98 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



undiminisbed, a swarm from these 

 doubled stocks put on the empty 

 combs in April will be stronger by 

 the time of sage bloom than the 

 weak stock would be. 



SPREADING BKOOD. 



I have never made a regular 

 practice of spreading brood, but I 

 am sure that I have, by means of 

 spreading, expedited the building 

 up of the colony so treated. 



I have by such means brought 

 out bees that only partially cov- 

 ered two combs ahead of colonies 

 that had covered five combs. With 

 a sectional brood-chamber, the 

 brood need not be spread ; invert- 

 ing or interchanging will do the 

 work as well. 



By doubling, or even trebling 

 stocks, I expect with a little 

 spreading to be able to repopulate 

 my empty hives in good season. 



"^In spreading brood with the com- 

 mon L. hive, i try to select a comb 

 with brood about two weeks old to 

 move to the outer edge of the clus- 

 ter. Sometimes the turning of a 

 comb end for end will cause more 

 eo-gs.to be laid on tlie reverse side 

 without endangering eggs or larva. 

 When the young bees begin to 

 come out from the cells of an outer 

 comb, the comb may be placed in 

 the centre, and the queen will at 

 once begin to deposit eggs m the 

 vacated cells. I would not advise 

 a beginner to spread brood until he 

 had experimented carefully on one 

 or two hives. 



ABOUT HIVES. 



In the matter of hives, I often 

 think of the words of friend Dema- 

 ree, in an article that appeared two 

 years ago. "It is not so much in 

 the race of bees, in the appliances, 

 or the hives, as it is in the man who 

 is using them." Nothing can be 

 added to this. As a question of 

 extra convenience, however, I can 

 say that a sectional chamber Bay 

 Slate Keversible hive is beyond 



question one of the best for comb 

 honey. I have a half-dozen of them ; 

 and while the season last year was 

 too poor to test them thoroughly, 

 still 1 am satisfied that the Bay State 

 is ahead of the Heddon and second 

 to none. I have tried one Shuck hive 

 and Imd one tried by Mr. R. Mil- 

 kin of San Buenaventura, and 

 another by M. Bray of New Alma- 

 den. The former gave a favorable 

 opinion of it last season, but has 

 not reported since. 



The latter prefers the Bay State, 

 I think the Shuck hive good, after 

 it is made, but the making requires 

 a factory. The Bay State Rever- 

 sible hive is so simple that it may 

 be made by any one, frames in the 

 flat being the most needful thing 

 to buy. 1 find it practicable to have 

 these made by dealers on this 

 coast, though at higher rates than 

 in the east. 



Rearing queens may be com- 

 menced in February or March ac- 

 cording to the blooming of willow 

 and filaria (fila-ree'a). 



But, without special care, no 

 drones will be had until nearer the 

 first of April except in such early 

 seasons as 1885 and others where 

 my bees, were swarming freely in 



April. 



I have experienced great diffi- 

 culty in getting purely mated 

 queens. In 1886, 1 carefully looked 

 up every bee tree within a three 

 mile radius and Cyprianized the 

 only bees within a mile. This not 

 being much of a beekeeping com- 

 munity there were no other bees 

 kept nearer than two or two and a 

 half miles, and the next nearest 

 were about five miles. Those that 

 were two or more miles away were 

 not over an eighth as numerous as 

 mine. 



And far more than half of my 

 young queens were cross-mated. 

 Directions for raising healthy 

 queens and for successfully intro- 

 ducing thein are now trite. 



