200 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIE\^ 



finally the sides and tops of the hives 

 were covered with bees. Every bee 

 that left a hive seemed in duty bound 

 to join the whirling- "circus" of bees 

 at that particular part of the apiary. 

 Only a few bees could be seen flying at 

 other parts of the yard. When night 

 came, and I went out again and lifted 

 the covers, I found mere handfuls of 

 bees in some of the hives — bees be- 

 tween only two or three combs. 

 Twenty or thirty of the hives at the 

 corner where the bees had congregated 

 were jammed full of bees — some were 

 filled to overflowing-. 



I had read, and been told, that if 

 bees were set out in the night, the start 

 for a flight would be started gradually, 

 and there would be none of this mixing 

 or drifting. There was this time. Al- 

 ways before I have carried the bees out 

 in the day time, on a warm day, scat- 

 tering the hives as carried out, and 

 had no trouble with their mixing-. 

 There is only one precaution that I 

 neglected, and it is possible that it 

 might have saved this trouble, and that 

 is, I didn't contract the entrances. If 

 the entrance is contracted so that only 

 one or two bees can pass, a strong 

 colony can make no more of a demon- 

 stration than a weak one. But I had 

 heard so many times that carrying the 

 bees out in the night would do awa3' 

 with this difficulty that I pinned my 

 faith to it. 



EVENING UP COLONIES BY CHANGING 



PLACES BETWEEN THE STRONG 



AND WEAK. 



What did 1 do? Well, for a week or 

 ten days, I was unable to even go out 

 in the yard, and the bees had it all 

 their own waj'. When at last I was 

 able to again take things in hand, I 

 found some six or seven colonies had 

 been robbed; the reason, of course, be- 

 ing that they been so reduced in num- 

 bers by losing their flying bees. As 

 soon as I was able I began changing 

 places with weak and strong colonies. It 

 seemed like a risky, desperate thing to 



do, and I feared the loss of queens, but 

 although I must have changed places 

 with nearly 50 colonies, there was no 

 figliting, and I don't know as I lost one 

 queen as the result. It is true that I 

 afterwards found two or three queen- 

 less colonies, but I am not certain that 

 the loss came from the changing about 

 of colonies — these colonies might have 

 been queenless in the first place. Of 

 course, the robbing was not a dead 

 loss. The loss in bees was very slight. 

 I had just about as many bees, and 

 just as much honey, but they were in 

 fewer hives, and I was put to the 

 trouble of equalization. By repeated 

 changes, however, I finally brought the 

 colonies all out pretty fairly equal in 

 numbers. That the bees were all pure 

 Italians, had something to do, I think, 

 with my success in changing places 

 with colonies. 



When all were evened up, and fruit 

 bloom opened, I had 90 colonies left. 

 At the close of fruit bloom I sold 20 

 colonies, so I opened up the season, at 

 the home yard, with 70 colonies. 



TROUBLE FROM LACK OF STORES. 



Then there was the lack of stores to 

 contend with. By going twice over the 

 entire apiary and equalizing stores, 

 the}' pulled through to fruit bloom, 

 which gave a fair yield. I don't like 

 to feed early in the spring. Weak 

 colonies are very loth to send bees out 

 to a feeder in cool weather. Strong 

 colonies may visit a feeder, but I don't 

 care for the stimulating eftect of feed- 

 ing until I am sure of settled warm 

 weather. I have suffered too severely 

 from late freezes coming after ambi- 

 tious colonies had extended brood rear- 

 ing beyond their abilit}' to protect it. 

 We did have a cold spell with the 

 mercury down to 38 for several days, 

 and I was thankful that there was no 

 more brood than there was to cover. I 

 think Mr. M. A. Gill hit the nail on the 

 head when he said that most bee-keep- 

 ers "begun feeding too soon and 

 stopped too soon." 



