890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



yards were gathering a little basswood and 

 a great deal of clover, and clover was equal- 

 ly abundant at both yards, one lot of bees 

 will gather as much honey as the other; and 

 even if the basswood bees gather a little 

 more of the basswood than the bees a mile 

 and a half away, the fact would not be no- 

 ticed. To answer your question directly, it 

 is not true, generally, that bees a mile and 

 a half away from the honey source will 

 gather as much of that honey as those bees 

 that are located right in the midst of the 

 forage. If I am correct, then, your bees a 

 mile and a half away were not gathering as 

 much of the baeswood as those right among 

 the trees. — Ed.] 



JI Years Work m an Our Apiary 





-^-BX G.AJ.DOOI^ITTJLE. 



CHAPTER VII. 



TAKING OFF THE SURPLUS; WHAT TO DO 

 WITH THE UNFINISHED SECTIONS; PREP- 

 ARATION FOR THE BUCKWHEAT 

 FLOW, 



It is now July 24, and the basswood bloom 

 is all gone. With the exception of one or 

 two days at a time, it has been rainy, cold, 

 or windy all through its bloom. If possible 

 the weather has been worse for the bees 

 than during clover-bloom. If we could have 

 had the good hot weather which came be- 

 tween the blooms, either in clover or bass- 

 wood, a far different showing in honey would 

 have been the result. Now that the bass- 

 wood bloom is past, it is coming good weath- 

 er again. While this can make no differ- 

 ence with me now, yet I am very glad to 

 have it come, as it is cheering to the hearts 

 of the farmers who have had an uphill time 

 in securing their hay and winter wheat, 

 much hay spoiling on account of the contin- 

 ued wet. Aga'n I am off on the road to the 

 apiary, carrying with me another supply of 

 supers, for the buckwheat bloom is still 

 ahead. , As I go, my heart is made light 

 through! seeing the many fields on the hill- 

 sides and valleys covered with their waving 

 grain, basking in the sunlight, while the 

 pearly streams, being nearly at full bank 

 from our recent rains, make sweet music in 

 their joyous journey toward the river. The 

 pasture-lands are nearly as green as in June, 

 while, generally, at this time of the year 

 they are brown and bare. The farmhouses 

 nestle among the green branches of the 

 trees, giving prospect of garnered fruit 

 through the half -grown apples, plums, and 

 pears, discernible among the sun- kissed 

 leaves. Surely all nature is happy— why not 

 I? I have done my best with the bees; and 

 if a meager crop is the result, through no 



fault of mine, I should be happy with what 

 I get. 



With such scenes and thoughts as these, 

 the time passes almost too soon; and before 

 I am hardly aware of it the horse is turning 

 in at the farmer's roadway leading toward 

 the bee- yard. With the horse stabled be- 

 fore a manger of rain-cured hay I enter the 

 apiary. Each colony having sections on is 

 looked after, fixing them now so they are 

 supposed to be all right till the end of the 

 buckwheat harvest, which is the end of the 

 surplus-honey season in this locality. The 

 wheelbarrow having an empty hive, bee-es- 

 cape, and super of foundation-filled sections, 

 is again brought into use, when all the fully 

 completed supers are set on the empty hive, 

 and the others on the empty super, the same 

 as with my last visit. If a super is found 

 having two thirds or more of its sections 

 completed I think it best to take off the 

 same, as those finished will lose in price, if 

 left on the hive, from coloring. With those 

 having a less number finished I used to take 

 out those finished and supply their place with 

 sections filled with the extra- thin foundation; 

 but of late years the extra work involved in 

 this has made me mostly abandon the plan. 

 Such sections will sell for more money than 

 they will if left on till the end of the season ; 

 but I am not sure that they will sell for 

 enough more to pay for the extra work re- 

 quired in thus taking them. Of course, the 

 whole super can be freed from bees with 

 the escapes, then taken home, and the sec- 

 tions which are filled sorted out, the others 

 being repacked in the supers and taken back 

 to the apiary again; but this makes still 

 more work, and an extra trip to the apiary. 



These things are all right where time 

 hangs heavily on one's hands; but with the 

 overworked apiarist, having from three hun- 

 dred to five hundred colonies in five or six 

 out-apiaries it is better to put all sup>ers not 

 more than two-thirds full back on the hives 

 again. Any super which has been worked 

 in, yet not sufficient to be taken off, is put 

 back first next the brood-chamber, when a 

 super of foundation-filled sections is set top 

 of it, over which is placed the bee-escape, 

 and the finished super or supers on top of 

 that, so that nearly all of the colonies will 

 have two supers, or 88 one pound sections in 

 which to store from now till the end of the 

 season. If any colony is found which has 

 two supers partly filled, these are both put 

 back and a third surer put on, which is emp- 

 ty, except the sections filled with foundation. 



After a practice of ten years I find that it 

 always pays to keep this empty super of 

 sections on top at all times when there is an 

 expected harvest, as it does no harm except 

 the little labor of setting it on; and as often 

 as one year in three much work will be done 

 in it if it is not filled entirely; and it has 

 much to do with keeping the bees from lay- 

 ing out or being crowded for room, thus do- 

 ing away with their contracting the swarm- 

 ing fever, as they are quite apt to do when 

 the other supers are nearing completion. 

 Since using this method of keeping an emp- 



