250 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



apiaries as far as it would go, feed- 

 ing that and waiting until more was 

 prepared, which caused a large con- 

 sumption of stores. Now I weigh 

 the hives, ascertain how much they 

 require to put them in shape for 

 the winter. I then send to each 

 apiary all the granulated sugar syr- 

 up that is necessary to prepare them 

 for winter, and it is fed to them as 

 fast as they can take it up, so that 

 after we commence to feed they are 

 never allowed to be idle until they 

 have sufficient stores for winter. In 

 this way we may have fed already 

 over 10 bbls. of sugar to three apia- 

 ries, and shall continue doing so un- 

 til every apiary has its complement 

 of stores for wintering. By the 

 above method we get their stores 

 placed above the brood and sealed 

 over early. This leaves the bees in 

 finer condition for winter. Now 

 those who neglect these winter pre- 

 parations, although the weather at 

 the present time is very warm, will 

 be sorry for their neglect next 

 spring, as bees prepared late in the 

 season do not stand nearly as good 

 a chance of wintering well as those 

 prepared earlier ; besides, after the 

 brood is hatched out of the combs, 

 instead of their sealing the honey 

 above and leaving room for the bees 

 to cluster below their stores, they 

 place the food all over the combs in 

 a scattered condition and do not 

 cap them over, and the result is that 

 moisture is usually condensed in 

 this food, thus tliinning it down so 

 that it frequently becomes sour and 

 disease follows. If the bees are fed 

 at a time when no brood is in the 

 combs and no probability of there 

 being any for some time, they are 

 liable to scatter their honey about 

 promiscuously in the cells. When 

 the cold weather sets in and the 

 bees contract their cluster, much 

 of the honey thus placed is not 

 covered by the bees. That farthest 

 from them is coolest and absorbs 

 the moisture first, but in cool 



weather moisture condenses in all 

 the combs, even that just outside 

 the brood circle. Bees should be 

 so prepared for winter that little or 

 no unsealed hone}'' remains in the 

 hives, and none should ever be 

 outside the cluster. It is desirable 

 that they should have some in the 

 cluster to carry them through the 

 cold spells. Ten pounds of lipened 

 and well sealed honey will keep 

 a colony longer and healthier than 

 twenty pounds of unsealed and im- 

 properly ripened. No amount of 

 warmth can prevent poor results if 

 the stores are bad. You may prepare 

 your wintering house ever so care- 

 fully ; you may packj^our bees with 

 the greatest care ; joii may arrange 

 your ventilation on the most scien- 

 tific principles, and in fact you 

 may do all that can be done, and 

 if your stores are bad the results 

 will be unsatisfactory. I hope 

 that no one will neglect the pre- 

 paration of their bees until the 1st 

 Oct., as is frequentl}^ the case and 

 then ask, "What shall I do to pre- 

 pare my bees for winter? " The 

 wintering of bees must be com- 

 menced in August and September 

 and their management during those 

 two months decides their fate. 

 No greater mistake can be made 

 than leaving the preparation off 

 till cold weather, as in many cases 

 every eff"ort is then useless. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

 Ed. Am. Apicultdrist : ' 



Dear Sir, 

 I send you the following Report 

 from the Beekeepers' Department 

 of the Michigan State Fair. 



Beekeeping is one of Michigan's 

 growing industries. It has to a 

 great extent passed the experimen- 



