be careful not to leave it in the hives 

 too long. Experience will teach how to 

 manage it. If the queens are very pro- 

 lific we must not put the foundation be- 

 tween the brood, otherwise this is the 

 best place. The time the foundation 

 should remain in the hive is from 12 to 

 60 hours, depending upon the strength 

 of the colony and the flow of honey. 

 This foundation after being lengthened 

 out by the bees, is cut into blocks that 

 entirely fill the honey boxes. These we 

 fasten into boxes with our wax and 

 rosin mixture. Undoubtedly most of 

 you prefer to get all the honey stored 

 directly into boxes that you can, there- 

 fore we give the above directions. 



The boxes are now ready, and should 

 be put on all strong colonies, just as 

 the honey flow developes, and before 

 the bees get discontented or idle, Six 

 or eight good colonies are reserved for 

 extracting and for the purpose of draw- 

 ing out all the foundation needed in the 

 boxes used in the balance of the api- 

 ary. If your colonies with boxes go 

 briskly to work in them, and show no 

 disposition to swarm, your object is at- 

 tained, and all you have to do is to see 

 that they have plenty to do, i. e., put on 

 boxes filled with lengthened-out foun- 

 dation as often as you can find a com- 

 pleted box. The plan of leaving on an 

 entire set till all the boxes are finished, 

 is wasteful of time and honey, and 

 sometimes breeds discontentment 

 among the bees. But if your bees get 

 the swarming fever and you find that 

 valuable time is squandered, then pro- 

 ceed as follows: We have often, with 

 good effect, hived a swarm till evening, 

 when the queen cells were cut off and 

 the swarm put back. This sometimes 

 proves effectual. If the swarm comes 

 out the second time, we remove all the 

 boxes, add foundation or sheets of comb 

 and proceed to extract them regularly. 

 In fact, we are not sure but that a 

 thorough system of extracting all the 

 colonies, is conducive of greater results 

 and less trouble than the effort to get 

 part of them to work in the boxes, with 

 loss of time caused by discontent. Our 

 extracted honey is put in tin vessels and 

 stored in a warm, dry place. 



Proceed with the above plan until 

 the flow of white honey is about ended. 

 Having provided suitable feeders, se- 

 lect as many industrious colonies as can 

 store the extracted honey into boxes. 

 The feeders we use hold about 2 quarts 

 each, and we have two styles, suitable 

 either to put on top or to screw fast to 

 the side of the hive or to the board that 

 confines the bees. 



All the frames except those contain- 

 ing brood should be removed, so that 



the extracted honey cannot be stored 

 in the body of the hive. The swarming 

 fever has its season, and at this time 

 the bees have no further inclination to 

 swarm, but seem to store with zeal, as 

 if they realized that the close of the 

 harvest was nigh. Our boxes being 

 filled with lengthened-out foundation,, 

 we put on as many as the bees can oc- 

 cupy. A quantity of our extracted 

 honey is put in a tin vessel, this vessel 

 being set into another containing water, 

 and the honey heated to about 110° 

 Fahrenheit, and water enough added to 

 make it run thin. Very much of the 

 success of the feeding in depends upon 

 getting honey of proper consistency; 

 if it is too thick, the bees will carry' it 

 very slowly. We imagine that this is 

 the cause of many a failure to feed back 

 honey to advantage. When the honey 

 is too thick, the bees cannot handle it 

 without waste both of material and 

 time. If too thin, the honey will have 

 to remain uncapped too long. The dan- 

 ger generally lies on the side of being 

 too thick. For a day or two the bees 

 will take the honey very rapidly, and it 

 should be bountifully supplied. We 

 usually feed at evening, but see no ob- 

 jection to feeding at any other time. If 

 bees are getting some honey from the 

 fields it is best to feed only at evening. 



If the honey is of proper consistency, 

 some of it will be capped in 4 to 6 days, 

 and the box honey will soon " shell out.'' 

 Of course the quality of the comb honey 

 will depend upon how neatly the ex- 

 tracted honey has been kept. If done 

 l ' decently and in order," the combs will 

 be " beautiful to behold." To keep the 

 operation moving briskly, all boxes 

 should be removed as soon as complete. d 

 As the dark honey harvest approaches 

 the boxes with white honey should be 

 consolidated on the best working colo- 

 nies, and empty boxes put on those so 

 relieved. 



At the close of the buckwheat har- 

 vest, if the weather is not too cool, the 

 feeding back can be continued. The 

 plans should be so laid that the honey 

 is all stored before the cool weather of 

 fall, as then the operation will be tedious 

 and unprofitable. 



We expect to receive criticims, doubts 

 and denunciations, but, as we know the 

 plan above described will work, we do 

 not hesitate to give it. During the sum- 

 mer of 1879 we fed in about 4,000 lbs. to 

 40 colonies, and the shrinkage did not 

 exceed the weight of the unglassed sec- 

 tions that held it. If no foundation had 

 been used we think that the shrinkage 

 would have been far greater. If the 

 feeding back is begun just as the flow 

 of honey from the fields ceases, and the 



