178 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



I had in my yard a number of col- 

 onies ou eight frames each, the frames 

 being 7 inches deep by 16| inches 

 long. This gave to each of these col- 

 onies just .SOU square inches of comb. 

 They were not fed an ounce or re-en- 

 forced with frames of brood or honey, 

 and they never saw more than h>00 

 inches of comb at any time in their 

 lives. Now for results : One colony, 

 blacks, stored 72 pounds of bass- 

 wood in sections in two weeks ; an- 

 other stored and capped 48 pounds 

 and filled another . super of 24 sec- 

 tions about half full during the same 

 time ; another gave 48 pounds and 

 others all the way down from those 

 figures to nothing. The advocates of 

 large hives will say that I would have 

 had a much larger crop if 1 had used 

 larger hives and raised more field bees. 

 But I wouldn't have had any crop at 

 all. In the same yard with the small 

 hives stood a dozen hives of 1250 

 square inches comb capacitj^. These 

 received the same care as the small 

 hives, but they gave me practically 

 nothing, and two 10-frame L hives 

 gave me a bushel of bees, each, but 

 not a pound of hoiie3\ The colonies 

 in the small hives placed themselves 

 in splendid conditiou for winter, but 

 those in the large hives would have 

 been short of stores had there not 

 been a fair flow of nectar a short time 

 before frost. 



The colonies mentioned above as 

 giving such good returns were not 

 new swarms, but old colonies that had 

 been wintered in the small brood- 

 chambers. The season was so poor 

 that new swarms barely filled their 

 frames with comb and honey. 



Now if I were compelled to use a 

 brood-chamber of a fixed size the year 

 around, I would want it to contain 

 1200 or 1400 square inches of comb, 

 but nothing would tempt me to use 

 such a hive in Iowa. When the 

 spring is favorable it is no very diffi- 

 cult matter to have a double storj^ of 

 my hive nearly full of bees and brood 

 at the beginning of the honey har- 



vest. Then if a swarm issues, as is 

 very apt to be the case, it is hived ou 

 starters of foundation in a single 

 brood-chamber, a queen-excluder and 

 the sections are placed in position, the 

 new swarm placed on the old stand, 

 all the bees shaken out of the mother 

 colony that can be spared and the 

 work is done. After such treatment 

 the mother colony is not inclined to 

 cast a second swarm and in a short 

 time its bees may be crowded into a 

 single story and given a case of sec- 

 tions. The spare combs may be given 

 to a colon}' that is being run for ex- 

 tracted honey. 

 Audubon, Iowa. 



Profiting by experience. Success 



in bee-keeping under adverse 



circumstances. 



A. C. TVRKELL. 



Friend Alley : This date (Oct. 16, 

 1890) finds us at the close of the lion- 

 et' season in Nebraska, but little more 

 to be done in the apiary except to 

 tuck the l)ees snugly under warm quilts 

 for their long winter's nap. 



If we have not been able to add to 

 their stock of knowledge we are con- 

 firmed in our belief as to the proper 

 methods to adopt to produce the best 

 results in our own locality. 



As was the case last year we have 

 had to contend with drought and the 

 serious diawbacks incident thereto ; 

 but profiting by experience and knowl- 

 edge gleaned in former dry seasons, 

 and by cultivating various honey 

 plants, I am happy to report that in 

 consequence thereof I have been so 

 fortunate as to take up more than 

 three times as much lione}' per working 

 colony as any beekeeper in the state 

 judging fiom reports made at a sort 

 of experience meeting held at the 

 state fair at Lincoln, Sept. 10. I 

 will not again weary your readers with 

 a long essay concerning the benefits 

 to be derived by preparing pasturage 



