THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



remaining- in them to fly back to their 

 respective hives. When the honey-flow 

 is over, and the last extracting is to 

 be done, we wheel the supers at once 

 to the wag-on, load them on, and cover 

 them with a wag-on-cloth. It does not 

 take very long, and when our load is 

 ready, the horses are quickly hitched 

 on, and away it goes homewards. In 

 the home-yard we sometimes use 

 escape-boards, which remain on the 

 hive during the night. We do not need 

 many tools; a smoker and a chisel to 

 loosen the supers from the hives, are 

 all, and they are taken along on each 

 trip. 



One thing is important: If we give 

 freshly extracted combs (which always 

 contain more or less honey) to a col- 

 ony, some excitement is always caused, 

 and, if the honey flow is not very good, 

 even robbing- may be started by such 

 combs. To avoid this I set the supers 

 with extracted combs in piles of 10 or 

 12, about 100 3'ards from the apiary, 

 and give to each pile only one small 

 opening about large enough so that one 

 or two bees can pass. In a few hours the 

 bees will clean them out and they are 

 ready for the out-yard ag-ain. 



At present prices we have found the 

 production of bulk honey more profit- 

 able than that of section, or extracted 

 honey. Some years ago I produced 

 section honey, too, and for this pur- 

 pose I used either natural swarms as 

 strong as possible, or I made such 

 swarms artificially by shaking. 

 Other colonies, which had notswarmed, 

 I worked for extracted honey. For 

 use in out-yards, such old colonies, in 

 order to give a good honey crop in sec- 

 tions, require too much care and at- 

 tention. 



I never hired help in the apiaries. 

 During extracting time my son-in-law, 

 who is a farmer, generally helped, if 

 he had time. In this way I have man- 

 aged as many as 400 colonies; now he 

 will go into partnership with me, and 

 we intend to work 1,000 colonies. 



LABOR VERSU.S BEES. 



The most important lesson I have 

 learned by keeping bees in large num- 

 bers is, that it pays better to keep a 

 few more colonies, and avoid all the 

 extra work. Certainly, we may get a 

 smaller average crop, or we may get 

 no crop at all, from a few of the colon- 

 ies; we may even lose some colonies en- 

 tirely, that, by more work and atten- 

 tion might have been saved, but all 

 this is more than balanced by keeping 

 some more colonies. Mr. Doolittle, in 

 American Bee Journal (page 247), is 

 opposed to this. He says: "Suppose 

 that lOO colonies produce an average 

 yield of 50 pounds each of surplus 

 honey, and, by so doing, secure all the 

 nectar in a given field, year by year. 

 This makes 500 pounds surplus lioney, 

 while each of the colonies uses up 100 

 pounds, which is 10,000 pounds." 

 These 15,000 pounds are supposed to 

 be all the honey this field will give. 

 By the management-plan, 50 colonies 

 would use only 5,000 pounds, thus 

 leaving 10,000 pounds for the manager. 

 Mr. Doolittle compares this question 

 with a similar one in agriculture; and 

 says that, in England, the same 

 amount of produce is secured off one 

 acre of land as many of our Ameri- 

 cans get from three to four acres. It 

 is the dift'erence between intensive and 

 extensive farming. In England the 

 price of the land is very high, and 

 labor comparatively cheap. Much 

 capital is invested in buildings on the 

 farm and in farm animals. There the 

 intensive farming is paying best. Here 

 the land and animals are cheaper. 

 Lfittle capital is invested in farms. 

 Wages are high, and, sometimes, the 

 necessar3' help is not to be had at all. 

 Consequently, extensive farming pays 

 better here, so much so, that America 

 is nourishing Europe with wheat and 

 meat. In the same degree as the price 

 of the land is advancing, and wages 

 becoming lower, are we adopting more 

 intensive management of the farms. 



