17G 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



October 



Lire — success lies in the path of him who 

 knows his duty and does it. 



What to do. See that your hives are 

 uniform in size and standard make, with 

 all frames movable. See that you have 

 two supers full of empty, clean sections, 

 and an extra hive for each colony. 

 These should be ready by the first of 

 May. Use starters of comb foundation 

 in sections and also in empty frames, 

 so as to ensure straight work. Level 

 the hives carefully in the spring and 

 keep them level. Read your bee papers, 

 and then see that your hives all have 

 good laying queens. Read your bee 

 book and learn about foul brood. Find 

 out what are the signs of queenlessness 

 and see that each colony has a good 

 queen at the close of the season and 

 thirty pounds of honey for winter. Con- 

 tract the entrance so mice cannot en- 

 ter. 



When to do it. Open your hives often 

 in the spring, but always when the bees 

 are flying freely.- When any hive is 

 short of stores you can exchange an 

 empty comb for a full one taken from 

 an extra heavy colony, or feed white 

 sugar syrup or honey- You can feed in 

 the super by pouring the syrup or thin 

 honey into a shallow dish placed on 

 the brood frames, and covered with a 

 bit of sack to retain the \varmt?i and 

 yet give the bees a chance to come up 

 easily to the feed. A few sticks or shav- 

 ings placed in the dish will keep the 

 bees from drowning. 



Do not set apart the day of rest to 

 do the needful work about your bee 

 yard. In the long race of life six days 

 of labor per week amounts to more 

 than seven days of continuous toil and 

 care. And it is wise to set a good ex- 

 ample. 



How to do it. In all your work with 

 the hive have your smoker lit, and use 

 plenty of smoke, and learn to use it 

 just a moment before it is needed. A 

 hive thoroughly subdued soon learns to 

 behave properly and can often be op<!n^ 

 ed without smoke or veil. But the wise 

 worker will have his smoker lit and 

 within easy reach- 



To get a large yield of honey, have 

 your hives full of bees by June first, and 

 keep them so through the summer. See 

 that they go into the supers early — 

 June 1st to 15th, and never let them be 

 lacking room to store surplus. Take 

 honey from the hives as fast as finished 



so it ma}- be clean and white. Keep in 

 a dry, warm room; it must not get 

 damp or freeze. Box it safe from bees, 

 mice and dust. Melt some of it care- 

 fully to preserve the flavor, thin it so 

 it will spread easily and set a dish of it 

 on the table every day in the year. 



A glass of milk, a plate of butter and 

 good bread makes a diet for growing 

 children more wholesome than beef, 

 pork, potatoes and pastry, washed down 

 with strong coffee. Give the children 

 bread and honey. It will make the cook- 

 ing problem simpler for the housewife, 

 save many doctor bills, and make a 

 first class market for your honey. — A. 

 F. Porter in Rocky Mountain Bee 

 Journal. 



THE SITUATION IN IRELAND. 



An Interesting Letter from the Editor of the 

 Irish Bee Journal. 



ij. G. Digges, M. A.'i 



THE differences of climate and sea- 

 son between Ireland and Flor- 

 ida are wide enough to admit of 

 a variety in the methods 9f bee-keep- 

 ing in the two countries- 



Our honey gathering extends over a 

 period of a few weeks in the year. Dur- 

 ing the rest of the time we are working 

 either to build up our stocks prepara- 

 tory to the honey flow, or to prepare 

 them to endure the trials of our win- 

 ters. As our climate is perhaps the 

 most variable on the face of the earth — 

 varying chiefly from infamous to more 

 so — our hives must be capable of being 

 adapted to the quick-change tricks of 

 the weather. 



The hives most commonly used in 

 Ireland are the "C. D. B." and the "Fe- 

 deration" hives. The former is accord- 

 ing to the design of the "Congested 

 Districts Board" and the latter of the 

 "Irish Bee-Keepers Federation, Ltd." 

 The parts are interchangeable- They 

 consist of floor-board and legs, body- 

 box, super-box and roof. The body- 

 box contains eleven ''standard frames" 

 (14x8 1-2 inch deep) and a "Dummy." 

 The super-box is capable of holding 

 three crates of twenty-one sections, 

 each. The roof is fitted with escape cones 

 used for clearing crates of bees and in 

 the "Federation" hive, is slightly sloped 

 to the back and covered with zinc. To 

 protect against the cold of our winters. 



