HORTICULTURAL SOCIETT'. 161 



Therefore to get the bees, and to get them at the proper time, 

 you must have them properly wintered and brought through the 

 spring. On the wintering of bees a great many articles have 

 been written, as well as upon the swarming of bees; and a great 

 deal has been said upon the subject by experienced apiarists, 

 and yet the subject is not thoroughly understood. A great many 

 men meet with good success while others make failures. 



I claim that if a swarm of bees is housed in the fall of the year 

 in good condition, with plenty of good, ripe honey, well sealed 

 over, in a proper place, the swarm is almost as certain to winter 

 as a horse or a cow. But how many swarms of bees are put into 

 winter quarters in this condition? A great many men don't know 

 really when they are in this condition. At times the honey is 

 poor — is not of the proper thickness. If that is the case, the 

 air or breath of the bees that arises from them passes up the 

 sides of the hive and sours the honey. You will frequently find 

 the honey soured in the hive. If that is the case you will usu- 

 ally find them in bad conHition, and in the spring you will find 

 what is called dysentery among the bees. And if they get this 

 disease they are very sure to dwindle away rapidly in the spring. 

 The consequence is you have lost the value of your bees. 



As the queen is the mother of the whole colony, laying from 

 3,000 to 4,000 eggs in twenty-four hours, it is the imperative 

 duty of the bee-keeper to place the surroundings of the hive 

 so that the queen can lay those eggs and get the bees on hand 

 when this flow of honey takes place. This is the point that every 

 bee-keeper wants to learn. 



It takes twenty-one days from the time the egg is laid until it 

 becomes a bee. When first hatched it is not a full bee; it is a 

 baby bee. The older bees take honey, partly digest it and feed 

 these baby bees four or five times a day. About the fifth or 

 sixth day they take their first flight. They return again to the 

 hive and are then prepared to go to work as nurses or to build 

 comb. It is the young bees that almost entirely build the comb 

 and those that do the nursing. 



Take an old swarm that is forty or forty-five days old and you 

 get little comb from them. Place them in a hive and feed them 

 sugar without comb and they will not build comb half as fast as 

 do younger bees. Therefore, as it takes twenty-one days to raise 

 your bees after the eggs are deposited, and five or six days more 

 are required before the young bees are old enough to leave the 

 hive, it will take in all about thirty-five days after you com- 

 Vol. IV — 21. 



