THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



April 



will run under the board, home. In 

 this way the little colony knows just 

 where the feed required is to be found, 

 and they will busy themselves every 

 day carrying the honey from these 

 combs over to their little home, as 

 occasion requires, and in doing this 

 they will feed the queen, thus caus- 

 ing her to commence active egg lay- 

 ing, while the activity of the whole 

 colony causes a greater degree of heat 

 to be attained by this little brood nest 

 than otherwise would occur. Thus 

 you have brought about an activity 

 and thrift in this little colony, scarce- 

 ly excelled by he strongest in the 

 yard, and from it comes an upbuild- 

 ing resultiug often in such a colony 

 giving better results in the harvest 

 than other colonies which you consid- 

 ered twice as good when you com- 

 menced operations with the little one. 

 To keep outside bees from these is- 

 olated combs of honey the entrance to 

 the hive should be closed its whole 

 length, except just what is needed by 

 the little colony, and that should be 

 next the side of the hive which the 

 bees are on. In this way, should a 

 robber attempt to carry off the honey 

 set beyond the division board for 

 stimulating purposes, it would have 

 to pass all the way under the combs 

 the bees occupied, under the division 

 board to the combs on the opposite 

 side, and it will be a bold robber that 

 would do this, even wez'e there not 

 bees all the way along to catch her on 



the road. But, will this course 



pay 



Well that depends. Depends upon 

 what ? Upon what your experience 

 with bees has been and how many 

 colonies you have. If you have much 

 experience with bees and many good 

 colonies, or as many as you think 



you can handle properly, then I should 

 say that it would pay better to give 

 the good colonies the needed care and 

 let these little ones take care of them- 

 selves, uniting them in time for the 

 honey harvest. But if you have little 

 experience with bees, or but few col- 

 onies, then I believe it will pay any 

 one nicely to do as I have outlined 

 above. Such a course well followed 

 would give the one doing it an experi- 

 ence they would get in no other way, 

 and give an experience which would 

 result in a full fledged apiarist in 

 years to come, instead of the slip-shod 

 bee keepers which are often found 

 about the country that are at work on 

 the plan that the bees work for noth- 

 ing and board themselves, much to the 

 disgust of themselves and the ruina- 

 tion of the honey market of others by 

 putting their crude product on the 

 market for whatever they can get 

 offered. 



GOLDEN vs. IMPORTED ITALIANS. 



The next question is regarding what 

 are called Golden Italians, or Imported 

 Italians, the correspondent wishing to 

 know which I consider best. Well, 

 to this I should say that it is a matter 

 of whether you got a good strain of 

 either or not. I have had the dark or 

 leather Italians, some direct from im- 

 ported mothers, and others some gen- 

 erations off, that were as good bees as 

 I ever had in my apiary, and I have 

 had some of the same kind that were 

 so poor that they were soon supersed- 

 ed by others. And what I have said 

 of these dark Italians will apply with 

 equal force to the goldens. I have 

 had colonies of the golden variety 

 which would enter the sections just as 

 readily, as far as I could see, as the 

 black or hybrid bees, and give better 



