368 



THE BEE KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



strong, to use his own language, " It ate 

 some of the splinters off the broom with 

 which he applied it. " He did not remem- 

 ber the exact proportions of the solution, 

 but foul brood has never been developed in 

 those hives since they were thus disinfected. 

 Why wouldn't this be a better way of disin- 

 fecting hives than that of burning them 

 out with kerosene oil ; that is, if the work is 

 done thoroughly ? 



After getting some experience and a few 

 good crops of honey his enthusiasm ana 

 confidence became such that he bought bees 

 largely, going in debt for many of them. 

 Then the poor seasons came on, and not only 

 did the bees that were expected to pay for 

 themselves fail to store any honey but had 

 to be /"ed both fall and spring. In one in- 

 stance he fed bees in the spring to keep 

 them from starving, a d cared for them all 

 through the summer only to find that they 

 must be fed in the fall, and rather than do 

 this he let them go back to the man of whom 

 they were bought, losing his time and the 

 spring feed. It is under such discourage- 

 ments that he has worked away and built 

 up five apiaries, varying in numbers of col- 

 onies from perhaps fifty to seventy- five 

 each. This year his crop of comb honey is 

 about 8,000 pounds, and it will I believe 

 put him practically out of debt. 



A.S he sat chatting in the Review office a 

 few days ago. having called to pay his sub- 

 scription, it occurred to me that pictures of 

 his apiaries, and a publication of the plan of 

 how he managed them for comb honey, 

 with only the help of one man for about 

 three weeks during the swarming season, 

 would be interesting to the readers of the 

 Review, and I proposed that we drive around 

 and take views of his apiaries. In a day or 

 two he drove up with the colt and road cart 

 that take him from one apiary to another ; 

 and as we drove from one to another of the 

 four apiaries nearest Flint, he gave me in 

 detail his plans of management. Briefly, 

 his methods are as follows : — 



He winters most of his bees out of doors, 

 protecting them with chaff. He waits until 

 as late as possible in the fall, sets the hives 

 in a long row with boards at the back and 

 front and then packs the hives in chaff, put- 

 ting two inches in front, three or four at the 

 back and five or six on top, covering all 

 with shade boards, covers, or water-proof 

 building paper. Some of his colonies are 

 in chaff hives, but he does not like them, as 



they are expensive and too heavy and bung- 

 ling to handle to the best advantage. 



In the spring the bees are looked over, 

 stores equalized, and all extra combs re- 

 moved, the bees being crowded up on as few 

 as possible. When the packing is removed 

 each alternate hive is moved ahead a little 

 ways, and the other hives moved back a 

 little, and then in a few days the distances 

 are increased until the hives are sufficiently 

 scattered. Soon as the bees are crowded 

 for room the combs are spread and empty 



OHAKLEY KOEPPEN. 



combs put in the center. This is usually 

 done the first time just before the harvest 

 from white clover. A week or ten days 

 later the colonies are again gone over and 

 the combs of sealed brood in the center are 

 shifted to the outside, the outside combs, 

 that are largely tilled with honey, being 

 moved to the center of the brood nest. At 

 the beginning of the basswood flow the 

 brood nests are again overhauled and this 

 shifting gone through with, but in many 

 instances, in fact, in most instances, that 

 is, if the colony is strong, two combs of 

 bees and brood are taken away and used in 

 tarting a nucleus, their places, in the cen- 



