422 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



on the whole, requires such careful judgment 

 that it can not be recommended Early in 

 the spring it certainly is not advantageous, 

 and later it is hardly necessary, as the bees 

 and queen will attend to all that without as- 

 sistance. But if it is felt that the brood must 

 be spread, do it by placing the outside comb, 

 in which the queen is laying, in the center 

 of the brood- nest, making a place for it by 

 moving the combs apart. This will not ma- 

 terially enlarge the brood-nest; and the fact 

 that the queen is occupying this outside comb 

 is some evidence that the colony can main- 

 tain the proper temperature over that por- 

 of the brood-chamber. 



Well-thought-out plans, systematically and 

 practically applied, will often win success 

 from what may seem hopelessly adverse con- 

 ditions. Liberal reward by way of increased 

 profits surely awaits the bee-keeper who 

 gives systematic thought to his bees in the 

 spring, and anticipates the honey-flow with 

 thorough preparation of his colonies. 



Buffalo, N. Y. 



FEEDING FOR STIMULATING. 



Spring Feeding to Stimulate Brood reai'- 

 ing Wrong in Theory and Practice; Feed- 

 ing in the Fall the Proper Time; Rf queen- 

 ing More Important than Either ; Ripen- 

 ing Honey on the Hives. 



BY J. E. HAND. 



I have read with considerable interest Mr. 

 Alexander's article on spring feeding, page 

 1376, Nov. 1, 1907, especially since I have ex- 

 pressed somewhat opposite views upon this 

 same subject, even going so far as to say 

 that spring tinkering with bees is a useless 

 wdste of time, and that, if it is necessary to 

 feed in order to stimulate brood-rearing in 

 the spring, autumn is the time to do it in- 

 stead of spring. I use the word "if" in the 

 above connection because recent develop- 

 ments have led me to conclude that feeding 

 at any time to stimulate brood-rearing is un- 

 profitable, and is beginning at the wrong end 

 of the problem to solve it. 



If I had a queen that would not lay all the 

 eggs that a colony of bees could care for dur- 

 ing the breeding season I would reinforce 

 her bv adding another queen; and I consider 

 this the proper thing to do instead of feed- 

 ing all summer to try to force one queen to 

 do the work that two could do without any 

 fussing whatever. 



On page 1318 Mr. Alexander says: "I can 

 see no more consistency in feeding bees dur- 

 ing September in order to induce spring 

 brood-rearing than there would be in feed- 

 ing our cows in July to increase the flow of 

 milk the following May." 

 ■ Mr. Alexander could not have hit upon a 

 happier illustration than the cow, since these 

 two cases are almost exactly parallel, only, 

 in my mind, the application works just the 

 other way. It is just as important to feed a 

 cow during winter with a view to increasing 



her flow of milk the following season as it is 

 to feed bees during September to stimulate 

 brood-rearing in the spring. 



In the case of the bees, the surplus energy 

 (the result of stimulative feeding during 

 September) is stored up within the hive for 

 future use in the form of a greatly increased 

 force of young bees which, after all, is the 

 greatest stimulant that can be imagined to 

 induce early and constant brood-rearing the 

 coming spring, and without which spring 

 feeding would be in vain, since no feeding 

 would be necessary to enable a queen to lay 

 all the eggs a weak, colony would care for. 



With the cow, the surplus energy (the re- 

 sult of high feeding during the previous sea- 

 son) is stored up in the form of flesh and 

 greatly increased vital force, all of which will 

 enable her to turn a greater part of her 

 food during the following season toward in- 

 creasing her flow of milk instead of to the 

 building-up of a body weakened by improp- 

 er care and insuflieient food during the past 

 season. And such a cow will not have to be 

 helped up in the spring any more than will 

 such a colony of bees need feeding in the 

 spring to stimulate brood-rearing. 



I wish to go on record as saying that if 

 bee keepers would give their bees proper care 

 and attention during the latter part of the 

 season they would require very little attention 

 during the following spring until time to put 

 on the sections, and weak colonies would be 

 the exception instead of the rule. 



Now I think I have made it quite clear 

 that autumn feeding is ahead of spring feed- 

 ing; yet there is something else of vastly 

 more importance than either, and that is tlie 

 queen. When it becomes necessary for the 

 bee-keeper to feed his bees to stimulate 

 brood-rearing during the natural breeding 

 season you may depend upon it there is some- 

 thing radically wrong with his management. 

 The queen is probably worthless, and she 

 should be replaced by a good one reared on 

 correct and scientific principles. 



There are two points in Mr. Alexander's 

 article that he does not make quite clear. 

 One is, why he finds it necessary to have so 

 much honey in his hives during winter as to 

 interfere with the brood-nest the following 

 spring; and the other is, why does the uncap- 

 ping of sealed combs, if properly done, in- 

 duce robbing any more than feeding would? 



THE SUPREME IMPORTANCE OF HAVING HON- 

 EY WELL RIPENED. 



Regarding the statement that it is not nec- 

 essary to have more than one set of extract- 

 ing-combs on a colony at a time, I can, per- 

 haps, better express my views by quoting R. 

 A Burnett & Co.'s statement to the effect 

 that, i^ bee-keepers would allow their honey 

 to ripen tij)on the hives it would do more to- 

 ward creating a detnand for it than any law 

 against adulteration. And I will add to this 

 that, if every bee-keeper in the countrv woul'd 

 read this until he can repeat it with his eyes 

 shut, and then put music to it, and learn to 

 sing it and whistle it, and then paste it all 

 over his hives, extracted honey would soon 



