MANAGEMENT OF OUT-APIARIES 11 



our plan just when it will give us the assurance of the most perfect suc- 

 cess.^ 



THE IMPOETANCE OP GETTING TUB (30L0NIES IN THE SPRING IN THE BEST, 

 POSSIBLE CONDITION FOR THE HARVEST. 



Again, I wish to quote from W. Z. Hutchinson : "Can you bring your 

 bees through the spring and have them in the best possible condition for the 

 harvest when it comes? Are you sure there is nothing you can do in this 

 period to increase your crop? I came across a beekeeper a short time ago 

 who secured a crop far in advance of his neighbors ; and the only difference 

 in his management, so far as I could discover, was that he fed his bees 

 between fruit bloom and clover; and when the latter came the combs were 

 full of brood and food, and the surplus went into the supers at once; be- 

 sides, there were more bees to gather it." This is just what this plan as 

 here given accomplishes. The bees are abundantly fed, so there is no slack 

 in brood-rearing, the combs in the lower hive (ten in number) are full of 

 brood. There are nearly double the bees to gather honey when the harvest 

 comes that there are when working by the old plans; and about the honey 

 going into the supers at once — I will let the worked-out plan tell you 

 further on. 



If a good yield happens to be obtained from fruit bloom, wild mustard, 

 and black locust, the brood-nest or lower hive is not crowded with honey, 

 as would have been the case had not this upper hive of combs been given, 

 for the combs of honey raised from below and put above tell the bees from 

 the start, "This is our storehouse," and there is room enough in it to hold 

 from 60 to 75 pounds of surplus, above what was in the hive when I closed 

 it. With a good flow from fruit bloom or any other source, just at this 

 time, together with the honey that we had allowed them at our former 

 visit, had they been kept in the lower hive, with no sections put on, would 

 come a material lessening of our prospect of a surplus from clover and 

 basswood, either from forcing them to swarm prematurely or the crowding 

 of the queen, by filling the cells with honey, which should be occupied with 

 brood. Elisha Gallup was right when he told us, years ago, that such 

 would be the case where a large surplus was obtained early in the season, 

 from robbing or any other source, which filled the combs with honey before 

 they were fully occupied with brood. 



As now fixed, brood-rearing goes on 'swimmingly,'' with no desire 

 for swarming, and this is just what is desirable at any out-apiary (or home 

 yard also) worked for comb honey. The entrances to all hives but the 

 weaker ones are "thrown wide open," while these are given as large an 

 entrance as the Wronger ones had at the last visit before this. The "door- 

 yard" boards are fixed so that the grass will not "swamp" the hives or 



^ This reserve of stores, together with the additional room for brood-rearing, is the 

 most important feature of the author's system of management. The exact time for 

 adding this second story, well supplied with honey, will vary with the location and 

 the advancement of the season, .It should certainly be on the hive during the month 

 just preceding the main honey flow when most of the workers for the harvest are 

 being reared. Many who .winter their bees outside prefer to have a second story 

 nearly full of honey on each hive in the fall, leaving it in 'place during the winter 

 and spring. When this is done the queen-excluder should be taken out in the fall 

 since the cluster might move above in winter, leaving the queen to perish below the 

 excluder. For extracted-honey production the queen-excluder, is also omitted during 

 the spring, permitting the queen to have free range through both stories, until about 

 the beginning of the honey flow. See page 26. 



