346 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



I take pleasure in showing you the illustration. 

 A is an ordinary fruit-can, and B a special 

 cover having a flange sticking up high enough 

 so as to make what is known as an atmospheric 

 feeder, on the Hains style. This is then invert- 

 ed and set right down over a hole in a box so 

 constructed as to fit closely to the entrance on 

 one side. The points D D project clear in, 



boardman's feeder. 



making it necessary for robber-bees, if per- 

 chance they are able to pass the guards, to go 

 clear into the hive around D. It is altogether 

 improbable a robber could accomplish her 

 pesky meanness without being "caught in the 

 act." 



I have not been advised as to whether Mr. 

 Boardman expects to sell these feeders; and 

 while the main principle is old, the method of 

 application is new. All together, he has, in my 

 opinion, a moral right to the control of the sale. 



I have examined a great many entrance 

 feeders, but I do not know of any that seem to 

 secure so perfectly the result as this does. In- 

 deed, I never saw any thing yet attached to the 

 entrance in the way of a feeder but that would 

 make more or less of a hubbub in the apiary; 

 but Mr. Boardman's bees at the time I visited 

 his yard were as quiet and peaceable as if 

 clover honey were coming in. This happy re- 

 sult I attribute largely to the projecting points 



In our next issue, Mr. Boardman will say 

 something about feeding back, sugar honey, 

 etc.— Ed.] 



ARRANGEMENT OF BEE-FORCE. 



BEST WAY TO STRKNOTHEN WEAK 

 NIE8; A SEASONABLE ARTICLE. 



By C. A. Hatch. 



The success or failure of a commander of an 

 array depends mnch on the arrangement and 

 distribution of his forces. The part to be 

 actively engaged must be placed so as to get 



every advantage of position possible, and the 

 reserve force must also receive proper attention 

 and thought as to place and base of supplies. 



Every bee-keeper occupies, in a certain meas- 

 ure, the position of commander of an army. 

 The field -bees are his active forces; the nurse- 

 bees and downy young ones are his reserve; the 

 fields and forest his battle-ground which are to 

 be robbed of their hoarded riches for the en- 

 hancement of the commander's interest. And 

 no army ever proved more faithful, or adhered 

 more closely to their chief's interest, than 

 will this army of busy workers. But no com- 

 mander's success depended on his arrangement 

 and placing of his command more than does the 

 bee-keeper's. Therein does he show his skill. 

 If it were otherwise, any one could succeed in 

 bee-keeping; for all there would be to it would 

 be the possessing of the bee-force, and the bees 

 would do the rest: whereas this force must be 

 guided and directed, even as much as the army 

 must be commanded, to be successful. Weak 

 battalions must be strengthened; strong bat- 

 talions must support and help the weak. The 

 above is only a prelude, to borrow a musical 

 term, to the real object of this article; but the 

 fancying myself a commander-in-chief pleased 

 me and may others; perhaps it tickles my 

 bump of self-esteem. 



WEAK BATTALIONS. 



What to do with weak colonies in the spring 

 is one of the ever-recurring problems that come 

 before the bee-keeper. The old maxim, " Keep 

 all colonies strong," may be true enough as a 

 general principle, but it will hardly apply here; 

 and trying to make it apply has ruined what 

 might have been a fair colony for profit at the 

 close of the honey season; for to do this (make 

 them strong) only two ways present themselves 

 —to build them up with brood from those al- 

 ready strong, or put several together, and thus 

 make one strong at the expense of several. In 

 following the first method, you have not in- 

 creased your bees any, only put your forces in a 

 new position, thereby weakening the battalion 

 that was none too strong, and putting the force 

 subtracted where its only use is to support the 

 poverty of its adopted home, without any 

 serious results as to alleviating it. 



If the other course is followed, you have de- 

 stroyed at least half of your recruiting force by 

 destroying the queens of those united with the 

 others; and, furthermore, the chances are large- 

 ly in favor of your united colony being no 

 stronger at the end of two weeks than any one of 

 them was at the beginning. It is well to bear 

 in mind that all the bees brought out in the 

 spring are old, and their term of usefulness is 

 limited to days or weeks at the furthest, and no 

 amount of uniting will save them from this 

 fatality. One hundred bees in one hive will die 

 just as soon when their time has come, as they 

 would in ten hives. 



