202 



TMm MMERICarf MMM J@WRf«Mlr. 



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tise in a good season, anil for this rea- 

 son the bees begin to be crowded out. 

 Hoping that the weather may be good 

 ■during the rest of the time that the 

 flowers are in bloom, we give double 

 the room to our colonies, only to have 

 it turn bad weather again, thus giving 

 us only partly filled sections in the fall, 

 while had we left them as they were, 

 all would have been finished. 



Well do I remember one such season 

 when in time of basswood bloom we 

 had bad weather up to the middle of 

 the bloom. At this time I had on each 

 hive a surplus capacity of about twenty 

 pounds, when all at once the yield of 

 honey became abundant, and the bees 

 began to be crowded out. Hoping 

 that the weather might be good for 

 some time, I spread the sections on a 

 few hives, by placing some empty ones 

 between those nearly full, giving at 

 most onlj' about 35 pounds capacity, 

 while when all is favorable, I use 60 

 pounds capacity. The result was that 

 the bees immediately took possession 

 •of the empty sections, while the 

 weather turned unfavorable again, and 

 when the season was over I got no 

 more than 5 to 10 pounds of capped 

 honey from these colonies, while those 

 not touched gave 20 pounds of nice 

 •capped honey. In this case the bad 

 weather was the cause, for the spread- 

 ing was not carried far enough to be 

 unseasonable, but in former years I 

 have been the cause of the trouble by 

 spreading or tiering-up but a few daj's 

 before the honey harvest closed. 



Again, after the basswood bloom 

 had failed, there came on a very hot 

 spell when not a bit of honey was to 

 be obtained, and the result was that 

 tlie fronts of my hives were black with 

 bees. According to the advice above 

 alluded to, I should have given more 

 room, and if the bees then persisted in 

 clustering out, I must take my smoker 

 and smoke eacli colony until they all 

 went in anil staid there. Any one 

 •can see at a glance that this would be 

 •of no use, for at such times the bees 

 are doing ju.st as much for the benefit 

 •of the apiarist, hanging on the outside 

 •of the hive, as an}-where. 



But to return. My plan of operation 

 to secure all capped sections is as fol- 

 lows : When the bees show, by build- 

 ing little bits of comb here and there 

 about the hive, that they are ready for 

 the sections, I put on sections to the 

 amount of about 20 pounds, and leave 

 them thus until the bees are well at 

 work in them, wlion I add about 10 

 pounds more room, placing it at the 

 sides of the first given them. When 

 this room is fully occupied, I give 

 more room at tlie sides to about the 

 same amount given before, and were I 

 using the tiering-up plan, I should 

 have my surplus arrangement so ar- 



ranged that at this time I could raise 

 up about one-half of the sections 

 already on, putting empty sections 

 underneath them, instead of raising 

 up the whole 30 pounds, thus giving 

 them more room, a little at a time, as 

 the bees have need. 



By the time the bees fully occupy 

 the room last given at the sides, the 

 first 20 pounds given them is ready to 

 come ott' ; and when this is taken off the 

 l)artlj' filled sections on either side are 

 drawn together over the centre of the 

 brood-nest, and empty sections given 

 at the sides again to the amount which 

 I think thej' will need. Thus I keep 

 taking off and putting on sections, 

 taking the full ones from the middle, 

 and putting the empty sections at the 

 sides until the season begins to draw 

 towards its close, when as fast as full 

 ones are taken from the center, the 

 others are drawn up till the space is 

 contracted to the original 20 pound 

 capacity, or even less, if I think it is 

 necessai-y. In this way the bees are 

 given all the space they really need, 

 while the chance for many uncapped 

 sections in the fall is quite small. 



By a little study the tiering-up plan 

 can be made to conform to the above, 

 and worked ou the same principle. I 

 think that any plan which requires the 

 tiering up of from 30 to 40 pounds 

 capacity, or the spreading out of the 

 same number of pounds at one time, 

 is a wrong policy to adopt, while the 

 giving of a small amount of surplus 

 room as needed, seems to me to be a 

 wise course to pursue. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



THE PROSPECTS. 



The Deep Snow Protecting the 

 Clover — BassAvoocl. 



Written for the American BeeJow-nal 



BY IRA BARBER. 



So far bees are in good condition in 

 this locality, and our prospects for 

 clover is good. There is a great depth 

 of snow all over the fields, which has 

 protected the grass and clover from all 

 harm so far ; and as tliere is from 2 to 

 3 feet all over our fields now, we are 

 in hopes that it will remain until freez- 

 ing weather is over. 



We got no honey the past season, 

 and where large numbers of colonies 

 of bees were kept together, all had to 

 be fed to keep them alive. I com- 

 menced the season with 130 colonies, 

 and it took 3,300 pounds of granulated 

 sugar to keep them alive since June 1, 

 1888, and I expect to have to feed 

 1,000 pounds of sugar this spring, be- 

 fore they can get a living. It has cost 

 me more to keep my bees the past sea- 



son, than it has in all the time since I 

 became a bee-keeper, 37 years ago. 



Our prospects for honey from bass- 

 wood are not very good, on account of 

 an ice storm that we had here in Jan- 

 uary, that did a great amount of dam- 

 age to all kinds of timber, and es- 

 pecially to basswood. The ice loaded 

 on the trees to such an extent as to 

 strip every limb from an)- quantity of 

 the trees, and all are more or less 

 damaged. 



If it were not for the bright pros- 

 pects for clover the coming season, our 

 hopes for a good crop of honey in this 

 locality would be pretty slim. 



De Kalb June, N. Y., Mar. 14, 1889. 



SPRING. 



management for Pleasure as 

 vi'ell as Profit. 



Read at the Wisconsin Convention 



BY REV. T. H. DAHL. 



How to manage our bees in spring so 

 we can have a jiowerful force to gather 

 the nectar when the honey season comes 

 on, is a question of no little importance 

 for a wide-awake bee-keeper. Many 

 bee-keepers have weak colonies at thi' 

 beginning of the honey-flow, but crowd- 

 ed hives — of bees, not of honey — when 

 it is past. Strong colonies when the 

 bees are consumers, and weak colon- 

 ies when they are producers, is very 

 poor philosophy. Ap)ilicd to agricul- 

 ture it would make every farmer in our 

 country Ijankrupt. 



The secret of success in apiculture is 

 to have strong colonies in the right 

 time, ready for the honej-flow. There 

 can be no doubt about the correi-tness 

 of this, but the question is, how shall 

 we get them strong in the right time? 

 Now, cei'tainly, this must be our aim in 

 .all our management, both fall and win- 

 ter, but more especially so in spring. 

 The earlier the lioney-flow is, the more 

 difficult the management, but also the 

 more important. 



The first question will be, when tn 

 take the bees out, if they are wintered 

 in the cellar or any other I'cpository. 

 Here is difference of opinions. Some 

 believe in giving them their liberty as 

 early as possible. Others — and I among 

 them — consider it wise to take them 

 out as late as possible. One of our 

 prominent bee-keepers has said very 

 significantly, that he is in favor of put- 

 ting them out two weeks after the right 

 time. I will give a few reasons why it 

 it well to take them out late in the 

 sjjring. 



As soon as t^e bees get out on the 

 sumiue 'Stands they 'will generally com- 

 mence b.'^'iding. If they get out early, 

 they will breed early. But is not this 



