360 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mae. 15 



much skill and experience as any one branch 

 of the business; and advice upon this impor- 

 tant point can not be handed out like pills 

 by a medicine- peddler. Each one must study 

 his own particular field and flora, and ascer- 

 tain when we need the workers. At any rate, 

 don't commence stimulative feeding too 

 soon; and if you commence at all, keep it up 

 liberally until the flow comes; for bees that 

 are being fed lose much of their hustle for 

 natural stores, and await your coming like 

 a beggar on the street corner. Like Mr Alex- 

 ander, I too have been over the ground for 

 30 years, and will say I very mucu doubt if 

 it pays to practice stimulative feeding, for 

 the purpose of brood-rearing, in early spring. 

 But be sure to feed enough so there is no 

 starving; and if you are not in a location 

 where nature will back up good prolific queens 

 for thirty days before the honey- flow, move 

 to one that will, for there are plenty of such 

 locations. As Mr. Alexander says, the month 

 of May is the time for all bee-men to be 

 most active, for we must have brood in this 

 month; but I would rather my queens would 

 save their strength and forces until this date 

 than to do extensive early breeding. 



Mr. Alexander speaks of neighbors' bees 

 being too weak to work in supers, and says 

 it is because there is too much honey in the 

 brood-nest. Now, is he mistaken, or am I? 

 for I think that, when a normal colony of 

 bees has lived oS from the stores in any 

 hive from August until the next June, and 

 the combs are still so full of honey that 

 there is no room for brood, then that is a 

 plain indictment against the queen, and it is 

 her fault that the honey is there in excess. 



I believe with Mr. Alexander that every 

 hive should contain a large amount of emp- 

 ty worker comb during Slay and June; but 

 what is worrying ninety-nine out of every 

 hundred bee-keepers in the United States is 

 that this comb will get empty too soon before 

 the flow comes, so that a comb of sealed 

 honey would not long serve as a dummy in 

 most locations. 



I think very likely that if Dr. Lyon had 

 taken a picture of the inside of Mr. Alex- 

 ander's hive the past spring, he wouldn't 

 have found as many bees as he did on the 

 outside of the hives one year ago. So we are 

 all bound, more or less, by that inexorable 

 law of nature that says you can not raise 

 brood until the conditions are right. And 

 there is no condition so favorable as natural 

 warmth, a little natural honey coming in at 

 the entrance, and natural pollen in abun- 

 dance; and these conditions so often exist for 

 thirty days before the main honey-flow that 

 it does not pay to make stimulative feeding 

 a part of our plan. 

 Longmont, Col., Nov. 4. 



[Mr. Gill is always a valued correspondent; 

 but in the foi-egoing he has quite outdone 

 himself. A bee-keeper with 12 apiaries ought 

 to know something about practical manage- 

 ment; hut when such a man disagrees with 

 another strong man in the person of Alex- 

 ander, the beginner may not know_which 



way to turn. Our own experience, together 

 with that of those who write on the subject 

 in this issue, seems to support Mr. Gill. In- 

 deed, we may say that the average beginner 

 should avoid spring feeding if he can— cer- 

 tainly if the hive is well supplied with seal- 

 ed stores. — Ed.] 



CELLAR VENTILATION. 



When and How to Set the Bees Out ; Alex- 

 ander's Spring Feeding Not Indorsed; 

 the Let-alone Policy for the Beginners 

 Favored. 



BY K. F. HOLTERMANN. 



To me, from my youth up, agriculture in 

 its various forms has appeared to give abun- 

 dant scope for the highest exercise of intel- 

 ligent thought and study. The person who 

 pursues a cast-iron rule season after season 

 in bee-keeping, or in other lines of agri- 

 culture, does not act intelligently, nor does 

 he obtain the measure of success secured by 

 the one who studies season after season, and 

 who tries to acquaint himself with weather 

 signs and conditions, and then seeks in his 

 management to act according to these vary- 

 ing conditions. This is particularly true of 

 spring management. 



To those who have their bees on their sum- 

 mer stands all winter, having them packed, 

 and provided with an abundance of good 

 stores, I shall have nothing special to say. 

 There may, however, be certain suggestions 

 in this article which some might find to their 

 advantage to act upon in future plans. 



WHEN TO SET BEES OUT OF THE CELLAR. 



Those who winter in repositories must, 

 toward spring, exercise some judgment as to 

 when to set out their bees. General weather 

 conditions, the condition of the ground upon 

 which the bees are to stand, the specific lo- 

 cality of the apiary, the condition of the bees, 

 the number of the colonies in the repository, 

 and the nature of the repositorv, all must be 

 considered in a decision upon tnis important 

 question. After all this has been considered 

 we must run our risk as to the nature of the 

 weather in the future, no matter what our de- 

 cision (setting out or not setting out). If 

 the weather keeps cold, and the ground 

 where the hives have to be placed is covered 

 with snow, it is practically impossible to set 

 out the bees. I have seen hundreds of bees 

 perish, all belonging to one colony, because 

 there was an insignificant coating of ice on 

 the ground in front of the entrance when 

 other colonies in the apiary, and without the 

 small patch of ice, did not suffer. The loca- 

 tion of my home apiary, where the cellar is 

 situated, is well sheltered with elevations of 

 land, timber, buildings, and fences. When 

 the bees are set out they are in a very shel- 

 tered place, and they can be set out when 

 others in a more exposed place would, per- 

 haps, do better by remaining in winter quar- 

 ters. Let me say here it is an immense ad- 

 vantage to have an apiary located in a place 

 sheltered from wind; and the average bee- 



