THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



103 



knows. The speaker stated that 

 where one was keeping more than a 

 hundred colonies and was depending 

 on the nectar from one source alone, 

 as from clover, then it paid well to 

 establish outyards, with from fifty to 

 a hundred colonies in one location. 

 From his own experience he stated 

 that even when the extra expense of 

 travel and maintenance of the out- 

 yards was taken into consideration 

 the increased crops more than over- 

 balanced the extra outlay. Never 

 keep all your eggs in one basket was 

 the motto of Mr. Running. 



In establishing outyards the speak- 

 er stated that he tried to find a local- 

 ity where white clover grew freely 

 and where alsike clover was being 

 raised for seed. Alsike yields nectar 

 very freely just before ripening and 

 when grown for seed, the nectar pro- 

 ducing period is lengthened to its full- 

 est extent and for these reasons a lo- 

 cality where alsike is grown for seed 

 is usually a good one in which to lo- 

 cate an outapiary. Mr. Running 

 stated that he had no trouble in get- 

 ting a location for his bees, as the 

 farmers in his locality appreciated the 

 immense good the bees do in pollen- 

 izing the clover blossoms and so in- 

 creasing the yield of seed. Knowing 

 this, the farmers welcomed an apiary 

 on their farm. 



The bees are moved to the outyards 

 in the spring of the year, just as soon 

 as the roads are good, usually about 

 the time dandelions are in bloom. 



Mr. Running has a large number of 

 surplus combs and hive bodies for the 

 storing of the honey and these are all 

 carried to the home yard for extract- 

 ing and storing at end of season. For 

 this reason and the con'^'enience of 

 having one extracting outfit and cen- 

 tral plant, buildings are not required 

 at each out apiary. 



The eight framed Langstroth hive 

 is used exclusively by Mr. Running 

 and a summary of his management is 

 as follows: 



Bees are taken out of the cellar and 

 placed on their summer stands. They 

 are not disturbed again until the time 

 comes to move them to the outapiary. 

 which is done about dandeloin or fruit 

 bloom time. At this time all queens 

 are clipped and an extra hive body, 

 with drawn combs placed on brood 

 chamber. No queen excluder is used. 

 The queen has the use of the two 

 brood chambers, and when clover com- 

 mences to yield nectar each colony is 

 examined, and all queens shaken down 



into lower brood chamber while the 

 queen excluder is placed directly on 

 the lowest or first brood chamber. In 

 place of returning the upper or sec- 

 ond brood chamber, now well filled 

 with brood, directly over the first 

 brood chamber another hive body with 

 drawn combs is placed on first hive 

 body and the upper brood chamber is 

 placed above the second hive body. 

 Thus, at this time the colonies are 

 occupying three hive bodies and the 

 queen is in the lowest one with an 

 excluder above to prevent her going 

 up any more. This procedure gives 

 the queen room to lay at full capac- 

 ity and the bees lots of room to store 

 nectar. 



Ten days after this shaking and 

 putting one-third hive body, all the 

 brood chambers, now the lowest hive 

 body, are shaken into a hive body 

 containing only full sheets of foun- 

 dation, and one or two extra hive 

 bodies with drawn combs are placed 

 immediately above the new brood 

 chamber, with excluder between. 

 Queen cells are also removed from the 

 third hive body at this time. The 

 old brood chamber is now placed right 

 on top of the three or four hive bodies 

 and each colony now has four or five 

 hive bodies and a capacity for from 100 

 to 1.50 lbs. of surplus honey. These 

 may or may not all be needed. In 

 ten days all queens' cells must be re- 

 moved from the top hive body. If 

 increase is needed an entrance is 

 given at the back of this top hive 

 body and the young queen allowed to 

 hatch and mate and a new colony 

 formed. 



This method usually holds swarm- 

 ing down to a minimum, and with 

 few examinations during the summer 

 an outapiary can be run in connection 

 with the home apiary. 



All the honey is taken off with bee 

 escapes and the bees are not dis- 

 turbed and made cross when these are 

 used. 



The president next called on Mr. 

 Frank Pease. Marshall, Mich., whose 

 topic was. "Living in the North and 

 Keeping Bees in the South." 



Usually, beekeepers live in the 

 south and keep bees in the north, but 

 Mr. Pease lives in the north in win- 

 ter and keeps bees in the south in 

 summer. 



The southern yard is situated in 

 Louisiana and Mr. Pease gave a very 

 interesting account of beekeeping in 

 that part of the country. 



Conditions there call for treatment 



