ISO 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



adoption of this system in the future; 

 and I also presume that three-fourths 

 of the bee-keepers in the United States 

 live in a location where these spells of 

 rainj' weather are likely to come dur- 

 ing the honey flow; and thej' are won- 

 dering, with this condition to contend 

 with, how many yards of bees they 

 can handle successfully. 



In the first place, I do not think it 

 practicable to work more than one 

 yard a day; that is, with the condition 

 of our roads, and the distances we 

 have to drive between yards. If we 

 have good weather, one experienced 

 hand, with an assistant, provided 

 everything is ready before hand, could, 

 with one visit a week, manage six 

 yards. We will suppose we have our 

 dates all established, and everything 

 working niceljs and then there comes, 

 say, three days storm. Now if we add 

 three stormy days to the six already 

 past, making nine in all, there will be 

 three yards needing us the ?iext day 

 after it stops raining. We are now 

 everlastingly behind. We cannot 



catch up, as we have to work them in 

 rotation, and there will be two yards 

 ahead of us that will be swarming, 

 with the likelihood of more rainy 

 weather any time — not a very desir- 

 able predicament to be in I can assure 

 you. 



After working one 3'ard for two years 

 on this plan, I think I would not want 

 more than three yards on my hands, 

 knowing the conditions we have to 

 contend with, then we could fix our 

 dates for each alternate day, which 

 would leave a little latitude. That is, 

 if we were caught with a spell of bad 

 weather, we would be able, in a few 

 days, to catch up with our dates. 



We will suppose we have our three 

 yards located, and everything in shape, 

 as above, and our dates established to 

 visit them Mondays, Wednesdays and 

 Fridays, if it should rain Monday, 

 Tuesday and Wednesday, we would 

 visit them Thursday, ^Friday and Sat- 



urday, and the next week's visits 

 would fall back on Tuesdays Thursday 

 and Saturday. In this way we would 

 keep our dates on each alternate daj', 

 with the visits not more than a week 

 apart, while the only yard that would 

 have its full week would be the Satur- 

 daj^'s yard. This would be the best 

 we could do under the circumstances. 



WITH COMPETENT HELP, HALF A 



DOZEN APIARIES MAY BE MANAGED 



ON THE SHOOK SWARM PLAN. 



Lest some one should get the im- 

 pression from the above that no system 

 could be worked out whereby more 

 yards than three could be profitably 

 worked in this localit}', I might add, 

 as Dr. Miller would say, that there 

 would be no law against hiring an ex- 

 perienced hand, and an assistant, and 

 running six or eight yards. 

 WHEN QUEENS SHOULD BE CLIPPED. 



Then there is the clip-queen plan; 

 although with one yard I have never 

 found it necessary to clip. If I had 

 several yards, so that there would be 

 any likelihood of getting behind on 

 account of bad weather, or other 

 causes, bj' all means, keep all the 

 queens clipped; then if we were a few 

 days late in making our trip, so that 

 some of them swarmed, we would not 

 lose anything unless it might be some 

 queens. 



Speaking of loss of queens, reminds 

 me that bees worked on the Gill-plan, 

 for comb honey, are not in condition 

 to raise, and have queens fertilized. 

 In other words, the system does not 

 work well, unless we supply laying 

 queens in case of loss, or in making 

 increase. The old colony (brood), 

 after shaking, consumes so much time 

 developing the cells, that we have what 

 is known as after-swarming, with no 

 one present to hive the swarms. The 

 introduction of laying queens to all 

 queenless colonies, makes this part of 

 the systemjperfect. 



