AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



547 



lifting it. If any light ones are found, 

 they should be marked and examined 

 carefully, and if in need of it they 

 should be given food at once. 



One of the great secrets of successful 

 honey-producing is to have each colony 

 of bees in a booming condition as soon 

 as the honey-flow begins, and, with 

 cheapness of sugar, I believe the subject 

 of judicious feeding in both Spring and 

 Fall management of bees to be a very 

 important one, as it is a well known fact 

 that with proper protection from the 

 cold, and by feeding a few pounds of 

 sugar, a very weak colony, with a good 

 queen, can be brought up to a prime 

 condition as soon as their services are 

 needed. 



FEEDING BEES IN THE SPRING. 



I have seen and used several different 

 kinds of feeders, but the simplest, 

 cheapest and best feeder that I know, is 

 simply this : 



Prepare your hives for feeding by 

 placing over the brood-frames an oil- 

 cloth, pull it ahead so as to have an open 

 space at the rear end of the hive, and on 

 top of this place an empty super or ex- 

 tracting top. Now, take some small 

 boxes, like cigar-boxes, wax the joints 

 with hot wax and fill with syrup, and 

 on top of this some pieces of broken sec- 

 tions for the bees to alight on, and place 

 in the hives prepared for them. The 

 entrance of all hives should be very 

 nearly closed, and the greatest care 

 should always be exercised not to excite 

 robbing while feeding. For Spring feed- 

 ing, prevent the heat of the cluster 

 from escaping ; the unused part of the 

 super should be kept full of leaves, chaff 

 or some other packing. 



I winter my bees out-of-doors, snugly 

 packed in rows, with Autumn leaves. I 

 leave them in this shape until nearly the 

 beginning of the white clover blossom, 

 when I put them out on the summer 

 stands, usually in a booming condition 

 for the honey harvest, if it comes. At 

 this season of the year no bee-keeper 

 should be found without at least one set 

 of sections or extracting tops already for 

 the bees. 



I will say but little about Summer 

 management, save to emphasize the 

 great importance of always keeping 

 ahead of your bees, and working them 

 for all there is in them, and this can 

 only be done by some good system of 

 tallying, frequent examinations, or 

 watching the records of a scale hive. I 

 consider this as almost one of the neces- 

 sities of any well regulated apiary, as 



with it you have an accurate index to 

 your business, and not guess what you 

 are doing, and the amount of attention 

 your bees are in need of. 



Under Summer management comes a 

 myriad of subdivisions, such as tiering- 

 up of supers, frequent extracting, con- 

 trolling of increase, location as to honey, 

 source, etc., which I will not have time 

 to even touch upon. 



I will say, in conclusion, that, as the 

 big crop of honey is where the profits 

 come in in bee-keeping, study well your 

 location and all the different manage- 

 ments, and adopt as yours those methods 

 and fixtures which will give you the 

 greatest number of pounds of honey in 

 the best marketable shape.— i?ead at the 

 Eastern Iowa Bee-Keepers^ Convention. 



Prophetstown, Ills. 



Tie Drone-Trap as a Self-Hlyer. 



HENRY ALLEY. 



On page 482, I mentioned that the 

 drone-trap could be utilized as a self- 

 swarm-hiver. I now present an illus- 

 tration of the way the trap is arranged 



Tlie Alley Drone-Trap Self-Hiver. 



to self-hive swarms when they issue. 

 The illustration represents a colony of 

 bees with an empty or decoy hive directly 

 in front, and a drone-trap attached 

 ready to catch the queen, in case a 

 swarm issues. 



A self-hiver is worthless without some 

 provision for trapping the drones and 

 getting them out of the way of the work- 

 bees. The drone-trap swarmer does this 

 in all cases. 



There are so many different styles of 

 hives in use that it is useless to attempt 

 to give directions for making bottom- 

 boards that will apply to all the styles 

 of hives in use. Almost any one has 

 sufiBcient intelligence to make the proper 



