THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



363 



Management of Three Thousand Colonies Bees in 



Fifty Yards 



liy J. J. WILD ER. Cordele, Ga. 



A Crop Removed While Another 

 is Being Gathered 



As scon as my helper and I 

 reached my home business from my 

 new field of adventure where fail- 

 ure had been our portion, I put 

 him in the packing house with a 

 cheap assistant. With the helper 

 I proceeded to remove and pack 

 the crop of honey then on the hives. 



There was no extracting to be 

 done for this honey was from the 

 cotton plant and once extracted 

 it would soon granulate. The pack- 

 ing consisted of removing the honey 

 from the shallow frames, cutting it 

 cross wise in strips about one and 

 a half inches. A couple of these 

 v/ere placed in each pint jar end- 

 wise, then the jar filled with ex- 

 tracted honey from the tank. This 

 honey had been brought over from 

 the spring crop for this purpose, 

 being barrelled up and in readiness. 

 This was to be our winter stock and 

 if it showed any signs of granula- 

 tion it would all be sent back to us 

 from our customers. We never re- 

 moved any honey except the very 

 brightest in color, leaving all dark 

 and soiled combs for winter stores. 



This task was about accomplish- 

 ed in sixty days and brought us to 

 the latter part of September and 

 I sent the helper back to the new 

 business, leaving us to finish up 

 and prepare the bees for winter. 

 When I was ready to go back to 

 the new field, I heard from the 

 helper that conditions were the re- 

 verse from what they were when we 

 left i. e. the brood chambers were 

 full of brocd and a good number of 

 supers were filled with honey. Some 

 few colonies had swarmed, while 

 others were badly crowded for 

 room. On receipt of this I left the 

 home business with the helpers and 

 went to the new one, finding con- 

 ditions just as he had described. 



Evidently during our absence 

 there had been a slow honey flow 

 for thirty days cr more from the Pat- 



ridge pea which was our main source 

 of surplus honey. This season it was 

 nearly a failure and only furnished 

 a small amount of nectar, but nov/ 

 the summer farewell had come in 

 bloom, and conditions were right 

 for a good yield from it. Up until 

 this time this plant was not gener- 

 ally known as a honey plant of any 

 consequence. The honey was almost 

 water clear, of thick body and fine 

 flavor. 



I knew from the appearance of 

 the bloom that the flow would soon 

 be over and we could not hope to 

 .get empty supers filled. So we 

 started at once to equalizing stor- 

 ing room. The supers that had just 

 been well started and those not 

 likely to be filled in their present 

 position were placed on the strong- 

 est colonies needing more room. 

 This was the first work we did at 

 all yards; then we began taking off 

 and packing. As we made the 

 uext round we rearranged storing 

 room again and by the time the 

 flow ceased nearly all supers were 

 finished and we had considerable 

 packed. After assisting my helper 

 over two weeks, I returned back 

 home greatly encouraged and more 

 determined to pusli the business in 

 the new field. It was the most 

 beautiful cr fanciest crop of honey 

 I had ever produced and the har- 

 vesting of it was a very small item 

 of work. As scon as small shipments 

 of it reached our customers orders 

 came in for the entire output. 



I went over the home business 

 with the helper to see that the bees 

 were properly put up for winter and 

 I outlined and instructed him as 

 to his work for winter. He was to 

 visit every j^ard every twenty days 

 and clean them off to assure safety 

 from forest fires, to carry to every 

 yard at the time he vrisited them 

 properly prepared supplies for next 

 season such as supers, some extra 

 bottoms and covers to replace those 

 jjiving way, also certain amount of 

 one story hives, frames to be wired 

 and full sheets foundation to be 



