118 



I HE AM ERIC Ah BEE- KEEPER. 



I suppose she means feeding a little 

 every day, and I think it is worse 

 than useless. But even if there is 

 euough yielding for their daily wants, 

 I should feed, if I knew a colony had 

 not enough extra stores ahead to last 

 it through a week or two of bad wea- 

 ther in which they could gather noth- 

 ing. I have known a time when some 

 colonies were gathering a surplus 

 and others that were short of stores 

 were not getting enough for their 

 daily wants, and it seemed to me that 

 their being so short of stores has some- 

 thing to do with their being in such 

 feeble condition that they could not 

 do much in the field. Then I want 

 to be sure that the strongest as well 

 as the weakest have a stock ahead, 

 for 1 think a colony with a well filled 

 larder is in better heart t > raise a big 

 lot of brood, than if they have only 

 what they gather each day. It's a 

 good deal safer, too, to have a stock 

 ahead, for sometimes there comes a 

 dearth at an unusual time. One year, 

 I was surprised in June to see the 

 skins of brood thrown out in front of 

 some of my hives. I hardly knew 

 what to make of it. I had never 

 known anything like starving at that 

 time of year, but investigation show- 

 ed that I had just that very thing. 

 Not only were a few affected, but 

 nearly every colony was so short that 

 all young brood was destroyed, and 

 two or three colonies actually died of 

 starvation. Of course they were then 

 fed, but the loss of that brood at that 

 particular time could not be made 

 good by any subsequent feeding. In 

 spite of such loss, I had a fair crop 

 afterward, lint I am satisfied that if I 

 had fed 300 pounds of sugar the first 



of June, I might of had 3,000 pounds 

 more of honey. 



So I would urge upon all beginners 

 to look occasionally to see that every 

 colony has some stores ahead, for 

 when no stores are coming in, the 

 large amount of brood reared will use 

 up in an astonishingly short time all 

 the surplus on hand. 



WEAK COLONIES. 



Don't make the mistake of taking 

 brood from the stronger colonies to 

 build up the weaker, I'd rather do 

 the other way, A colony covering 

 six frames of brood will build up 

 more than twice as fast as one cover- 

 ing three frames. A little weakling 

 is of scarcely any value except for the 

 queen that's in it, and more than once 

 I have experienced a feeling of relief 

 to find such a weakling had deserted 

 its hive. 



Marengo, III, 



Some writers maintain that bees will 

 go from three to four miles in search 

 of nectar and store a large quantity of 

 surplus. I have found hundreds of 

 colonies in the woods, and but very 

 few of them were lined the distance of 

 a mile. At this distance the line 

 would lead through open fields ami 

 brush lots. During the past two 

 seasons my apiary has consisted of 19 

 colonies of Italians. When at work 

 in the fields, traveling the highway, 

 picking wild berries on the mountain 

 where golden-rod, aster, pinks, old 

 field balsam, etc., grew in profusion, 

 I kept strict watch and not an Italian 

 bee was seen at the distance of one 

 and one-fourth miles from the apiary. 

 One mile seemed to be about the limit 

 of their search, and but very few were 

 observed at this distance. — Erdina. 



