THE BEE-ICEEPERS' REVIEW 



lOS 



corded, and the use to be made of such 

 records. First, I want to know the 

 g'eneral condition of each colony as 

 it relates to its ability to produce. 

 Second, I want to know what and 

 when anything is to be done. Third, 

 I want to know, for how much of the 

 results the queen is responsible. 



Also, I want to be able to g'O directly 

 to the colony desired, and, further, if I 

 change queens or colonies about, I 

 want to keep track of it without a lot 

 of copying or confusing change of 

 numbers. 



I reach these ends in this manner: 

 The colonies in each apiary are ar- 

 ranged in rows and each stand is num- 

 bered. The number is permanent and 

 unchanged so long as the yard is used 



order. Behind these "stand guides" 

 go the records of the queens and col- 

 onies on the stands. The record cards 

 are ruled so as to facilitate the record- 

 ing, and, to still further simplify this 

 work, and at the same time get rid of 

 any confusing symbols, I use a series 

 of numbers to denote conditions. 



HOW TO USE THE CARDS. 



I mentally group the colonies into 

 three classes, namely, "Good," "Fair," 

 "Poor." To designate these condi- 

 tions I use the numbers 1, 2 and 3. If 

 a colony is exceptionall}' good or poor, 

 I use an "X" in connection with the 

 number. That is all that it is neces- 

 sary to have on a record card to enable 

 one to tell whether or not that colony is 



TRAY FOR HOLDING CARDS. 



for bees. If one has many colonies in 

 a yard, location of numbers can be 

 made more readily if each row con- 

 tains a certain number of stands. For 

 example, 1 to 50 in the first row, the 

 second fifty in the second row, and so 

 on. Then if the rows are broken by 

 an extra space after every tenth hive, 

 it is but the matter of an instant to 

 locate any particular stand. So much 

 for the yard part of it. 



HOW TO ARRANGE THE CARDS. 



The cards to fit this arrangement are 

 fixed as follows: First there is put 

 into the tray a card bearing the name 

 of the apiary. Next there are arranged 

 a series of guides bearing numbers 

 corresponding to the stand numbers. 

 These guides are permanent in their 



to be a honey producer. I care not 

 whether a colony has 8, 9 or 10 frames, 

 or two or three sectional brood cham- 

 bers, or whether so much brood and so 

 much honey is present, I only want to 

 know the result of the combination of 

 these factors. The queens' qualities 

 are classified in the same way. 



It will be seen that by this system 

 only three numbers are used to desig- 

 nate a host of conditions, their signifi- 

 cance resting on the particular column 

 in which they appear. On the record 

 cards are put only those matters which 

 will be of permanent interest. All 

 transient matters, such as feeding, re- 

 queening, forced swarming, uniting, 

 etc., are cared for with the flag-cards. 



The "colony record" card is ruled 



