THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



119 



mention isn't it? But, if I should 

 wheel in, say, forty loads a day, and 

 stop and turn around at both ends of 

 the trip, it would not be out of reason 

 to suppose that I could wheel in forty- 

 tivo loads without turning. If we can 

 save at this rate, in all the different 

 manipulations necessary to produce a 

 crop of honey, it will explain why it 

 is that one man will accomplish twice 

 as much as another, with apparently 

 no more exertion. If we can by "short 

 cuts" make our necessary work ac- 

 complish twice as much, how much can 

 we accomplish by dropping' the "thous- 

 and and one" unnecessary things some 

 bee-keepers are doing, things that do 

 not pay at all to do? I saw an edi- 

 torial in one of ouf bee journals last 

 year, where the editor recommended 

 keeping the entrance of the bee hives 

 cleaned out, during winter and spring, 

 with abent wire. Bosh! Then some go 

 so far as to lift their hives up, and 

 clean the dead bees from the bottom- 

 board. Put me on record as saying 

 that no man ever got one cent of pay 

 for cleaning dead bees out of a colony 

 of bees during spring, or any other 

 time, for that matter. 



IMPORTANCE OF SYSTEM. 



Too return: I will commence at the 

 east end of this south row of hives. 

 You see the hives face the south, and 

 by commencing at the south row, I 

 never have to work in front of any 

 colonies that have been disturbed. I 

 always commence at this corner hive 

 when extracting. In fact, whenever I 

 go over the yard to see if they need 

 room, or for anj' other reason, I com- 

 mence here, and go down through this 

 south row, back on the next, and so on 

 clear through the yard. I always 

 know which hive is "next." If it 

 does not need anything done to it, I 

 pass it by; but always going the same 

 route. With this system, I think more 

 can be accomplished, and then there is 

 no danger of missing any. 



You will notice that the hives are in 

 groups of two. I like this way of ar- 

 ranging them, as we can put more 

 colonies on the same ground, and one 

 hive can be used to lay tools on while 

 working with the other. These hive- 

 stands are made of 2 x 4 white oak and 

 are just plain rims, spiked together at 

 the corners. Each stand measures 

 five feet ten inches long, by twenty-one 

 inches wide. 



I will work this south row down 

 through until I come to a point south 

 of the honey house door, then I will ^o 

 to the other end, and work back, and 

 finish the row; with this method we 

 are always moving our honey toivards 

 the tanks. You will notice that the 

 most of the colonies have on two uppsr 

 stories, and as that is the number I 

 wheel in at a load, each trip finishes 

 a colony; and the hives are covered up 

 as quickly as possible, as it is impos- 

 sible to handle the honey without 

 starting some honey to running down 

 among the bees, and robbers are quick 

 to detect it, and the sooner we can get 

 the honey away, and the hive shut up, 

 the less likely we are to let the robbers 

 get a taste. If we are careful not to 

 let them get the start of us, we can ex- 

 tract all day without much trouble, 

 but if we are a little careless and let 

 them carry home a few loads of honey, 

 they are likely to come in such hordes 

 that it might be a good policy to close 

 up business for the day. 



You will notice that the fourth hive 

 in this row has on only one upper 

 story; when I come to that I will take 

 it and go by those that have the two 

 on and get that other one that has only 

 one on, to finish out my load. Then I 

 will come back and get those I have 

 left. In this way I will get two upper 

 stories at a load, and still leave all 

 the colonies finished as I go along. I 

 place the wheelbarrow back of the 

 hive in such a position that I can stand 

 in one place and take the combs out of 

 the hive, brush the bees off, and place 



