The American Apiculturist. 



g' Journal tirtioftb to Scicntifix mxh ^xmiunl ^c^kteptng. 



ENTERED AT THE POST-OFFICE, SALEM, AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER. 



Published Monthly. S. M. Locke, Publisher & Prop'r. 



VOL. I. 



SALEM, MASS., JULY, 1883. 



No. 



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PLAIN 

 TALK ON BEE-CULTURE. 



By J. E. Pond, jr. 



III. 



INCREASE IN APIARY. 



At this time, the novice especial- 

 ly is desirous of increasing his 

 apiary ; but, unless he is guarded in 

 his operations, and works with 

 extreme care and caution, he will 

 be very liable to make a mess of it. 

 The extent of increase with a 

 prolific queen, in the hands of an 

 expert, wliich may be made from a 

 single colony, is very great, and 

 if it is desirable to make such 

 increase, rather than to gather a 

 crop of surplus honey, perhaps as 

 much will be gained by it in the 

 long run. One point must be 

 understood well and rigorously 

 regarded, however, or a failure 

 will surely result. It is an axiom 

 in beekeeping that the egg-laying 

 capacity of the queen is always in 

 7 



proportion to the size of the colony ; 

 consequently, if one expects to raise 

 a large quantity of brood in a given 

 time, he must allow the queen a 

 large colony of bees to take care 

 of it. The great mistake which is 

 usually made in obtaining increase 

 artificially is in dividing colonies 

 too closely, and undertaking to 

 build up these divided stocks, from 

 the queens alone that are introduced 

 into them. If, instead of so doing, 

 nuclei were made in the first 

 instance, and then full colonies 

 used with which to build them up, 

 far better and moi"e satisfactory re- 

 sults would be obtained. In order, 

 however, to bring about the very 

 best results, and to make the very 

 largest increase possible, feeding 

 must be resorted to, and regularly 

 kept up, even if stores are being 

 gathered from the field ; for nuclei 

 as a rule have as much as the}' can 

 do to attend to rearing brood, and 

 have no sufficient force of foragers 

 to bring in a supply from natural 

 sources. 



My plan of increasing an apiary, 

 from, say, four colonies, if I desired 

 to do so as largely as possible, 

 without regard to gathering sur- 

 plus, would be, to make the colonies 

 as strong as possible in early 

 spring ; then about the middle of 

 May remove a frame each of brood 

 (i9) 



