Vol. vm. 



APRIL, J898. 



No. 4. 



Spring Management. 



Written fnr the Ain> rican Jlee- Keeper. 



BY JOHN NEWTON. 



HEN asked to give something 

 r on the spring management of 



'^'i^^ bees I wondered what I would 

 say, for it has been before the public 

 so often, and threshed out until now it 

 is almost threadbare. 



The spring management of bees 

 should commence in the previous 

 tall. 'Tis true that upon the condition 

 in which our bees go into winter quar- 

 ters, and upon their wintering depends 

 the profit of the next season. They 

 should be strong in numbers, well sup- 

 plied with good stores, and have a 

 young queen. With these conditions, 

 and with reasonable care in wintering, 

 the terrors of spring dwindling are re- 

 moved, and necessary spring manage- 

 ment greatly reduced. The matter of 

 having young queens, I am coming to 

 regard as of the first importance. A 

 queen that is failing at this time means 

 an unprofitable colony during the com- 

 ing season. 



I have made it a practice in most 

 cases to replace my queens after the 

 second season. Those wintering bees 

 in the cellar or in the bee house will be 

 looking forward with eagerness to the 

 time to bring them from their winter 

 quarters. While this may seem a simple 

 matter, yet 'tis frought with some per- 



plexities. For instance, shall we return 

 each colony to the stand occupied by it 

 during the previous fall, or place them 

 on the stand that seems the handiest to 

 us as we bring them from the cellar? 

 Yes. we should be sure and mark each 

 stand in the fall and return the stock 

 to the same situation. If not the bees 

 will try and hunt up their old home, 

 and in doing so go into some other 

 hive and be killed. Then, in putting 

 them out, we should put out but part 

 at a time. 



When should bees be put out? We 

 used to think when the soft maple 

 bloomed it was the time to take out our 

 be-^.s, but the opinion of bee-keepers 

 seen:s to be changing to early setting 

 out: in fact our old friend, J. B. Hall, 

 puta his bees out as soon in March as 

 they can fly. The bees being out, our 

 first care is to see that they are well 

 supplied with stores, as a shortage at 

 this time means a heavy loss in the re- 

 turns of the season. Bees that are 

 wintered out of doors need the same 

 care. This can be done by placing in 

 combs of honey that have been saved 

 over from the previous fall, or from 

 any colonies that have died during the 

 winter, leaving stores unused. 



Some eminent bee-keepers have said 

 the bees, by their clustering, form a 

 natural hive, and so retain heat. But 

 I think we can aid them by putting in 

 cushions and endeavoring to keep them 



