84 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



some new business to one in which he 

 is alread}' eng-ag-ed, which is capable 

 of absorbing- all of his, time, energies 

 and capital. Mr. S. speaks of locali- 

 ties where it would not be profitable to 

 establish out- apiaries. I suppose there 

 might be a spot where an apiary could 

 be manag-ed at a profit, yet the sur- 

 rounding country w^ould be unsuitable 

 for out-apiaries, but I think such cases 

 would be so few as to be scarcely 

 worth counting. 



Bro. S. brings up the old argument 

 that has been used so often in regard 

 to nectar going to waste, viz., that 

 apiaries ought to be established here 

 and there and everywhere, in order 

 that the nectar that would otherwise 

 be lost, might be saved. The object 

 of keeping bees is not to save nectar 

 but to make money. We don't care a 

 flip whether the nectar is gathered or 

 not. unless we can make money gather- 

 ing it. For further views on this sub- 

 ject, read the article of Mr. Krause on 

 page 77. 



How Best to Secure Rapid Increase. 



Time and again when I have urged 

 bee-keepers to keep more bees they 

 have said the}' would be glad to do so 

 if they had the bees. I wonder if bee- 

 keepers who use this argument really 

 know how many colonies can be made 

 from one in a good season — or in a 

 poor season, for that matter, if a little 

 judicious feeding is done ? I have sev- 

 eral times mentioned, in these pages, 

 how I one year, by furnishing queens 

 and foundation, built three colonies up 

 to 33, and wintered them successfully — 

 and this was done without any feed- 

 ing. There have been reports of stiU 

 greater increase, but it seems as 

 though even this amount ought to sat- 

 isfy any reasonable man. In the ma- 

 jority of instances, a bee-keeper can 

 tiike ten or a dozen colonies of bees in 

 the spring, and, by the use of all pos- 

 sible help, build them up into a good- 



sized apiary by fall. It may be well 

 to consider the best methods of doing 

 this. 



The plan that I followed was this: 

 When warm weather came, accompa- 

 nied by a honey flow, and the three col- 

 onies were populous, I took three 

 combs of bees and brood from each of 

 two colonies, and two combs from the 

 other colony, first hunting up the 

 queens to be sure that I did not remove 

 them, and put these combs of bees and 

 brood into an empty hive. Full sheets 

 of foundation were put in the places of 

 the removed combs; and a laying queen 

 given to the newly made colony. 



This plan was continued through 

 the whole season, viz., as often as 

 enough combs could be spared from 

 the colonies to make up a new colony, 

 it was made, and a laying queen given 

 it. As the bees came from several col- 

 onies, there was never any quarreling. 



So far as resules are concerned, I 

 doubt if there is a better plan. The 

 only objection is the time consumed in 

 finding the queens. In attempting 

 rapid increase, one principle must 

 ever be kept in mind, and that is, that 

 bees and queens must not be separated. 

 No queen must be left without bees to 

 care for her eggs, and no bees must be 

 left without a queen to furnish them 

 with eggs. 



Another thing, colonies must be kept 

 strong enough to work to advantae^e. 

 To illustrate: If we have two, two- 

 from nuclei, better progress will be 

 made if they be united. 



I would like sug-gestions from my 

 subscribers as to methods of making 

 rapid increase. Particularly would I 

 like to know the best plan that would be 

 desirable, and, at the same time avoid 

 as much as possible the opening of 

 hives and the finding of queens. To 

 illustrate: Suppose at the opening 

 of the season, we start queen cells, and, 

 when about ready to hatch, make up 

 nuclei, giving each a mature cell. 

 When the queens hatch, become fertile, 



