MARCH 1, 1915 



Feeding is for the purpose of making 

 " times " less " hard," and creating among 

 the bees feelings of hope and confidence 

 which natural circumstances may liave pre- 

 vented. Apply tlie figure to ourselves, and 

 observe how much better we work, and how 

 much more we accomplish when hope and 

 confidence keep us company. 



The natural and very logical habit of 

 keeping the brood-nest as nearly as possible 

 solidly spherical, and the refusal of the 

 queen to deposit eggs much if any beyond 

 those limits, gives us the opportunity to 

 place empty comb space within those limits 

 where the queen can and usually will get 

 busy veiy promptly — in fact, laying just 

 tliat many more eggs than she would under 

 the original condition. There is need to be 

 careful, however, that weather conditions be 

 settled and warm; also that the colony shall 

 have bees enough to cany on the added 

 work, or this " spreading of brood " should 

 not be done. 



The weakness of a colony is very often 

 due in the first place almost entirely to the 

 queen's failure to produce brood sufficient to 

 keep up the population. This can be deter- 

 mined partly by her appearance and move- 

 ment, and partly by the proportion of brood 

 to adult bees in the colony. A prolific queen 

 will keep a much larger iDroportionate 

 amount of brood than will a poor queen. 

 It follows naturally tliat a new queen will 

 be the proper remedy. A young queen will 

 give the house bees all they can do, and 

 they will, perforce, have to work harder 

 with consequent good results. 



Too much house room is ju.st as bad for 

 bees as for humans; a small family in a 

 big house has diflficulty in keeping warm, 

 and the empty rooms have a depressing 

 elTect. Twenty people in a small room vote 

 a meeting a gi-eat success, while the same 

 number in a big room say " there was no 

 enthusiasm, there were so few there." Then, 

 too, the small room gets pretty warm, per- 

 haps, while the big room is too chilly for 

 comfort. Therefore divide the brood-cham- 

 ber by a padded division-board so as to 

 give the bees an apartment suited to their 

 numbers. 



Feeding, spreading brood, and requeening. 

 together with adapting space to bees, con- 

 stitutes about all that can be done toward 

 building up a single lone colony ; but when 

 there are other colonies available there are 

 other means of helping the weakling. 



When a man is poor, the best way to 

 overcome the deficit is to get money. Fortu- 

 nately with bees such a jiroposition is not so 

 silly, and we can put the idea into practice 

 by taking from a rich colony, which can 



afford thi; donation, a frame of sealed brood 

 (which will impose no additional labor upon 

 the Aveak colony), and giving it, with the 

 bees which may be on it, to the colony to be 

 helped. Such a frame with bees may be 

 slipped in at one side of the brood-nest (not 

 in the middle), and there will seldom be any 

 disturbance. By carrying this operation to 

 the limit, a full-sized strong colony could be 

 built up in about fifteen minutes; but it 

 must be remembered that each frame of 

 brood taken from any colony means just 

 that much setback to that colony, so that 

 what is gained for the weak colony is lost 

 somewhere else. 



A good strong colony with a young queen 

 may be able to give up two frames of brood 

 and bees during the season without notice- 

 ably affecting their prospei'ity. If no sur- 

 plus is expected from such a colony, then it 

 might furnish ten frames of brood, or more, 

 in a season. 



There is another method of building up a 

 weak colony, but which is not to be recom- 

 mended for general practice; and that is. to 

 exchange stands, a weak colony with a 

 strong one. This operates by the field bees 

 going home to the old stand which has then 

 the weak colony. There is risk in this of 

 starting a fight by which more would be 

 lost than could possibly be made up in any 

 way. The result would be two weak colonies 

 instead of one. 



There is anotlier way of dividing the bees 

 of a strong colony with the weak one by 

 setting the weakling on top of the strong 

 one with a queen-excluder between, and 

 after a few days setting the under hive off 

 upon a new stand. This is known as the 

 " Alexander method." This operates by 

 giving the weakling the larger proportion 

 of the adult bees, and the hive upon the new 

 stand has all the brood and the young bees. 

 The large amount of brood continually 

 hatching soon builds up the colony on the 

 new stand. This method requires a knowl- 

 edge of how and when to do it, which makes 

 it necessary to be posted on Mr. Alexander's 

 directions. 



These expedients are possible only where 

 two or more colonies are available. There 

 seems to be a point in the number of popu- 

 lation above which things go on amazingly 

 on a high tide of prosperity. On the other 

 hand, when the population falls below that 

 critical point there seems to be a drag to 

 every tiling; stores disappear, brood di- 

 minishes, and a general atmosphere of dis- 

 couragement can be noticed when the hive 

 is opened. A weak colony is a pathetic sight 

 to tlie owner. 



As a safe suggestion, the beekeeper 



