86 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



There is one more point on which 

 1 would caution beginners more par- 

 ticularly. When looking over the 

 frames in cutting out queen cells, be 

 sure to hold the frames over the hive, 

 so in case the queen should drop off 

 she would fall into the hive. If the 

 frames are held at one side the queen 

 is liable to be lost, and the loss of a 

 queen, even for one day in the height 

 of the honey flow, would occasion 

 great loss. 



My advice is, "Be careful." 



Troy, Vt, 



W. T. Falconer Man'f'c Co., 



Gentlemen : I have once more ex- 

 perienced the lesson that he who has 

 must lose. My Sweet has all turned 

 to Sour this spring. One year ago I 

 had fourteen .-warms that had win- 

 tered and spring out in a thriving 

 condition out of twenty-one swarms. 

 In March three or four were short of 

 supplies, while as many seemed to die 

 from some unknown cause, perhaps 

 old age or long winter. 



I felt quite determined that no 

 more should die from want of sup- 

 plies, so I commenced feeding most of 

 the apiary about twice a week about 

 one gill of syrup made from granu- 

 lated sugar, except to two or three 

 swarms, which had no more room than 

 they needed, and had an abundance 

 of honey in the hive. 



This feeding greatly stimulated 

 brood raising, and one of the smallest 

 swarms which I had, which I could 



have held in my double hands, gave 

 me fifty-four pounds of nice comb 

 honey, eight full L-frames of brood, 

 eight full L-frames filled with honey, 

 and cast two swarms besides. The 

 balance of the apiary, excepting three 

 swarms, gave me from forty to sev- 

 enty pounds of nice comb honey. 



The first of November I had my 

 bees back again to twenty-one swarms, 

 all apparently in fine condition, ex- 

 cept a few late swarms, which it was 

 necessary to feed a little to carry 

 them through the winter. In Novem- 

 ber sticks were laid across the frames 

 to give the bees a chance to pass over 

 from one frame to the other, and 

 then a piece of canvas was laid over 

 these, covered with about ten inches 

 of clean, planer shavings, the roof of 

 the hive forming a small air chamber. 

 I closed the entrance partly up, and 

 thought I had them in fine shape for 

 wintering. 



The last of March I looked my 

 bees over and found half of them 

 dead. One or two swarms had con- 

 sumed nearly all the honey in the 

 hive, while the remaining hives had 

 plenty of honey in the outside frames, 

 but the bees did not seem to have 

 vitality enough to get to it. I have 

 now but three swarms living. 



Now the question naturally arises 

 what is the cause of the great mor- 

 tality ? I think it is simply this : 

 Since the first of last November up 

 to the first of April, the bees haven't 

 had a good warm clay so they could 

 get out and take a good flight, and 

 with the exception of a few days the 

 fore part of April it has been too cool 

 for the bees until now, and we had 

 much northwest winds. 



