Ai'Klt.. 1919 



G I^ E A N T N G S IN BEE C U Ti T U R E 



the arrival of tlie time for another supreme 

 effort next year in the rearing of the crew 

 of workers for the liarvest. A longer honey 

 flow would of course modify this view. This 

 gives to the brood-rearing period of April 

 and May, espeeially the latter month, an 

 iniportan-ee far greater than that of any 

 other similar period during the year, for all 

 other brood-rearing, so far as we are con- 

 eerned, exists for the sake of the brood- 

 rearing during the eight weeks just preced- 

 ing the main lioney flow. 



What If Locality Affords More Than Two 



Months of Extensive Brood-rearing 



Previous to the Honey Flow? 



We are sometimes inclined to envy those 

 who have a longer time between the be- 

 ginning of brood-rearing in the spring and 

 the main honey flow than our locality af- 

 fords, yet such a condition would probably 

 not give so large a proportion of young bees 

 at the beginning of the honey flow and 

 would result in some of the early reared 

 workers not being utilized to best advan- 

 tage. I can see how colonies might be built 

 up strong enough to divide six or eight 

 weeks before a later honey flow, if the 

 main honey flow should come so late that 

 this could be done, then both colonies en- 

 couraged to multiply quickly their numbers 

 fivefold before the honey flow begins. 

 Whatever the date for the beginning of the 

 main honey flow we can not afford to have 

 even the slightest interference with brood- 

 rearing during the preceding six or eight 

 weeks. 



Spring Manipulations. 



We find ourselves handling the bees less 

 and less during the spring, as the years go 

 by. The colonies wintered outdoors are not 

 unpacked until about the last week in May. 

 If queenless colonies are found earlier, they 

 are united with colonies whose population 

 is below the capacity of the queen. If there 

 are any very weak ones, no attention is paid 

 to them except to try to find the cause of 

 weakness in order to avoid such colonies in 

 the future, for we have never found it 

 profitable to spend time nursing along very 

 weak colonies in the spring. We have been 

 thru the mill of stimulative feeding, spread- 

 ing brood, and other early spring nursing, 

 and doubt if any of this has ever been profit- 

 able. W^e simi^ly try to see that every colo- 

 ny has what it needs for best development 

 at this time and then leave them alone. If 

 they have good vigorous queens and are 

 normal as to number and vitality of work- 

 ers the first of April, there are but few 

 things that can happen during April and 

 May to i^revent rousing colonies by the first 

 of June. These few things, however, are 

 extremely important, since any one of them 

 may cause good colonies to drop out of the 

 race just before reaching the goal toward 

 which we have been working since last 

 August. Among the dangers that threaten 

 the colonies at this time are a failure of or 

 some accident to the (lueen, insufficient 



room for brootl-reariiig to the greatest 

 capacity, and insufficient stores (either from 

 the fields, feeders, or stored in the hives) to 

 stimiilal(^ uiii-estricted V)rood-i'earing. 



More Room Needed for Brood-rearing. 



Well-wintered colonies of normal strength 

 and conditions usually, sometime in May, 

 need more room for brood-rearing than that 

 afforded by a single brood-chamber of 10- 

 frame Langstroth capacity, especially if the 

 single brood-chamber must contain both the 

 stores needed at this time and the brood- 

 rearing space. We have added to the equip- 

 ment of each colony an extra brood-chamber 

 to give room for the greatest possible devel- 

 opment of each colony previous to the hon- 

 ey flow. This adds considerably to the cost 

 of a comb-honey equipment, but with our 

 conditions it also adds handsomely to the 

 season 's profits. Besides acting as a safety 

 valve for the expanding brood-nest this 

 extra brood-chamber when supplied with 

 five or six frames of honey makes one of 

 the best feeders to stimulate brood-rearing 

 I have ever seen. 



Importance of Abundance of Stores. 



One of the hardest things we have had to 

 learn is the large amount of stores needed 

 for this heavy brood-rearing. When the 

 bees have no opportunity to gather from 

 the fields because of cold or wet weather the 

 honey stored in the hives disappears with 

 surprising rapidity. From some experiments 

 which he conducted some years ago, R. L. 

 Taylor concluded that it requires about a 

 frame of honey to produce a frame of brood. 

 It is difiicult to realize that the 10 to 12 or 

 m-ore frames of brood which we hope to have 

 in the hives on June first will cost the 

 equivalent of as many frames of honey, yet 

 many times we have seen several frames 

 of sealed honey disappear during cold rainy 

 weather in May, and brood appear in its 

 place. We occasionally have a good honey 

 flow from apple blossoms and have had the 

 second story filled with honey from this 

 source, but instead of being able to extract 

 a crop of apple-blossom honey we have had 

 to be content to see most of it disappear 

 and frames of brood take the place of the 

 frames of honey. Whenever this has oc- 

 curred in our apiaries, all colonies that were 

 at all well wintered have produced a fair 

 crop of honey even during the i:>oorest sea- 

 sons and bumper crops in good seasons. 



"Strong colonies of strong bees" (strong 

 for the season) on April first, to which are 

 added more stores than they can possibly 

 use and more vacant cells for brood-rearing 

 than they can fill, make a combination that 

 practically insures a fivefold increase in 

 population, by June first. The miracle of 

 large increase is worked in the months of 

 April and May — more in May than in April. 

 Then, with strong colonies an accomplished 

 fact, the mighty hordes of workers for the 

 harvest leap into being at the very nick of 

 time FOR the honey flow, instead of build- 

 ing up later ON the honey flow. 



