282 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



feed quite thin, and there would be more danger from robbers, 

 and more danger of having thin feed left in the feeders to 

 sour. 



DIFFICULTY IN DECIDING .ABOUT STORES. 



It is not an easy thing to determine just what amount of 

 stores is needed to carry a colony through to the next harvest. 

 Some colonies use more than others under apparently the same 

 conditions. Experience will enable one to judge fairly well by 

 inspection as to the amount of stores present, but one can be 

 more exact about it by actual weighing. Besides, with proper 

 conveniences for it, the weighing takes less' time. But two 

 colonies may weigh exactly the same, and one may have abun- 

 dance and the other may starve, because, although weighing 

 the same, one had much more honey than the other. One had 

 much pollen, the other little. Or, the combs of one were new, 

 and the combs of the other were very old and heavy. The 

 only safe way is to have all so heavy that under any and all 

 circumstances there will be no danger. So we aim to have 

 each hive with its contents, its cover, and its bottom-board 

 weigh as much as fifty pounds. Some will weigh so much 

 more than this that hefting will show that there is no need of 

 weighing. Even a strong colony that stored well throughout 

 the season in a prosperous year may have had the brood- 

 chamber so stocked with brood that not enough honey was in 

 the brood-chamber; so it is well to heft and weigh even in the 

 best seasons, and to do this late enough so that storing from 

 flowers need no longer be taken into account, and so early that 

 there will be abundance of time for the bees to arrange matters 

 to their liking in the brood-chamber. 



WEIGHING COLONIES. . 



A common spring balance with a capacity of eighty 

 pounds is used for weighing (Pig. 105). An endless rope 

 passes around the hive under the cleat at each end, then the 

 hook of the spring balance passes under the two parts of the 

 rope over the hive, and the slack is taken up by tying a string 

 around the two parts under the hook. A hickory stick used 

 as a lever passes through the ring of the upper part of the 

 spring balance, the short end of the lever being supported by 



