THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



19 



present condition of our business it is im- 

 peratively necessary for those of us who 

 make our living solely by bee-keepiny to in- 

 crease m some way the net profit, if we 

 would receive an adequate return. 



To my mind, the only feasible way of 

 doing this is by increasing the amount of 

 business done. I have been aware for 

 several years that I was not keeping bees 

 enough, but with foul brood menacing me 

 at every step, cutting down my numbers and 

 making my work doubly arduous in almost 

 every direction, there was little incentive to 

 add to what might have to be destroyed. I 

 am happy to say that I am now through with 

 the pest, no signs of it having appeared the 

 past season. 



Right here I made a serious mistake in 

 following the advice of those who taught 

 that the disease could be cured simply by 

 medical treatment. Costly experience taught 

 ine that safety lies only in the destruction or 

 complete disinfection of hives, combs and 

 honey. 



Another mistake I have been making is 

 that of keeping too many bees in one place. 

 This decision is foiced uiron me against my 

 will and contrary to experiments I once 

 tuought conclusive. Seasons and localities 

 differ, but I now think that, taking the 

 average of seasons, my locality will not 

 profitably support over seventy-five colonies, 

 and I may find a less number more profit- 

 able. By this I do not mean that this num- 

 ber will exhaust my field; but simply that I 

 will get enough more honey to pay for divid- 

 ing any greater number into two apiaries. 



I have at various times met with loss from 

 not having enough material made up ahead. 

 As the fate of the battle may depend on the 

 reserves, so the presence or lack of material 

 ready for immediate u^e, may mean to the 

 bee-keeper all the difference between success 

 and comparative failure. Believing that 

 bees will draw out foundation much quicker 

 and better when it is freshly made than after 

 it has been exposed to the air, even for only 

 a few weeks, I have always tried to have my 

 foundation made and placed in the boxes as 

 short a time as possible before I expected it 

 to be used. While I still think the fresh 

 foundation much sui)erior, I do not think 

 the advantage suflicient to pay for the worry 

 and chance of loss incurred by being obliged 

 to make foundation and put it inio tli3 sec- 

 tions just before or during a honey flow. 



In years past I am sure I lost a great deal 

 of honey by using too large hives. These 

 large hives, it is true, would sometimes show 

 very large results when the colony had a 

 prolific queen and did not swarm ; but 

 smaller colonies, or those newly hived, would 

 show but small results compared with what 

 might have been secured by proper con- 

 traction. On the other hand, I tiiink I have 

 lost heavily by improper contriction. In 

 this locality we generally have a honey flow 

 in September. Frequently this U the best of 

 the season. To prepare for this, queens 

 should be given ample room as soon as the 

 early yield is over, and every effort made to 

 build colonies up as strong as possible for 

 the fall harvest. Because of this fall yield, 

 too, I think I have done wrong in trying to 



prevent swarming as much as I have. Per- 

 haps this was all right with the hives I once 

 used, but with hives properly contracted at 

 the right time, a honey flow of this char- 

 acter can be most profitably managed by al- 

 lowing a moderate increase. 



An error into which I never fell to any 

 great extent is that of planting for honey. 

 At one time I furnished neighboring farmers 

 with seed buckwheat free. I soon found 

 though that buckwheat and heartsease 

 bloomed at the same time. Whenever these 

 little patches of buckwheat yielded honey, 

 so did the hundreds of acres of heartsease 

 that cost me nothing. Moreover, the hearts- 

 ease honey was so far superior to that from 

 buckwheat, that I was not long in deciding 

 that I would much rather not have any buck- 

 wheat planted near my bees. 



When the Chapman honey plant was 

 brought before the public, I lent myself 

 anew to the delusion of planting for honey, 

 sufficiently to try it on a small scale, but un- 

 less it turns out better the coming season 

 than I expect, I will never bother with it 

 again. 



These are some of the most important 

 mistakes I have made recently in bee-keep- 

 ing. I trust their recital may be of value to 

 others in enabling them to avoid these or 

 similar errors. 



Addenda— If the Editor please. As to 

 what I consider the mistakes of others — 

 such, for instance, as doing away with 

 foundation in the brood-chamber, publish- 

 ing favorable reports on feeding back, arti- 

 ficial comb, &c. — perhaps I had better keep 

 still or I n>ight get myself into trouble. 



Dayton, III. .Jan. 18. 1889. 



Nearly 3,000 copies of our little book on 

 "The Production of Comb Honey" have 

 been sold; and we have yet to learn of a per- 

 son who has failed when /a(Yft/')r?Z(/ following 

 its teachings in regard to the non-use of full 

 sheets of foundation in the brood-nest when 

 hiving swarms. Friend Green, you will do 

 us all a kindness by giving the details of 

 your failure. If you have also failed in 

 "feeding back," tell us about that, too. 

 About artificial comb, see editorial columns. 



Bee-Keeping a Real Business — Too Few 



Bees — Complicated Fixtures — Figuring 



Profits— Following Nature — Too 



Limited Experiments. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



fT SEEMS as though the genii must aid 

 you, friend Hutchinson, in selecting 

 those subjects for discussion which will 

 prove of the most value to the practical 

 bee-keeper. This one, " Mistakes in Bee- 

 keeping," cannot be excelled, from that 

 point of view. But about tlie first thing you 

 do in your introduction is to steal all of our 

 best thunder before we begin. But you say 

 you don't want us to deal so much with the 

 mistakes of the past as with those of the 



