562 



can be made and stored away ; racks 

 for sections can be made ; the sections 

 themselves can be made, the starters 

 put in, and the sections put into the 

 racks, so that when the hurry of the 

 white clover or the linn season is come, 

 the labor of preparing for the surplus 

 honey will be so nearly done before- 

 hand, that a few minutes will suffice for 

 putting on the racks. 



In this shop all the fixtures for extrac- 

 ting can be arranged, and the extracting 

 can be done with the least possible 

 amount of carrying and lifting. Here, 

 too, the exLracted honey can be put into 

 kegs, cans, pails and jars for market. 

 Here the comb honey can be neatly put 

 up in crates, and stored until time to 

 send to market. By the enterprising 

 bee-keeper such a shop is needed every 

 hpur of every day. 



2. Every bee-keeper should adopt a 

 frame most suitable to his needs, then 

 have all his frames made exactly alike, 

 and have every hive so made that any 

 frame will fit instantly in any hive. Let 

 all the parts of the hives be exact in 

 measurement, so that lids or caps, 

 alighting-boards, division-boards, sur- 

 plus-honey racks, feeders, second-sto- 

 ries, are each exactly like every one of 

 its kind. Then there is no trouble or 

 fuss about fitting. When you take up 

 one of these articles for use, you are 

 confident that it will fit the place for 

 which you want it. 



3. The arrangement of hives in the 

 apiary may be so made as greatly to fa- 

 cilitate the labor. Having chosen a 

 spot with suitable exposure, put the 

 hives in groups or rows so that each hive 

 can be easily approached and conven- 

 iently manipulated. At the same time 

 give the hives such symmetrical ar- 

 rangement as will be a pleasure to the 

 eye. In arranging hives in the spring, 

 allowance of space should be made for 

 whatever increase you expect to make, 

 so that as the new colonies are made, 

 the hives need not become huddled and 

 disorderly. Let every hive be conspic- 

 uously numbered. With stencil figures 

 and black paint, this can be done easily 

 and rapidly. 



4. "Now keep a stout pocket memo- 

 randum-book, with the pages numbered 

 in order. Let each page of the book be 

 devoted to the hive of corresponding 

 number. Then any hive's record can 

 always be turned to instantly. Keep a 

 full record of each hive. First in im- 

 portance in this record is the age and 

 quality of the queen. Let this always 

 be kept in view in examining your hives. 

 If a queen is lacking in any desirable 

 qualities you soon learnit, and can su- 

 persede her. If one or more queens give 



a remarkably good record you know it, 

 and can breed your next year's queens 

 from them. In this memorandum book 

 all important items can be noted, then, 

 as the book is examined from time to 

 time, you have before you the exact his- 

 tory of every hive, and know at once 

 what work needs to be done for each — 

 number 59 needs more frames, number 

 65 needs to be extracted, the racks of 

 sections must go on numbers 13 to 46, 

 new queens must be given to numbers 

 49, 53 and 70. So the labor of each day 

 can be carefully planned and provided 

 for, and when that labor is done you 

 have the satisfaction of feeling that it 

 counts something in permanent value 

 for your apiary. 



5. Make out a full plan of each year's 

 work, and then adhere to the plan as 

 closely as the season will permit. Of 

 course the wise bee-keeper must adapt 

 himself to the conditions. If a poor sea- 

 son spoils his hopes of honey and in- 

 crease, it cannot be helped. His good 

 plans will come to naught. But finding 

 that his old plans are impossible he at 

 once studies the conditions, and adapts 

 himself to those conditions, and so turns 

 what would otherwise have been a cer- 

 tain and disastrous failure into a com- 

 parative success. How many hives 

 shall I run for comb honey, how many 

 for extracted honey, what increase shall 

 I attempt to make, how many old queens 

 shall I replace, from what colonies shall 

 the queens and the drones be reared, 

 at what time or times in the season 

 shall the increase be made ? — these and 

 numerous other questions the careful 

 bee-keeper will ask, and, having an- 

 swered them to the best of his ability, 

 he will so plan as to accomplish the de- 

 sired ends in the best way. 



6. The bee-keeper who works by sys- 

 tem will have his harvest at the end of 

 the year in the best shape. The comb 

 honey is in nice sections or boxes, stored 

 in neat crates. The extracted honey is 

 in good barrels or kegs, in tin cans, or 

 tin pails, or glass jars. Honey in this 

 shape will command the highest mar- 

 ket price. And if the producer does not 

 want to push his product upon a glutted 

 market, he has that product in such 

 shape that lie can keep it for months 

 without deterioration. It is, too, in such 

 shape that he can ship it to distant mar- 

 kets East or West, or even beyond the 

 sea, and so avoid the fierce competitions 

 in the. glutted markets of the small 

 towns in his neighborhood. 



7. This systematic bee-keeping im- 

 plies an acquaintance with what has 

 been learned by careful observers in the 

 science of bee-keeping all over the coun- 

 try. This knowledge can best be ac- 



