170 



SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. 



[Chap. II. 



Tl>c experiment couUl lie tried in tliis country by apiarians planting tlie 

 bene seed, and bruising and soaking the seed of the crop, and feeding it to 

 the swarms after the natural food fails. 



One of the greatest troubles in bee-keeping appears to be the want of suit- 

 able food early in the spring to enable the swarm to prepare for a new col- 

 ony that may go out early enough in the season to lay up, not only their 

 own stores l\ir winter, but a surplus for their owner. Many swarms that 

 have an abundance of honey for their own use and to spare in the spring, 

 arc inactive for weeks. after the spring has booome warm enough for them to 

 •work, because they have nothing to work upon. The first business is not to 

 gather honey, but pollen, to make bread for the young bees. So, although 

 the weather is warm enough, and the bees lively enough, until the buds 

 aflbrd pollen, they have nothing to work upon to enable them to be in season 

 with the new brood, to produce early swarms. This is a serious drawback 

 in late seasons, and in situations where pollen-producing plants are not 

 plenty. 



Mr. E. T. Stnrtcvant, of Cleveland, Ohio, claims that he has discovered a 

 remedy for this difficulty, and that he can bring forward his bees some two 

 months earlier, and get good swarms the first of May. His plan is to feed 

 his bees with unbolted rye-meal, strewn upon boards convenient to the hive, 

 the bees pitching into it at once and working diligently, and in such an earn- 

 est way as fairly to scramble over one another. It is a hint worthy the 

 attention of all bee-keepers. 



A few years ago, a bee-keeper in "Wurtemberg discovered that bees ex- 

 tracted food from carrots which had been rasped and cooked for stock, and 

 thereupon he boiled- some to a jelly and placed it near the hives, at a time 

 when the fields afforded no food, and he found that they worked upon it as 

 though the saccharum it contained was particularly agreeable. 



We suggest an experiment with carrots cooked in this waj', by bee-keepers 

 in this country. We would also try parsneps ; and, M-here they are grown 

 abundantly, sweet potatoes. And since we know that bees are so fond of 

 sweet api)les in summer, why not keep them to feed swarms when needing 

 artificial feeding in winter. It m.ay add as much to the health of bees to 

 feed green food, as it does to health of other farm-stock. Let the experiment 

 be tried. 



222. Ventilation of IliveSi — A great deal has been said about the necessity, 

 on account of ventilation, of making hives oj^en'at the bottom. In reply to 

 this, let men think that bees in a wild state jirosper well in the hollow of a 

 tree where there is but one small hole for entrance of the bees or ventilation, 

 and that open-end hives, standing on a bench, are often cemented fast to it, 

 and sometimes holes left, for ventilation, are sealed up as closely as though 

 air was poison to the inmates of the hive. 



If you wish to ventilate, bore a two-inch hole into the upper part of the 

 large box, and cover it on tlie inside of the box and on the outside of the case 

 with wire gauze, fine enough to keep out ants and other insects, for a venti- 



