THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



87 



expectations and now we come to the 

 fifth year's work and let me say that 

 these locations were about 40 miles 

 apart, one on the great Suwanee 

 River and the other on the Suwan- 

 oochie Creek, about midway between 

 the home and Florida business, which 

 made it very convenient to reach go- 

 ing or coming from my most remote 

 location, which was about 200 miles 

 from home branch, making the two 

 new branches about 100 miles from 

 home. We have very good railroad 

 facilities. 



The first thing we did was to erect 

 at each place a cheaply constructed 

 cottage for living quarters for the 

 apiarists who were to take charge, 

 and as soon as this was done they 

 moved in, then erected a feed room, 

 a stall for the horse, a wagon 

 shelter; then a work shop and an ex- 

 tracting house was built, and then 

 they were ready for the bees and at 

 the same time my general foreman 

 was at my Florida branches prepar- 

 ing 400 colonies of bees to be shipped, 

 200 to each new branch. These bees 

 were taken from the largest apiaries 

 and where it would be most suitable 

 to make up the increase. As soon as 

 ready the first car went, but no supers 

 were carried as they were needed for 

 the new increase to be made. Then, 

 too, comb honey supers would not be 

 needed at the new branch. As soon 

 as the car reached its destination the 

 man to take charge and his helper 

 were ready with teams and soon the 

 car was unloaded and the bees placed 

 all in the yard there, from which they 

 could be carried to the two outer lo- 

 cations, as soon as it was convenient. 

 The general foreman who accompan- 

 ied the bees went back on the next 

 train for the next car, which was pre- 

 pared and ready at the station, con- 

 venient to be loaded, and when load- 

 ed they went on to the other new 

 branch, the first yard being turned 

 over to the apiarist in charge. Then 

 the foreman went home to get out the 

 necessary supplies for the approach- 

 ing season. Lumber was already on 

 the ground and on file was on order 

 from each managing apiarist for his 

 needs in supplies. These orders 

 were filled one at a time and sent out 

 in a car so the material could be set 

 up and gotten in readiness. The bees 

 were moved the latter part of No- 

 vember, allowing ample time to get 

 out the supplies and have them ready 

 before they were needed. One car 

 was ready for the Florida branch and 



went out before the first of the year. 

 It consisted of 400 one story hives 

 and about 800 comb honey supers, to- 

 gether with a lot of foundation sec- 

 tions, etc., which would be needed to 

 complete the equipment and supplies 

 needed for the coming season. When 

 the car arrived the apiarist in charge 

 and his helper went to work on them. 

 By February the first car was ready 

 and went to one of the new branches. 

 It consisted of 100 new story hives 

 complete for increase and 900 shal- 

 low extracting supers, foundation and 

 all necessary supplies, together with 

 honey tank, extractor, and thirty-five 

 32-gallon barrels for the honey pro- 

 duced at that branch. These supplies 

 were also set up in readiness. By 

 February the 16th our general fore- 

 man had the other car about ready 

 to go out, or he lacked just another 

 day or so, when he was suddenly 

 taken violently ill. The doctors were 

 called in and they said there was no 

 chance for him to live and I was noti- 

 fied at once and as soon as I received 

 the message I left for home, for I 

 was spending the winter at my winter 

 cottage at Brodentown, Fla., and on 

 reaching home I found my right hand 

 man lying at the point of death and 

 in a few hours he was dead. I in- 

 structed the best helper he had the 

 best I could how to finish up the un- 

 completed job, and I took his body 

 back to the little farm in the Red 

 Hills of middle Georgia, from whence 

 he came to me when only a boy, and 

 there I laid his body in its last resting 

 place and I returned home and took 

 charge of the business. Well, our 

 business was all in gloom; our right 

 hand man and the one whom we had 

 all learned to love was gone. All 

 our men had been notified of his se- 

 rious illness and the most of them 

 were at his bed-side before I was and 

 were there when he died. 



Soon we had the other cars of sup- 

 plies, containing the same material as 

 the first one, in the hands of the other 

 apiarist at the new branch. Well, we 

 all got busy in dead earnest and by 

 the time the supplies were fully ready 

 and on the ground around at the 

 yards the bees needed our attention 

 and we went to them and the usual 

 routine of work was followed, and the 

 increase was all made in the usual 

 manner during our second, third and 

 fourth rounds, and built up ready 

 for the approaching honey flow. Into 

 this we went with all the vim we pos- 

 sessed and a harvest of over 200,000 



