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THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



sonable. It combines theory and practice 

 in a most happy manner; and emphasizes 

 in an eminent degree the bearing that 

 locality may have upon methods and 

 management. So many times, in reading 

 of the methods employed by a successful 

 apiarist of some distant locality, have I 

 exclaimed: "I'd just like to see him put 

 those plans into practice here ! I'd like 

 to pit my methods against his, here in 

 Michigan. I'd show him." The condi- 

 tions here in Mighigan are exactly as Mr. 

 Getaz has given them; and the plans that 

 I follow fit them perfectly. Should I 

 attempt to keep bees in Tennesee it is 

 quite likely that I would find it necessar}- 

 to modify these methods. This brings 

 out the necessity of each man thoroughly 

 understanding the honey resources and 

 peculiarities of his locality. 



To a certain extent I agree with Mr. 

 Getaz in regard to large versus small col- 

 onies. That is, a large colony in the fall 

 will probably winter on less honey, in 

 proportion to ils size, than will a small 

 colony. The colony that is populous in 

 the fall, is more likely to be populous in 

 the spring; provided it za'i titers zvell. 

 Here comes in again the question of lo- 

 cality. In a latitude where bees can fly 

 frequently, wintering has few terrors. 

 Frequent flights prevent the overloading 

 of the intestines that brings on that dread 

 of all Northern apiarists — bee diarrhcea. 

 Nothing will sooner bring about this over- 

 loaded condition than will the activity 

 caused by brood rearing with no opportu- 

 nity for flight. Now comes the point: 

 Strong, populous colonies are much more 

 likely to breed in winter than is the case 

 with weak or medium sized colonies. 

 Let a colony begin breeding in mid-win- 

 ter, here in Micliigan, and, no matter how 

 strong it is, if it does not perish outright, 

 spring will find it in a condition far infe- 

 rior to the colony that lacked the numbers 

 necessary to stimulate it to untimely 

 breeding. Simply as an illustration, let 

 me give one instance. In my early bee- 

 keeping I traded queens to a jeweler 

 for a nice silver watch worth twenty dol- 



lars. In early winter I exchanged the 

 watch with a neighbor for three colonies 

 of bees in double-decker, American hives 

 — 22 combs in each hive. These colonies 

 were very populous, much more so than 

 the rest of his apiary, which consisted of 

 8-comb colonies, and I indulged in 

 "counting my chickens before they hatch- 

 ed," by estimating the number of queen- 

 rearing nuclei that I could make, in the 

 spring, from these three big colonies. 

 The winter proved severe; and in March 

 my neighbor notified me my bees were all 

 dead. I went over and examined them. 

 In each hive I found three or four combs 

 nearly full of sealed brood — bees all dead 

 from diarrhoea. These bees were left out 

 of doors, as was the rest of this neighbor's 

 apiary, and the point is that his bees, 

 in eight-frame hives, all lived. Of 

 course, "one swallow does not make a 

 summer, ' ' but I have seen enough such 

 "swallows" to make a pretty fair "sum- 

 mer. ' ' 



Mr. Getaz says that the populous colony 

 in the fall will be populous in the spring; 

 and that the midsummer harvest will find 

 it the same. This is true only to a cer- 

 tain extent— much depending upon the 

 queen. The average queen can keep up 

 only an average population. The very 

 prolific queen can keep up a large popu- 

 lation if the conditions are favorable. 

 To illustrate: I have frequently had two 

 swarms unite in the air and all go into 

 one hive. This makes an enormous mass 

 of bees, and the result is a big pile of sur- 

 plus, but the 'approach of winter finds 

 this colony no more populous than many 

 others that contained only half as many 

 bees when hived. As I have always 

 said, the average queen can not keep up 

 unusually populous colonies, and the les- 

 son is, as I understand it, to have the 

 brood nest no larger than the average 

 queen can fill with brood at that time of 

 the year when it is desirable that it be 

 filled. I am not pleading for especially 

 small hives, mere toys, but, as I have just 

 said, of such a size that the ordinarily pro- 

 lific queen can fill them with brood at the 



