APPLE BLOSSOMS. 8 1 



father's putting out so large an orchard, but the 

 preceding harvest from that orchard had given us 

 more clean cash than any farmer in our neighbor- 

 hood had received from his farm for three years. 



The entrances to the hives were so arranged that 

 on cool nights and windy days they could be nearly 

 closed, leaving only space for one or two bees to 

 pop out or in at once. The bees bred in April and 

 May would be my servants, to fill the hives several 

 times with honey from the luscious harvest that 

 would come in June, with the blooming of white 

 clover and linn. May 1st was the great day for 

 inaugurating queen-rearing. The next day I looked 

 over every hive, and carefully examined every comb. 

 In order to keep the temperature of the hive as 

 high as possible in the early spring, it is important 

 to crowd the bees together on as many frames only 

 as they will comfortably cover. I reduced most of 

 the hives to six or seven frames, having those con- 

 taining brood in the centre. The next day I again 

 opened every hive, and lifting out the rear frame I 

 shoved the combs back from the centre, and put 

 this rear one, which contained no brood, in the 

 centre. In this way I was giving the queen a whole 

 frame of empty cells in the central and warmest 

 part of the hive, where she could fill the cells with 

 eggs. I repeated this process about once in two 

 days, putting in more frames when those already 



