DADANT SYSTEM OP BEEKEEPING 57 



When we wish to examine the hives for the removal of 

 drone-combs, and the replacing of them with worker-combs, 

 which we consider of great importance, in all but the hives 

 which we select as drone producers, and when we have transfers 

 to make, as happens nearly every year, of crooked combs 

 caused by accidents, or of box hives purchased from old-fashioned 

 beekeepers, which we aim to secure in order to do away with 

 box-hive beekeeping, this work is done during early fruit bloom. 

 At that time, the colonies have the least bees and the least honey 

 and are more easily handled without danger of robbing. Methods 

 of transfer of the combs of box hives are given at length in "The 

 Hive & Honey Bee." 



In this locality, a long interval of honey dearth exists 

 between fruit bloom and the first yield of the real honey crop, 

 white clover. This is not the case in many other locations, 

 in which some bloom or other fills the gap. During that interval, 

 it is necessary to look after the bees, for they often decrease 

 their laying in a serious manner. It may be necessary to feed 

 them and it is profitable to do so. But this is irregular, so 

 our system of action depends very much upon circumstances. 

 Rarely, the fruit bloom has yielded sufficiently to induce them 

 to continue breeding until the first clover blossoms appear. 

 Our action, at this time, depends upon those conditions. But we 

 find it indispensable, at any cost, to keep the bees breeding. 

 As Mr. Geo. S. Demuth, of the Bureau of Entomology, puts it 

 so clearly, "we must raise our bees for the honey crop and not 

 upon the honey crop." The following of the above axiom, for 

 years, has probably been the most positive reason of our success 

 in beekeeping. 



The Honey Crop 



We have had a number of seasons when the white clover, 

 whose bloom forms the principal crop of our locality, was en- 

 tirely killed by the drought of the previous season. In such 

 years, we are pleased if our bees make enough to support them- 

 selves till the fall harvest. It is during those years that we aim to 

 make increase, for we have bees in plenty and little for them todo. 



