JULY 15, 1914 



should always be stult'ed with grass, tight 

 enough .so tliat it will take three or four 

 days for the bees to clear it. This prevents 

 the bees from deserting the brood and re- 

 turning to the parent stand. This new 

 colony will, as soon as the queen gets to 

 laying', be on a par with the old colonies. 

 The bees of that colony will not have any 

 desire to swarm during the season, and 

 should produce as much honey as the aver- 

 age colony in the yard. The reason why tlie 

 original colonies do not swarm when treated 

 in this way is that, by removing the brood, 

 the strength is somewhat reduced, which no 

 doubt has a bearing; but the principal cause 

 is that there is vacant comb in the center of 

 the brood-nest, which place it is always the 

 desire of the bees to have fUled with brood 

 before desiring- to swarm. There is also the 

 further reason that, having a great amount 

 of unsealed brood in the hive, the bees are 

 not in condition to desert so nuicli unsealed 

 brood. 



If this method is followed out carefully 

 when the honey-flow begins in earnest it is 

 possible to have every colony in the yard, 

 both new and old, of almost ecjual strength, 

 which is something that all practical apia- 

 rists desire. It might also be stated that the 

 weak colonies should also be built up with 

 the aid of the brood that is taken from the 

 strong- ones. 



In conclusion I will say that the foregoing 

 is but an outline. The locality, time of 

 honey-flows, and the desires of the apiarist, 

 will in each case have a bearing as to just 

 vvhat results are obtained. In the average 

 apiary in the North where the honey-fluv/ 

 commences about the first of July, if t!ie 

 object is to secure the greatest amount of 

 honey possible, after building up the full 

 quota of weak colonies that are found in the 

 average apiary, making an increase of 50 

 per cent is about the proper amount. The 



AuLi'Uste MalaeliciW-ski Imiii- a sw.iiin 



great advantage of this sytem is that in all 

 stages the queens have an opportunity to 

 work at their full capacity, and are not 

 confined or restricted to laying in a comb or 

 two as are queens in small nuclei, and this 

 advantage also applies to what the bees 

 themselves are capable of doing. It is a 

 well-known fact that an average colony of 

 bees capable of gathering its full quota of 

 surplus nectar, if split into two divisions, 

 is capable of making only a living, and the 

 surplus received is nothing. 



A NOVICE IN A BEE CAMP 



Beekeepinij is clean,, clever, humaniiiufi. open-air irork. 



r.Y D. M. THOilSOX 



[Mr. Thomson, the writer of the following article, is one of the men whom we sent down to Apalachi- 

 cola to help Mr. Marchant last winter. As he says, the experience was quite new to him; but, like the true 

 Scotchman that he is, he looked upon the somewhat wild manner of living in a philo.sophioal manner, and 

 was not easily disturbed by the bees nor by the " snake which .slept in the loft." — Ed.] 



Novice, beloved of all beekeepers through- 

 out the country, probably indorses the above 

 motto. So does the writer, hence his novi- 

 tiate. 



On a freezing cold day in February this 

 novice boarded a train in Medina, Ohio, 

 bound for the sunny South. The thermom- 



eter was low, but his sj^irits were high, for 

 he was going to participate in the greatest 

 venture of modern times in the whole wioe 

 bee world. 



Time was when travel was a great adven- 

 ture; but in these days of warm and luxu- 

 rious Pullman cars no one need venture to 



