182 



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COMESPOSDEMCE. 



BEES IN" SPRING-. 



How to 



]VIaiiase Them After 

 Wintering. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY AILEN LATHAM. 



of the Bke Journal 

 nij' method of winter- 



On page 648 

 for 1889, I gave 



ing bees, and said that 1 should have 

 something further to say in regard to 

 spring management. By the time this 

 reaches the readers, it will be time to 

 look after the bees. 



Probably most of the bees through- 

 out the country have wintered well ; 

 those which were put up according to 

 the method given in my former article, 

 I am sure, are doing well. My 37 

 colonies are in lirst-class condition. 

 All who have packed their bees should, 

 about the middle of March, open the 

 hives, and make a thorough examina- 

 tion. If there is plenty of honey, the 

 frames should be taken out, and the 

 cappings shaved oif of about 5 pounds 

 of honey. In my case, as I have but 

 four frames in the hive in winter, I 

 spread the brood. 



If there is not much honey, you 

 should proceed as follows : Remove 

 the frames which have no brood — say 

 two frames ; lay one in a tub, and fill 

 it with thin syrup by pouring the syrup 

 on the comb ; when one side is full, 

 turn the frame over. There is no 

 danger that it will run out of the first 

 side, wile the second side is being 

 filled. Put about two frames of this 

 into the middle of the brood-nest, and 

 you will be agreeably surprised, on 

 examining them about three weeks 

 later. This is by far the best method 

 of spring feeding. It not only furnished 

 the required food, but stimulates the 

 bees to rearing brood ; moreover, no 

 bees are lost by flying out in the cold. 



About the first week in April, the 

 bees are to be overhauled again. 

 Cushions must be removed, and more 

 combs added ; the brood-nest should 

 be divided, and about two combs, with 

 the cappings sliced off, placed between. 

 It is not well to leave one comb of 

 brood by itself, or it may be deserted ; 

 if two or more are put together, there 

 is almost no danger of that. If the 

 hive is populous, it will bear consider- 

 able brood spreading ; if not populous, 

 care and judgment should be ex- 

 ercised. 



At this time of opening — say April 

 5 — it should be seen to, that the colony 

 has plenty of honey to last until fruit- 

 bloom. If the apiarist is near his bees, 

 much will be accomplished through 



daily care ; enlai'ging or diminishing 

 the entrance, and on warm days tak- 

 ing off the top cushions to let the sun 

 warm up the hives are useful for pro- 

 moting brood-rearing. I am 35 miles 

 from my bees, and do not see them 

 oftener than once in three weeks. 

 Nobody else touches them, and so I 

 have to do the best that I can when I 

 do get to them. 



If the bees have been properly tend- 

 ed, and have been supplied with both 

 honey and some substitute for pollen, 

 if necessary, by the first of May they 

 are overflowing their hives, and are 

 ready to carry in the apple-blossom 

 honey when it comes. 



The foregoing directions for spring 

 management of bees are for hives 

 packed on the summer stands. I have 

 never wintered my bees in any other 

 way, and hence I do not know any- 

 thing about other methods. I do 

 know this, though, that weak or strong 

 colonies can, by reason of careful 

 packing, be wintered safely, and be 

 quickly bred up into booming colonies 

 by the first of May. The packing al- 

 lows a small colony to cover a large 

 amount of brood. 



One spring I had one colony reduced 

 to about one pint of bees ; it contained 

 my best Italian queen. The reason of 

 their being so weak, was through 

 faulty fall management, and not from 

 the effects of wintering. I gave this 

 small colony daily attention, and kept 

 the entrance down to a size to admit 

 one bee at a time. The colonj' re- 

 ceived no help from other colonies, 

 and no artificial heat ; but by May 15, 

 it was a roaring hive, with nine frames 

 of brood. At one time there were four 

 frames of sealed brood, and only one 

 or two bees to every twenty-five cells. 

 I suppose that the growing brood must 

 have helped keep up the heat of the 

 hive. Such a thing would be impos- 

 sible with an unprotected hive, and 

 scarcely practicable in the cellar. 



The time to remove the packing is 

 when apple-trees are in bloom. 

 Cambridge, Mass. 



ASSIMILATION. 



Sfectar and So-Called 

 De«v Not Dige§ted by 



Honey- 

 Bees. 



Written for the Amerlcayi BceJourtml 



BY DE. J. W. M'KINNEY. 



It is wonderful, but nevertheless 

 true, that in matters of politics, re- 

 ligion and science, an absurdilij how- 

 ever great, will find believers and ad- 

 vocates. Therefore we are not so 

 much surprised to find some believing 

 and advocating the "digested nectar" 

 theorj' of Prof. Cook. He said before 



the International Convention at Brant> 

 ford, Ont., '• that honey is, in reality, 

 digested nectar ;" "that it is in a con- 

 dition to be assimilated without un- 

 dergoing any change in the true 

 stomach." In this he was supported 

 by Mr. S. Cornell. 



This assertion (for it is but an as- 

 sertion) is made, too, in defiance of 

 the admitted fact that the nectar as 

 gathered by the bee, does not -enter the 

 digestive canal at all. but is received 

 into a sac, or "honey-bag," situated 

 above and behind the digestive appara- 

 tus ; and, while not so remote, it is as 

 distinct from the digestive organs as is 

 the pollen-baskets on the bee's hind- 

 legs. 



If the nectar is digested, as Prof. 

 Cook says, " while in transit from the 

 field to the hive," it is done outside of 

 the digestive organs, and in defiance 

 of all phj'siological laws. 



It will not be contended, I presume, 

 by any one, but what all fluid sub- 

 stances gathered by the bee, and car- 

 ried home to the hive, are subjected to 

 like processes, and are all carried in 

 this special receptacle for carrying 

 fluids — the hone3'-bag. Then, if " nec- 

 tar is digested, and ready for assimila- 

 tion," all other fluid substances so car- 

 ried should be ready for assimilation. 



Two years ago last September, as, 

 no doubt, many readers of the Bee 

 Journal remember, the bees in this 

 part of the country gathered very 

 abundantly from the leaves of forest 

 trees, a very dark, sweetish substance, 

 called " honey-dew," but in fact it was 

 the excreta of the aphis. Many colo- 

 nies of bees had little else to winter 

 on. Those that could not take fre- 

 quent flights dui-ing the winter soon 

 became diseased, and most of them 

 died ; leaving the front of the hive and 

 tops of the frames daubed with a dark, 

 tenacious excreta. If the bees, when 

 gathering this substance, had "di- 

 gested" it before depositing it in the 

 combs, and had it ready for " assimila- 

 tion," can any one suppose for a mo- 

 ment that this mortality among the 

 bees would have resulted ? Instead 

 of this stuff having been digested be- 

 fore or after being deposited in the 

 combs, a great portion of it was found 

 to be actually indigestible, being a 

 ligneous, unnutritious substance, to be 

 got rid of as excrement, and to be 

 frequently voided as such. 



Prof. Cook has well described the 

 glands situated in the head of the 

 honey-bee, and, in my judgment, only 

 misconstrues the function of some of 

 these complex glands. That these 

 head-glands furnish largely the fluid 

 secretions concerned in digesting the 

 crude substances (honey and pollen) 

 there is no doubt ; that these secretions 

 are poured into the digestive canal 



