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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



biography, it says, "From his large api- 

 ary (in 1858) he sold $2,000 worth of 

 queens." At that time queens sold from 

 $10 to $80 a piece, and also many 

 queens were reared in small nucleus 

 colonies. With queens at those prices, 

 it should not require more than a dozen 

 hives to rear $2,000 worth, and we 

 have records that apiaries of 200 to 

 300 colonies existed at that time. It also 

 says that $2,000 " looks small at the 

 present stage of bee-keeping." I doubt 

 if there is more than one queen-breeder 

 in the world who sold that amount in 

 1892. 



As to nectar running out of the cells 

 because they are reversed, I would say 

 that about a week ago I laid a comb 

 about a foot square flat down on the top 

 of the brood-frames for the bees to re- 

 move some honey it contained. In look- 

 ing at it yesterday, more honey had been 

 stored in it on its under as well as its 

 upper side, and there was a little patch 

 of eggs on both sides. This was one of 

 the objections brought against the re- 

 versible frame in 1884, but some one 

 declared that bees would store honey on 

 the under side of a horizontal comb, and 

 that objection was "laid to rest." I 

 have also transferred some 400 or 500 

 colonies, and always aimed to fasten the 

 comb into the new frames the opposite 

 from its original position, and I have 

 never been able to detect a bad result 

 from the inversion. 



Contraction in the alfalfa region of 

 Colorado, and contraction in the bass- 

 wood region of Michigan, Wisconsin or 

 Iowa, are two different things. Alfalfa 

 bloom lasts six weeks. Basswood sel- 

 dom two weeks — often only eight days. 

 I spent last season at Greeley, Colo. I 

 put on 50 or 75 surplus cases, and ex- 

 amination two weeks afterward found 

 half of the colonies just beginning to 

 notice them ; yet there was a slow yield 

 of honey all the time. In this time the 

 basswood bloom will come and be en- 

 tirely gone without a drop of surplus. 

 But alfalfa lingers. If the apiarist 

 makes a mistake he may have time to 

 correct it. Contraction is not to be ap- 

 plied until the chance for rearing useful 

 bees is over. I never expect to see bass- 

 wood bloom twice in one season, but I 

 always practiced contraction mindful 

 that we might have an unusual bass- 

 wood honey-flow lasting 20 days. 



Before adopting contraction I thought 

 Inversion necessary ; but if the system 

 of contraction is good, the bees will oc- 

 cupy the sections so soon that they will 

 store ail the honey In the sections with- 

 out any inversion. Keep prolific queens 



also that will crowd toward the top-bars. 

 A poor queen admits honey over the 

 brood in the brood-frame. Inversion 

 causes honey to be stored on the other 

 side of the brood, and soon the whole 

 brood-nest is full of honey. 



In my system of contraction I can get 

 the foundation drawn in sections when 

 there is so little honey gathered that the 

 wax used will be borrowed from the 

 brood-combs, but I do not furnish sec- 

 tions until there will be a little honey 

 put in them as soon as the foundation is 

 drawn. Then when the sections are put 

 into the supers, the bees store honey in 

 them from choice, and not because they 

 are compelled to do it. They naturally 

 carry the honey out of the brood-cham- 

 ber to a position above the brood. 



This gives the queen more room. If 

 there are 15 brood-combs in the brood- 

 chamber the honey goes above the brood 

 into the sections. It removes the causes 

 of swarming. Instead of the honey 

 along the top-bars crowding the queen 

 and brood toward the bottom-bars, the 

 brood is extended up against the top- 

 bars, and the lower part of the brood- 

 combs are left vacant if there' is more 

 space than the brood will occupy. 



A little honey from fruit-bloom has 

 been coming in for the last month. Our 

 honey harvest is to arrive sometime in 

 the future. About two weeks ago I 

 made foundation and put it into sections 

 in the forenoon. At 2 o'clock I went to 

 a good colony occupying 10 combs with 

 brood in every one, lifted three frames 

 of brood from the center into an upper 

 story, and put in their place in the 

 brood-nest two wide frames of sections. 

 Examination two hours after found the 

 foundation in the upper rows of sections 

 with cells 1/5 of an inch deep, and in 

 20 hours there was some honey in them. 

 In this way I fill all supers put on. 



A section of comb left over from last 

 season is called a " bait," but a section 

 of new comb with a little new honey in 

 it is a " bait " among the "baits." Put 

 this new "bait" in the most distant 

 corner, and the last year's "bait" in the 

 center, with sections of untouched foun- 

 dation between, and the new "bait" 

 will be tilled and capped first. I have 

 tried it in numerous ways. 



One of the principal objections to this 

 plan is that it is slow and puttering. 

 That depends upon how systematic you 

 are, and how well you can understand 

 the conditions of colonies. If one colony 

 is operated upon it may take 15 min- 

 utes, but 50 colonies may be so manipu- 

 lated in 2 hours and 15 minutes. 



There is not a question of doubt but 



