FORTY YliARS AMONG THE BEES. 253 



It is not the number of colonies at work storing, but the 

 number of bees^ that count. And 60,000 bees in one hive 

 will store more honey than will the same number of bees 

 equally divided in two hives. So in planning for in- 

 crease, I generally count that the colonies that are drawn 

 upon for increase shall make that their business without 

 being expected to be called upon to store surplus, while 

 those that work for surplus are to be left in the fullest 

 strength possible throughout the season. You cannot 

 make something out of nothing, and if increase is to be 

 made you may as well devote a certain number of colo- 

 nies to that business. 



INCREASING BY TAKING TO OUT-APIARY. 



The case may be different in a locality where there 

 is a long and late flow, but I am talking about this local- 

 ity with white clover as the dependence for a harvest. 

 In the year 1880 I took 1,200 pounds of honey from 

 twelve colonies and increased them to eighty-one ; but the 

 honey taken was extracted buckwheat, and I never knew 

 such a buckwheat harvest before or since. Perhaps it 

 will be well to tell more explicitly how that increase was 

 made. The success achieved will be somewhat dimin- 

 ished when I say that the bees were supplied with ready- 

 built combs, so they had no combs to build. But they 

 had no help from other colonies in the way of bees or 

 brood except a few eggs from which to rear queens. 



The twelve colonies were taken from the home 

 apiary to the Wilson apiary, and were prepared in ad- 

 vance for dividing. From part of them the queens were 

 taken and queen-cells thus secured. Ten-frame hives 

 were used at that time, and by some help from others of 

 the twelve, a hive would contain ten frames of brood 

 and bees without any queen, a sealed queen-cell on each 

 frame of brood. After standing a day or so this hive 



