TEE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



179 



Practical Hints in Bee 

 Culture. 



BY r, W. DEMAREE. 



Any great success in honey produc- 

 ing always depends on an indefinite 

 number of little successes, If we can 

 imagine that our apiary of 50 colonies 

 represent a great plant of 50 factories, 

 every one, of them being completely 

 manned and equipped and capable of 

 performing a certain amount of work, 

 we can see how it is when one, two, 

 three or more colonies become de- 

 moralized, right at the oppertune 

 moment and make a failure. The 

 aggregate business suffers in propor- 

 tion to the small failures. 



If you prepare an apiary of 50 colo- 

 nies of bees, of the best strains, for 

 the honey harvest, you will have to 

 manage them with more than ordinary 

 skill, if more than ten per cent, of 

 them do not waste their time and 

 opportunities sulking in great clusters 

 on the fronts of the hives, or by in- 

 dulging in the opposite mood, refusing 

 to stay anywhere long enough to settle 

 down lo business. Perhaps no apiary 

 can be managed at all times so effect- 

 ively as to wholly prevent loss from 

 the causes I have named. But by a 

 proper knowledge of the nature and 

 habits of bees, the loss can be reduced 

 within the bounds of reason. When 

 I am in health, as a man should be, 

 and am not too much crowded with 

 work, as no apiarist should be, I can 

 control, in a good measure, any colon v 

 of bees and put them in the harness 

 and work them for all that is in them. 



Sometimes a colony of bees will 

 start off strong and lively, and the 

 first thing you know they will begin 

 to sulk and "pile" out on the front 

 of the hive, and much precious time 



is wasted. Now there may be more 

 than one cause for this behavior, but 

 the chief cause, or the cause that 

 operates most frequently is a case of 

 superceding of the queen. Sometimes 

 the old queen will die suddenly just 

 at the time when a swarm would issue 

 under ordinary circumstances, and 

 there is a " hanging of fire " as I would 

 express it, because some eight or ten 

 days more must intervene before the 

 young queens begin to hatch out and 

 become strong enough to lead off 

 swarms. The proper thing to do in 

 such a case is to go through the brood 

 nest and cut out all the queen cells 

 but one. This manipulation will 

 four times out of five prevent all after 

 swarms. But sometimes bees will act 

 in this way while the old queen is 

 living. When this state of things 

 happens the old queen should be re- 

 moved at once, and a queen cell given 

 to the coiony. 



There is a freak into which bees are 

 liable to fall that is exactly opposite 

 to the mood just described. That is, 

 bees will sometimes become unmanage- 

 ably active at swarming time, and will 

 refuse to settle down to business, no 

 matter what advantages may be offered 

 them. Such a colony is ready to 

 " swarm," or to " swarm out" at any 

 and all times, and no matter where 

 they are while laboring under this 

 excitement they will do no good. The 

 remedy in this case is to take the 

 queen away from the colony and give 

 them a maturing queen cell, below the 

 queen excluder, having raised all 

 the brood above the queen excluder. 

 I wonder sometimes, how many bee- 

 keepers have taken advantage of 

 nature's friendly efforts to clear all 

 obstacles out of the way, when a pro- 



