826 



^mm mm^mmi^mn mmm joiiamMmiL. 



fall to the bottom-board, crawling 

 about in a slow, quiet manner, indi- 

 cating their starving condition (if tliej" 

 are well-tilled with houej' when placed 

 in the fasting box. they are likely to 

 require from 4 to 6 days' fasting). 



The}- maj- be removed, but if re- 

 moved before all the honey is con- 

 sumed in their abdomens, great diffi- 

 cultj' is likely to arise. They must be 

 watched very carefull}' (say 3 times a 

 day after the third day) because after 

 the honey in their abdomens is all 

 consumed, they arc liable to die very 

 quickl}'. Take them out, have j'our 

 hive prepared where you wish them to 

 remain ; place in it some combs, then 

 shake the bees down in front, and 

 allow them to run in just the same as 

 you would a swarm. If there is no 

 food in the combs, they should be fed. 

 as they will be too weak to gather 

 honey, but after being fed they will go 

 to work the same as a swarm, in a few 

 days, if the flow is good. 



The combs should now be melted 

 into wax, and the hive and frames 

 boiled for 10 minutes to disinfect 

 them. If there is any honey in the 

 combs, it may be extracted and boiled 

 for 10 minutes, when it will do for 

 food, but a little ivater should be put 

 into the honej- before boiling (about 

 one pound of water to live pcnmds of 

 honey). 



Should there be some brood in the 

 combSj and you would prefer to save 

 it, you should leave enougli bees in the 

 colony to take care of the brood ; the 

 queen should always be taken with 

 the bees the first time. Then as soon 

 as the brood hatches out of the combs. 

 the bees must be shaken out into the 

 fasting box and treated the same as 

 the first lot. 



Should you have a number of colo- 

 nies diseased with foul-brood, it is 

 better to go over all the hives, and put 

 all the combs containing brood into 

 hives by themselves ; all others may be 

 melted up at once. This will reduce 

 the number of colonies considerably. 

 making some which may be fasted at 

 once, and then along as the brood 

 hatches out, bees may be shaken from 

 one or more colonies into the fasting 

 box, and put through the same pro- 

 cess ; as soon as the combs are free 

 from brood, they may be removed for 

 treatment as prescrilied. By continu- 

 ing this process, one or two hundred 

 colonies could be pnritied and put to 

 work in clean hives in a few weeks. 

 and all by one person, the only loss 

 occurring being the labor required and 

 time spent in fasting, which would 

 otherwise be employed in gathering 

 honey. When it is done between 

 honey-flows, there will be no loss from 

 the latter, but the ojicrator must bo 



careful to see that the bees do not lack 

 stores. It could also be done in the 

 fall after the honej--flow is over ; the 

 bees must then be fed upon honey or 

 sugar-syrup for wintering. — Canadian 

 BiUlclin, No. 33. 

 Beeton, Out. 



SUGAR SYRUP. 



Is this 



a§ Good as Hoiiey 

 Bees in Winter ? 



for 



Written for thelMass. Ploughman 



BY G. A. STOCKWELL. 



AN"^ EPISODE. 



My First Experience in the Intro- 

 duction of Qneen-Bees. 



Written for tlie American Bee Journal 



BY M. D. FISHER. 



A writer on bees declares that the 

 only proper food for bees in Winter is 

 honey, and he makes sport of the fact 

 that some bee-keepers take out all 

 honey, and feed back sugar and water 

 for the bees to live on during the 

 Winter. He is sure that this practice 

 is a "perversion of nature." If nature 

 had its own way all the time, it would 

 leave us often in the lurch. Nature, 

 to serve man, must be restricted — 

 guided — whether it concerns horses, 

 cows or bees. 



It has been proved often enough, to 

 the loss of the bee-keeper, that al- 

 though honey may be the natural food 

 of bees in Summer and Winter, yet it 

 has caused the destruction of manj' 

 colonies of bees. In some seasons, 

 some of the honej- collected during the 

 Summer is unfit for Winter food. 



Owing to unusual weather— condi- 

 tions, growth of (ilant and secretion of 

 honey — the honey contains ingredients 

 that produce diarrhea, and the de- 

 struction of colony, comb and brood is 

 the result. It must be remembered 

 that bees do not void excreta in the 

 hive ; if bees remain in the hive from 

 November until April, the excreta 

 must be retained during this time. It 

 is supposed that only a minute varia- 

 tion in the food is needed to disturb 

 this condition of tlie bee's body. 



Therefore, it is not always safe to 

 put faith in the natural food of bees ; 

 it may be poison to them. There is no 

 doubt that granulated sugar is the best 

 Winter food for bees. If honey sells 

 for 25 cents a pound, and granulated 

 sugar may be bought for 6 or 7 cents a 

 pound, there is profit in exchanging 

 one for the other. 



The sugar is further reduced in cost 

 by adding water. The proportion is J 

 weight of water, added to the sugar, 

 boiling-hot. If any bee-keeper is not 

 sure that his bees have enough honey 

 for tli(! Winter. let tliem be given gran- 

 ulated sugar at once. Bees have been 

 fed in this way in Mid-winter, and 

 have been thus carried through until 

 Spring. Feed the syrup warm. • 

 Providence, K. I. ' 



In the year 1882, while a resident of 

 the village of F . my occupations- 

 were chiefly dentistry and apiculture — ■ 

 dentistry as a livelihood, and apiculture 

 as an amusement and recreation, and, 

 perhaps, in time, a means of profit. 



My bees. Italians, Holy Lands and 

 Cyprians, were the progeny of tirst- 

 class queens. During this time I was 

 a student of two text-books on apicul- 

 ture, also a reader of the Bee-Keepers' 

 Magazine, and, after a study of these 

 works, I was, in my own estimation, a 

 professional apiarist ; an estimation 

 which was not wholly without founda- 

 tion, for it does not require a great 

 length of time for me to intellectually 

 digest the contents of a book. 



Well, one day about the time of 

 white clover bloom. I procured a few 

 yards of mosquito netting, and a thick 

 pair of sheepskin mittens, and went 

 into my humble apiary (10 colonies) 

 to shovv the native bee-men how to 

 multipl}' ten by three. 



After dividing. 1 concluded to let 

 the queenless colonies rear their own 

 queens from the brood which I had 

 furnished them, with one exception. 

 Among these was a colony of hand- 

 some Italians with which I wished to 

 test the profits of modern bee-keeping. 

 I sent to New York for a queen, and 

 in due time she arrived, and was pro- 

 nounced "a daisy." although if she 

 had been a cockroach, I should have 

 introduced her with the same feeling 

 of security regai'ding the future pros- 

 perity of the colony, for up to that 

 time I had not seen specimens of either 

 of these insects. The caged queen was 

 put into the hive between two frames, 

 and allowed to remain 24 hours foi* 

 the p\irpose of becoming acquainted. 



On the following d.ay I again re- 

 paired to my apiary with the intent of 

 releasing "Her Majesty," but, as a 

 pi'ecautionary measure against any 

 possible danger, I took my bottle of 

 perfume (a conspicuous article of my 

 toilet) and perfumed some sweetened 

 water, with which 1 sprayed both bees 

 and queen most thoroughl}', to give 

 them the same scent, according to 

 some high authority. This done, I 

 drew out the tin slide to the cage, and 

 let her in among tlie bees. 



Did they receive her ? I should 

 think they did. She ran down into 

 the hive out of sight. "Peep, peep!" 

 What was that? ■ Rats, rats !" I ex- 

 claimed to myself. No. it could not 

 be rats nor mice ; it must be the queen 



