rHK BEEKEEPERS' J^JJVIEW. 



IBI 



I'd rather have it cool, to keep the old bees 

 in the hives. 



Now, I think my bees are more healthy 

 than they would have been if I had kept 

 them ill one month lont,'er : and they now 

 beijin to rear brood, anil tlie old bees stay at 

 home and keep the brood warm, and live 

 until the younj,' bees begin to take their 

 place. 



I always set some rye jjround just as tine 

 as our miller can grind it, and leave the 

 bran in with the flour : and if we have a few 

 warm days, give the l)ees some of this. 

 Place it in a shallow l)Ox two feet square, 

 near the yard, and the bees will have work 

 close at home : and this, too, will stimulate 

 them to breeding. But we will be likely to 

 have considerable cold weather when the old 

 bees will be like a sitting hen— keeping their 

 eggs warm. Now, when natural pollen 

 comes, say April 8, the young bees will begin 

 to hatch, and the old ones will begin to 

 work very hard, and soon die ; but the young 

 bees will hatch out as fast as the old ones 

 die, and take their place : and this prevents 

 spring dwindling (as it is called), and the 

 old bees have been worth much in rearing 

 this brood. If we wait until Ai>ril « before 

 we set our bees out, then the bees start right 

 off hard at work, pellmell, and, being weak- 

 er, too, by their longer confinement, die off 

 fast, and will be able to care for but a small 

 amount of brood, and spring dwindling is 

 the result ; and by May S the bees will not 

 be as plentiful in the hives as they were 

 when set out ; and then comes the trouljJe of 

 changing combs, and much fussing work to 

 get the bees ready for the honey harvest. 

 But those set out in time to have the young 

 bees coming on to take the place of the old 

 ones that die off fast when no pollen comes, 

 will be ahead, and keep so, without all of 

 this fussing ; and another thing, we are apt 

 to have a few swarms that are weak, and 

 liable to get robbed if not watched when 

 carried out early ; and after their first flight 

 look for and find out whether any are poor ; 

 and if so. carry those back into the cellar, 

 and leave them in until natural pollen comes ; 

 then set them out and care for them as they 

 need. They will not be as liable to get rob- 

 bed now, but these few should be jiut on 

 from three to five frames, just what they 

 can protect and care for. If better swarms 

 should lose a queen, unite with one of these." 



How to See Bees when they Swarm. 



R. Wilkin, in an interesting article in 

 Gleaninqs, brings up a point that has sel- 

 dom been mentioned in the journals, that of 

 the ease with which bees can be seen in the 

 air when there is a strong contrasting color 

 for a background. My old apiary out at the 

 farm was about fifteen rods from the house. 

 Beyond the apiary was a stream of water 

 having a " fringe " of alder bushes on its 

 margin. By stepping to the back door of 

 the house and using the dark green of the 

 alders as a background, I could at any time 



ascertain if there was a swarm in the air. 

 Mr. Wilkin brings out this point so nicely 

 that I take pleasure in (luoting two or three 

 paragraphs: 



" At one of my apiaries, as I stood looking 

 east out of the door of my house, the moun- 

 tain rising abruptly four hundred feet in 

 front of me, the apiary lying between me 

 and the rising earth, as the sun arose, not 

 shining on me or the hillside, but lighting 

 up everything between us, every bee became 

 visible as it arose from its hive, circling, 

 gliding, darting, or gracefully wending its 

 way far up the mountain side. The eye 

 could settle on any bee and follow it hun- 

 dreds of feet away, the vibrations of the 

 wings, even, being quite distinct, giving the 

 appearance of a thread of raveled stocking 

 yarn ; even silvery spider-threads, like ropes, 

 long and short, perpendicular, horizontal, 

 or curved, could be seen wafted gracefully 

 amidst this scene of insect life before me. 

 But every one cannot have a mountain at 

 his command, and must substitute a make- 

 shift. 



Swarms are best seen when looking in the 

 direction of the sun from nine to three 

 o'clock, as the shadows of trees and other 

 objects are seen most in that direction. I 

 find it very serviceable to have a thicket of 

 trees or sage-bush just outside the apiary, 

 especially on the southeast side, and making 

 their shadows close above the tops of the 

 hives. I help this l)y clearing away under- 

 brush, or piling limbs and leaves in such a 

 way as to shut out the sun. I sometimes set 

 boxes or empty hives on the tops of the hives 

 on the outer ends of the rows, with the open 

 side next to me, so as to make a dark shadow 

 on the inside next to me. This helps some 

 when there is nothing better. 



Last season I purchased a web of black 

 muslin and cut it into pieces from one to 

 three yards long, and placed them for back- 

 grounds just outside the apiary at the sides 

 most needing them, and just high enough to 

 be plainly seen above the tops of the hives, 

 I held them in place by fastening them to 

 stakes five or six feet long driven in the 

 ground. I find this a very serviceable de- 

 vice. Visitors ask what the black cloths 

 stretched around the apiary mean. I tell 

 them that, having lost many bees last winter, 

 I drape my apiary as a badge of mourning. 

 When swarming is over I roll them up to 

 keep for other years," 



If Mr. W, E. Dayes gets his electrical 

 swarm notifier to work as successfully as he 

 has used electricity for imbedding wires in 

 foundation, there will be much less " watch- 

 ing for swarms " by those who employ it. 



The Merits and Demerits of the Punic Bees. 



" As the writer happens to have been the 

 first to call general attention to this race of 

 bees, under the far more appropriate name 

 of Tunisian bees, Tunis being the native 

 land of the race, and as he has had consider- 

 able experience with them in Tunis, and 



