THE BEE-KEEPERS, REVIEW. 



281 



may be discovered in the general cou- 

 <lition of the colony except, perhaps, 

 the giving of additilonal stores. 



States are such that condition is the 

 measure of success in wintering, re- 

 gardless of any extra protection from 

 cold and storm. It is a fact that, if 

 a colony is provided with a vigorous 

 queen, plenty of young bees and ample 

 stores in easy reach, other so-called 

 essentials may be disregarded with 

 impunity. The work of preparation 

 should begin immediately after the 

 close of tlie honey harvest, and may 

 be continued, if necessary, and the 

 weather is favorable, well up ioto Oc- 

 tober. We make the following spe- 

 cific recommendations: 



1. Requeen with the best honey 

 gathering stock in the apiary (other 

 qualifications being equal) all colo- 

 nies whose queens have seen two sea- 

 sons of service. Some good queens 

 will be displaced by adhering strict- 

 ly to this rule, but it is better to oc- 

 casionally pinch the head of a good 

 queen than to run the risk of carry- 

 ing over several worthless ones. 



2. One disagreeable trait of the 

 Italians is to gorge the brood nest 

 with honey so that late in the season 

 there is little room available to raise 

 young bees. The old bees soon die 

 off, and spring finds the colony heavy 

 with honey but so reduced in bees 

 that half of the harvest is passed be- 

 fore the colony can be gotten into 

 shape for super work. This condition 

 can be remedied now with a little 

 work. Remove two or three of the 

 frames of solid honey and insert in 

 their place frames of empty worker 

 coml). Uncap a little of the honey 

 at the lower side of the remaining 

 frames. This gives the queen a 

 a chance, which, if she is worth any- 

 thing, she will not be slow to improve. 

 At least two sets of bees will be rear- 

 ed and a suitable force provided whose 



period of life will extend far into 

 next spring. The frames of honey 

 may be extracted, or they may be set 

 aside and fed back to the colony next 

 May, when the honey will be valuable 

 as a stimulant to brood rearing. 



3. All colonies deficient in stores 

 and bees should bo fed. The feeding 

 will not only provide the needed stores 

 but stimulate the rearing of the neces- 

 sary force of bees. 



A little attention now to these 

 details will lay the foundation for a 

 good crop next season, and is really 

 work of the very greatest import- 

 ance." 



GETTING QUEENS FERTILIZED. 



How the Output of Laying Queens from an 

 Apiary maj' be Doubled. 



I presume many of my readers know 

 that for a dozen years, or tliereabouts, 

 while living at Rogersville, I made a 

 specialty of queen rearing. By the 

 way, it is one of tlie most fascinating 

 occupations in which I was ever en- 

 gaged — a most fertile field for inven- 

 tion. It did not take me long to dis- 

 cover that the great expense and dif- 

 ficulty was in getting the queens fer- 

 tilized and laying. I often remarked 

 that I would consider It a good paying 

 business to furnish virgin queens, or 

 ripe cells, at ten cents each; and this 

 at a time when I was getting a dollar 

 apiece for laying queens. Nine-tenths 

 of the cost of rearing queens comes in 

 after they are hatched. When I first 

 began queen rearing it was thought 

 necessary to leave a nucleus queenless 

 about three days before giving it a cell 

 or a virgin queen, but I was not long 

 in discovering that a newly hatched 

 Virgin could be given a nucleus at the 

 same time that the laying queen was 



