THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



This practically covers our management 

 up to about May 1st. With the closing of 

 April we do not expect any more losses. 

 The colony that can't pull through to May 

 1st usually does not pull through at all. The 

 beginning of May should find each colony 

 with three or four combs of brood, and bees 

 in proportion. We expect the honey How to 

 open about June loth to 20th, so we will have 

 forty-five or fifty days to rear bees for honey 

 gathering. 



We now examine each colony again, to as- 

 certain the amount of bees, brood and honey. 

 If any are now too weak for rapid brood- 

 rearing, they should have help. If the weak 

 condition is the result of a poor queen, but 

 little can be done for them until a young 

 queen can be raised. If the queen be good, 

 we give the colony some bees from one that 

 can spare them. We now strive to have 

 every queen do her best. We continue the 

 chafif or other protection. A colony pro- 

 tected can cover more brood than one not 

 protected, and if the queen will do her part, 

 we get more brood. 



We have practically no honey before June 

 1.5th, and have to depend on old stores for 

 brood rearing, so the stores go as if by magic, 

 and care is necessary to avoid a shortage in 

 honey and cessation of brood rearing. A 

 prosperous colony will consume from forty 

 to sixty pounds of honey from fall to honey 

 flow again, or say till June 1.5th. If a colony 

 crowds the brood and honey, we would 

 exchange a comb of honey with some colony 

 that has empty comb. We think we get 

 brood faster if the queen can always have 

 plenty of empty cells, so long as there are 

 stores enough in the hive. 



We endeavor to keep down drone rearing. 

 It costs too much in honey and bees to raise 

 a lot of drones. Six inches square of drone 

 brood is so much loss of honey consumed. 

 Rather have the hive just that much smaller, 

 and save the honey that would be converted 

 into drones, and save their nurse bees for 

 honey gathering. 



Some object to having a large force of 

 workers at any time previous to the flow. I 

 , believe that we can afford to board a whole 

 hive ful! of extra workers, even for three or 

 four weeks, and then be well paid if we 

 don't get more than a week's work out of 

 them. So after May Ist we get bees, and 

 keep getting bees. The more bees we get 

 the happier we are. 



Sometime in May we begin to spread 

 brood. We do this when making our regular 



rounds of examination, which is about every 

 ten or fifteen days. Should a colony spread 

 its jrood nest crosswise the combs, I change 

 ends with each alternate comb, causing them 

 to fill out to the end. After that, I spread 

 the other way. However, a word of caution 

 here. No one should spread brood indis- 

 criminately, and before doing very much of 

 it, one should have practical knowledge of 

 when, and how it should be done. Go slow 

 until you know you can do it right. 



This line of management is followed up to 

 near the honey flow. In fact, quite to it. 

 Some things remain yet to be done before 

 the flow comes. These will be discussed in 

 our next. 



LovELAND, Col., Feb. 22, 1892. 



P. S.— I forgot to say that we clip all 



queens' wings in the earlier season while they 



can be more easily found. Also remove 



chaff protection last of May or first of -June. 



R. C. A. 



Hundreds of Sections of Sugar Honey. — Pure, 



Granulated Sugar Only will Answer. — 



Poor Grades of Honey Keep 



Alive the Wiley Lie. 



0. W. DAYTON. 



Ir. EDITOR:— I see there is a great 

 swarm of bee keepers attacking you 

 on a count of that Hasty article. I 

 have not yet seen the article, but I know 

 that what you say on pages 40 and 41 of the 

 Feb. Review is a fact. Dr. Miller, on page 

 forty, speaks as though Mr. Hasty had never 

 produced a poand of such honey. Now I 

 have haa a hundred sections filled with gran- 

 ulated sugar, and the equal to which I have 

 never seen in the natural product, either in 

 taste or appearance. I never sold a pound 

 of it, but used it all for winter stores, and I 

 now have eight or ten colonies which are 

 wintering on granulated sugar stored and 

 capped in sections. I used sections because 

 I had more sections than brood combs. 



These bee men who are so much worked 

 up, would, I presume, admit this kind of 

 winter food for the bees, but if, from choice, 

 I place a section of it on my table, it is 

 "nonsense." The bees may eat and ac- 

 knowledge the goodness thereof, but I must 

 favor ignorance — " for policy " — and to mis- 

 lead the public. 



I think I know what kind of honey I pre- 

 fer ; those I sell honey to, prefer about the 

 same as I do. 



