THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



133 



clear away the eggs. It may work 

 well, but a bee-keeper, of course, 

 would uot select the colony of his best 

 queen with which to try the experi- 

 ment. However, there is a cure, 

 simple, safe and permanent. It is the 

 caging of the colony in a swarm box. 

 The bees can be pushed into any box. 

 provided with gauze covered venti- 

 lating openings, and should be done 

 when few or noue are flying. The 

 cover is slipped into place and the 

 bees left for four or five hours in the 

 shade or in the cellar. A cage con- 

 taining a queen, either a young virgin, 

 old virgin or layer is dropped in, when 

 the universal groan from the box will 

 change to a song. The more matured 

 the queen, however, the better result. 

 A young virgin queen is not very in- 

 fluential in a swarm box. In two 

 hours more or so the swarm can be 

 poured before a hive, preferably a 

 new hive, certainly devoid of all 

 brood, and the queen released so as to 

 enter with the bees. While that queen 

 lives, and she will probably die of old 

 age, the beekeeper will be relieved 

 or all unnecessary fertility in that 

 swarm. 



We would suggest to beginners, 

 however, that the best measure is 

 seasonable re-queening. 



Westfield, Mass. 



The brood combs in reserve that 

 have the most polen in them should 

 be the ones first given to the colonies 

 in the spring. These are the ones 

 among which the moths work first and 

 make the most havoc, and the pollen 

 they contain is just what the bees 

 need when new pollen is not plenty or 

 they are prevented from collecting it 

 by long continued storms. 



Instructions to Beginners. — 

 Management off Bees dur- 

 ing September and oth- 

 er Seasonable Hints. 



BY M. H. DE WITT. 



During the earlier part of this 

 month the apiarist should go over all 

 his colonies and see that every one 

 has a good laying queen. If any are 

 missing they should be supplied with 

 one at once. Do not defer it as it is 

 very important that they should have 

 one in time to have plenty of brood 

 by the time cold weather begins. The 

 amount of honey each hive contains 

 should be carefully noted and mark- 

 ed on it. The only accurate way to 

 tell how much each hive has, is to 

 weigh several combs containing dif- 

 ferent amounts of honey and thus get 

 a good idea of the quality contained 

 in the frames. Then take out every 

 frame in the hive at a time and add 

 the amounts together. This will en- 

 able you to guess at the quantity con- 

 tained in each one pretty accurately. 

 Then each colony should be fed sugar 

 syrup to make twenty or twenty-five 

 pounds, made of good coffee A sugar 

 or granulated sugar. To make this, 

 take four pounds sugar and one quart 

 of water and heat it until it just be- 

 gins to boil. This is all that is neces- 

 sary, as to the method of feeding, I 

 would recommend to you the simplic- 

 ity feeder for this purpose, take and 

 fill your feeders at night and sit them 

 on the top of the frames directly over 

 the brood and by the next morning 

 the bees will have the syrup all car- 

 ried down and stored away. You can 

 obtain these feeder.- of any supply 

 dealers. 



