64 
Everything depends upon having a good queen, for she is 
the mother of the entire colony. She is fed on predigested 
food and otherwise petted and coddled by the other bees. 
Her duties are strictly maternal though, and she is by no 
means the imperial martinet once supposed. She is ex- 
ceedingly industrious. Often she lays her own weight in 
eggs in a single day—worker eggs in worker cells, and drone 
eggs in drone cells, which are a little larger. She continues 
to lay prolifically for two or three years and this remark- 
able degree of fecundity is very necessary, for the popula- 
tion of the hives could be 
kept up in no other way, as 
the worker bees live only six 
or seven weeks in Summer. 
They literally work them- 
selves to death at this time. 
A good queen is one which 
lays so many eggs that the 
number of bees is constantly 
increasing instead of dimin- 
ishing, in spite of the heavy 
death rate, for in that way 
the colony grows stronger 
and there are more bees to 
bring in honey from the 
fields. A good colony fairly 
boils over with bees when the 
cover of the box is lifted. 
One of the most fascinat- 
ing features about bee-keep- 
ing, to me, is in keeping track 
of the queen and her activi- 
ties. Most amateurs play with their hives too much for 
the good of the bees, but it is exceedingly interesting to lift 
the frames one by one, crowded to overflowing with yellow 
bodies, and search for Her Majesty. She is easily identified 
because of her long and tapering body, quite unlike the 
bodies of either workers or drones. The frames are not 
heavy, even when teeming with bees, and may be lifted to 
the level of the eye by placing one hand at each end. The 
day after the new colony arrives the beginner should look 
over the frames in this way to make sure that the queen is 
moving about among her retinue. It is not often that the queen 
suffers injury on such a journey, but it is well to be on the 
safe side, as much dependsuponher. After that it really is not 
necessary to search for her very often, for the presence of 
eggs in the comb cells is sufficient proof that she is at work. 
The hive should be so placed that the entrance will be 
toward the south or southeast, and it should be sheltered 
by trees or shrubbery. I have found an orchard an ideal 
place for bees, unless it is cultivated. It has been my cus- 
tom to fence in an orchard and give it over to bees and 
poultry. The fowls eat the dead bees, but I never saw them 
trouble live ones. It is different with ducks; they kill the 
bees and the bees kill them. 
I like to have my hives in front of a stone wall or some 
other protection from the north wind. Experience has 
taught me that they should be so placed, however, that they 
can be opened from the side or rear; it is poor policy to 
stand in front of the entrance when working. 
Having now a colony of Italian bees in a double-wall 
chaff hive, let us see what else the beginner: has included in 
his order, assuming that he has had good advice, and what 
the whole outfit has cost him. Here is a list, a little more 
complete than I gave with my first order: 
One colony of bees in a iten-frame One pair of bee-gloves_____._____-__- $0.50 
chaff hive____ SO) OPS IMIS Wore soos ae eee eeocuemeee 25 
One tested Italian queen 3.00 One Porter bee-escape, with board__ £35) 
Two extra hives with frame 
One bee-prushpess ee ee ee al) 
MOMDECSe asset eee eee ee ee 9.20 f 
Six supers with sections filled with One feeder____.----.------.---------- 10 
comb foundations. 2) Sa @ , OS CWESI-GAS coaesecnocessencsesss -10 
One Standard bee-smoker _________. 85 wert 
OneiGlobelbee=vetl see ae nee eee 1.00 Total’ ..-sease-n2s sseascceesceeeee $28.00 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
This illustration shows the beeman finding the Queen Bee 
February, 1912 
Now, as to the articles listed here but not already de- 
scribed. _The supers are square boxes without top or bot- 
tom, which:are put on the hive body—one, two or three 
of them, as may be required—to hold the surplus honey. 
They are filled with little squares of wood, such as are seen 
in the shops holding comb honey. These squares are called 
sections, and rest in a little support which holds them in 
position in the super. The bees come up from the frames in 
the hive body below and fill the sections with honey, when 
the flowers are yielding nectar abundantly. Fach section is 
supposed to hold a pound of 
honey. Each section should 
contain comb foundation, 
which is a thin sheet of wax, 
with which the bees start the 
combs. Some_ bee-keepers 
use only small strips of foun- 
dation, as a matter of econ- 
omy, but I much prefer full 
sheets. It requires about ten 
pounds of honey to make one 
pound of wax, so that all the 
help given the bees in this 
way is well worth while. 
A super, filled with these 
sections arranged in rows, is 
put on the hive just before 
the bees are due to bring in 
honey in abundance, which is 
when the flowers begin to 
bloom. When the bees have 
filled all the frames in the 
hive body and brood, they surge up into the supers, draw out 
the foundation into comb and fill the comb with honey. 
This is the only honey to which the bee-keeper is entitled, 
as that below cannot be disturbed without robbing the bees. 
They need as least twenty-five pounds to last them through 
the winter. 
He must be a lethargic bee-keeper who does not get ex- 
cited when a fine honey flow is on. Then the bees work 
night and day—in the fields by daylight and in the hive after 
dark. The air about the hive-entrance is fairly alive with 
them, but they are good-natured and happy, paying no atten- 
tion to anything but the business in hand. A super may be 
filled in a day or two. Then it is raised and another put 
beneath it. That, too, may be filled, and a third, or even 
a fourth and a fifth, placed in position and crowded with the 
honey harvest—a total of several hundred pounds. ‘That 
is the sort of thing that raises the amateur to the seventh 
heaven of happiness and leads him to neglect all his other 
business while the honey flow is on. This must not be ex- 
pected as a regular event, however. As a rule, the beginner 
should be satisfied with a yield of thirty or forty pounds a 
colony, that being a fair average. 
In the Fall, after the honey has been removed, one super 
is filled with leaves, chaff or pine needles and placed on the 
hive under the cover, as an absorbent and a protection 
against cold. 
The bee-gloves and veil listed are indispensable for the 
amateur, and should be put on every time the hive is opened. 
In this way all danger of stings is obviated. The gloves 
are long and have elastic tape which binds the sleeve closely 
to the arm. I have found that it is also wise to use elastic 
around the bottom of my trousers legs, for the bees some- 
times fall into the grass. I have a vivid recollection of a 
bee which climbed to my thigh, where it smote me when I 
unthinkingly clapped my hand on the spot where I felt it 
crawling. It may be said, parenthetically, that ammonia is 
the sovereign panacea for bee stings. The main thing, 
though, is to instantly remove the barb which the bee leaves 
