368 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



November 



time to hold down swarming, and en- 

 trances of hives should be enlarged 

 accorrling to their strength. The 

 outapiarist must endeavor to allay 

 the swarming impulse, since in the 

 outapiary a larger percentage of 

 swarms would be lost. He must re- 

 member, and put into practice, the 

 fundamentals in swarm prevention — 

 young queens, ample breeding and 

 storing room, sufficient ventilation, 

 absence of drone comb. 



With the crop will also come fur- 

 ther examination for queens and dis- 

 ease. If excluders are to be used, 

 the beekeeper should combine some 

 definite system with their use or he 

 is apt to defeat their purpose by re- 

 stricting too closely the breeding- 

 room of the queen and thereby 

 weaken his colonies. 



Following the storing of the crop 

 will come its harvest, with conse- 

 quent necessity for knowledge of 

 different appliances for extracting 

 and storing and precautions to be 

 taken should there be a honey- 

 dearth at extracting. Then one can- 

 not be too careful, if placing escapes, 

 to make all tight above them, guard- 

 ing against robbing of the unprotect- 

 ed honey. Robbing around the ex- 

 tracting house should be checked as 

 much as possible and sticky supers 

 returned only at the close of the day 

 during the dearth. Unprotected 

 combs should be kept free of moths. 



With the middle of summer, colo- 

 nies should begin to be prepared for 

 the winter rest. There will be neces- 

 sary, an abundance of stores, plenty 

 of young bees, and sufficient protec- 

 tion can be given later in the fall, 

 and to some extent, the added stores, 

 but the young bees must be raised 

 soon if they are to be in abundance 

 for the winter cluster. 



With the fall will come the sup- 

 plying of stores, should the beekeeper 

 not be fortunate enough to have 

 been sufficiently provided by nat- 

 ural honey-flows. The choice of win- 



One of J. F. Diemer's outyards 



tering systems will also have to be 

 made, whether it be cellaring or out- 

 of-door wintering by some approved 

 method, the choice being determined 

 by the variability of the climate in 

 each section of the, country and the 

 protection afforded by natural meth- 

 ods, such as windbreaks, etc. 



In fact, the activities of the wide- 

 awake outapiarist will be a constant- 

 ly changing panorama, from early 

 spring till his bees are placed for 

 their long winter rest, nor would 

 such efforts be much mitigated by 

 the winter, were he as active in the 

 disposition of his crop as in the har- 

 vest. It seems very strange that a 

 beekeeper should devote so many 

 months of the year and so much la- 

 bor to the preparation for the har- 

 vesting of the crop, only to turn 



Outapiary at foot of a 



air. in California. A va 

 of a location like this. 



ety of forage is within reach 



Liberty, Mo. 



around and sell it to the first buyer. 

 I believe the time is fast approaching 

 when marketing will be as truly a 

 part of the honest efforts of the bee- 

 keeper as is production. Then the 

 beekeeper will get out and create 

 a market, instead of waiting for the 

 market to be developed from with- 

 out. 



The wise manufacturer first creates 

 a demand for his product, then works 

 to supply his customers. Why should 

 the beekeeper do otherwise, first 

 producing his crop, then later mak- 

 ing a more or less feeble effort at 

 selling it? 



Knowledge of Territory 



It is imperative that each beekeeper 

 know his territory. He must know 

 the extent of the flora in his section 

 so as to be able to determine how 

 many colonies he may place in each 

 location without overstocking. 



But with the elasticity in oppor- 

 tunity for outapiary expansion by 

 means of the automobile and truck, 

 he should do more than this ; he 

 should study carefully his territory 

 for 100 miles in each direction. He 

 may, by this same means, place his 

 apiaries to best advantage, and he 

 may, moreover, change locations 

 (migrate) with his bees to an extra 

 crop. An instance of this may be 

 mentioned in the case of the Dadanl 

 apiaries during the season just 

 passed. White clover, our main flow, 

 was a failure, _nd such little as there 

 was, together with sweet clover, was 

 used in making increase. Careful ob- 

 servation showed us, however, that 

 the drought had not affected- the 

 Krowth of weeds in the Mississippi 

 bottoms snme distance away. By the 

 iid of two large trucks all of the 

 700 colonies in these apiaries were 

 moved into the bottom for the added 

 harvest with the result that a haul 

 '.f forty miles at the most meant an 

 average of from 75 to 100 pounds to 

 the colony instead of a summer 



