26 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 



blossoms come the bees will carry in horse feed and in the 

 absence of this they will take in soft wood saw dust to mix 

 in the honey. And so we see the beauty of this all. And 

 why bees are the greatest friends of the orchard man as 

 they will give him very much more and larger and better 

 fruits. Turning many of his second apples into firsts, and 

 besides doing this work for nothing and boarding them- 

 selves, a good swarm of bees with our modern appliances 

 will store for its owner from 50 to 200 pounds of comb honey 

 per year. In looking the matter over from my view point, 

 I wonder that so many orchard men do not keep bees of their 

 own and rake in those benefits from both ways instead of 

 running the precarious risk of having the other fellow keep 

 the bees for you and eat all the honey gathered from your 

 blossoms. In the near future, as soon as man becomes more 

 advanced, when we visit a large fruit establishment and 

 after being shown by the owner his great spraying outfit, 

 I should expect to have him take me to visit his fine apiary 

 in modern up-to-date hives, well housed and cared for like 

 the other stock on the place, for if they are thus cared for 

 they will bring a larger dividend for very much less labor 

 than the other stock or even fruits. 



CHAPTER X 



When and How to Change from the Single to the 

 Double Hive. 



If you are keeping your bees as you probably are in a 

 single hive and would like to change to our double method, 

 you can do so most easily as we use no new tangled appli- 

 ances and our hives are of the latest pattern in use. The 

 best time to change would be just after you take off your 

 white honey in July, in our latitude. Then you can fit up 

 another hive body the same as the one you have and set 

 these on your parent hives, and have them build up good, if 

 the season is good and a good fall flow, they will build up 

 enough but if it is not good it may be well to feed some as 

 it is so important to have them have plenty of stores for 

 winter. If you should think well to feed, you can put another 

 hive body on top and in this put a 10-pound pail nearly full 

 of syrup well dissolved with hot water and perforate the lid 

 with fine holes, not too much and see that the lid is well put 

 on and invert the pail on the frames right over the bees. 



