T'H® SEMERICJEIH BBS; JQUMURI^. 



313 



prolonged till the flowers yit'ld honey. 

 If bees have plenty of cappt'cl stores, 

 brood-rearing can be greatly augment- 

 ed bj' uncap])iug a part of tlie honey 

 and place it back of a division-board. 

 As often as the bees i-estore the honej', 

 the operation may be repeated, until 

 the bees can gather honey from the 

 flowers. 



Cleansing the Hivc»«. 



If manj' bees have died in the hive 

 during the winter, thej' should be re- 

 moved ; this is easily accomplished if 

 hives have loose bottom-boartls. Get 

 au extra bottom-board and exchange 

 it for the bottom-board of the next 

 hive, and so on. As nearlj' all the 

 dead bees have fallen to the bottom- 

 board, by scraping the latter you have 

 pretty thoroughly cleansed the hive. 

 This operation offers very slight dis- 

 turbance to the bees, and it is but a 

 moment's work to lift the hive and ex- 

 change bottom-boards. 



If the hives have tight bottom-boards, 

 or are in packing-cases, a part of the 

 combs containing the fewest bees 

 should be lifted out, and this portion 

 of the hive cleansed ; then move the re- 

 maining combs and bees to the clean 

 side of the hive, and finish removing 

 the dead bees, after which the combs 

 first removed may be replaced. 



If the hives are of the same pattern, 

 and look alike, so that a change of 

 hives will not confuse the bees, they 

 may be cleansed by transferring the first 

 colony into a clean hive, by simplj' 

 lifting the combs and bees into the 

 latter, and placing it in the position of 

 the first hive ; then scrape the hive just 

 . emptied, and transfer the next colouj' 

 into it, and so on. 



It is not always necessary to go 

 through the operation of cleaning all 

 the hives. If there are a few dead 

 bees, the better plan is to allow each 

 colony to clean its own hive. In the 

 spring following a mild winter, during 

 which the bees have had frequent 

 flights, the hives will sehiom contain 

 many dead bees. 



When there is an abundant crop of 

 late fall honey, some colonies will store 

 so much in the brood-chamber as to 

 leave insufticicnt room for brood-rear- 

 ing. Colonies left in this condition 

 cannot increase rapidly in numerical 

 strength. If the hive is overburdened 

 with honey, some of the full combs 

 should be exchanged for empty ones. 

 Then by uncapping some of the re- 

 maining full combs, the honey will be 

 rapidly transformed into brood. Un- 

 capping the honey seems to create the 

 impression among the bees that there 

 is great demand for labor, and they 

 consequently rear young bees as rap- 

 idly as possible to meet this apparent 

 need. Thus these otherwise super- 



^*^*^* ^*^*^*^^^^^^^*^^^*^^^*^ .^--.--..^».^»^^^»^^^. 



fluous stores can be converted into full 

 and strong colonies to gather the white 

 clover and linden liarvests when they 

 come. 



The matter of reducing the stores to 

 the proper aniciunt, should be looked 

 to in the fall, and allhoney.not needed 

 for wintering, extracted. No more 

 than 30 pounds of honey per colony 

 should be left for wintering. 



<tiieciile»is Colonies. 



Very often colonies become queen- 

 less during the winter. As a rule it is 

 poor economy to purchase queens early 

 in the spring to re-queen them. If the 

 colony is strong it may pay to re-queen. 

 Queens in April are quite valuable, and 

 usually cost about as much as an ordi- 

 nary queenless colony is worth. If the 

 queenless colony is strong, the better 

 way would be to unite it with the 

 weakest colony that has a good queen. 

 The queen begins laying from the mid- 

 dle to the last of February, and the 

 entire absence of eggs or larvaj in a 

 colonj- after the middle of March or 

 first of April is sufficient evidence that 

 they are queenless, or that the queen 

 is worthless. 



Queenless colonies are liable to be 

 robbed by other bees during the first 

 warm days of spring. The bees seem 

 to lose courage by the loss of their 

 queen, and submit to the robbers ■<->'ith 

 little resistance. Robbing can be 

 easily detected by the great number of 

 bees flying to and from the hive that is 

 being robbed, and by the fine bits of 

 honey-comb and rubbish about the 

 entrance of the latter. 



Robbins'— Unit ins Colonies. 



When it is found that a colony is 

 being robbed, the entrance to the hive 

 should be closed for 10 or 15 minutes, 

 to allow the robbers to secure their 

 load of honey, and then opened to allow 

 them to fly away with it. The robber 

 bees that have collected to enter the 

 hive, may be kept away with smoke, 

 while the robbers that have been con- 

 fined are leaving. After the robbers 

 are out, the entrance should be closed 

 until evening, and then, if queenless, 

 the bees united with another colony. 



In uniting, reduce the number of 

 combs in the colony with which j'ou 

 wish to unite the robbed colony, and 

 remove the remaining combs and bees 

 to one side of the hive, and confine 

 them there with a division-board. 

 Place the robbed bees in the remaining 

 space in the hive on two or three 

 combs containing sufficient honey to 

 last them two or throe days. All means 

 of passage between the two divisions 

 of the hive should be closed for two or 

 three days, and during this time the 

 robbed bees should not be allowed to 



fly- 



After this conlinement they will go 

 together with little or no fighting, and 

 very few bees will be lost by trying to 

 find their old home. They may be 

 brought together by lifting out the 

 division-board and properly arranging 

 the combs. They can also be united 

 I)y drumming both colonies for ten 

 minutes, keeping the entrance closed ; 

 this frightens them, and they fill them- 

 selves with hoiiej-, when tlwy lose ail 

 disposition to fight. This is probably 

 the better way, if the hives are alike, 

 and the two colonies to be united are 

 side by side. But if unlike, and some 

 distance apart, the former method is 

 the best. 



Each colony should be confined in 

 sj)ace according to its numerical 

 strength. Remove empty combs and 

 use a division-board to confine the bees 

 to the proper space. They should have 

 no more combs than they can cover in 

 moderate spring weather. 



In handling bees at this season of 

 the 3'ear, care should be exercised that 

 they do not " ball " and kill the queen. 

 "Balling" the queen is a very singular 

 and annoying peculiarity ; the bees 

 seem to blame the queen for any dis- 

 turbance in the home, and often try to 

 kill her when the hive is opened for 

 manipulation. If you notice a little 

 ball of bees about an inch or less in 

 diameter, tightly clustered, you may be 

 sure the queen is in the centre of it, 

 and in danger of being stung or 

 smothered. Get the bees away from 

 the queen as soou as possible, by smok- 

 ing or throwing the " ball " into 

 water. When the queen is secured, 

 she should be caged in the colony for 

 48 hours, when she may be safel}' 

 liberated. 



Bees should be manipulated as little 

 as possible. Sufficient food to last 

 until fruit-trees bloom in the spring 

 should be provided in the fall, so that 

 no manipulation of the hive will be 

 necessary until settled warm weather 

 in the spring. 



Bees will generally take care of 

 themselves in the winter, if well pre- 

 pared in the preceding autumn ; but a 

 few hours attention in the spring is well 

 spent time, and may result in saving 

 good colonies from starvation and 

 dwindling, so that a few weeks later 

 they will yield a handsome profit. 



Big Tree Corners, N. Y. 



Al'waj-s Mention your Post-Oflice, 

 County and State when writinK to this 

 office. No matter where you may happen 

 to be for the hour when actually writing— 

 never niention anything but your perma- 

 nent address. To do otherwise leads to 

 confusion, unless you desire your address 

 changed. In that case state the old as well 

 as the new address. 



