286 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



fail to eke out a precarious livelihooc', what 

 can a beginner do but go out of the business 

 as soon as he learns the conditions? 



Much more might be said; but I will close 

 by saying that I believe the matter of pro- 

 duction IS largely automatic. If the price 

 for any product is high, as potatoes or beans, 

 hay or honey, more will be produced. If 

 too low for profit, production will drop off 

 without much regard to the advice of the 

 agricultural press or bee journals. 



TAKING OUR BEES FROM THE CELLAR 

 IN THE SPRING. 



The Three Different Methods and their Ad- 

 vantages and Disadvantages. 



BY E. W. ALEXANDER. 



It will soon be time to attend to this, the 

 first work of the season; so let us think over 

 the many ways of doing it and see if there 

 is not some one way much better than any 

 other; for we don't want to make any mis- 

 takes this summer, especially at the start; 

 for if we do, it frequently means spring 

 dwindUng, weak colonies, trouble from rob- 

 bing, small surplus, and discouragement in 

 the end. These can, many times, be traced 

 back to a bad blunder made in taking our 

 bees from the cellar. 



I will first speak of the two most common 

 ways of setting out bees, and in doing so I 

 will call your attention to some serious fault 

 in each; then I will describe the way we 

 now do, which we think is far better than 

 the way we used to do, and as many are do- 

 ing now. 



First, we have a fine warm morning, and 

 we wish the bees were out; so, come on, 

 boys, let us set out the bees, and out they 

 go. We finish about one o'clock, and find 

 that they have all come through the winter 

 in quite good condition, and the boys say, 

 "Oh, my! father, what a nice big fly they 

 are having! I'll bet there are some hives 

 over there in the middle of the yard that 

 have two pailfuls of bees now." 



"Yes, I see, boys; and since the wind has 

 sprung up from the east, nearly all those 

 hives at the east end are getting far more 

 bees than belong to them. Don't you see 

 how they head up against the wind? Then 

 look over here at those hives at the west end 

 of the yard, and see how very few bees are 

 going into them." 



Then I draw a long sigh, and say to my- 

 self, " It is done. I have made a big blunder, 



and I can see only spring dwindling, weak 

 colonies, and small surplus for this season." 



My friend, I hope you have never had and 

 never will have your apiary in that condi- 

 tion. I have been there many times, and I 

 know well what the result will be. 



Now we will take up another way of tak- 

 ing out our bees. It is this: 



As the sun set to-night it had every ap- 

 pearance of a fine day to-morrow; so come, 

 boys, I think we had better set out about 

 100 colonies of bees to-night, for we have a 

 big lot to handle, and it will not be so hard 

 to make several jobs of it. So we took out 

 about 100 colonies that night; and after they 

 had been out a little while they quieted down 

 so they did not commerce to fly until about 

 10 A.M. next day, then they flew quite well; 

 but as it got some cloudy, and they kept on 

 trying to fly, many were lost. 



Well, we think it is time that they were 

 all out, so we take out another lot to-night. 

 These have a better fly, for it is much 

 warmer. But here is a new trouble started 

 —nearly all those hives we took out the first 

 night are robbing these last hives, which 

 are so busy getting water and locating their 

 home that they don't seem to know it. 

 Well, that is too bad. We are now, as the 

 saying is, between two fires. Those that 

 are left in the cellar have been so disturbed 

 by taking the others out that they are leav- 

 ing their hives badly, so I say, "C«>me on, 

 let us get all the trouble on one side. We 

 will take out the last to-night, let come 

 what may." 



This is done, and the next day happens to 

 be the brightest and warmest day yet; and, 

 oh what a picture that apiary makes the 

 night of that last day! Those bees that 

 were taken out the first two nights have 

 commenced to rob this last lot as fast as 

 they tried to fly, and not only robbed them 

 of a large part of their honey, but the call 

 that those strong full hives kept up all day 

 has taken most of the bees from this last lot 

 we carried out, and now less than 100 colo- 

 nies have the greater part of the bees of the 

 whole apiary, and they are so demoralized 

 that it will be a hard job to get them right- 

 ed, and I know we shall lose one-half of our 

 colonies this spring. 



Now the boys proposed to sit down and 

 talk the situation over, and see if there is 

 not some way that this loss and trouble can 

 be avoided. experience! thou art a dear 

 school, and I often wish I could give the 

 many readers of Gleanings more of our 

 costly experience before they make the 

 many bad mistakes I have made. 



Now we will take up the third way of tak- 

 ing bees out of the cellar: 



First get every thing all ready for a big 

 job, and watch the weather closely, especial- 

 ly after a few nice days, for it is Quite 

 changeable at this time of the year. Then 

 when the wind gets around in the east, and 

 it commences to become overcast with hazy 

 clouds, and has every appearance of bad 

 weather for the morrow, we commence 

 about sundown and carry out all our bees — 



