PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE W. T FALCONER MANFG CO 



VOL. II. 



OCTOBER, 1892. 



NO. IO. 



Working Bees Too Hard. 



BY JOHN F. GATES. 



Bee-keeping is a good trade if un- 

 derstood, but if not well learned will, 

 like all other trades, prove a disap- 

 pointment sooner or later. There is 

 no trade or profession in these days of 

 close competition that will bring a 

 person a good living when it is care- 

 lessly learned and poorly handled. 

 Certainly bees are industrious and 

 "work for nothing and board them- 

 selves," as the saying goes, and be- 

 cause of this some bee keepers seem 

 to think that they will '• run them- 

 selves" and will need no care, the 

 only thing necessary on the part of 

 the bee-keeper being to carefully rob 

 the hives of all the honey they can 

 force the bees to make, and then try 

 to worry the bees and themselves 

 through the' winter as best they can, 

 and if they succeed somehow, they 

 write all about it. The theories 

 they put forth are simply wonderful. 

 The cobling, the worrying, the tuck- 

 ing and fussing, and a multitude of 

 things too numerous to mentiou, and 

 which a successful bee-keeper would 

 not think of doing are, they think, 

 just what wintered their bees. Then 

 they commence the season with a few 



weak and dwindled colonies, and go 

 through with a set of spring rules 

 consisting of operations and manipu- 

 lations that would paralyze a Phila- 

 delphia lawyer, and if the bees escape 

 disease they are ready to work them 

 for all they are worth until frost 

 comes, and do the same thing right 

 over all the while, thinking they are 

 bee-keepers. Friends, don't do it 

 that way; it is not the way to keep 

 bees. Don't keep one year behind all 

 the time. Don't work your bees to 

 death in the fall. There is where you 

 commence to do wrong, and so long as 

 you do it you will be behind and will 

 always be selling fall honey instead 

 of white honey. Commence in the 

 fall and catch up and then keep 

 caught up. Once you get your bees 

 strong in the fall with plenty of stores, 

 then you are ready to take advantage 

 of each flow of honey the following 

 season, and keep forehanded instead 

 uf always being a little behind. 



Bees must have plenty of honey if 

 they winter in good shape. I believe 

 that the majority of losses which the 

 bee-keepers now suffer would be done 

 away with if we would have a case of 

 sealed honey on each hive for winter 

 and every hive full besides. 



