256 FIFTY YBAES AMONG THE BEES 



but the number of bees, that counts. And 60,000 bees in one 

 hive will store more honey that will the same number of bees 

 equally divided in two hives. So in planning for increase I 

 generally count that the colonies that are drawn upon for in- 

 crease shall make that their business without being expected 

 to be called upon to store surplus, while those at work for 

 surplus are to be left in the fullest strength possible through- 

 out the season. You cannot make something out of nothing, 

 and if increase is to, be made you may as well devgte a certain 

 number of colonies 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 locality with 

 white clover as the dependence for a harvest. In the year 1880 

 I took 1200 pounds of honey from twelve colonies and in- 

 creased them to eighty-one; but the honey taken was extracted 

 buckwheat, and I never knew such a buckwheat harvest be- 

 fore or since. Perhaps it will be well to tell more explicitly 

 how that increase was made. The success achieved will be 

 some#hat diminished when I say that the bees were supplied 

 with ready-built combs, so they had no combs to build. IBut 

 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 advance 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 

 would be taken to the out-apiary, and the ten frames put in ten 

 different hives. Of course every bee stayed just where it was 

 put. To each of these was added another frame of brood and 

 adhering bees that had been brought along, and whether these 

 bees were queenless or not there was nothing for them but to 

 stay where they were put. In the course of time these first- 

 formed nuclei were strong enough to help others, and the latest 

 nuclei were built up at once into fair colonies. 



