m MANAGEMENT OF OUT-APIARIES 



CLiOMNCi WdKllfi; FI'KTHEK SlGliHSTlOX S TO THE PLAXS litVEX IX THE 

 PRF.CEIIIXG CHAPTERS. 



After using wiiat has been given in the previous visits, both in the 

 home yard and out-apiary (for the plan is equally good for the home 

 apiary) in the different stages of growth, as it developed during the 10 

 years between 1889 and 1900, and pretty much entirely for the past eleven 

 years, I wish to say that I believe it ahead of any and all other plans used 

 up to tlie present time, in that it gives the largest possible nmnber of bees 

 at the right time for the harvest, with little or nO disposition to swarm; con- 

 trols swarming perfectly, puts all honey not needed for the rearing of bees 

 or winter stores in the sections, and that with the least possible work that 

 can be used when working for section honey. Doing this is of great 

 \ alue in the home apiary, and an actual necessity for an out^apiaiy worked 

 for section honey. An additional value that attaches itself to the plan is 

 til at the sealing or cappings of the honey in the sections are nearly or 

 quite as white as those where honey is built by new swarms where they are 

 hived in contracted brood-chambers having only frames with starters in 

 them below, which all know is of a whiteness heretofore secured in no other 

 way. This fact alone would be of suflScient value to pay any beekeeper for 

 adopting it, even if it were not "head and shoulders" above any thing else 

 in securing a big crop of section honey without any swarming. 



The cause for this white capping, as I view it, comes from the bees 

 fully .^i^nipg, perfecting, and partly or wholly filling the combs along their 

 top,s, with honey, which, later on, after the "shook" swarming has taken 

 piaoe, become their brood-nest ; or when these combs are occupied for their 

 broodrnest proper, none of this cleaning of old combs is indulged in, or 

 cappings from over emerging young bees handled, to carry bits of old 

 comb or travel-stain into the sections while they are being capped, as, is 

 the case with all other ways of using old combs. T have noticed for years 

 that( when beas are cleaning old combs, or where much brood is emerging- 

 near, tbe tpp-bars to the frames just under the sections, more or less of this 

 refuse matter ig worked into tlie cappings to our section boney. Even 

 where hew swarms, hived on starters, put brood next to the top-bars to the 

 frames under the Sections, the cappings to such sections as are sealed after 

 this brood begins to emerge are not nearly so white as they were previous 

 to this— -especially along the comb in the section near the bottom. 



Then the labor part in producing section honey by the plan as here 

 outlined is much less tlian with any of the other plans recommended in our 

 bee books and papers, so far as T have tried them, and I have tried nearly 

 all. A man of usual working ability should be able to work five out- 

 apiaries, in connection with the one at liome, with little if any help except, 

 perhaps, a few days when he is making swarms and setting the bees in and 

 out ot' tlie cellai'S. Wei'e. T from 25 to 40 years old, and free from the 

 rheufiiatism whicli I now enjoy (?), I should not hesitate to undertake the 

 working of six yards containing from 50 to 75 colonies each, including the 

 home yard. But my age, and rheumatism in back and knees, to an extent 

 which makes it very difficult to "get to going" every morning, and often 

 witli only pain and weariness during the whole day, prohibit me from 

 talcing a very active part in these matters much longer. 



Aft*r i)repai'ing, cratinu and marketing the honey produced by the 



