For the American Bee Journal. 



Plenty of Bees : Plenty of Honey. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



In order to get box honey we must 

 have plenty of bees in our hives when 

 the honey season arrives, or a failure is 

 almost certain, as those reared as the 

 season draws to a close will be consum- 

 ers instead of producers. But how shall 

 we get the bees '? is a question frequently 

 asked. We will tell you how to get 

 them : When pollen becomes plenty — 

 say, the 10th of May in this latitude — 

 we go to each hive, and if the bees will 

 bear spreading a little more without 

 danger of chilling the brood, take a 

 frame of honey from the outside of 

 the cluster, and break the sealing by 

 passing a knife flatwise over it, and 

 place it in the center of the brood-nest. 

 In ten days go over them again, and so 

 on until settled warm weather comes in 

 June, then go over them every four or 

 live days, putting one frame in the cen- 

 ter each time, and you will find the 

 queen will till it every lor 5 days, besides 

 keeping all the empty cells filled which 

 are daily vacated by maturing brood. 

 By the 25th of June every available cell 

 should be tilled with brood, and the hive 

 full of bees. By this time white clover 

 is at its height, and all the boxes should 

 be put on, if not already on. We like 

 to put on boxes when the hive is so full 

 of brood, and the bees so anxious for 

 some place to put honey that they will 

 commence work in the boxes at once. 



Gallup gave us the secret years ago in 

 the American Bee Journal, when he 

 said : " Get the bees and they will get 

 the honey, if there is any to be had." 

 Keep an eye to business and do things 

 at the right time, if you wish success. 

 If we wait about putting on boxes when 

 our bees have arrived at the condition 

 we have supposed them to be in on June 

 25th, and we should have but a few days 

 honey yield, we will get nothing. It'is 

 no unusual thing to secure from 6 to 10 

 lbs. of box honey from a colony per day, 

 if you have your hive full of brood and 

 bees and honey is plenty in the flowers. 

 Now we will suppose that instead of 

 spreading the brood as given above, we 

 let our bees take care of themselves, 

 leaving weak colonies unprotected, and 

 if any bees have died during the winter 

 we leave their stores for the bees to carry 

 away. After carrying off this they will 

 be apt to rob out week colonies, and thus 

 their combs will be tilled with honey 

 instead of brood. Soon the willows 

 blossom, then the apple trees, and thus 

 the hive is kept full of honey. Too 

 much stores in May and June will just 



as surely spoil the colony for box honey 

 as to let them starve. There is no such 

 thing as having the combs full of honey 

 during the fore part of the season, and 

 then getting boxes filled with clover 

 honey, for where would the bees come 

 from to gather said honey ? 



E. Gallup said in the American Bee 

 Journal, page 6, vol. 4: "We must 

 never allow the bees to get in advance 

 of the queen, for if we do the prosperity 

 of the colony is checked at once ; that 

 is, if the bees are allowed to till the 

 combs with honey in the spring, before 

 the queen has filled them with brood, 

 the colony will be an unprofitable one." 

 Honey cannot be obtained without bees. 

 Our 9 Gallup frames give us 45,000 work- 

 er bees every 21 days, and a queen that 

 is good for anything, worked on the 

 plan given in this article, will keep the 

 frames full of brood after they are once 

 full, till the honey season draws to a 

 close, providing the boxes are put on at 

 the proper time ; but give the same 

 queen 5,000 bees, and these old ones or 

 field-workers, and they will keep the 

 combs so filled with honey that no sur- 

 plus will be obtained. If our hives con- 

 tain 5,000 bees on the 1st of May, with 

 10 lbs. of honey, they are what we call 

 extra good colonies. Now. if we should 

 give them what honey or syrup they 

 could carry during the month of May, 

 instead of using up the 10 lbs., we would 

 have about 5,000 bees in our hives all 

 summer. Thus it will be seen it is bees 

 we want in our hives the fore part of 

 the season, instead of honey. 



If, by the process given, our bees run 

 short of stores, of course we must feed 

 them, and money thus spent in feeding 

 will return a large interest, if the sea- 

 son is anything like favorable. 



When boxes are filled take them off 

 before they are soiled, and put empty 

 boxes having a starter of nice white 

 comb in their places, and thus you will 

 avoid the difficulty so often experienced, 

 of getting bees to work in a secend set 

 of boxes after a full set has been taken 

 off. As the season draws to a close, 

 place the unfinished sections together, 

 and as near the brood as possible, con- 

 tracting the amount of box room to suit 

 their number, and thus you will get 

 most of your honey in a salable form. 



Again another season draws to a close, 

 and this is the last one of the articles 

 we promised you for the season 1880. 

 We hope they may have been of some 

 practical value to some, and if so. we 

 are content. We rejoice that we are to 

 have a weekly American Bee Jour- 

 nal for 1881, and we shall try to show 

 our appreciation by writing for its col- 



