The Work of the Beekeeper
The average citizen has but a vague idea of the duties required of the beekeeper for success. The idea prevails commonly that bees require but little care. That is all wrong. Careful study, frequent attention, and real work are essential. The work of the year may be briefly summarized as follows: First, the beekeeper provides such conditions as will encourage the colonies to produce young “workers” to the fullest capacity of the hive before the secretion of nectar begins from the principal honey plants. Second, he prevents a division of the working force of the colony by swarming, through the well-understood means of discouraging it. In addition to these activities, he provides the additional space for storage of the surplus honey crop at the right time. To have the bees reach their greatest strength in time for the first honey flows taxes the skill of the best apiarist, but by a careful study of the flowers from which the principal nectar crop is obtained in this locality the beekeeper is able to create sufficiently in advance conditions which will greatly multiply his working bees. Failure to do this and failure to appreciate the importance of being prepared has caused many beekeepers the loss of the best honey flows of the year. In such cases the beekeeper often does not know that he is missing the largest flows, because his colonies do not acquire their full strength until after these flows have terminated.
It may seem unnatural to fight the swarming instinct, as swarming is the natural way for new colonies to be formed. It is, however, the nature of bees to swarm at a time when swarming will result in a division of the working force, and just at the period when they should be concentrating on the principal flow of the season. Therefore the beekeeper arranges, if possible, that any increase in the number of colonies shall be made when it will not prevent the gathering of nectar. This requires vigilance just at the swarming season, since no satisfactory way has been devised for treating the whole apiary long in advance of this season to check the swarming instinct. There are, however, ways of control by weekly visits during the swarming season—ways which can not be explained in this short monograph, but which can be learned from literature or in an agricultural college course in beekeeping.
The busy season for the beekeeper begins about two months before the main honey flow, continues through the swarming season, and ends when the comb honey is taken from the supers or when the honey is extracted from larger frames which have been added to enable the use of the extracting machine. Afterwards there is less rush, the only important work being early preparation of the bees for winter. Every latitude in the United States has its winter problem, and it is of the first importance that prospective beekeepers realize that success depends more on proper wintering than on any other one thing.