82 THE beekeepers' DIRECTORY. 



producing honey in any form in a good season when the flowers 

 are yielding nectar in what we call a good honey season. There- 

 fore what is here said and advised is intended to apply to those 

 seasons when there is plenty of forage for the bees to gather from. 

 In order to get a crop of honey there must first be a crop of 

 bees. How to produce them at the right time and in the desired 

 quantities is the first thing to be considered. 



In the April (1889) issue of the American Apiculturist, Mr. 

 G. M. Doolittle of Borodino, N. Y., gave a most excellent method 

 for preparing bees for the harvest. We consider it of so much 

 importance and so valuable to all engaged in the production of 

 honey that it is given here entire. 



FreparinK for the harvest. 

 I am keeping bees solely for the profit there is in them, hence 

 shall write this article from a " matter-of-fact " standpoint, as 1 

 am sure one week of practical experience is worth years of the- 

 orizing. Believing this to be so, I propose to take the reader 

 right into my apiary, as it were, and show him just what I do, 

 thus giving him all the benefit of my experience of working an 

 apiary for profit. Say what we may of pleasure, the most of us 

 find out that there is little pleasure in the ordinary avocations of 

 life, unless there is a cash value attached to them. From this 

 standpoint we will begin. • 



Taking the bees &om the cellar. 



First, then, we have the, getting our bees out of winter quar- 

 ters. Nearly all beekeepers in the northern states have been 

 forced to the conclusion that the cellar is the only safe place to 

 winter bees, while of late years the fact prevails, that in order to 

 meet with the best success^ the bees should not be set out till 

 settled warm weather arrives, which usually occurs when the soft 

 maple and the elm commence to bloom, firom which the first 

 pollen of any account is gathered. If set out earlier the bees 

 waste away in their fruitless attempts to get something where 

 nothing is to be obtained, from which comes "spring dwindling," 

 resulting in a loss of stock. 



Now, as to how the setting out is done. I first light my bel- 

 lows-smoker and proceed with it and a' spring wheelbarrow to 

 the cellar door, at which place both are left, when I go in and 

 get one of the colonies and place it on the barrow. As soon as 



