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PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE W. T FALCONER MANPG CO 



VOL. V. 



JULY 1895. 



NO. 7. 



How to Obtain a Large Honey 



Crop when the Blossoms 



Produce it. 



BY CHAS. H. THIES. 



Often we do not obtain honey, for 

 want of flora. of ten we have lots of hon- 

 ey producing flora, but they fail to pro- 

 duce honey , but oftener we have lots 

 of honey producing blossoms loaded 

 with honey, but we havn't our bees 

 in the proper condition to store it. 

 We are unable to bring out the blos- 

 soms when our bees are ready, so if 

 we want a honey crop we must have 

 our bees ready when the blossoms are 

 there. Strong colonies only will pro- 

 duce a surplus, weak colonies often 

 barely make a living, so the question 

 would naturally arise, how shall we 

 succeed in having our hives full of 

 bees, when honey is to be had ? Next 

 spring is not the time to commence 

 preparing your bees for the spring 

 flow, but you should begin to make 

 arrangements this fall in order to have 

 strong colonies for the spring. First 

 and foremost you should see that each 

 colony has good, young, vigorous, 

 queens. Don't think by this that I 

 am trying to induce you to send me 

 an order for queens, but get your 

 queens where you wish or raise them 



yourself just so you have a good 

 young queen in each colony. For 

 several years back I have been using 

 only queens that were two years or 

 less old, these queens will breed up 

 fast, are less inclined to swarm, raise 

 less drones, and will give you better 

 colonies in every respect, 'JVy this 

 for yourself, young queens that were 

 bred in the spring, if properly bred, 

 will build up faster the following 

 spring. In some localities and in 

 some seasons we have quite a heavy 

 fall flow, which sometimes continues 

 late, when the combs are filled with 

 honey, giving the queen little if any 

 room for laying. The bees in the 

 hive become old by labor, and they 

 go into winter with old bees and but 

 few of them, these bees die a natural 

 death before young bees are hatched 

 in the spring to take their place, leav- 

 ing the colony very weak, the very 

 best young queen is unable to build 

 up a colony of this kind. My exper- 

 ience has been that if you have a good 

 supply of young bees to go into win- 

 ter with, you will have better colonies 

 in the spring. Young queens breed 

 later in the fall than do old ones, 

 which to me is another point in favor 

 of young queens. I well know that 



