DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO BEES ^.TSTJD H03STE^' 



Vol. IL 



OCTOBER 1, 1874. 



No. X 



HOW TO CONDUCT AN APIARY. 



No. 10. 



BV JAMES BOJLIN. 



& LTHOUGH the labors of the busy workers are 

 -£22*i not by any means ; and If he has many stocks to 



Eft over for this season, those of their owner are 



■■are for, this month will be a busy one for him. His 

 labors no longer consist in preparations for surplus 

 honey, or an increase in the number of his stocks; but 

 in preparing those he has, for winter, if he would be 

 cheered by their merry hum again next spring. 



If the labors pertaining to Sept. were promptly and 

 faithfully performed, those of this month will be much 

 lightened. All stocks should now be strong in num- 

 bers, well supplied with stores, and have good prolific 

 Queens. If, however, the apiarian has been negligent 

 .(nd put off until a more convenient season what 

 should have been promptly done, no time must now 

 be lost. 



First and foremost then, he should see that none are 

 Queenless, for trying to winter Queenless swarms 

 leads to nothing but vexation. If any are Queenless, 

 i bey should be supplied at once with a laying, or vir- 

 gin Queen, or at farthest a Queen cell; as giving a 

 stock brood at this season for the purpose of letting 

 them rear a Queen, generally fails; not so much in 

 rearing a Queen as in having htr fertilized so late in 

 the season. If neither Queen or cell is to be had, per- 

 haps the best disposition that could be made of a 

 Queenless stock, would be to unite it with one having 

 :i laying Queen. 



If all have Queens, the next thing in order is to see 

 that they are strong enough. »Much has been said and 

 written about wintering a pint or quart of bees, and it 

 ■an be and has been done ; still I venture the asser- 

 tion that three out of every four who have tried it, 

 have failed. Napoleon once said that Providence 

 favored the heaviest battalions ; so in bee culture, luck 

 as a rule, always favors the strongest stocks, at all 

 times. 



( >n a cool day, the bees should occupy at least four 

 i»i" the spaces between the combs, and from that up to 

 7 or 8, or even more. If any are found that are too 

 weak, they may still be strengthened in some locali- 

 ties, where bees are yet breeding, by giving them 

 frames of brood from strong stocks that can spare it. 

 Where they cannot be strengthened in this way, they 

 should be united until sufficiently populous, as one 

 strong stock that will be almost swre to live through 

 the winter is worth more than two weak ones that 

 will be about equally sure to die before spring. 



("are should be taken, however, not to take too much 

 brood from strong stocks, to aid weak ones, lest the 

 strong ones be injured. If any are short of stores and 

 cannot be supplied by exchanging combs with others 

 having a surplus, feeding should be attended to at 

 once. 



One object in doing what feeding is necessary, as 

 early in the fall as possible, is that as the center combs 

 are then full of brood, the bees are forced to put the 

 iced at the tops and back ends of the combs, instead 

 of in the center, where they are quite sure to store 

 the most of it if fed after the brood is hatched out. 

 The storing of the syrup in the center of the hive, 

 where the combs should be empty, I regard as one of 

 the strongest objections to extracting all the honey 

 and feeding syrup late in the fall. 



In arranging the combs for winter, if the hive is full, 

 the heavy combs of sealed honey should be placed on 

 the outside, and those only partially tilled, in the cen- 

 ter, for the bees to cluster in. If there are not empty 

 combs enough for them to cluster in, one or two 

 should be emptied with the extractor, to give them 

 more room. 



If the hive is not full of combs, the combs and bees 

 should be placed at one side, and the space contracted 

 by a division board ; and if any frames are only par- 

 tially filled with comb they should, unless nearly full, 

 be placed at one side of the hive, where the bees 

 would naturally have them. 



While handling the combs in the fall it will pay to 

 cut a hole in them about one third of the way down 

 from the top. The object of this passage is three fold : 

 viz : it will save the lives of a great many workers 

 that are caught away from the main cluster during 

 cold spells of weather that occur before they are 

 housed in the fall, and after they are taken out in the 

 spring ; it will enable them to reach their stores du- 

 ring the winter ; and will promote breeding early in 

 the spring, by enabling the Queen to distribute her 

 eggs more regularly in the combs while it is too cold 

 for her to pass readily around the outside of them. 



During the cold weather that occurred last spring, 

 I found on several occasions where I had neglected to 

 to make a passage through the combs, a piece of seal- 

 ed brood several inches square on one side of a comb, 

 and not even an egg on the other side, the Queen be- 

 ing unable to reach it. 



Where honey boards are used, they should be taken 

 off the last of this month and their places supplied 

 with quilts. By putting the quilts on early, before 

 much freezing occurs, no frost will be formed on the 

 combs and the bees will go into winter quarters in 

 better condition than they woidd do if the honey 

 boards were left on until they are housed. 



Before putting on the quilts, a stick about % of an 

 inch square should be laid across the tops of the 

 frames, so as to leave a passage between them and 

 the quilts. 



Notwithstanding all that has been said about hand- 

 ling bees at all times, even in mid winter, I would 

 earnestly advise that all the handling in the fall be 

 done as early, and as long before housing as possible, 

 as I have repeatedly found by experience, that dis- 

 turbing bees much just before they are put into win- 

 ter quarters has an injurious effect. 



Last fall, and several preceeding ones, I introduced 

 a number of Italian Queens just before putting^ my 

 bees in the house, and although I lost none of the 

 stocks into which they were introduced, yet I almost 

 invariably found more dead bees in them the next 

 spring, than in others that were not disturbed. For 

 bees to gorge themselves with honey just before going 

 into winter quarters, is about as unwise as for a per- 

 son to eat a hearty supper just before going to bed. 

 Some people may stand it, and so will some swarms of 

 bees, but it is unhealthy for all that. 



Did not the disturbance, consequent upon moving 

 them so late in the fall, have something to do with the 

 loss of the bees Mr. Daniels purchased ? I think Mrs. 

 Tupper mentioned a similar case, as having occurred 

 in the West some time ago. West Lodi, O. 



[Friend B's remarks so completely cover the 

 ground, that we hardly need add more, but it may not 

 be amiss to advise that your Bee Houses or cellars be 

 put in good trim now, before cold and stormy weather. 

 For instance, our own Bee House was too cold last win- 

 ter ; we resorted to artificial heat then, but will it not 

 be better to bank it in well with dirt all around and 

 prepare straw cushions to put between the doors etc ? 

 If any cracks are to be seen from shrinking of lumber, 

 they "should be caulked with list or strips of cloth, 

 doors made close etc. etc. For ventilating cellars we 

 know of no plan equal to having a stove pipe run down 

 within a few inches of the cellar bottom, the other 

 end communicating with the pipe of the kitchen stove. 

 By allow ing a piece of burning paper to fall on the floor 

 you can readily see how this tube draws all the heavy 

 impure air from the floor, up the tube. W r e saw the ar- 

 rangement at friend Blakeslee's. Get it all fixed now 

 before it is neglected. Ed.] 



