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THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



honey house and shop, as well as a big-, 

 solar, extracting- outfit, and everything 

 in the way of equipment that has to do 

 with all work that is possible to do at 

 home. It matters not whether it is ex- 

 tracted, or comb honey, all comes home 

 as soon as it comes off the hive, to be 

 extracted, cleaned and cased— all such 

 work is done at home. I have been 

 keeping- from 50 to 150 at each yard 

 and aim at about lOO, usually. Rob- 

 bing is worse where g-reat numbers 

 are kept in one place, I think the 

 averag-e field will be better worked by 

 100 than by a greater number. I am 

 now planning- to use the home-yard 

 more as a nursery and hospital than 

 for anything else; it is the best place 

 to care for foul brood, to build up 

 nuclei, rear queens, etc. "When at the 

 out-yards I find any colony that needs 

 special care for any reason I just 

 bring it in when coming home; and, 

 likewise, when the home apiary be- 

 comes too full, just haul out from time 

 to time as trips are made to out-yards. 

 A fine way to make increase is to bring 

 in from the out-yards a few bees in a 

 cage made specially for such work, 

 and if you have queens, either out or at 

 home, they can be dropped into these 

 cages, and all hived into such hives as 

 you wish, and you have a nucleus and 

 a queen introduced, and all will "stay 

 put." In like manner, nuclei may be 

 formed at home and taken to out-yards 

 to grow to full colonies. 



The great majority of writers do not 

 write from the standpoint of bee-keep- 

 ing as a special and exclusive business, 

 hence the common advice to increase 

 by natural swarming is not good— 

 rather is not practical. Until a man 

 is capable of making increase, doing 

 it ivcll, by division and the nucleus 

 plan, he is not capable of handling, 

 successfully, either a large apiary or 

 several apiaries. It is one of the 

 essentials to the successful handling of 

 bees, "and, above all, of out-yards, 

 that, barring crop failures^when there 



is not flow enough to build up nuclei 

 or swarms, that the apiarist has the 

 increase matter at his option and com- 

 mand. Out-yards must be handled in 

 such a waythat they do not have to have 

 a man constantly with them in the 

 swarming season, and this brings up 

 the swarming-problem; but, before dis- 

 cussing this, let us speak of the ques- 

 tion as to whether we produce comb or 

 extracted. 



WHETHER TO PRODUCE COMB OR EX- 

 TRACTED HONEY. 



As before stated, I extract at home, 

 and, so far as the yards are concerned, 

 they are simply a place to keep the 

 bees; and for convenience in storing 

 supplies I like to have a small shanty 

 at each one, and it is best if they can 

 be bee-tight. After extracting, the 

 combs can be stored there, and this 

 does not require so much room at home 

 nor so much insurance against fire— 

 the eggs are not all in one basket. 

 Hauling everything to the home house, 

 it matters not whether you produce 

 one or the other, that depends on your 

 likes and dislikes and on your market 

 —I produce both. The maindifference 

 comes in about that swarming ques- 

 tion; it is quite a little easier to control 

 swarming if extracted is produced, 

 but that also is a matter in which the 

 apiarist must be ahead of the bees, and 

 be able to master the situation. If you 

 produce extracted, there will be 

 swarming enough to seriously cut the 

 profits; and running for comb it cuts a 

 little harder; that matter must be at 

 the option of the apiarist. 



CONTROL OF SWARMING 



is the greatest problem, or possibly, I 

 may say is oue of the greatest. While 

 swarming is a large matter, to know 

 how to get the best work and the most 

 of it is big also; to succeed in both, 

 means thas we must know bee nature. 

 To attempt to control swarming by 

 giving room when producing extracted 

 will not be a success, and to use the 



