148 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



June 



combs of the brood-nest, and insert a 

 cold uncapped comb of honey, but I 

 did not. After years of experience. I 

 now say to novices, protect your bees 

 as well as you can from cold piercing 

 winds and let them alone in spring. 

 The time to feed and do spring work 

 with colonies of bees, is in the fall of 

 the year. Stimulating bees to early 

 breeding, causing them to go in search 

 of water during inclement weather, 

 is sadly injurious. 



CLEANING HIVES. 



Where bees have died during the 

 winter, the combs should be taken 

 out, and the dead bees brushed off 

 with a whisk-broora. It does not 

 pay to pick out the bees from the 

 cells: let them alone for they will 

 shrivel up, and can be shaken from 

 the combs later on. When the combs 

 ai'e given to the bees, they will re- 

 move them, and they can work 

 cheaper than we can. If the cluster 

 of dead bees is not broken until late 

 in the season, they^will rot and dam- 

 age the combs. 



Many of the hives, where the bees 

 have died during the winter, are in a 

 filthy condition, and it seems cruel to 

 give them to the bees without first 

 cleansing them, and swarms seldom 

 desert a clean, sweet hive, when they 

 will those that have bad odors about 

 them. First scrape out the hive with 

 a board chisel, and brush it out: then 

 scrub it out with boiling hot suds 

 and a brush, finishing with a rinsing 

 of boiling water, and turn it up to 

 dry. When it is dry, the combs can 

 be returned to it, after removing old 

 queen cells, other excreseences, and 

 changing patches of drone comb for 

 worker. The hive can now receive a 



coat of paint, and be in readiness for 

 a swarm. It will be a great relief in 

 swarming time to have these hives in 

 readiness, in lieu of remaining as pest 

 holes for the breedina; of moths. 



WATER FOR BEES. 



If drinking places are provided for 

 bees, in sheltered nooks in different 

 parts of the apiary early in the sea- 

 son, it may prevent much annoyance, - 

 for where bees commence to find 

 water, they continue. Animals do 

 not like to drink at troughs bordered 

 with bees and it may cause ill-feeling 

 among neighbors. The bees should 

 be driven away, with rubbing kero- 

 sene around the edges, and suitable 

 drinking places provided for them. 

 Discarded butter tubs which may be 

 had of the dealers for the asking, an- 

 swer the purpose well, by putting in 

 old cotton cloth, which hangs over 

 the sides, acting as siphons; the sun- 

 ny side will be one mass of bees suck- 

 ing the moisture. Some of the drink- 

 ing places may contain water a little 

 brackish; a teaspoon full of salt to a 

 pail of water, is sufficient. 



BEES IN FLORIDA. 



On the first day of April, I had the 

 pleasure of watching bees at work at 

 St. Andrews Bay, Florida, upon the 

 yellow jassamine bloom. It is a very 

 pretty vine,bearing yellow bell-shaped 

 bloom and the honey is claimed by 

 some to be poisonous. They were al- 

 so working upon the white racemes 

 of the ti-ii, I went up in front of a 

 long-idea hive and watched the bees 

 returning, and was pleased to see 

 them alight at the entrance, as if 

 heavily laden. 



