286 THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



that number will necessarily depend upon the operator and must be 

 determined by him. One law the bee-keeper, as a bee-keeper, should 

 set down as a law unchangeable and settled : That is, that all other 

 work and every other interest must yield to the demands of the bee 

 3'ard. If you are going- to make a real big success of your bees you 

 have to give them your best thought and then more thought, and do 

 not be satisfied until all your bees are doing their very best. 



It makes me tired sometimes when I see a bee-keeper satisfied 

 with half the crop of honey which should be his and making believe 

 that he is getting the best crop possible. The call to get more bees 

 is right. The more bees the better until the beeman has all the bees 

 he can handle, but whoever, in his ambition for numbers, fails to 

 get the best out of his bees and fails to unravel the secret by which 

 the continuous energy of bees is sustained, is hardly the successful 

 bee-keeper. 



In securing the largest possible yield — and the large yield really 

 involves no more work than the smaller one — bee-keepers have much 

 to learn yet. Neither will they learn until they dare to be, if nec- 

 essary, unconventional to think for themselves, and Xo dare to strike 

 off along new lines if necessary. What I am trying to mipress upon 

 my readers have been abundantly proven by my experience of this 

 year. 



I do not keep bees as largely now as in the past. Last spring I 

 had fifty colonies in our yard. I sold eight of these colonies, and 

 increased the remaining 42 colonies to 100 colonies, v/hich are each 

 occupying from two to three stories. I sold 17 queens and pro- 

 duced over 5,000 pounds of surplus honey, ripened and capped in 

 the hive before extracting. If you write to any of my neighbors 

 or any one in Southern Minnesota, you will find that our past season 

 has been very poor, with not exceeding half a crop of honey. En- 

 tire time occupied, about two weeks. Had I not paid due attention 

 to the uniform inspiration of my yard with energy, I would have 

 been well pleased with 50 pounds per colony. 



WHV IiARGZ: BEE-KEEFIIRS CANNOT SEIiIi THEIB HONEV. 



I have always advised the small bee-keeper to market his own 

 honey. Most of them can do it and should. By selling it them- 

 selves, I mean by other ways than wholesaling it. But the man 

 with the 300 colonies was busying himself with all his might in the 

 honey business and neglected his bees. He was doing a lot of 

 work, but he spread himself out so much, and sought to cover so 

 many things, that he left many loose ends. He sold his honey and 

 made two or three hundred dollars more upon it, but he lost his 

 bees. He had the ability to properly care for and save his bees, he 



