FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 273 



quite thin, and there would be more danger from robbers, and 

 more danger of having thin feed left in the feeders to sour. 



DIFFICULTY IN DECIDING ABOUT STORES. 



It is not an easy thing to determine just what amount of 

 stores is needed to carry a colony through to the next harvest. 

 Some colonies use more than others under apparently the same 

 conditions. Experience will enable oi^e to judge fairly well by 

 inspection as to the amount of stores present, but one can be 

 more exact about it by actual weighing. Besides, with proper 

 conveniences for it, the weighing takes less time. But two 

 colonies may weigh exactly the same, and one may have abun- 

 dance and the other may starve, because, although weighing the 

 same, one had much more honey than the other. One had much 

 pollen, the other little. Or, the combs of one were new, and the 

 combs of the other very old and heavy. The only safe way is 

 to have all so heavy that under any and all circumstances there 

 will be no danger. So we aim to have each hive with its con- 

 tents, its cover, and its bottom-board, weigh as much as fifty 

 pounds. Some will weigh so much more than this that hefting 

 will show that there is no need of weighing. Even a strong 

 colony that stored well throughout the season in a prosperous 

 year may have had the brood-chamber so stocked with brood 

 that not enough honey was in the brood-chamber, so it is well to 

 heft and weigh even in the best seasons, and to do this late 

 enough so that storing from flowers need no longer be taken into 

 account, and so early that there will be abundance of time for 

 the bees to arrange matters to their liking in the brood-chamber. 



VSTEIGHING COLONIES. 



A common spring balance with a capacity of eighty pounds 

 is used for weighing (Fig. 105). An endless rope passes around 

 the hive under the cleat at each end, then the hook of the spring 

 balance passes under the two parts of the rope over the hive, 

 and the slack is taken up by tying a string around the two parts 

 under the hook. A hickory stick used as a lever passes through 

 the ring of the upper part of the spring balance, the short end 

 of the lever being supported by a light framework ihat stands 



