PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE W T FALCONER MANPG CO. 



VOL. V. 



/V\f\RCf1 1895. 



NO. 3. 



Spring SWanagemeBit of Bees. 



r.Y a. M. DOOLITTLE 



As the spring will soon be here at 

 the North and has already put in an 

 appearance further South, I thought 

 I could do no better at the present 

 time than to tell the readers of the 

 American Bee Keeper something 

 how I would manage bees to get them 

 ready for the white clover harvest. 

 In my opinion, there is nothing 

 gained by commencing too early, as 

 from six to eight weeks is sufficient 

 time to build up a fair colony in 

 spring, to oue sufficiently strong to 

 store honey to the best advantage. 

 As clover usually begins to yield 

 honey, in this locality, about June 

 15lh to 20th, the first of May is soon 

 enough to commence managing the 

 bees for increasing their brood. Some 

 think it does not pay to change brood 

 combs, by way of revising them, put- 

 ting combs of honey in the center of 

 the brood nest, etc., but after years of 

 experimenting, I am sati.-^fied that it 

 pays me in properly doing this 

 whether it does others or not. Before 

 telling how I manage I will describe 

 one experiment. I tried, to see if it 

 paid to try to build the bees up in the 

 spring faster than they would natu- 



rally do it themselves, for, on this 

 matter of pay rests nearly all there is 

 of bee-keeping, to the average apiar- 

 ist. One spring, several years ago, I 

 set apart ten colonies, all of which 

 had plenty of honey, and were as 

 near alike as possible, to obtain ten 

 colonies of bees. After seeing that 

 all were in proper condition, five were 

 left to themselves, and the other five 

 worked according to the plan about to 

 be described. The five let alone were 

 from ten days to two weeks behind 

 the other in swarming, and upon foot- 

 ing up in the fall, I found that they 

 only gave an average of about two- 

 thirds as much honey as the other 

 five, which were managed as I usu- 

 ally do. From this and many other 

 experiments I have tried, I conclude 

 that it pays, and so attest my faith by 

 adhering to that which gives us the 

 greatest profit. About the first of 

 May I go over the whole yard and 

 examine each hive to see how much 

 brood there is, and all colonies which 

 do not have an equivalent to 2^ 

 frames full, are shut upon the frames 

 of brood they do have, by means of a 

 division board; while those which 

 have that amount or more, are 

 allowed the whole hive. At this 



