126 I HE BEE-KEEPERS- REViEW 



Management of Three Thousand Colonies Bees in 



Fifty Yards 



By J. J. WILDER, Cordelia, Ga. 



Prom =,f,o to 800 Colonics in Ten Apiaries. 



^ HOUGH I had at my command eight trades and demanded 

 ^/^ good wages at either one, yet the first year of my bee-keeping 

 Hfe as a sole business was the first year I had ever cleared 

 any money. 



Up to this time I had just li\ed in a hand-to-mouth manner like 

 all other wage-earners of my time, so my only hope for gain was bee- 

 keeping, and the results of the first year were a giiod starter. Xo 

 one can imagine the happy time I had planning for the next season. 

 ^^'hat T had decided on doing was all I was capitalized to do. 



At this time 1 had learned considerable t)f bee-keeping for miles 

 around and knew there was a field for a bee-supply business, and I 

 laid in a small stock abo\e what I expected to use in my own busi- 

 ness. 1 sent out price lists to all names of bee-keepers I could obtain, 

 and the result was that T sold about all my stock except what T had 

 reserved for my own use. But during the winter I bought all the 

 bees obtainable in an}' kind of hives within ;!(• or 10 miles of me, 

 including the lot of bees the rich man had who had refused to sell 

 them to me the previous year, and moved them all to new locations 

 on apiary sites I had previously looked up, so I could get them shaped 

 up for work for the coming season. Also to those three new yards I 

 moved some bees from my other yards when I could spare them, so 

 some increase could be made at all yards, but most of it was to be 

 made at the home vard. where I could best look after them. 1 had 

 some capital left over 1 did not need in my bee business, and with it 

 I bought me a small tract of land in the edge of to\\-n and built a 

 small home on it. 



Up to this time 1 had made a little mistake b\- trying to produce 

 honey in one-pound sections. My customers o\ er-])ersuaded me to 

 this, but it was done only in a limited way. I onlv took it up for a 

 trial and it was not a satisfactory way to profluce hone\' in ni_\- loca- 

 tion, so I sold all m\' comb honey supers to a bee-kee])er in Florida 

 and entirely discontinued producing- honey in this form until T could 

 find a more suitable field for comb honey i)roductit)n in sections. 

 Rut T kept right on producing chunk comb ar.d extracted honey. The 

 chunk honey I put up in difl'erent sized packages and gave my trade 

 all it would take of it, and it was fast ])roving a winn.er. 



T had plenty of su])plies for the coming season except some super 

 bodies, also bottoms and co\ers which 1 made of selected \'ellow pine 

 lumber. All was jnit in readiness before the busy season and much 



