Beekeeping iri Kansas. 7 



enough food themselves to last them all winter, besides storing a surplus for 

 my benefit. A man may capture a stray swarm of bees, put them in a hive, 

 and call them his own, but he could not do the same with stray cattle and 

 still be a law-abiding citi en. 



These four colonies of bees had nothing to boast of in the line of an- 

 cestors. In fact, two of them were stray swarms which were caught and 

 hived, while the other two were purchased at $6.50 per colony. The fact that 

 I valued them at $10 per colony in the spring is not because they had cost me 

 that much, but because that would probably have been the selling price at 

 that time. 



Early in August all four of the old queens were removed and young, un- 

 tested queens — so called because they were so young their progeny had never 

 been tested as to the purity of their race — were introduced. The reason for 

 requeening at this time of the year was because the two queens in the pur- 

 chased colonies were of uncertain age, while I knew that the queens in the 

 colonies which were caught as swarms must have been old queens, as it is 

 always the old queen that leaves with a swarm. Consequently I wanted to 

 have queens all of the same age, and August was the most desirable time 

 of the year to do this requeening. A young queen introduced into a colony at 

 this time would insure a large number of young bees before the colony went 

 into winter quarters. No honey was removed from these colonies during the 

 first year, as the honey flow that year was not particularly heavy and I 

 wanted to be sure that each colony of bees had enough honey left them to 

 last until the next honey flow began. Accordingly, forty to forty-five pounds 

 of stores were left in each hive for the bees to consume during the winter. 



When choosing a location for my bees I selected the south side of a dense 

 hedge windbreak, as I considered such a windbreak would be better than 

 a solid board fence. Immediately after the first frost I began to pack them 

 for the winter. The reason for putting on the packing was because bees are 

 like storage batteries, having just so much energy to expend, after which they 

 die. During the winter the bees form a hollow cluster in the hive as soon 

 as the temperature falls to 57 degrees. On the inside of this cluster will be 

 found a number of bees fanning the air and performing other muscular 

 exertions so as to raise the temperature of the hive. From time to time 

 they go to the outside of the cluster and other bees come in and take up the 

 work of maintaining the high temperature. The more of this work they have 

 to do the quicker they wear out. The young bees which I secured in such 

 large numbers by introducing young queens in August had the advantage 

 over old bees in that they had enough energy ta maintain the proper temper- 

 ature of the hive and still be able to take part in the heavy work of spring 

 brood rearing. The reason for the insulation was to help the bees retain this 

 desired temperature with a minimum expenditure of energy. The hives were 

 placed on hive stands about seven inches high, which had been previously 

 packed with leaves. As this was a good, strong colony of bees and I wanted 

 them to have plenty of room for spring brood rearing, two hive bodies were 

 provided for each colony. On top of each upper hive body a queen excluder 

 was placed, and on this a super with burlap tacked over the bottom. This 

 super was then filled with dry forest leaves. Next a two-foot poultry netting 

 with two-inch mesh was placed around the hive, which extended out eight 



