248 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



tny average yield of surplus for eleven 

 years was 150 pounds to the colony, and 

 for the last six years it has been 300 

 pounds. 



While the general experience has been 

 that planting for honey alone has been 

 a failure, we ought always to hold our- 

 selves open to conviction. The experi- 

 ence of Mr. Gandy certainly seems to be 

 an exception to the general rule. Some 

 of us can remember when the so-called 

 Chapman honey plant was boomed some 

 I <; or 20 years ago. There is. little doubt 

 that this plant yields honey more profuse- 

 ly than any known plant, yet it never 

 came into more than experimental culti- 

 vation. If I remember correctly, it re- 

 quired some care to get the plants .started, 

 and, I believe, cultivation was also nec- 

 essary. At a bee convention, Mr. Heddon 

 once said that he would have nothing to 

 do with a plant that required cultivation, 

 if it yielded nothing aside from honey. 

 "No," he said, "not if each blossom 

 yielded a barrel of honey." This may be 

 an extravagant expression, yet I suspect 

 it contains a truth. Catnip and sweet- 

 clover require no cultivation. Once they 

 are started they will take care of them- 

 selves. Yes, and their owner, too, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Gaudy's experience. 



Perhaps enough has been said at pres 

 ent in regard to the artificial pasturage, 

 and we will now turn to the methods em- 

 ployed in gathering the harvest. My ex- 

 perience in producing comb honey has 

 been in favor of small brood nests riuring 

 the harvest, but, as I have already said, 

 we ought not to allow preconceived ideas 

 to stand in the way of our recognizing the 

 truth when it is pre.sented to us. Small 

 hives may be best for my locality and 

 management, but Mr. Gaudy has differ- 

 ent views and methods in his manage- 

 ment. Here is what he has to say: — 



But to return to the real subject. The 

 first eleven years I used small hives ol 

 various patterns; but for six years I have 

 used nothing smaller than a ten-franie 

 plain hive. For surplus I u.se one hive 

 above another with empty combs, for ex- 

 tracted honey. For chunk honey I u.se 

 the thin brood foundation wired. I use 



no honey-board, queen-excluders, nor 

 separators, but allow the queen to breed 

 wherever she desires, and in that way get 

 four times as manv bees as you get in the 

 eight-frame hive where a queen-excluder 

 is used. Bees, even in an eight-frame 

 hive, generally use the two outside frames 

 on each side of the hive for honev and 

 pollen, and this leaves but four frames 

 for brood-rearing. This, I claim, will not 

 produce one-sixth as man}- bees as the 

 colony should contain. I went through a 

 colony having on six ten-frame hives last 

 summer, and it had brood in 32 frames. 

 That hive produced over 500 lbs. of sur- 

 plus, while the same colony in an eight- 

 frame, with a queen-excluder used, would 

 would not have produced to exceed 100 

 lbs. of surplus. A queen-excluder will 

 exclude the queen, and will also to some 

 extent bar or greatly hinder a well-filled 

 bee. By vising drawn combs we have very 

 little u.se for separators. I don 't use them ; 

 and when I occasionally run out of drawn 

 combs I resort to foundation; with drawn 

 combs bees will make about twice as much 

 honey as with foundation. I was induc- 

 ed to use large hives by some circumstan- 

 ces which I will relate. 



I helped a man cut two bee-trees seven 

 years ago, where the bees had been occu- 

 pying the trees for four years. He was 

 certain when they went into the trees for 

 both stood in his yard. Both had the 

 space in the trees full of honey, giving us 

 517 and 73 lbs. respectively; and the same 

 vear I had a man (who was running an 

 out-apiary for me while running a store) 

 put up 50 boxes in trees to batch abscond- 

 ing swarms. Among them he put up 

 several sugar-barrels, some cracker-boxes, 

 and some nail-kegs. We noticed that the 

 barrels and large boxes were first occu- 

 pied. One colony in a barrel we left on 

 the ground in the woods until the close 

 of the season, and it gave us 300 lbs. of 

 fine honey. Right years years ago I had 

 56 swarms come out in one da^^; and al- 

 though I had four assistants helping to 

 hive them, seven or eight swarms cluster- 

 ed together and resisted all efforts to sep- 

 arate them, so I had two ten-frame hives 

 and two supers made, and placed them 

 one above the other, leaving the two 

 openings. Now, this colonv finished up 

 365 secti')ns of honey after filling the two 

 hives, while none of the other colonies 

 hived that day gave a single pound of 

 surplus. If I put half a dozen hives on a 

 colony I leave an opening for each hive 

 so that the bees will usually work from 

 each hive, and I seldom have a swarm 

 from colonies thus treated. With those I 

 want to swarm I use the common super 



