62 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



SEA SOX AT, I. E SAYINGS. 

 BY E. L. PRATT. 



The hives should now all be over- 

 hauled to see that the bees have plenty 

 of honey and that they each have a 

 queen. If they are not well provided 

 with honey, feeding should commence 

 at once. This is a very critical point, 

 for, unless they have plenty of food 

 on handbrnod rearing will not advance 

 as it should. On the number of eggs 

 laid a little later will depend the 

 strength of the colony and on the 

 strength of the colon}' will depend the 

 harvest. If any of the bees are found 

 queenless they should be provided 

 with one at once or be doubled up 

 with some weak colony that has a 

 queen. It is better, however to sup- 

 ply queens if they can be had. As 

 soon as the bees can get honey from 

 natural sources they will refuse the 

 food given and that is just the time to 

 discontinue feeding when once com- 

 menced in the spring. 



there surely ought to be no " putting 

 off until later." Such articles should 

 be on hand. 



If you live in a district where pol- 

 len can be gathered early there is no 

 need of dabbling with flour, but if 

 pollen is slow where you live, set a 

 box of common wheat flour in some 

 warm, sheltered nook near the hive 

 and see how fast the bees will lug it 

 away. To start them at it drop a lit- 

 tle piece of honey onto a board inside 

 the box. 



Another thing that should be attend- 

 ed to now and that is to get a list of 

 all the supplies you will need, and dis- 

 patch it at once to your dealer so there 

 will be no delay in having what you 

 'will need in readiness. On such arti- 

 cles as honey boxes, fdn., and the 

 paraphernalia that troes with them, 



Should the season be a poor one for 

 honey let me tell you what you can do 

 to get a profit from the bees. Push 

 them along for swarms by feeding, and 

 harvest a crop or two of, wax from 

 each colony. Wax is becoming a very 

 scarce article and the price ranges ex- 

 tremely high. Unless we make a lit- 

 tle very soon it will be beyond our 

 reach in price. With clean wax at 

 30c, as quoted in New York, we could 

 make a fair thing at wax production. 

 I have no special plans made for pro- 

 curing large quantities of wax, but 

 have experimented some and am quite 

 sure it can be done to a profit. If the 

 season proves a failure in your dis- 

 trict give the thing a trial and report 

 the result. You can at least end the 

 season wi:h a good increase of stock 

 for another season. 



Hundreds of bee-keepers have asked 

 me for a good safe method of securing 

 forced increase. One that has always 

 been very successful with me is by the 

 "jumping plan." From a strong colony 

 take two frames of brood, in all stages, 

 with adhering bees, and place them'in 

 an empty hive ; from another extra 

 strong stock draw two frames of bees 

 that have commenced to gnaw out, and 

 place one frame on each side of those 

 in the new hive. Close the four combs 

 to one side with a division-board and 

 set the hive on the stand occupied by 

 the colony from which the brood in all 

 stages was taken. All operations of 

 this kind should be done in mid-day 

 and the bees should be smoked thor- 

 oughly. Should more bees leave the 

 colony moved than enough to care for 



