THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



89 



way the bees have of attacking a 

 stranger queen, by gathering about 

 her in a dense mass and enclosing her 

 in a ball of bees, often as large as a 

 hen's egg or small walnut. To get 

 the queen released frorr the ball we 

 have only to give the b °s a liberal 

 supply of smoke, and then we pick up 

 the queen and cage hce aT'ain. En 

 picking up a queen 4 ot 



take hold of the body, t , her 



abdomen, as we would be i ' ' sure 

 to injure her ; we should pick her up 

 by the wings. If a colony of bees re- 

 fuses to accept a queen after two or 

 three clays, we should look through 

 the hive and destroy all queen cells 

 that they may have started, as this one 

 thing alone will often cause them to 

 refuse to accept a queen ; and if they 

 still continue obstinate I would re- 

 move all their brood from them until 

 they have accepted the queen. It is 

 more difficult to introduce a queen 

 during a dearth of honey than at 

 other times. — " Hoic to Manage Bee*." 



ABOUT SHELTERING BEES. 



Some subscriber asks whether it is 

 best to shelter bees. I reply that I 

 have had about fifteen years' experi- 

 ence with bees, nine years with the 

 old-fashioned box hives, which was 

 unprofitable as well as unpleasant, 

 and six years with the frame hive. 



I have made the honey-bee a special 

 study, aided by the best authors on 

 bee culture, and from experience I 

 have found that three very wide boards 

 laid on top, with across piece between 

 the hive and boards, about three inches 

 thick at one end of the hive, so as to 

 give the boards pitch, first two boards 

 extending over the hive, and a third 

 board to break the joint, is all that is 



necessary to shelter them from rain 

 and sunshine on the top; during the 

 extreme hot weather two or three 

 boards set on the ground and leaned 

 on the hive on the west side will often 

 save the melting down of the combs. 



All bee hives should face a little 

 east of south, for the following reasons: 

 First, bees need the earliest sunshine 

 they can get about the entrance in the 

 morning, and especially in the spring 

 of the year. Second, the entrance is 

 in an opposite direction from the cold 

 winter wind and stormy weather. 



Hives should not be closer than a- 

 bout six feet, as the apiarist needs at 

 least that much room to work in, to 

 prevent disturbing the adjoining hive. 



Then, also, young queens can go out 

 and mate with the drones on wing, and 

 as it is their first trip out they do not 

 recognize their own hives if they are 

 all close together. . They, in many 

 instances, enter another hive, which 

 proves fatal to the whole colony. 



Now, taking into consideration the 

 distance that hives should be apart to 

 obtain the best results, any kind of a 

 shelter built with posts, rafters, lathing 

 and boards would be an expense that 

 a few loose boards would save, and yet 

 answer every purpose. Bees need 

 protection from hot sunshine and rain, 

 but should not be densely shaded. — Ex. 



WINTER AND SPRING MANAGEMENT OF 

 BEES, AND PREVENTION OF FOUL BROOD 



In the fall with division boards I 

 crowd each colony on six combs of 

 solid sealed stores of the best quality. 

 If the combs in every colony are not 

 all sealed when I have the bees crowded 

 on the six combs I feed in the evening 

 until evey cell is sealed, when 1 have 

 to feed, I do it the first week in October. 



