THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



53 



outwitted the little fellows. He would 

 remove a case of twenty-one two- 

 pound boxes that were about two- 

 thirds full from a strong colony, bees 

 and all, and place them upon the 

 colony too weak or too lazy to work 

 and store surplus honey. This ar- 

 rangement had the desired effect, as 

 the colony thus treated soon finished 

 the sections. Such an operation not 

 only stimulated the weak colony to 

 work, but it also strengthened them 

 greatly as to numbers. The colony 

 the sections were taken from were 

 plenty strong to enter and work in 

 a new set of sections. Now this was 

 not a discovery with Mr. Gould. 

 His practical knowledge of the honey 

 bee suggested to him that the idea 

 was a feasible one and he immedi- 

 ately put it into practice and the 

 verdict was just what he had reason 

 to expect. 



My own method was not only to 

 do as Mr. Gould did but, having a 

 less number of bees, I would contract 

 the entrance to each hive at night as 

 this would prevent the bees from de- 

 serting the sections when the weather 

 was cool. All upward ventilation was 

 stopped, as it should be while the 

 bees are at work storing surplus honey. 

 The only ventilation should be at the 

 entrance, as the bees will make just 

 as much and as little air pass through 

 the hive as they need. 



There is one bad feature to this 

 interchanging of bees and sections. 

 Unless the operation is conducted 

 with little disturbance, the queen, as 

 is perfectly natural, will run up into 

 the sections and of course be re- 

 moved to some other hiv'^e. When 

 the change is made it is well to blow 

 a small amount of smoke in at the 

 entrance and as quickly as possible, 

 raise the section rack and direct the 

 smoke under to drive the bees down. 

 If this precaution is taken there is 

 little or no danger of getting or de- 

 stroying any queens. 



IVenham, Mass. 



HOW SHALL I COMMENCE? 



Br WiLi. M. Kellogg. 



I don't know that I can help 

 friend Todd any (Feb. "Api") but I 

 feel like trying. I take the ground 

 that he has had too many irons in 

 the fire and that his bee knowledge 

 has been too much of theory, and his 

 bees have been neglected or handled 

 on theory. I think he is somewhat 

 on the same ground that I am with 

 bees and poultry ; with bees, fi-om 

 long experience, I "have everything 

 at my fingers' ends ;" with poultry, 

 though I have kept fowls of various 

 kinds for years, and have many vol- 

 umes of poultry reading, both books 

 and journals, still I have had too little 

 practical experience in a large way 

 to make me feel at home among 

 poultry keepers of years of practical 

 work. 



Had I not learned a lesson from 

 knowing it all tlie first year I kept 

 bees, I could launch out and tell old 

 hands all about how to handle poul- 

 try and do it too from the practical 

 experience I have had— on paper, as 

 someone else has done it. Now, 

 friend Todd, there is not much so 

 very hard to do with successful man- 

 agement of bees. Beginners, lacking 

 thorough experience, invariably do 

 too much. Like a boy with his first 

 chickens, he must scare the hen off 

 every few minutes to see if she has 

 laid ; and the beekeeper acts the same 

 in opening hives. It took me years 

 to learn how to let my bees alone. 



You speak of feeding bees because 

 they had not enougli honey to carry 

 them through the winter. That is 

 evidence to me of what I have said 

 above. Now for my advice. Get 

 some more bees in the spring, good, 

 strong stocks, in a plain, simple, mov- 

 able comb hive. Keep them snug 

 and warm by preventing all waste of 

 heat at the top, let them fill up the 

 hive below, having a hive large 

 enough for all brood rearing and am- 



