MANAGEMENT OF OUT-APIARIES 39 



maining nine frames, which were nearly full of honey at that time, have 

 three-fourths of the honey retnoved from them, while the> emptied cells 

 are teeming with brood from the egg to larvae in all stages of growth. 

 Since using the later idea of giving no brood where plenty of empty cells, 

 all cleaned ready for brood, were found in the upper story at the time of 

 shaking, I find that the queen does fully as good work as. was done where 

 the frame partly filled Tvith brood was given, and the honey is carried up 

 into the sections to a still greater amount. The cause for this seems to be 

 that, instead of busying herself for the first two or three days after shak- 

 ing by laying in this comb having some brood in it, and more empty cells 

 higher up in the comb, the queen begins to lay near or at the bottom of sev- 

 eral combs at once ; and as she progresses upward on these combs the bees 

 seem eager to give her all the room she requires, this causing the honey to be 

 "stampeded" into the sections faster, if possible, than was the case where 

 the frame having some brood was given, as was done when the first edition 

 of "A Year's Work in an Out-apiary" was published. This shows that the 

 colonies are in a very prosperous condition ; and should favorable weather 

 come, a good harvest of white honey may yet be obtained. After a careful 

 looking over to see that all things are in good shape for leaving I say good- 

 by to the pets at the close of this, my fifth visit to the out^apiary ; and in 

 the above the reader has a record of what was done at this visit. 



CHAPTER VI. 



HOW TO SAVE UNNECESSARY LIFTING IN TAKING OFF FILLED 

 SUPERS OF HONEY. 



But favorable weather did not come and continue ; for on the very next 

 day in the afternoon another rainstorm commenced and' bad weather con- 

 tinued the most of the time during the next eight days, at the end of which 

 the clover bloom is nearly past. We now have a few days of fine bee 

 weather, still and clear, with hot days and nights, which the bees improve 

 as best they can on the few nectar-giving flowers which are still in bloom. 

 The first blossom buds on the basswood trees commenced to open on the 

 sixth day of July, and I hoped that the good weather would continue right 

 along; but with the afternoon of the seventh a two-days' rain commenced, 

 which kept the bees in the hive nearly all the time. It is now the tenth day 

 of July, and fifteen days since my last visit to the out-apiary. As there is 

 a prospect of a fine day I start to make my sixth visit to that enchant- 

 ing place. But before going I catch and cage three just-laying queens, 

 from as many nuclei in the home yard, that I may be prepared to give 

 them to any of the nine colonies I made at the last visit, which may, by any 

 means, have failed to get a laying queen from the cells then given, taking 

 them, togeth-er with a load of supers, with me. As the basswood is now 

 nearing full bloom I am hoping for better weather, the same as the farmers 

 are, who, all along the road, are opening out their hay, which "got caught" 

 out in the rain. Arriving I find the bees rushing out of and into the hives, 

 almost like mad in their wild scramble for the basswood nectar, which, to 

 me, seems so tRin it is hardly worth the gathering, owing to the bloom 

 having been kept wet continually for the past 60 hours. While the 

 "scramble" for this thin basswood nectar is just as great as was that for 



