126 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



fruit-bloom closed. Two days later we began putting on supers, 

 and the bees were not long about occupying them. There was 

 a steady flow from clover for at least 11 weeks, and I don't 

 know, how much longer, for about August 18 sweet clover and 

 heartsease began to mix in, continuing till Sept. 20, supers 

 being taken off Sept. 22. Thus there was a continuous flow, 

 Avith scarcely a break, for about 16 weeks. Timely rains occur- 

 red to keep the bloom at its best, but they generally occurred in 

 the night, allowing the bees to be on their job the next morning. 



After the flow was well under way, with every prospect of ' 

 continuance, Miss Wilson began to urge that more sections 

 should be ordered. I laughed at her. I said, " There is no need 

 of more than 7 supers per colony, spring count. We had at 

 the beginning of the season 660 supers ready to put on the 

 hives. That's a little more than 9 supers per colony. We never 

 have needed anything like that number of supers, and never 

 will. No matter how hard the bees are working now, there aie 

 always setbacks, as you will see, and at the close of the season 

 we will have empty supers to burn." But with Scotch persis- 

 tence she kept insisting, and finally I ordered more sections, 

 with no expectation they would be needed. It would, however, 

 satisfy jMiss Wilson, and the sections would keep for another 

 season. But the exijected setbacks did not come, and the big 

 flow kept right on flowing until the 660 supers had been put on 

 the hives, and we began to put on some of the fresh lot. Then 

 Miss Wilson had the laugh on me. I bore it calmly. 



The increase from these 72 colonies was only one colony, 

 the other 11 colonies furnishing all needed increase. 



There was no stinting of surplus-room. As fast as needed 

 an empty super was added below, and as a sort of safety-valve 

 an empty super was kept on top. Throughout the whole of 

 July there Avere on the hives an average of 5 supers each. A 

 few colonies had as many as 7 or 8 supers each at one time. 



June 24 we began taking off supers. Each colony had 

 careful credit for all honey taken from it. Not only were full 

 sections counted, but sections partly filled were estimated and 

 credited. Footed up at the close of the season, there were 

 19,186 ser-lions, or an average of 266.47 sections per colony, for 



