346 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



less. To tell how much honey there is, there is 

 no sure way other than to lift out the combs and 

 make an examination. It can be depended upon 

 that a brood-comb spaced 1% inches from center 

 to center will contain, when sealed, fully 5 pounds 

 of stores. A part of these stores will consist of 

 bee- bread, so if there are three combs of stores in 

 the hives containing the best colonies at the close 

 of fruit-bloom, such colonies will be in the ideal 

 condition that we so much desire, and there will 

 be nothing further to do with them until the time 

 arrives for putting on the supers. One comb of 

 stores may carry a weak colony over this period, 

 and two combs will be sufficient for medium col- 

 onies. The ten-frame hives prove to be of ad- 

 vantage here; for, although there is room for 

 plenty of stores, enough space is left for brood- 

 rearing besides. 



It is probably true that, in a colony of bees in 

 normal condition, the workers do not become 

 field bees until they are seventeen days old. By 

 " normal condition " here is meant a colony hav- 

 ing enough field bees to keep the nurse bees 

 (those under seventeen days old), busy taking 

 care of the nectar that is brought in, building 

 comb, etc. It often happens in the clover belt, 

 especially in the northern States, that the honey 

 season begins before many of the colonies reach 

 this normal condition, especially if the winter 

 was long and severe. In such cases many of the 

 bees must go to the field in search of nectar long 

 before they are seventeen days old; and as soon 

 as the colonies get started in earnest they become 

 normal, beciuse enough of the bees have been 

 forced into the field through necessity to make a 

 balanced force, so to speak. 



Since the old bees that winter over die off in 

 April and May, a large number of young bees 

 must be reared during the spring months to re- 

 place this loss. This is the reason why there 

 must be an abundance of stores at all times dur- 

 ing this heavy breeding season. The ideal way 

 is to feed all colonies that are short of stores in 

 the fall, and if, for any reason, some of the colo- 

 nies become short of stores during the spring 

 months, combs of h^ney saved for this purpose 

 should be given. If no such combs of honey 

 are available, the Doolittle or Alexander feeders 

 may be used. For spring feeding the grade of 

 honey ii not so important, and it should be mix- 

 ed with an equal amount of water by weight to 

 make the syrup. For the fall feeding, only gran- 

 ulated sugar should be used, and the syrup should 

 consist of two parts of sugar to one of water by 

 weight. With plenty of stores in the hi^es, as 

 mentioned first, no spring stimulative feeding 

 will be found necessary. The beginner especial- 

 ly should avoid conditions which make it neces- 

 sary to feed for stimulative purposes or e^en the 

 exchanging of combs to equalize the stores. Such 

 spring " fussing " should not be atempted by the 

 novice, and it is a question whether even the old 

 hand at the business will gain much by such 

 management, or whether the colonies will be in 

 better condition than they would be if provided 

 with plenty of stores in the fall to last until the 

 opening of the main honey-flow the following 

 season. 



THE DANGER OF ROBBING IN THE SPRING; HOW 

 TO STOP IT AND HOW NOT TO DO IT. 



The danger of robbing is enough to discourage 



anyone from opening the hives during the spring 

 months except when it is absolutely necessary 

 during that part of the year. The apiarist himself 

 is responsible for nine-tenths of the robbing. In 

 the first place, poor methods of wintering result 

 in weak colonies which are not able to defend 

 themselves against the stronger ones. Beginners, 

 not knowing about this, are apt to handle colo- 

 nies indiscriminately during the spring months; 

 and if the ever-ready robbers get a taste of the 

 stores of honey, robbing will be started. The 

 weak colony that was being handled is in poor 

 condition to defend the stores, even if the bees 

 had a disposition to do so. Our beginner may 

 not have noticed that the colony was being rob- 

 bed until there was a great uproar at the entrance 

 of that particular hive; and at this point he is 

 likely to do the most unwise thing possible; that 

 ii, to move the colony to a cellar or honey-house 

 with the idea of saving it. It would have been 

 much better to let the robbing go on until night, 

 when all would be quiet, and then the robbed 

 colony could be set over a moderately strong 

 one, which would be abundantly able to defend 

 the stores. There is apt to be trouble with the 

 robbers, even when this is done, as many of them 

 will stay over night in the hive that was being 

 robbed, and will try to make an attack the next 

 morning. If this weak colony had been placed 

 over another weak one, the probability is that 

 both would be robbed the next morning, and for 

 this reason it should be placed over a fairly good 

 colony, as stated before. 



After the weak colony has been placed over a 

 strong one, an empty hive-body, as near like it as 

 possible, should be set on the old bottom-board, 

 and the cover that formerly was on the weak col- 

 ony put over it. Most of the robbers will be at- 

 tracted to this place the next morning, and they 

 will rush into the empty hive instead of attacking 

 some nearby colony, thus starting the robbing all 

 over again. 



With a good deal of satisfaction we sometimes 

 exchange the places of the two colonies — that is, 

 the one doing the robbing and the one being 

 robbed; but the plan does not always work. 

 Only last spring we tried this with two of our 

 colonies. The one that was being robbed had 

 enough be:s so they should have defended them- 

 selves, but for some reason they did not. We 

 exchanged the places of the two colonies, but it 

 was not very long before the he<is of the strong 

 colony found out the change and began carrying 

 the ho^ey from the weak colony back to their 

 own hive now on the new stand. The beginner 

 should not attempt to adopt this plan of stopping 

 robbing, for often those with considerable ex- 

 perience can not distinguish which colony is do- 

 ing t'^e mischief. 



It is a good plan to contract the entrances in 

 the spring to conform to the size of the colonies. 

 In this way, not only the heat is retained but the 

 bees in the weak colonies are usually able to de- 

 fend themselves. When the entrance-blocks 

 have bec.i thus adjusted they should not be dis- 

 turbed until some of the strong colonies need 

 larger openings. 



If the beginner would go into a bee yard and 

 find robbing going on, his first thought would 

 be to contract the entrances of the weak colonies. 

 This might be the wise thing ;o do; but robber 



