THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



Api-il 



can keep sections cleanei* in tlie crate in 

 which thoy are received : and it is not a 

 long job to put up and fasten tiie founda- 

 tion in four or five thousand sections, if 

 you have the proper implements for do- 

 ing it. If you have any partly tilled sec- 

 tions that were left over from last fall, 

 and have, of course, been extracted, now 

 is the time to scrape them and get them 

 ready for use. I try each fall to secure 

 a lot of them so I can have about six for 

 each section-holder. I put them in the 

 center, and find it greatly encourages 

 the bees to start work in the sections 

 early. After a heavy rain, or, better 

 still, after a thaw of March snows, go 

 over the hive-covers and look for drops 

 of water on the under side of tliem. If 

 any are found mark with a pencil on the 

 top side over the leak, a B, which stands 

 for "bad." On a nice day. when covers 

 are dry, take a wheelbarrow load of new 

 covers and exchange them for the leaky 

 ones. Take them to the shop, and if a 

 cover is worth a piece of tin, paint the 

 spot with good, thick paint, and with 

 three quarter inch wire nails fasten on 

 the tin. Do not leave one cover on a 

 hive if it leaks, for it will discolor your 

 sections, to say nothing of the pour 

 little bees getting all wet. 



If your bees are out-of-doors, you 

 should keep all the dead bees cleaned from 

 the entrance with a wire-hook. If any 

 show signs of dysentei'y, the bottom- 

 boards should be washed with warm 

 water ar exchanged for clean ones. It is a 

 good plan to exchange for clean ones all 

 the bottom-boards in the apiary, and have 

 the soiled ones scraped and cleaned ready 

 tor new hives. 



The entrance to all hives should be 

 c(mtracted by using blocks, so as to pre- 

 vent robbing ; but let each colony have 

 as much entrance as it can guard. 



Yours truly. A. J. Gray. 



• WAKK ri' I ■■ 

 [Second prize.] 

 Wayland, N.Y.. March 11. IDOl. 

 Wake up to the new conditions and 

 take The American Bee-keeper I Bees 

 do not give surplus these years to liee- 

 keepers who care for their bees in the 

 same manner that their fathers did. The 

 men who arc reading and contributing to 

 the bee-papers are finding out new kinks 

 that are of value to the bee-keeper who 

 doesn't live in a shell. If we only could 

 get every man who owns even one colony 

 of bees to take and read a l)ee-paper. 

 what quantities of luscious nectar would 

 l>e saved '. 



In getting ready for the honey harvest 

 we must commence preparations the pre- 

 vious season. In this climate it is neces- 

 sary that we should have strong colonies 

 of young bees, abundance of stores to go 

 into winter quarters, and hives well pro- 

 tected by outside case or double walled. 

 These conditions give good, strong colo- 

 nies to commence with in the spring. 



This has been an exceptionally long 

 winter ; while it has not been extremely 

 cold, we have had a good deal of wind 

 and a heavy fall of snow. My bees have 

 not flown since the 1st of November and 

 the prospect is that they will not before 

 April 1st. 



Personally I prefer the Doolittle plan 

 of getting strong colonies just at the 

 right time for the honey-flow, which 

 with us is about the 20th of June aud 

 continues until about the :.'Oth of July, 

 from clover and basswood. Then we liav(» 

 a fall flow from buckwheat, which usu- 

 ally give< us a nice surplus and plenty of 

 stores and young l)ees for winter. 



Bearing in mind that all this work 

 comes at the busiest time of the year for 

 the most of us, we will get all our fixtures 

 ready while the bees are rusting. Then 

 instead of being driven to spend every 

 spare minute in the shop, we can spend 

 these minutes with the bees to our i)leas- 

 ure and ])rofit ; and at the first intima- 

 tion of the honey-flow, on goes a super, 

 and my experience is that we get little 

 or no swarming, if the bees are given 

 room at the proper time, theiefore more 

 honey. Yours, W. W. Siiepard. 



[Third Prize.] 



Eddy, N. Y.. March 11, 1901. 

 Editor Bee-keeper : I winter my bees 

 in the cellar. The first thing after th<'y 

 are set out in the spring is to see that 

 they have plenty of honey ; and if not. 

 to give them some at once. I use a twn- 

 (|uart fruit jar for feeding. I fill the jar 

 with sugar-syrup and tie a piece of 

 cheese-cloth over the top. This is invert- 

 ed over a hole cut through the top-l)oard 

 and a piece of cloth over the center of 

 the hive. I feed as often as is necessary 

 to make my bees strong when the honey- 

 flow begins. It is the strong colonies 

 that call for the most sections. If any 

 fail to breed up on account of having 

 poor queens, re-queen them, if you can : 

 if not. take them up. Have your sec- 

 tions ready as well as your hives, before 

 the flow Ix'gins. 



Yours. T. H. Barueh. 



