152 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



home— so far that the journeying to and 

 fro nnust be done on the cars. If possible, 

 have each apiary where the flora and 

 other conditions are different from those 

 at the other yards. The chances of a 

 total failure are thus greatly lessened; 

 there is almost certain to be a crop at 

 some of the locations. To illustrate, I 

 have bees in four different kinds of loca- 

 tions; or, rather, there are foi^r sources of 

 supply available to one or more of the 

 four yards. These sources are clover, 

 basswood, red raspberry, and buckwheat. 

 Last year the buckwheat furnished about 

 one-fourth of the crop, while basswood 

 yielded nothing. Next year the conditions 

 may be reversed. Clover yielded the 

 most profusely last year; next year it 

 may be raspberry. 



Having secured the desirable locations, 

 next comes the stocking of them with the 

 very best kind of bees. I have found 

 nothing superior to the darker strains of 

 Italians. Get the best of hives and im- 

 plements. This is one of the advantages 

 of specialty, that it can afford to have 

 tools and implements which are beyond 

 the reach of the small bee-keeper. It 

 can have the best of hives, feeders, cel- 

 lars, extractors, etc. For instance, I 

 have sold the two-frame extractors that 

 came with the apiaries that 1 bought last 

 fall, in Northern Michigan, and shall put 

 a four-frame automatic at each yard the 

 coming season. 



To recapitulate: Get a good location; 

 better yet, several good locations; stock 

 them with good bees, plenty of them, 

 enough so that when there comes a good 

 year the crops will be enormous; have 

 the best of hives and implements, and 

 study out some system of management 

 that is adapted to yourself and your con- 

 ditions. Simple, isn't it ? 



One thing more, and I am done. Un- 

 less you can go into it with enthusiasm, 

 and full faith in your ability to succeed, 

 don't attempt it. 



5PRING FLLDING. 



Its Value as a Preparation for the Honey 

 Flow. 



As the business of bee-keeping in- 

 creases, and is followed m.ore and more 

 on business lines, bees being kept in large 

 numbers, either in one apiary, or in sev- 

 eral, the matter of overstocking becomes 

 of much interest. It is pretty well settled 



that when the big, bountiful flow is on, 

 that a very large number of bees may be 

 kept in one locality; the difficulty is to 

 furnish them sufficient feed at other times 

 of the year. It is possible that, by judi- 

 cious feeding, the number of bees in a 

 given locality may be largely increased, 

 perhaps doubled. Here is something on 

 the subject from Mr. J. E. Crane, pub- 

 lished several months ago in Gleanings. 

 Mr. Crane says:-- 



The articles by E. W. Alexander have 

 proved very interesting and valuable, and 

 1 hope they may be placed in permanent 

 form for easy reference. Aside from di- 

 rect information on many subjects, the 

 sidelight thrown on some other points 

 gives them great value. We have won- 

 dered how he cou'd support such an im- 

 mense yard of bees in one place without 

 overstocking. His method of feeding, 

 when flowers are not yielding honey, in a 

 large measure explains the whole thing. 

 To illustrate, take a clover section like the 

 one where 1 live. Our whole reliance for 

 surplus is clover, which is usually abun- 

 dant; but unless bees get a good start 

 before it comes into bloom it goes by be- 

 fore they can gather much surplus; but if 

 bees are fed so as to be strong when it 

 begins to yield honey, a good crop is 

 secured, and the number of colonies kept 

 in one place may be largely increased 

 without danger of overstocking, and the 

 extra amount of honey secured will many 

 times repay the cost of extra feed. 



1 remember some thirty years ago, be- 

 fore 1 had learned the value of early 

 brood-rearing or the art of securing a 

 strong colony in time to gather the crop 

 of honey as soon as it appeared, nearly 

 all my colonies were short of stores, while 

 many of them were weak in numbers 

 also. I thought that the strong colonies 

 . could take care of themselves, but the 

 weak ones I must feed. 1 fed them, but 

 left the strong ones to shirk for their 

 feed. When clover came into bloom 1 

 found those that were strong early were 

 almost without brood, and fast getting 

 weak, while those that v/ere weakest in 

 early spring were my best colonies, and 

 gave me very much the most surplus 

 honey. Had 1 been a stranger to the re- 

 sources of our section 1 might have 

 thought we were overstocked. I believe 

 that, by judicious feeding when flowers 

 yield little honey, the number of colonies 

 in any given section may be very largely 

 increased — 1 think it safe to say doubled, 

 without any danger of overstocking. 



