. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. 1920 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 237 made in younger years—and I have not outgrown it now—is that I had too little faith in the business. I was afraid to invest capital in it—bor- rowed capital, if you please. This timidity manifested itself in various forms. For instance, it cost money to purchase comb foundation to fill the brood-chambers of our hives; but what of that? Would not a colony ot bees be in much better shape for years ito come with a set of ah' worker comb? Certainly it would, and the bees would repay in a very short time this expense. To raise
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. 1920 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 237 made in younger years—and I have not outgrown it now—is that I had too little faith in the business. I was afraid to invest capital in it—bor- rowed capital, if you please. This timidity manifested itself in various forms. For instance, it cost money to purchase comb foundation to fill the brood-chambers of our hives; but what of that? Would not a colony ot bees be in much better shape for years ito come with a set of ah' worker comb? Certainly it would, and the bees would repay in a very short time this expense. To raise comb honey without the use of full sheets of extra light section founda- tion would be the height of folly. None of that for me any more, al- though I have "economized" in this fashion for years. A great many bees, and colonies of bees I have lost during winter by not giving them enough protection. The first book I ever read on beekeeping, written by Fr. Dzierzon, I found the advice given to "protect the bees by- packing;" but it was expensive to- build winter cases or double-walled hives, so we got along for years with- out protection, and most always lost heavil}- during winter. These losses, if expressed in dollars, would have bought the lumber for ten times as many winter cases or chaflf hives. The present method of outdoor wintering demands very heavy or thick packing. Winter cases providing for 8 or 10 inches of packing cost lots of money; but let us suppose, for the sake of the argument, that the cost of a four- colony packing case would be $10. It we have done our work well and have our four colonies in best condition in the fall, with sufficient stores in the large hives, we will have four rousing colonies of bees when May comes. Each one of these colonies will be better than four ordinarily wintered colonies and, as one of my friends says, may pay the cost of packing case the first year from fruit bloom alone. But should the weather be un- f
Size: 1730px × 1445px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, bookyear1861
