1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



337 



should be — and trusts to his supposed 

 better judgement. 



Want of super space to the bee- 

 keeper is equivalent to a want of for- 

 age by the milk producer ; both have 

 the chance of making a fair profit, but 

 owing to the above failure they make 

 a wreck of their undertaking. For 

 myself, although I want a hive so 

 made as to be capable of holding an 

 indefinite number of supers, yet their 

 is another side even to this opposed 

 view of the question of super space, 

 and that is over-doing it, or giving a 

 colony too great an amount of the 

 same. Although we don't find quite 

 so many erring in this direction, yet 

 there are hundreds who seem to fancy 

 that no matter how much room is giv- 

 en the bees they can fill the same. 

 What is the consequence ? The bees 

 either fail to •' go up " in the supers 

 at all or just store a little honey here 

 and a little there, rarely finishing — in 

 the case of sectional supers — a single 

 section properly. I have often been 

 inquired of why the sections were not 

 sealed over properly, or why were they 

 so light in weight? — these quiries us- 

 ually being accompanied with the in- 

 formation, " I have followed up the 

 advice given in your book upon bee- 

 keeping and have " tiered-up well." 

 Yes, they have " tiered up" with a 

 vengeance ! Except in bad seasons 

 the obove result is attained by giving 

 more room than the requirements of 

 the bees necessitate. There is a hap- 

 py medium, a knowledge of which can 

 only be gained by experience ; yet a 

 little timely information given by 

 "old hands" will help the novice 

 very considerably, and save a deal of 

 the lost time which would surely ac- 

 crue if these things had to be ferreted 

 out without any such help. 



Much remains to be learned in bee- 

 keeping even by those who are regard- 

 ed as being au fait in the business. 

 One might ask. Why is it that where- 

 as one colony in an apiary will fill a 

 single super, eyen to the last section, 

 without swarming out, although but a 

 single super was given them, and yet 

 the next colony will swarm before 

 their super is two-thirds completed, 

 and so upset all the calculations of the 

 bee-keeper ? Well, 1 don't know. 

 The "why and wherefore" will be 

 found out by someone at some time, 

 no doubt ; and when that knowledge 

 is gained it will become quite an easy 

 matter to know just when to put the 

 super on or augment the number al- 

 ready on. For my own part, I find 

 that if their is an appearance of laxity 

 of work in the morning, (a fine day, 

 of course, when the flow is on), coup- 

 led with the knowledge that the super 

 is well filled with comb and crowded 

 with bees during the middle of the 

 day, it is quite time to add another 

 super under that already on. This 

 has, to me, been the most successful 

 indication for many years past ; yet 

 even this is far from satisfactory in- 

 formation to the beginner, who will in 

 the majority of cases fail to properly 

 discriminate between the lax and en- 

 ergetic bee-work. Knowledge of how 

 to differentiate between the two, will, 

 however, come very quickly to those 

 who closely observe and take an un- 

 limited interest in his little depend- 

 ents ; they will soon " twig ' ' the rap- 

 id business-like outward " whir" of 

 the forage with the heavy sluggish 

 movement of the incomer and the ab- 

 sence of the " hanger-on " perambulat- 

 ing the alighting board or surround- 

 ing the enti-ance. Yes, I rub my 

 hands with glee when I see that rock- 

 et-like rush straight from the very 

 opening of the entrance of the busy 

 forage bee — " there'^^ lion^y (ond mon- 

 ey, too) in it." — W. B. Webster, 

 Binfield, Berks. 



