10 ALEXANDER'S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 



BEE-KEEPING AM) OTHER SIDE LINES NOT ADVISED. 



In regard to running some other business with bee-keeping I must 

 say I don't thinlt much of it. If you want a larger income, just add on 

 one or two hundred more colonies. I don't know of anything so nice 

 to go with bee-keeping as plenty of bees. Some are so slack that a large 

 per cent of their colonies give them little or no surplus. This is all 

 wrong, and shows that their owner is not caring for them as he should. 

 The idea of having 100 colonies, and getting surplus from only 75, is on 

 a par with box-hive apiaries. It is now high time that we get away 

 from that slipshod way of caring tor our bees. Don't let one single 

 colony sulk away its time. If they will not work without it, take away 

 from them all the honey they have, and then let them work or starve. 

 Sometimes we have swarms that have to be treated in this way. We 

 don't keep bees for the fun of lugging them out and In the cellar spring 

 and fall, and what stings we can get through the summer. We care for 

 them simply for the dollars we can get for their surplus honey; and if 

 we don't get some- from every colony we know it is our fault. My 

 advice is, just as soon as you find a colony that is not doing well, attend 

 to It at once. That is your business. Either put it in a shape so that 

 in a few days it will be all right, or unite it with another. If you don't 

 want to do this, put it with your nuclei, and consider it one of them. I 

 frequently find bee-keepers who allow far too much drone comb in their 

 hives. It is certainly much better to restrict the rearing of drones to 

 two or three colonies than to allow many thousand drones to be reared 

 in the place of worker bees. This one thing of itself often makes the 

 difference of several pounds of surplus in many of our colonies. It will 

 pay you well to bear this in mind. 



My friends, in the above you will find a few of the many necessary 

 things spoken of that make bee-keeping a success. Please weigh each 

 one separately, and in doing so make all the improvements you can; for 

 it is my hope that you will some day enjoy success in bee-keeping. 



Delanson, N. Y. 



July,1906. 



THK CONDITIONS THAT CONTROI, THE FLOW OF NECTAK; THE SEASON MOBE 



IMPORTANT THAN THE AMOUNT OF BLOOM; OVERSTOCKING; 



PREPARING FOB WINTEB IN JULY. 



OUR LOCATION. 



In regard to this location, let me say that we seldom get any surplus 

 until August. Of the 19 years that I have kept bees here there have been 

 only four seasons when we got any surplus honey until our buckwheat 

 harvest; but this season we got a fine lot of light honey in June and 

 July; but when our buckwheat harvest commenced the weather turned 

 cool, cloudy, and wet, so the bees could find honey only a day or two at a 

 time, although there wer» thousands of acres of buckwhsat In full bloom 



