THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



53 



qniring the labor of tweiit^' men to 

 harvest it, hires tlie same two 

 weel<s previous to the time the 

 wlieat is ripe? Again, if our bees 

 are weak in the spring and we do 

 not get them ready for the harvest 

 until after the harvest is over, they 

 become merely consumers instead 

 of producers or worse than useless. 

 It would be like the man hiring 

 his twent}^ men to harvest his 

 wheat after it had become rijje and 

 spoiled on the ground. When 

 shall we learn to use common sense 

 in regard to bees as we do in other 

 things? Thus it will be seen that 

 to be the most successful we must 

 have a full force of bees just in 

 the right time to take advantage 

 of the harvest. In order to do 

 this we must stud}' our locality and 

 know the time our honey-produc- 

 ing flowers open, and thus we shall 

 gain a knowledge that will enable 

 us to reap a rich harvest Next 

 to a knowledge of our locality 

 comes the queen. No pains should 

 be spared along the line of improv- 

 ing our stock, by getting the best 

 race of bees, and the best queen 

 of the race we have selected as 

 best for the whole of beekeeping 

 centres upon her. Witiiout a queen 

 it would be impossible to produce 

 a pound of honey, and just in pro- 

 portion to the good qualities of our 

 queens, is our number of pounds 

 of surplus honej' assured. Hence 

 it becomes apparent that the bet- 

 ter the queen is the more honey we 

 obtain. It should always be borne 

 in mind that to secure a good yield 

 of honey we must have plenty of 

 vigorous bees at tlie right time, and 

 in no way can these be obtained 

 except through a good vigorous 

 queen. Without the bees, the flow- 

 ers would bloom in vain as far as 

 honey in our hives is concerned. 

 We also want to know the age at 

 which bees go into the fields for 

 hone}', when the colony is in a 

 normal condition, in order that in 



all of our manipulations with them 

 we may get bees of the proper age 

 in each hive. After many careful 

 experiments I find that the bee is 

 in the egg form about three daj's, 

 in the larva form about six da^'s, 

 and in the chrysalis form about 

 twelve days, making a period of 

 twenty-one days from the egg to 

 the perfect bee. After hatching, it 

 is sixteen days before the bee goes 

 into the fields as a honey gatherer, 

 making in all a period of thirt}'- 

 seven days from the Qg'^ to the field 

 laborer. If this be true, and I be- 

 lieve it is, it will be seen that if we 

 would reap the best results, we must 

 have our hives full of brood, even to 

 overflowing, at least that length of 

 time before the harvest, and that 

 all manipulatingat this time of year 

 must be done in such a manner 

 that the proper amount of bees, of 

 the right age, be secured to each 

 colony or swarm made by division, 

 or otherwise. The last of which I 

 shall speak at this time, yet by no 

 means the least, is the apiarist. 

 Upon his skill depends the matter 

 of whether the investing in bees 

 shall be profitable or not. While 

 a knowledge of a location, plenty 

 of bees of a vigorous race, lots of 

 brood in season, and a good hive, 

 have verv much to do with the re- 

 sults of beekeeping, still the man 

 has much more to do with a suc- 

 cess or failure. Do men buy choice 

 stock of any kind and let them 

 take care of themselves expecting 

 a profit from them ? No ; they 

 spare no pains to have them prop- 

 erly cared for and give them every 

 chance in their power that tends 

 toward a success. Yet those same 

 men will expect a large income 

 from bees, on the grounds that they 

 have them of a good breeder, and 

 in a good hive, without doing any- 

 thing for them once in six months. 

 The idea that " bees work for 

 nothing and board themselves " 

 must be banished from our thoughts 



