VOL. I. 



MfVRGtt, 1891. 



NO. 3. 



Plenty off Bees, Plenty off 

 Honey. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



As the season of the year, in which 

 we must prepare our bees for the har- 

 vest, will soon be at hand, I thought 

 an article on the above subject would 

 not be amiss at this time. In order 

 to make a success in working for sec- 

 tion honey, we must have plenty of 

 bees in our hives when the honey sea- 

 son arrives, or a failure is almost cer- 

 tain, as those reared when the season 

 is drawing to a close, will be consum- 

 ers instead of producers. But how 

 shall we secure the bees ? is a quesiion 

 frequently asked. The best way that 

 I know of, after years of trial of near- 

 ly all the plans which have ever been 

 recommended, is the following: when 

 polleu becomes plenty, say the tenth 

 to the twentieth of May in this local- 

 ity, I go to each hive, and if the bees 

 will bear spreading a little more, or in 

 other words, if there appears to be 

 more bees than are needed to cover 

 the brood they already have, on a cool 

 morning, I take a frame of honey from 

 the outside of the cluster, and break 

 the sealing by passing a knife flatwise 

 over it, and place it in the center of 

 the brood-nest. In ten days I go over 

 them again in this same way, alwavs 



seeing that they have all the honey 

 and bees that are needed to increase the 

 brood to the greatest possible extent, 

 and so I keep on doing until settled 

 warm weather comes in June, when I 

 go over them every four or five days, 

 putting one frame in the center each 

 time, and I find that the queen will 

 fill this frame every four or five days, 

 besides keeping all the empty cells 

 filled, which are daily vacated by 

 maturing brood. By the 25th of June 

 every available cell should be filled 

 with brood, and the hive full of bees, 

 if we are to expect the best results 

 from our field. By this time white 

 clover is at its height and all the sec- 

 tions should be on, if not there already. 

 One of our noted bee-keepers once 

 said : *' Get the bees and they will get 

 the honey, if there is any to be had," 

 and a more truthful sentence was nev- 

 er uttered. Keep an eye to business 

 and do things at the right time if you 

 wish success. If we wait about put- 

 ting on the sections when our bees 

 have arrived at the condition I have 

 supposed them to be on June 25th, as 

 many do, thinking that the putting on 

 of the sections retards swarming, and 

 there should be but a few days honey 

 yield, we would get nothing. It is no 

 unusual thing to secure from six to 



