38 A YEAR'S WORK IN AN OUT-APIARY 



I put on the wheelbarrow (every apiary should have a wheelbarrow 

 ready for use at a moment's notice) an empty hive, and beside it I put 

 an escape-board, and on this escape-board a super of sections filled with 

 foundation." The wheelbarrow is now brought up close to one of these 

 colonies that has a super ready to come off, when the supers which are 

 not ready are set on top of the super on the wheelbarrow, and the com- 

 pleted super set on the empty hive. By using the wheelbarrow, and 

 working in this way, there is little if any bending of the back when 

 lifting the filled and nearly filled supers, so the work is done quite 

 easily— in fact, with as little fatigue as Is possible, and very much less 

 than will occur when supers, hives, etc., are handled from the ground. 

 The supers being now all off the hive and on the wheelbarrow, they are 

 rearranged in putting back as follows: 



The one that was at the top, the same being the one which was put 

 on at the last visit, if the bees have worked In it at all, as they have 

 in nearly all of them. Is set back directly on the brood-chamber, and on 

 top of this is put the one which Is nearly completed, and on top of the 

 two I place the empty super, or super of empty sections, just brought 

 on the wheelbarrow. The board having the bee-escape in it is now put 

 on, and on this the completed super is set. Having things arranged 

 thus, and working in this way, no useless motions are made or lifting 

 done that counts for naught. The cover is now put on, and another 

 escape-board and super of empty sections gotten, when I go to the next 

 hive, treating that in the same way if it is in the same condition. 

 If I find that any have done less work, then the nearest completed of 

 the two supers, not as yet fully finished, is set on the brood-chamber, 

 the one little worked in top of that, and the empty one from the wheel- 

 barrow on top of this, with the escape-board and completed super above 

 the three, as before. The thing sought after is to give room in such a 

 manner that we shall not have a lot of unfinished sections should the 

 season prove poor from now on, and at the same time provide plenty 

 of room for the largest yield from basswood that is likely to occur in 

 our locality; or, in the terms of an ancient parlance, have the "pot" 

 right side up, should there be a great "downpour of porridge." To show 

 how completely this plan works, I will say that, in the fall of 1905, 

 I had only eight unfinished or unsalable sections out of every one hun- 

 dred that the bees made a start on; while during 1906 the bees com- 

 pleted so nearly all that there were less than four out of every one 

 hundred completed, this number not being sufficient to provide the neces- 

 sary "baits" tor the season of 1907. This is very different from what it 

 used to be when I worked on the old tiering-up plan, when I would 

 often have from eighty to one hundred partly filled sections to every 

 one hundred that were completed. The old saying is, that "a burnt 

 child dreads the fire;" and having been severely burned several times 

 during the past by putting an empty super under a partly filled one, 

 just at this stage in the basswood bloom, which resulted, through a poor 

 ' See cut on page 37. 



