48 MANAGEMENT OF OUT-APIARIES 



only a living, these rousing colonies are actually laying up stores. Last 

 May, when the colonies as ordinarily worked were living only from hand 

 to mouth, these big colonies at the out-apiary actually laid up from 20 

 to 30 pounds of stores in the combs above their brood. And then when 

 other colonies were working a very little or none at all in the section 

 supers, these were completing their first 44 sections, and well at work in 

 the second super of 44 above. Such work as this is enough to cause the queen 

 to produce all the eggs in her ovaries in about two years ; and as the work 

 of superseding as given above is easily done, I think it well pays to kill any 

 queen when two years old, and give a cell to the colony, unless it is a queen 

 that has proven herself of extra value, when I would keep her to breed 

 from the next year, should she live through.'- 



Having the hives all ready for the buckwheat harvest, the poor- 

 queen matter disposed of, and the completed supers on the escape-boards, 

 I next attend to any and all the minor things about the apiary that 

 need attention, when the honey is loaded and a start for home is made. 

 If there is niore honey than can be carried at one load, it is left right 

 on the hives over the escape-board till I can conveniently come after 

 it ; for it is just as safe there as anywhere it can be left, unless Ave have 

 a building at the apiary for the purpose of keeping honey, which I do 

 not, nor do I consider it needful. If I feared the work of thieves, I 

 would take this honey to the farmer's house, or go back immediately 

 for it; but, as it is, I often leave it over the escape-boards for a few days 

 or a week, till some convenient time comes to bring it home. 



In the above I have given the reader the work done during the 

 seventh visit to this apiary. ■ 



CHAPTER VIII. 



PROGRESS IN THE SUPERS. 



Nearly a month has passed since my last visit to the out-apiary, 

 and it is now August 18. The buckwheat is now in full bloom, and 

 the snow-white fields, nestled down here and there among the meadows, 

 cornfields, and pasture lands, remind one of the days in early spring 

 when the snowbanks are loath to leave under the enlivening influences 

 of the oncoming summer sun. With the blooming of buckwheat, cool days 

 and colder nights come on, which are not what is needed for a good 

 yield of honey from that source. Hot days, with heavy dews, and an 

 occasional foggy morning, are the ideal for a prolific yield of nectar 

 from buckwheat. But the beekeeper always looks on the hopeful side, 

 seeing the sliver lining to the cloud, even though his lining may be on 

 the side from him, and hidden from his outstretched arms. In just such 

 a hopeful mood I am again at the out-apiary, this time to see that all 

 colonies have sufficient room, should there be a heavy flow from buckwheat 

 through returning good weather. 



Notwithstanding the poor weather, I find that most of the colonies 



1 When extracted honey is heinff produced the queens lay even more eggs during 

 a season than when comb honey is produced. Some extracted-hone.v producers, espe- 

 cially in the South where i)ie brpgd -rehiring season is longer, find it profitable to re- 

 !jue?n every year. 



