1894. 



77/ /•; AM E UK A A B E E- 1< E E I ' /■' /.' 



" Successful Bee-Keeping. " 



»Y JNO. i'. OATES. 



It is interesting to read the many 

 articles under the caption of " Success- 

 ful Bee-Keeping." Many who follow 

 the rules and instructions given in 

 those articles meet with disappoint- 

 ment and the loss of many hard earn- 

 ed dollars. Still there is a running 

 fire kept up by writers with "Success- 

 ful bee-keeping" for their battle cry. 



Success is a choice word, and should 

 never be used in connection with any 

 scheme or plan unless the writer is 

 assured by indisputable evidence that 

 a realization of it is certain by follow- 

 ing his advice. 



"Successful bee-keeping : " That 

 means keeping them right along and 

 making money out of them. 



Do I know how to do it that way ? 

 Yes, I do, and will try and tell you so 

 plainly how to do it that you may not 

 fail. 



Bees must have as good honey to 

 winter on as they can find in the 

 fields. If we take the good honey 

 away we must not expect them to 

 winter with success. 



I know, of course, that bees have 

 been wintered on sugar, candy, and 

 buckwheat honey, and poor honey of 

 all sorts, but do all bees winter success- 

 fully on such ? Many of the boys pull- 

 ed through the siege of Andersonville 

 prison on scanty, bad food, but they 

 all didn't. 



Of the many experiments 1 have 

 tried, there is hut one plan which has 

 proved successful and practical, and 

 that is to keep bees in old-fashioned 

 box hives for breeders : taking y< ur 

 honey for market from tin 1 new 

 swarm, which such hives will casl 

 early ami will he large, changing the 



old hive to a new stand when it 

 swarms, and setting your hive for 

 surplus iu its place, thus catching 

 bees returning from the fields, and 

 preventing second swarms. 



I have practiced this with a portion 

 of my apiary, until I am convinced 

 that it is both successful, and practi- 

 cal. I take no honey from the box 

 hives, in return they give large early 

 swarms, which I put into empty hives 

 which should not be over seven or eight 

 inches in height,with queen excluders 

 on top, and having new brood comb- 

 each year, the honey will not be 

 travel stained, you will have honey so 

 white it will command the highest 

 price. There has not been a year so 

 poor that such swarms did not store a 

 large surplus, while at the same time 

 I was bothered to get bees to work in 

 their sections on the old plan. 



By putting on sections when first 

 hived, the large swarms ascend at 

 once and fill them, and the bee-keeper 

 has no idle, or sulky bees, don't have 

 to keep removing cases from old to 

 new colonies, has no half filled sec- 

 tions on account of swarming, has but 

 one set of hives to see to, and not 

 much to do to them only to put on 

 cases as required. 



And success in selling white honey 

 makes one glad. 



How nice to be asked if you have 

 any more honey as nice as that? No 

 travel stained honey, cases all full, af- 

 ter taking oil* cases, and if you have 

 enough bees, then turn the small 

 hive- over the large ones, thus unit- 

 ing them, and leave them there all 

 winter, in the spring, remove the 

 small hives, extract the honey ami 

 prepare them for use, using the comb 

 lor wax, for your small hives must be 



