THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



and money can be saved by a little 

 " wholesome neglect" is as ti'ue in 

 the management of bees as the 

 wise mother found it to be in the 

 management of her children. In 

 canvassing the question : what the 

 venerable Jasper Hazen called 

 " the field " has a most import- 

 ant bearing upon the subject as to 

 whether the most profit can be 

 realized by putting the brain and 

 labor with fifty colonies or any 

 given larger number. Some of the 

 very best locations in the country 

 for comb honey are found where the 

 honey must be stored within a very 

 few weeks or not at all. Success 

 in such locations depends upon the 

 most careful manipulation and 

 timely attention. At this time it 

 will not do to neglect, and I have 

 found that a hive on the scales, a 

 good one selected for the purpose, 

 to be the best signal. Rapid work 

 is demanded when it shows a gain 

 of seventeen pounds in a day as I 

 have known it to do here ; when 

 it goes down to four or five pounds, 

 less interference is far better, and 

 when it begins to go below that, 

 management looking to completion 

 of sections already on and closing 

 up instead of adding to the hives new 

 ones is indicated as the true policy. 

 Rapid increase of the number 

 of colonies is incompatible with 

 large productions of honey as a 

 rule. That swarming can be in a 

 great measure controlled, I have 

 to my own satisfaction demon- 

 strated. Nothing can be more 

 discouraging to one who depends 

 on hone}^ rather than the sale of 

 bees for profit, than to have bees 



get into what'is called a swarming 

 fever. 



Now the question so often raised 

 by Mr. Hazen as to the capacity of 

 "the field" has never been defi- 

 nitely settled. Friend Doolittle 

 long ago urged the importance of 

 having the colonies brought up to 

 the very highest point of effective- 

 ness at the moment the honey flow 

 began. This practice Mr. Hazen 

 knew nothing of and it has an im- 

 portant bearing upon the subject. 



Very many like the writer are 

 situated so that increase of num- 

 bers is not desirable. Occupying 

 the field we have, we do not want 

 to sell bees in our own neighbor- 

 hood to lessen our own supplies. 



It has never been definitely set- 

 tled how many bees can be kept 

 to the square mile even in the best 

 honey regions, with a liberal stor- 

 age of surplus. 



One thousand colonies might 

 live and thrive, but with no surplus 

 where one hundred would give a 

 ver}^ large surplus if managed 

 properly. Now, if honey produc- 

 tion be the object, most assuredly 

 Professor Hasbrouck errs in the 

 belief that the bees can manage 

 swarming more cheaply than we 

 can do it for them. Why, this last 

 year I took two hundred pounds 

 of comb honey from a colony which 

 swarmed after nicely beginning 

 work in sections. Now, judgino- 

 by past experience, I should not 

 have fifty pounds of surplus had I 

 not made one of the two very 

 powerful. I did it by taking five 

 or six sheets of brood to the new 

 swarms from the old hives and 



