FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 123 



AN EMPHATIC SEASON. 



The year 1903 was one of the years that emphasized the 

 need of having a big stock of sections ready in advance. It 

 emphasized also the variableness of the seasons. Another item 

 of no small importance was the harvests of the present and 

 future as compared with the past. Some have said that, with 

 the advance of civilization, the plow and the ax have cut off our 

 resources for nectar, and we are no more to expect such crops 

 as we have had in the past. We shall see where the year 1903 

 put the emphasis in that matter. 



A furnace put in the cellar somewhat late the previous 

 winter had made bad work with the wintering, so that by the 

 12th of May, 1903, I could muster only 124 colonies all told, and 

 some of them were very weak indeed. The dense carpet of white 

 clover promised well, provided the weather was good (as it 

 turned out there was too much cold and wet for best expecta- 

 tions), but enough supers were piled ready-filled to satisfy any- 

 reasonable demands. The cool wet weather hindered storing no 

 little, but was no doubt an advantage in the long run, for it 

 kept the clover growing and blowing, and I don't know really 

 when it did cease to yield. 



The season was remarkably early, so that second stories 

 were given some colonies by May 13, and May 25 we began 

 giving supers. Three days later there were evidences of abun- 

 dant storing. July 1 we began taking off supers, and from that 

 on had a busy time both taking off and putting on — no trouble 

 with robber-bees ; supers could be set on hives and left till the 

 bees all ran out of their own accord, standing all day if nec- 

 essary. This up to July 18, after which time the bees would 

 have spells of letting up, only to go at it afresh after the pause. 



Finally it began to dawn on us that our stock of filled 

 supers was running dangerously low. More sections were 

 ordered. Getting them ready as needed was added to our already 

 heavy task. We were kept on the jump till near the middle of 

 August. Then came the National convention at Los Angeles. 

 Some 12,000 finished sections were piled up in the house, but a 

 lot more were on the hives, and I hesitated about going. But 

 my assistant insisted I should go; the bees had let up on storing, 



