THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



39 



honey gatherers because there is no 

 honey to be gathered. Reason would 

 dictate to me that I must use every 

 means in my power to build up my 

 colonies as strong as possible from 

 early in the spring to within 35 days 

 of the end of the honey flow, or about 

 the 19th of June, that about- this 

 time, certainly not later than June 

 25th, I must restrict my queen to as 

 few frames as possible, so as to have 

 but few bees during the 53 days of 

 dearth. (I base my calculation upon 

 the fact that 21 days are required for 

 the egg to hatch and then the bee 

 must be 14 days old before it becomes 

 a forager.) Now I wish to say em- 

 phatically that every one whose loca- 

 tion is similar to mine must practice 

 restriction or his honey crop will be a 

 failure every time. Again by the 

 16th of September. I want my hives 

 as full of bees as possible ready for 

 the fall flow. Then going back 35 

 days from September 16th takes me 

 to August 12th, the day on which the 

 eggs must be laid for the bees to have 

 hatched out, ready for the beginning 

 of the fall flow. But as the queens 

 could not under any circumstances 

 fill the hives full of eggs on the 12th 

 day of August, (or any other one day 

 for that matter,) reason would again 

 tell me that I must remove the restric- 

 tions from my queens two or three 

 weeks before, or, say July 24th to 

 August 1st, and then stimulate brood 

 rearing. If the beginner fails to fol- 

 low this plan he will certainly get no 

 surplus fall crop. We must also make 

 sure that each colony contains a good 

 prolific queen. 



Brother Demnree's "Practical hints 

 in Bee Culture" on page 179, Ameri- 

 cau Bee-Keeper, is timely and 



should be read and studied until per- 

 fectly familiar with every "hint" he 

 has given. When he speaks of the 

 bees "crowding the queen" being 

 simply an effort on the part of nature 

 to assist the bees by curtailing brood 

 rearing during the honey flow he is cer- 

 tainly correct, yet, by restricting our 

 queens as I have suggested above we 

 accomplish the same end, provided the 

 restriction is performed at the right 

 time. When he speaks of giving his 

 colonies, after swarming, a queen cell 

 instead of a laying queen, as some "in- 

 nocent bee men" had written him, he 

 gives a "hint" that should be well 

 and long remembered. By this plan 

 he also assists the bees in curtailing 

 brood rearing, when such brood would 

 hatch out bees that would be consum- 

 ers instead of honey gatherers. 



His article on "Concentration of 

 Forces" in Bee-Keepers Guide for De- 

 cember, 1891, page 356, is worth the 

 price of that paper for several years. 

 "Concentration of forces" is his rem- 

 edy against poor honey seasons. His 

 plan of "concentrating forces" can be 

 easily carried out in connection with 

 the suggestions I have given. He 

 says "not a swarm should be allowed 

 to issue." He accomplishes this by 

 one single manipulation, which is 

 simple and easy, and performed "just 

 at the commencement of the honey 

 season, and before any swarms issue." 

 All the colonies strong enough to cast 

 swarms are treated on the following: 



PLAN. 



"All the combs containing brood 

 are removed from the brood chamber, 

 except one that contains but a small 

 amount of unsealed brood and eggs. 

 This is left in the brood chamber with 

 the queen on it If she is not Found 



