390 THE HANDBOOK FOR PRACTICAL FARMERS 



Fig. 200, 



■Pan in super arranged 

 feeding. 



young queens, they being driven from the hive later. These bees 

 all live together on combs composed of wax secreted by the 

 workers and they are normally sheltered from wind and weather 



in some cavity, in the hands of 

 man in a hive. 



The population of the hive 

 is constantly changing as the 

 workers die rapidly from work 

 and are replaced by bees newly 

 emerging from the brood. The 

 queen bees may live for sev- 

 eral years, but the good bee- 

 keeper provides young queens 

 every year or at most every 

 two years. If the bees rear 

 their own queens there is a loss 

 in the honey crop at the times 

 when the queens are old and 

 cannot lay sufficient eggs. 



Bees are creatures of instinct 

 and their marvelous activities 

 are not the products of intelligence. It is then most important 

 that beekeepers know how these instincts operate in order to 

 plan the environment so as to take full advantage of instincts 

 which are advanta- 

 geous. The storing of 

 honey is a beneficial in- 

 stinct while swarming 

 is one which is not good 

 from the standpoint of 

 the beekeeper. Methods 

 for taking advantage of 

 the beneficial instincts 

 are well worked out and 

 are described at length 

 in the books on the sub- 

 ject 



What the beekeeper 

 does. — In directing 

 these instincts, the bee- 

 keeper does two things: (1) He gives the bees such condi- 

 tions that they breed up rapidly before the honey-flow, and (2) 



Fig. 201.— Feeder set in collar under hive body. 



