]o Sept.. 1909.] Spring Management of Bees. 573 



This Avill enable the hee-keeper to look after a greater number of colonies 

 and to avoid all unnecessary oj)erations ; at the same time he will have 



■perfect control of his apiary. 



Mv own practice is as follows : — AH my queens are clipped — one wing 



•onlv. This enables me to know their ages, which is necessary for the 

 earning out of mv s\stem. There are many bee-k;ieepers who, for various 

 reasons, object to clipping queens. They can, however, .have the advan- 

 tage of knowing the ages just the same, if they mark their queens by 

 clipping off the extreme tip of one upper wing, thus distinguishing the 

 queen without preventing flight. ^Iv hi\es. and also the queens, are 

 numbered. I keep a register which shows which queen is in each hive. 

 Before commencing with the spring overhaul, 1 rule a page in mv pocket- 

 book into eight columns Over the first four, I put the figures i, 2, 3, 4 ; 

 over the fifth, L (for light) ; the sixth, H (for heavy) ; the seventh, I. Qu. 

 (Inferior Queen) ; and over the eighth, Xotes. 



Starting at the nearest corner of the apiary I open hive No. 80. 1 



'find there are three combs of brood and enough stores. I notice the queen 

 is clipped. I close the hive and write 80 into column three. No. 79 

 has 4 combs brood but rather too little honey. Queen is clipped. I 

 therefore put 79 into column " 4 " and also into column " L." In this 

 w-ay, I go right through the whole apiary. Any colony very heavy in 

 stores is entered under " H," and colonies wdth but one frame of brood 

 under i. If I find an undipped (]ueen, it shows that the former queen has 

 disappeared and that a ^oung queen has been raised since the autumn 

 overhaul. Being raised out of season, she is worthless, and so the number 

 of this hi\e is put in the seventh column and the queen is replaced by a 

 better one as soon as convenient. Anv colonv showing disease, queenless- 

 ness, OT anything abnormal is noted in column 8. 



The actual time occupied at each hive is not more than one to three 

 minutes. Having completed the examination, mv book contains a list 

 which shows at a glance the state of the whole apiarv. Any colonies very 

 short of stores are supplied from the honev house with a comb of sealed 

 honey, so that even tho.se appearing in the "light" column require no atten- 

 tion for at least a fortnight. Should bad weather prevail it is onlv neces- 

 sary to look at those colonies which were light and supplv them if required. 

 It is vet too earlv to assist anv of the smaller stocks — those with one or 

 two combs of broods — with brood from the stronger ones. To shift brood 

 from one hive to another in earlv spring is merely wasting it. Every 

 colon\ with a normal queen lias all the brood \\'hich the number of workers 

 it contains can attend to. Even if the temperature permits, taking a comb of 

 brood from a strong to a weak colonv is robbing the one without lienefiting 

 the other. Later on, in October, this may be done with advantage; but, 

 even then, the medium colonies and not the weak ones should be strengthened 

 first with brood from the strong ones. Weak colonies are best helped 

 later on when the weather is fairlv warm. In strengthening them with 

 brood from other stock, the brood nest should be kept as compact as 

 possible, and instead of adding roml)s of brood it is at first better to 

 exchange a comb of unsealed brood for a comb with a larger amount of 

 •sealed brood from a strong colonv. 



The colonies likelv to have brood to spare and those w^hich need it are 



-easily ascertained on reference to the note-book. A queenless colony, if 



'Still fairly strong, mav he kept going, and even built up, till a queen is 



available bv giving it a comb of eggs once or twice a week. This comb of 



-eggs is obtained bv inserting a partlv emptv comb between the brood combs 



