202 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



shares, the owners would call upon me 

 so frequently that it would amount to 

 the same thing, but with less pay. My 

 work is also slightly increased, be- 

 cause in the past I have bought and 

 sold bees; selling bees in uniform 

 hives, and buying in most any kind. 

 Thus, in the last eight years, I have 

 sold about a thousand dollars worth nf 

 bees, and have bought perhaps four 

 hundred dollars worth. 



In selecting my 3'ards, I consider as 

 among the essential things, conven- 

 ience, place for wintering, location of 

 yard, pasturage, and whether yards 

 are so situated that I can reach each 

 one from the last yard with the least 

 possible delay in driving. 



To begin, I will start with my first 

 work in the spring, and run through 

 the season in a general way until I 

 finally return them to the cellar again, 

 and forget that I have them until the 

 next spring. 



AN IMPORTANT POINT IN SKTTING BKKS 

 OUT IN THE SPRING. 



I am never in any hurr^' to put my 

 bees out in the spring; usually I wait 

 for the first flowers to appear before I 

 start. I commence with the larger 

 yards first, especially those so situated 

 as to get the most early bloom. In 

 carrying them out, I place the first col- 

 onies in as widely different parts of 

 the yard as possible, and graduallj^ 

 fill in the vacant places. This I do 

 mostly in order that the bees of the 

 first hives may cool down after their 

 first mad rush of flight before their near 

 neighbors are placed on their stand 

 and take theirs. In this wa}' as the 

 bees take their first flight and return, 

 their own hive is the busy one, and 

 they seldom fail to enter it. After the 

 bees of a yard are all on their stands 

 I run over them to equalize their stores. 

 This will not take over half an hour 

 for a yard of 75 colonies or more; as 

 many hives need little or nothing done 

 to them. This constitutes all the work 



at the first visit, so I oass on to the 

 next yard. In about six da3's my bees 

 are all out and all busy. 



About two weeks after putting out 

 my first lot of bees I go over them again 

 to see if each colony has a laying 

 queen; and this time I expect to leave 

 each hive with plenl}' of stores to run it 

 through the uncertainties of spring. 

 If there is a shortage of hone3' in the 

 yard, I feed the bees sugar syrup made 

 by mixing the best granulated sugar 

 with an equal weight of water. 



According to my experience, it is 

 doubtful economy to give bees syrup 

 from cheap sugars at any time of the 

 year, and poor honey is worse still. I 

 feed them what they need as rapidly 

 as possible. 



After the bees ha>'e all passed their 

 examination and have all the stores 

 they need and are put in as good 

 shape as possible, I do very little to 

 them until it is necessary to put on 

 second stories. I have been, with 

 average hindrance from weather, four 

 or five days doing the above work. 



SPREADING OF BROOD UNPROFITABLE. 



I am ver3' careful, while doing this 

 work, to expose the brood as little as 

 possible and to leave the brood nest in 

 its natural condition. Spreading brootl 

 is alwas a dangerous operation in our 

 Northern climate with its continual 

 tendancies to cool spells and backsets, 

 until even late in the spring, and, be- 

 sides, where brood is spread so that 

 the bees can scarcely save it, the heat 

 ot the brood nest is so lowered as 

 greatly to retard the development of 

 the brood, so that, after all, the gain 

 is only apparent. 



During the dandelion season I again 

 visit all my yards, and where ever I 

 find colonies becoming crowded with 

 bees I put on their second stories, 

 which means a hive similar to the one 

 they are in, and, of course, filled with 

 combs. This time I really would 

 have but little to do, as it is only a 

 short matter to place the second stories 



