FIFTY YEAES AMONG THE BEES 39 



together at the same time, and another arrangement punched 

 them out after they were filled with honey. The super in which 

 they were put was the same in size as the ten-frame brood- 

 chamber — in fact, there was no difference whatever in the two 

 except that the bottom-board was nailed on to the brood-cham- 

 ber and an entrance cut into it. The super held seven frames, 

 and that made 56 sections in a super. Lifting these supers 

 when they were filled was no child's play, especially .when load- 

 ing them on the wagon at an out-apiary, and unloading them 

 at home, as I had to do in later years. 



BROOD-COMBS AS BAIT. 



In order to start the bees promptly to work in the sections, 

 a frame of brood was raised from below, and the sections fac- 

 ing this brood were occupied by the bees at once if honey was 

 coming in. Care had to be taken not to leave the brood too 

 long, for if the bees commenced to seal the sections while it 

 was there they would be capped very dark, the bees carrying 

 some of the old black comb over to the sections to be used in 

 the capping. 



BEEKEEPING SOLE BUSINESS. 



In 1878, at the close of the school year in June, I decided 

 to give up teaching for a time, and since that time I have had 

 . no other busine'ss than to work with bees, unless it be to write 

 about them. 



In 1880 I began out-apiaries in a tentative sort of way, a 

 few bees in two out-apiaries. In March of that year my wife 

 died. When the bees were got into the cellar for winter I 

 closed up the house, took my boy with me, and went to Johns- 

 town, Pa., to spend the winter with my sister, Mrs. Emma R. 

 Jones. When I returned near the close of the following April, 

 deep snow-banks still surrounded the house, and matters were 

 in anything but a happy condition in the cellar. 



DISCOURAGEMENT. 



When the bees were ready to begin upon the harvest of 

 1881, there were 67 colonies left out of the 163 that had been 



