August, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



463 



of young bees me reared for winter even 

 (Hiring a severe dearth of nectar. Queens 

 1 eared in May or June are not nearly so ac- 

 tive in egg-laying during the follovvi,ng 

 Augusft and early September as are those 

 reared in August. If we could have our way 

 iibout it, we would have our young queens 

 begin to lay just in time to produce the 

 workers for the winter colony or about the 

 middle of August. The inlluenee of an abun- 

 dance of stores upon brood-rearing during a 

 ilearth of nectar is well known among bee- 

 keepers, yet probably no defect in beekeep- 

 ing practice causes as much annual loss as 

 that of taking the lion 's sliare of the honey 

 and leaving too little for the bees, thus com- 

 pelling them to live from hand to mouth 

 during the critical periods of brood-rearing. 

 Another condition, which is sometimes 

 encountered, is that of just enough nectar 

 available this month to tease the bees along 

 ind wear tliem out prematurely watli scarce- 

 ly enough brood-rearing to replace the wast- 

 age of bee life. Under such conditions the 

 colonies grow^ weaker every day and begin 

 the winter with small clusters. We know 

 of no remedy for this condition except to 

 move the yard to a location where it seldom 

 occurs. An absolute dearth of necitar is 

 1 referable to this condition. A good fall 

 How, which enables the bees to store a sur- 

 ) lus in August, puts the colonies in fine con- 

 tlition for winter as far as young bees are 

 concerned. The very best wintering usually 

 follows after an August honey flow^ We 



envy those who are so favorably locfVted as 

 to have every year a good honey flow in 

 August. 



It is comforting to know that under any 

 of these conditions the very best thing the 

 beekeeper can do for the welfare of his colo- 

 nies is to see this month that each colony 

 has the following conditions existing: (1) 

 A young and vigorous queen together with 

 enough w^orkers to be called a colony. (2) 

 An abundance of stores far in excess of the 

 immediate needs of the colony. (3) Eooin 

 for both this excess of stores and brood- 

 rearing. When these conditions are present 

 during the four or five weeks following 

 about the middle of August in our locality, 

 v/e may confidently expect to have a colony 

 in good condition for winter. 



Much of the so-called winter losses are 

 not winter losses at all but August-Sept;em- 

 ber losses. The fact, that colonies which 

 were not suj^plied with the above three re- 

 quirements during this critical period do not 

 die until winter, can in no way justify 

 calling it a winter loss. We do not ex- 

 pect to lose during winter colonies that were 

 supplied with these requirements at the 

 right time, and given half a chance to save 

 their energy during the cold weather. In 

 the clover region any deficiencies in these 

 requirements musft be supplied in August. 



Beekeepers who desire to have all colo- 

 nies do as well as the best next year must 

 begin now. September is too late to re- 

 trie.ve a situation lost this month. 



CAGES OF UNUSUAL MERIT 



Device IV hereby the ^een is Fully 



'Accepted by the ^ees Before Being 



Liberated 



By J. E. Thompson 



THE intro- 

 ducing cage 

 shown in 

 Fig. 1, d, was 

 tried out in the 

 Medina home 

 yard last sea- 

 son. Altho vir- 

 gins as well as 

 laying q uee ns 

 were introduced, every single queen was ac- 

 cepted. 



For constructing the cage, procure two 

 blocks i/4X%xl% inches, and one i/i x % 

 x 1 inch. Place the two longer blocks % 

 of an inch apart, and the shorter block % 

 of an inch from one of the longer ones, hav- 

 ing one end of each of these blocks right in 

 line with each other. Next take rectangular 

 pieces of tin 1% x 1% inches, from each 

 of which a corner % x % inch has been 

 removed. Nail one of these L-shaped tins 

 thru the i/4-inch edges of the blocks, invert 

 and then nail the other tin on the opposite 

 side of the blocks, thus leaving two pas- 

 sageways into the cage, the opening of each 

 passage being % x % inch in cross section. 

 Next nail a strip of perforated zinc over the 

 shorter passage on the inner end as shown 

 in the cut (l,e). Wrap and tack with wire 

 cloth, as shown in the illustration, and in- 



sert a % x 11^ x 

 3-inch block in 

 the opposite end 

 of the wire 

 cloth. 



To introduce 

 the queen, fill 

 the passages or 

 entrances with 

 candy, remove 

 the large block and put in the queen, with or 

 without bees. If bees are placed with her, 

 they should be only the young ones. If the 

 colony is weak, care wall need to be taken 

 that the queen be kept suificently warm; and 

 the cage should, therefore, be hung perpen- 

 dicularly between the frames and brood, 

 after killing the old queen. If the colony 

 is strong, place the cage horizontally be- 

 tween the top bars of the frames so that the 

 cage will not extend over the brood, for if 

 the cage is placed so near the brood that 

 no bee-space intervenes between the brood 

 and the cage, the bees will destroy the 

 brood. In case of a weak colony, it may 

 be necessary to sacrifice a little brood in 

 this way, in order to insure the queen hav- 

 ing plenty of warmth, but in strong colo- 

 nies I always place the cage horizontally. 

 The queen will leave the cage in from 2 to 3 

 days, but should not be disturbed for as 



