MANAGEMENT OF OUT-APIARIES 



35 



like that of 1907, when it kept cold and rainy nearly every day up to the 

 first of June, and it seemed almost impossible to have any colonies strong 

 enough to take advantage of the white clover bloom -jwhen it came. Of 

 course, in such seasons the bloom will be somewhat delayed ; but as most of 

 our gTasses thrive quite well under cool wet weather, this bloom is not 

 delayed to nearly the extent that the brood in the hives will be,; therefore, 

 if we are to secure any section honey at all during these very bad years we 

 must work on the retrenching plan rather than on one of expansion. At 

 the time for putting on the upper stories of combs partly filled with honey 

 in the season of 1807 there was not a single hive that had brood in eight 



A HIVE PEEPAEBD ON THE DOOLITTLE PLAN. 



combs, while the majority had brood in only six combs, and some of those 

 not nearly filled. In looking over the situation I see that the "only plan 

 that gave me any assurance of success was that of "massing the brood," 

 as I call it, which was done as follows : 



When the cover was off the hive ready for putting on the queen-ex- 

 cluder I took out all of the combs which did not have brood in them, put- 

 ting these in what was to be the upper hive, leaving out as many of the 

 reserve or wintered-over combs as was necessary to make room for these. 

 In those hives in which I found brqod in only six combs, the other four 

 combs were put in the upper story, or the hive which was to be soon put 

 over the queen-excluder. Having these thus arranged I went to another 

 hive having brood in six combs and took out four frames which were the 

 nearest occupied with emerging brood of any they had, and put them in the 



