BEEKEEPERS' column. 141 



at home busy carrying in rye flour from a warm nook in the edge of the 

 beeyard until pollen is available. 



Give the bees combs of pollen if you have any if there is no pollen avail- 

 able outside the hives or the weather is too bad for the bees to get it. 



At the edge of the beeyard in a warm nook somewhere provide good 

 clean water. Have mercy on the bees ! Don't let them fly far away in the 

 cold for water. Many perish on such trips. Contract entrances so only 

 two or three bees can pass at a time. 



Examine your bees the first warm day after removal from the cellar, 

 and if they have not food enough to last till May 20th give them at once 

 enough warm sugar syrup or, better, combs of honey saved from last year 

 to last until June' 1st. Don't be afraid to give a colony too much food, 

 they won't dump it out of the hive or waste it. 



To prevent robbing keep all entrances very small, keep a hive open the 

 shortest length of time possible and don't spill any sugar syrup or honey 

 outside of any hive anywhere. If robber bees pounce into a hive when it 

 is opened, close it immediately and wait three-quarters of an hour or so 

 before proceeding and let the bees quiet down. If a very weak, worthless 

 colony has begun to be robbed, remove everything from the hive but 

 one comb containing a little honey, contract entrance to one bee space and 

 let the robber bees gradually take it. Usually the little honey will be 

 robbed out and the robbers will be satisfied. If the whole hive being 

 robbed is removed, the robbers may attack in force the next adjacent colony. 



Protect your bees from cold, bad weather until about May 15th or 20th 

 by wrapping each hive closely with several thicknesses of heavy wrapping 

 or building paper or tar paper, leaving the entrance open of course. The 

 bees are used to the protection afforded by the cellar from the cold and 

 wind. No wonder unprotected colonies in Minnesota in April do not "build 

 up" and an unknown number actually dies. Their "overcoats" are removed, 

 and they are set on their summer stands in that condition, with the larger 

 per cent, of the population made up of already old bees, to withstand sudden 



extreme temperature changes and the spring winds and storms. 



This spring, 1917, if you cannot, protect all of your colonies, try it out 

 on every other colony in your beeyard. See if it pays in honey returns. 



Queenless colonies should be united with good colonies by placing above 

 the good colonies with a thickness of newspaper between and protecting 

 the entire two stories with paper. The second story may be removed in 

 about four or five days. Keep the colony protected. In August see that all 

 colonies have laying queens, and the queenless colony problem in the spring 

 will practically disappear. 



Also see that all colonies in late September have a great abundance of 

 food, either good light colored honey or sugar syrup. Honey is best of 

 course. "A little too much honey in the fall is just right next spring," is a 

 rul£ of a certain successful beekeeper which it would be well to follow in 

 Minnesota. 



A small number of colonies well cared for in the spring will usually 

 bring more honey returns with less work than a large number with little 

 or no care. 



April beekeeping problems will probably vanish if good laying queens 

 and proper food is supplied in the fall, the bees are wintered in a good 

 cellar and sufficient protection to May 20th, and possibly a pollen substitute 

 for a few days is provided. Give the "protection" a good trial this spring 

 and see if it pays in honey returns. 



(Part of the "Preliminary Report of the Survey of Minnesota Bee- 

 keeping," given at the December, 1916, meeting of the Minnesota Bee 

 Keepers' Association.) 



