660 



GLEANINGvS IN BEE CULTURE. 



vSept. 15. 



and waniith of the colony require. Then 

 while every condition is on the ascending 

 scale, when the brood is clear up to the top- 

 bars, is just the time to put on the first super, 

 the next super being put on when the same 

 condition is reached again, never allowing the 

 bees to quite reach the zenith of their ambition. 



As a proof that there is scarcely any limit to 

 strong colonies so managed I will say that I 

 have five colonies (four of which did not 

 swarm, and one that was made by uniting two 

 first swarms) among ni}' bees, and they are 

 now worlcing in their eighth super, or 40 

 .supers for the five colonies. 



In this apiary are 117 colonies, about 40 of 

 which have a 10-frame capacity. Now, isn't 

 it provoking that only one of the five is a 

 10-framer, and four of them just the common 

 8-frame Dovetailed hives? But, vou know, 



comb-builders who will teach them by example 

 that there is something in this world to do. 



While traveling among the bee-keepers in 

 the capacity of foul-brood inspector, I am 

 often asked this question : " Gill, why do my 

 bees hang out so?" and upon examination I 

 find the bottoms nailed on tight, and the 

 entrance-blocks turned the long way, and 

 nailed to the entrance, and the liive standing 

 out in the hot sun, with no shade whatever. 

 Why should any sane man ask such a question, 

 under those conditions ? Wh)-, I had rather 

 set a hive up on stilts, and take the bottom 

 clear off ; and I sometimes do, for I go after 

 my bees with mighty heroic treatment some- 

 times in order to break up these habits, for 

 bees are not unlike us men who know it is 

 very hard to leave off ruinous and bad habits 

 when once thev are well formed. 



M. A. GILL IN HIS A I 



Josh Billings said, " Never argy agin success," 

 so I won't ; but you may if you want to. 



But if a colon}' gets a lot of sealed honey 

 between the brood and top-bars, and gets the 

 corners and sides of the hive well stored with 

 sealed honey, and has been given so small an 

 entrance that it has coDipeUed them to learn 

 to hang out, you may put on supers, give bait 

 sections, uncap honey, etc., but they won't 

 prosper. You know Billings said, " If a man 

 gits a start down hill, it seems as if the whole 

 world is greased for the occasion;" and the 

 colony mentioned above seems to be in the 

 same condition, although Nature's storehouse 

 is running over with sweetness. The only 

 way I can successfully break the habit is to 

 exchange this colony's super for one from a 

 colony that has a super well occupied with 



Other people say to me, ' ' I wish you would 

 tell me why my bees tCf;/Vgointo the supers;" 

 and on inquiry I find that a colony in an 8- 

 frame hive has been allowed to swarm perhaps 

 three times; the first swarm has been allowed 

 to get into that clogged condition above men- 

 tioned, the parent colony has not yet rallied 

 from the drain upon it, and the other two 

 swarms are not 3'et strong enough to go above. 

 As Edwin Bevins says in the last issue of the 

 American Bee Journal, "Another fool ques- 

 tion. Why do people expect bees to occupy 

 supers until the conditions in the brood-nest 

 and the strength of the colony warrant it ? " 

 All such men should follow the adnce of 

 Moses Ouinby, when he says, "Confine your 

 experience to pecks of bees instead of pints." 

 Years ago I did a great deal of dividing, but 



