-spreading opera- 

 tions, supers may l)e put on with the 

 last of the "spread." which might be 

 about ten days before the beginning 

 of the honey -flow, as the bees thus 

 have surplus I'oom in advance of their 

 reqnii-ements. and can liecome accus- 

 tomed to an excluder before the neces- 

 sity for it. 



The indications of in.iudicious 

 spreading of brood are very simple. 

 The (pieen ceases to lay in the outer 

 combs of the nest, and in bad cases 

 the brood is largely chilled owing to 

 the incapacity of the bees to keep it 

 warm during cold nights^ a colony in 

 such a case often failing to recover 

 from the set-back until too late in the 

 season, so that I would here empha- 

 size the warning to the beginner that 

 more harm may at times be done by 

 the indiscriminate use of our powers 

 over the movable frame, and that in 

 this as in many other bee matters, 

 one cannot lt(> too cai'efid. 



A LONELY LOCATIOrv. 



Somethi.ng ot the Isolated Country of a Honey 



Prospector on the Florida Keys- 



(J. B. Colton.) 



EDITOR BEE-KEEPER: Your 

 kind answer to my inquiries 

 came to hand .lune 2nd. for 

 which accept my thanks. I am located 

 on Key Largo, about 120 miles from 

 Key West, (luite out of the world. 

 There is one postoftice 20 miles from 

 here.but I depend on the fruit schooner 

 to l)ring mail from Key West as there 

 is no regular trips made by boats be- 

 tween liei'e and Miami: just neighbors 

 occasionally going Avith their produce. 

 I am only forty miles from the latter 

 place, a lovely little city with fine 

 buildings, big tourist hotel, point of 

 depai-ture for regular line of steamers 

 to Key West, Havana, and in tourist 

 season, to Nassau. 



Yes, there is some natural bee-forage 

 at Key West. I was there last Avinter ' 

 and found that bees were doing fairly 

 well. The bee-keeper there did not 

 .think the pastureage good enough to 

 .justify keeping his apiary tliere and i 

 has moved to Largo, but the change 

 as f;ir as I can learn has not pleased 

 him as he expected. 



I wisli I was better posted on the 

 bee pasturage of the Keys. It might be 

 quite interesting to the few who have 

 been hardened to mosquito torture and 

 troi)ical heat, which is more than most 

 l>eople would be willing to bear. It 

 is all right by the shore or on the sea 

 when there is a good breeze, but be- 

 hind the mangroves; oh, myl There 

 are probably some -fine locations here 

 for i»ee-keei)ers. On I.,oney Ke.v there 

 ai-e thous.'inds of cocoanut trees. Some 

 of the Ke.vs have more or less cabbage 

 jialmetto. Imt few have much saw pal- 

 metto, as far as I can learn, and that 

 found at Miami. Avhich is plentiful 

 enough, s<'ems to yield but very little 

 lH)n<\v. 1 am afraid Mr. ]\Iorrison is 

 "off" in regard to the value of cocoa- 

 nut bloom. There is (piite a grove in 

 ]Miami at the Royal Palm Hotel. Thei'e 

 are a few in my neighborhood, always 

 covered with bees, and at Cape Sable 

 and along the Ke.vs fnere are thou- 

 sands of them. A small apiar.v at 

 Miami yielded so little profit that the 

 bee-keeper gave it up. and one at Cape 

 Sable has l)een moved: still I am not 

 <iuite satisfied and hope to be able to 



