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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



One thing we have discovered this 

 Winter, is that the bees have, consumed 

 about twice as much of the honey-dew 

 as they usually do of good honey. For 

 this reason we have lost a few good col- 

 onies from starvation, soon after putting 

 them out. 



FEEDING PARTLY-FILLED SECTIONS. 



Since about the first of April we have 

 been doing some liberal feeding, and 

 hope to build up the bees rapidly in that 

 way. We have plenty of sections partly 

 filled with honey-dew and dark honey, 

 that we will be glad to get rid of, and 

 this we will give back to the bees as fast 

 as they can talve care of it. 



We had intended to give a few sections 

 to each hive every night when the 

 weather was warm, but soon found that 

 it was entirely too slow. Besides, this 

 would expose the sections to rain and 

 robber bees too much, if not closely 

 watched. 



We now put 40 of these partly-filled 

 sections in a case, put a queen-excluding 

 honey-board on both top and bottom, 

 and put the whole under the hive body. 

 You see the upper board will prevent 

 the queen from laying eggs in the sec- 

 tions, and the lower board will in a 

 measure be a guard against robber bees. 

 We do not know just how long it will 

 take the bees to empty the cases, but do 

 not think it will take over a week or ten 

 days in fair weather. We expect to 

 feed from 30 to 40 lbs. to each colony, 

 by the time white clover bhjoms. 



We have tried feeding honey in sec- 

 tions and brood-combs, by exposing a 

 good deal of it at a time, during pleas- 

 ant days, but do not like it. If the honey 

 is exposed some distance from hives, 

 there is no great trouble from robbing, 

 neither do they get cross, as they usually 

 do when robbing. They tear the combs 

 badly, however, and the colonies that 

 should get the most, generally get the 

 least. Then, too, should a shower come 

 along, the combs and sections usually 

 get wet, and the sections become loose- 

 jointed and weather-stained. 



LOSS OF BEES IN WINTERING. 



About 20 per cent, of our bees have 

 died in wintering, which is the heaviest 

 loss we have had for many years. How- 

 ever, w(! hear of others losing nearly all, 

 so perhaps w<'. have not fared so badly 

 after all. Even bees that were well 

 packed out-doors where they could fly 

 every few days, have suffered nearly as 

 badly as any. Now, if all tlie trouble 

 was not caused by tlie honey-dew, will 



some one tell us what did ? The cold 

 certainly did not kill them, as we have 

 wintered bees almost without any loss 

 in much colder weather. 



SPRING PACKING AND FOUNDATION. 



To help the bees to build up rapidly, 

 we are doing some Spring packing. A 

 part we are packing on from four to six 

 combs in a second story^ hive. Others 

 we give a section-case filled with leaves, 

 and dry blue-grass. This packing will 

 be left on until we want to put on. the 

 cases for surplus honey. 



If a part of your bees have died, con- 

 sider yourself as lucky, clean up the 

 hives, and store them away for future 

 use. All the good, straight worker-comb 

 should be carefully saved ; if there is 

 much drone or old crooked black comb, 

 it had better be rendered into beeswax. 

 It is very difficult to keep brood-comb 

 over an entire Summer without being 

 ruined by the moth. Better use up all 

 the old combs for early swarms, as the 

 bees can take much better care of them 

 than we can. 



Dadant says in his catalogue, that he 

 does not recommend any foundation for 

 large, deep frames, without wiring, ex- 

 cepting the heavy. Correct. We are 

 . now melting up combs where the foun- 

 dation stretched so badly that about 

 one-third is drone-comb. They are also 

 apt to be crooked and wavy at the lower 

 edge. 



A FEW APIARIAN EXPECTATIONS. 



This year we expect a crop of nice 

 clover honey. We expect to have the 

 bees store it in snow-white sections, 

 filled with extra-thin foundation. We 

 shall place the sections in cases holding 

 forty, protected by wood strips, so the 

 bees cannot touch the outside of the 

 sections to soil the wood. We shall use 

 wood separators the full width of the 

 sections, to compel the bees to build 

 straight combs. 



When the bees swarm, we expect the 

 bees to hive themselves, whether we are 

 present or not — no one need stay away 

 from church on their account. When 

 the honey is ready to come off, we shall 

 slip one of our new bee-escapes a under 

 case, and let the bees file out. When 

 convenient we will carry the honey in 

 on our honey-cart. We shall pack it 

 into nic(! now shipping-cases, and there 

 will be little scraping of sections to do. 

 We shall very carefully brand each case 

 with the kind of honey, weight, etc. 

 Carcsfully put a tag on eacli case, with 

 shipping directions, and carefully haul 



