20 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



January, 1917 



OUT-APIARY MANAGEMENT 



Something to Do E-very Month in the 

 Year, and What That Something Is 



Edgar Williams 



IN the fall of 

 1915 I had 500 

 colonies in six 

 yards. Mr. Wat- 

 ers who helped 

 me had another 

 yard, of 100 colo- 

 nies. Counting the . 

 increase we now have nearly 700 colonies. 

 We do practically all the work, altho when- 

 ever we have a large crop of honey we 

 have to have some help. Four years ago we 

 produced $2500 worth of honey from 200 

 colonies; the year following, $3600 worth 

 from a little moi'e than 300- The season 

 of 1914 was the poorest I have seen since 

 I kept bees. There was no early honey 

 and the crop was light, so that we sold only 

 $1200 worth from 333 colonies. The year 



1915 was also poor; but we did better, 

 selling $2200 worth from 400 colonies. In 



1916 the crop will bring at least $4500 

 from about 425 colonies, besides making 

 up winter loss and increasing to a total of 

 550 colonies. The above figures include 

 only my own bees. Mr. Waters has sold, 

 the present year, over $800 from his. We 

 aim to keep busy thruout the year. The 

 following is a brief outline of our work in 

 tlie different months. 



JANUARY 



Two or three weeks of this month are 

 spent in working was. I think every bee- 

 keeper who has 100 colonies or more should 

 make his own foundation. We make, be- 

 sides our own, quite a quantity for other 

 beekeepers. We dip the surplus sheets as 

 wide as the brood, and also make them 

 lieavy. After running thru smooth rolls 

 the sheet is large enough to make six stand- 

 ard sheets, three long and two wide. This 

 is run just as it is thru the foundation-mill 

 and then trimmed. In this way we save 

 time over the plan of running one small 

 sheet thru at a time. At present we use a 

 brood mill, but we are thinking of getting 

 one especially for surplus foundation. 



Our brood foundation is made in (he 

 same way; but the original sheets being 

 heavier are long enough for only two sheets 

 instead of three. Therefore there are four 

 to a sheet. We use warm water when run- 

 ning the original sheets thru the smooth 

 rolls, but nearly ice-cold water, also plenty 

 of soapsuds, when they go tlii-u the foun- 

 dation-mill, as the sheets handle better and 

 do not stick as much. We make the sur- 

 plus foundation 32 to 36 sheets per pound, 

 and the brood 10 sheets a pound. We do 

 not have to paper the foundation in piling 

 it up, therefore we can make it a little 



lighter than the 

 standard. The 

 home-made foun- 

 dation does not 

 look as nice as the 

 factor y - m ad e; 

 but we like it ful- 

 ly as well for the 



bees accept it readily and it goes further. 



After the sheets are dipped it is no trick 



for two men to run and trim 60 to 70 



pounds in eight hours. 



FEBRUARY 



The greater part of this month is de- 

 voted to nailing hives and supers. As we 

 are constantly increasing our bees we have 

 had a gi-eat deal of this work to do. Most 

 of our colonies are in specially made chaff 

 hives. The covers are of thin material, 

 but the outside wall of the hive as well as 

 the bottom-board is made of % material. 

 I do not like loose-bottom double-walled 

 hives. Ours are made like the old style 

 with tight bottoms. We think the bees 

 winter better in them, and the hives are 

 much handier when it comes to moving. 

 By our system, moreover, there is seldom 

 any need for a loose bottom or floor-board. 

 With double-walled hives it is an easy mat- 

 ter to fix the bees for winter. We simply 

 put on the chaff trays (baled planer-shav- 

 ings for packing) and contract the en- 

 trances. 



Our supers are also special. They take 

 seven wide frames that hang in rabbets 

 like brood-frames, each holding four sec- 

 tions 4%^ square by 1% inches, or 28 in all. 

 For separators we use strips of tin 31/2 by 

 17% tacked on the back of each wide frame. 

 I much perfer this kind of super. I have 

 some T and P supers which I am trjdng 

 to sell. With our supers we do not have to 

 take off a whole super at a time. We can 

 remove 4, 8, 12, 16, or 20 sections if we 

 like, as I shall explain more fully later. 

 When nailing the brood-frames we 

 leave one of the lower corners unnailed 

 with the end-bar shoved in about half an 

 inch. After the wire is threaded thru the 

 holes and fastened we take hold of the 

 end-bar, force it back into position and 

 nail it, thus drawing the wires taut. We 

 use this same plan for tacking the separa- 

 tor tins on the wide frames that hold the 

 sections. 



During the latter part of February we 

 commence cleaning our supers and filling 

 them with sections and foundation. 



MARCH 



Many beekeepers fill their section-hold- 

 ers with sections and then insert the foun- 



