THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



205 



Review for the Review 



By J. A. 1*EARCE 

 Author of Pearce 3Iethod of Bee-Keeping 



I have just overhauled five col- 

 onies of bees for Mr. Huntley Rus- 

 sel on the old C. C. Comstock Dairy 

 farm on the car line to the Sold- 

 iers' home and fair grounds. Grand 

 Rapids. These bees were in single 

 bodies as about every one but me, 

 is keeping his bees, only they 

 were in an exceptionally fine loca- 

 tion for honey, and there was left 

 on each hive a full case of last 

 year's honey, from white clover and 

 above this was spread a piece of 

 Burlap and a cap filled with chaff 

 and so they had wintered well al- 

 though they were in as expcsed a 

 place as you could well see. They 

 had the full sweep up the river 

 valley for at least three miles of 

 our terrible South Westerns. I 

 have changed these bees from the 

 single hive method to mine of the 

 double hive as practiced by me. and 

 I thought I could not do better 

 than tell the readers of the Re- 

 view just how I did it and what I 

 did it for. So listen. 



These bees all in 10 frame 

 hives but one. I wish it had been 

 the other way for my creed says 

 that two 8 frame hives makes a 

 hive large enough. Not that a dou- 

 ble 10 frame hive is too large for 

 the bees, but its parts are too 

 heavy to handle easily when filled, 

 especially for women, and as we 

 are going to have women keep bees 

 by this method as well as vote, we 

 are studying their interest in this 

 matter. The first thing I did when 

 I got on the job was t? change 

 this 8 frame hive into a 10 frame 

 body and add 2 combs by spreading 

 the brood that I found from side 

 to side and put the 2 empties in 

 the middle. Then I looked the other 

 over to note their condition and 

 (See if they needed equalizing but 

 as I found all full from side to 

 side with brocd, this 18th of May 

 which I considered fine as the 

 season and bees have both been 

 backward, I concluded all was 

 right and no equalization necessary. 

 I had brought along five 10 frame 



bodies filled with empty combs be- 

 sides the empty body to put the 

 8 frame hive into. I wanted Mr. 

 Russel to build a shelter for the 

 bees on right lines, but he said 

 they had all kinds of buildings on 

 the farm and he would build no 

 more, so we looked the premises 

 over and found an old driving shed 

 for the former feed mill. This was 

 filled with all manners of By-gone 

 farm appliances including the 

 memorable one-horse chaise. While 

 I was looking over the bees, Mr. 

 Russell was "clearing deck" as 

 it were for action to make 

 room for the bees and we 

 proceeded at once to build 

 a shelf 20 inches high along the 

 south wall. The studding was 6 

 inches wide instead of 4, so we had 

 a good face to nail our supports 

 for our platform to and we made 6 

 inch pockets instead of our 4 inch 

 pockets we make where the stud- 

 ding is 4 inches, and I wish to 

 digress here for a moment to say 

 that if I had never done a thing in 

 by life but devise this 4 inch 

 pocket and urge bee-keepers every- 

 where to put their bees under 

 shelter above ground. Peter had 

 ought to let me through the Gate, 

 when I will soon go up, for I will 

 be 71 in 10 days if I live that 

 long. Well the shelf was completed 

 and fly holes cut through the wall 

 by 6:30. Pretty good time for it 

 was 3:30 when Russel's auto came 

 on the ground with the fixtures 

 and tools. The farm help got their 

 suppars and were very willing to 

 help and to learn something differ- 

 ent than they had known, We had 

 not a minute to spare for the bees 

 had gone in and they were to be 

 moved about 20 rods to the shed 

 from where they sat in the large 

 open garden about 4 rods from the 

 house. The farm manager and Mr. 

 Russell carried the hives one at a 

 time to the shed and put them on 

 the permanent shelf, while I pre- 

 pared them by stopping the en- 

 trance with rags pushed in place 



