is 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' KEVIEW. 



15 years, trying-fifty, ten-frame, Quinby, 

 chaff-hives. On account of the poor 

 wintering of colonies in such large 

 hives, here in this cold climate, they 

 have not done so well as the ten-frame 

 Langstroth. They have one advantag^e, 

 however, in that they rarely have to be 

 fed. If I were located two or three 

 hundred miles south of here, where 

 bees winter better in chaff, perhaps 

 the result would be different. Such a 

 large hive is also better adapted to the 

 location where there is a long-, continu- 

 ous flow of honey, than it is here where 

 we have an earl_y, short season. 



PLENTY OF ROOM PREVENTS SWARMing". 



The prevention of swarming in the 

 production of extracted honey is not a 

 very difficult matter; as the putting on 

 of upper stories not only keeps down 

 swarming, but secures the crop, all in 

 one operation. It all hinges on the 

 ofie essential, large hives. Of course 

 I keep the entrance wide open during 

 the warm season, and if the bees still 

 show signs of being crowded, by hang- 

 ing out during the heat of the day, I 

 raise up the back end of the cover, and 

 this gives such a draft through the 

 hive that thej'' will usually go in. 

 Don't let j'our bees hang out during 

 the honey season; after the season 

 closes, and there is nothing for them to 

 do, they will usually cluster on the 

 outside of the hive in large quantities, 

 if the weather still keeps warm, but, 

 as the swarming season closes w^ith 

 the honey season, there will be no 

 swarming. I told 3'ou above that large 

 hives were essential in preventing 

 swarming, or, in other words, plenty 

 of comb-space must at all times be 

 available for the bees to store their 

 honey. This condition is secured with 

 a ten-frame upper story, filled with 

 eight combs of the Langstroth size. 



HOW TO RUN AN APIARY WITH 

 INEXPERIENCED HELP. 



We will suppose it is now the fore 

 part of June; the weather is getting 



hot, but the season is not open yet; 

 some of the colonies are showing signs 

 of becoming strong, and we do not 

 want them to get the swarming-fever, 

 and, as a prevention, we will put 

 upper stories of combs on all such col- 

 onies. The rest of the colonies can go 

 without upper stories until the season 

 opens; when all that are strong enough 

 to go above are given one upper story 

 each. In this way, we visit each yard 

 about once a week, seeing that every 

 colony has empty combs at all limes. 

 As upper stories fill up, I add more on 

 top. As we have no basswood here, 

 140 sets of empty combs, at each yard, 

 will usually hold the clover crop. 

 The having of enough upper stories 

 full of combs to hold the crop, or nearly 

 so, is one of the essentials in my sj'stem 

 of producing honey. It not only gives 

 me unlimited time to do my extract- 

 ing, after the season closes, but does 

 away with so much costly and experi- 

 enced help — the kind that is so hard to 

 get. I aim to have one experienced 

 hand with two assistants, and do the 

 work in a longer lime., rather than use 

 less combs and hire more experienced 

 help to do the work during the honey 

 season. Then, I like to leave the hon- 

 ey on the hives a week or so after the 

 season closes, or until it is thoroughly 

 ripe, before extracting. In case we 

 have a heavy flow of honey, so that we 

 need more room than is furnished by 

 our 140 sets of combs, we extract from 

 the heaviest; always selecting colonies 

 that have on two upper stories, leaving 

 the light ones, that have the unripe 

 honey, for some future extracting. In 

 this way we get our crop all in line 

 shape for the market, and secure the 

 kind of hone)' that makes customers 

 ask for more "Just like the last." 



KEEPING CLOVER HONEY SEPARATE 

 FROM BASSWOOD. 



My Clinton County yard is located 

 in a very fertile part of the County, 

 and the farmers raise large quantities 



