No. 4.] BEP: keeping. 79 



The tirst work to be clone in spring will be setting the bees 

 from the cellar to the snmmer stands. The time of doing 

 this will vary with the locality and season. If the bees are 

 uneasy in the cellar it will be well to select the first warm, 

 still day in JNlarch to set them out. If, however, they are very 

 quiet, it will be well to leave them until ten days or two weeks 

 later. The most favorable place to locate a bee yard is where 

 the soil is fertile and honey-producing ]dants abound, selecting 

 a spot where the north and west winds of spring are cut off 

 by woods, facing the hives south or east. It is quite a com- 

 fort to have some shade trees on the yard, to protect the oper- 

 ator in very hot weather, and they do not seem to lessen the 

 crop. 



If you run an up-to-date bee yard you will take advantage 

 of the first honey coming in on a warm day, when the brood 

 will not chill Avhen taken from the hive, to clip your queen's 

 wings. Half of one wing will be enough to prevent the swarm 

 from going to the woods when they swarm, and by laying a 

 piece of board from the ground to the entrance of the hive, 

 the queen may be able to return to her home if no one is pres- 

 ent to cage her and hive the swarm. 



It is a mistaken idea that all colonies of bees on a yard 

 should have the sections put on at the same time, as some of 

 the weaker ones will not be ready for them until two weeks 

 later, and you only allow the warm air to escape from the 

 brood nest just at a time when they need it most. For the 

 average bee keeper the old rule holds good : " Put on the sec- 

 tions when the bees whiten the tops of the brood combs." It 

 is a wrong idea to refrain from boxing a strong colony in 

 order to force it to swarm, as the bees clog the brood nest with 

 honey, and thereby ])revent the queen from laying her maxi- 

 mum amount of eggs, which later develop into bees that gather 

 the harvest, so that the owner gets less honey and swarms than 

 he would otherwise. One should be very watchful during the 

 honey flow to see that each colony, as it gets its set of sections 

 nearly filled, has it raised up and a second set of sections 

 placed under the first, taking off the first as soon as completed, 

 that the beauty of the comb is not spoiled by travel stain. It 



