1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



131 



about two-thirds sealed it can be rais- 

 ed up and one filled with sections hav- 

 ing starters of comb foundation can 

 be placed below and the upper one re- 

 moved when all the honey in it is well 

 sealed. 1 would only adopt this 

 course when the colony is very strong 

 and the flow good and apt to last until 

 all the sections are filled. If they are 

 not filled we have too many to keep 

 over until the next season after the 

 honey is taken out. To avoid this, at 

 the close of the flow I place the unfin- 

 ished sections together and put them 

 on strong colonies to be finished. This 

 gives less unfinished ones (if any) at 

 the season's close, and they, if any, 

 can be used as bait sections the next 

 season. In mentioning the above I 

 only mentioned some of the natural 

 conditions most favorable to bring 

 the bees up to a strong working con- 

 dition by the time white clover is in 

 full bloom, say about the first or tenth 

 of June in this locality, and in the 

 more northern and eastern states about 

 June twentieth. If the conditions of 

 the weather will admit we can in a 

 great degree hasten brood raising in 

 early spring by reversing the brood 

 nest, that is, by putting the center 

 frames of brood on the outside and the 

 other ones, or those having the least 

 brood in, in the center. In this way 

 the queen soon fills the combs having 

 but little brood more fully than were 

 the others, thereby giving a great 

 gain in brood. This process can be 

 repeated every two weeks or as often 

 as the conditions of brood will admit. 

 In ten days or two weeks from the 

 time the brood nest is first reversed go 

 to the hive again and take an outside 

 frame having as much sealed honey in 

 it as possible, and as Friend Doolittle 



says, break the sealing to the cells by 

 passing a knife flatwise over it and 

 placing it in the center of the brood 

 nest. The removal of this honey will 

 stimulate the bees to great activity, 

 cause them to feed their queen, when 

 she in turn will lay more eggs than 

 otherwise, thus increasing the number 

 of bees which will hatch twenty-one 

 days later. 



I would not advise reversing or 

 spreading the brood in early spring 

 unless the conditions of the weather 

 are very favorable. If it is change- 

 able, first warm then cold and viseversa, 

 I think the brood nest is better left 

 alone and warm until the weather be- 

 comes warmer and more settled. It 

 may avoid brood becoming chilled in 

 cold changes. 



My bees commenced to bring in pol- 

 len in abundance on the 1st of March 

 and they work every warm day, but 

 the weather is so changeable I think 

 spreading the brood would have done 

 but little good up to the present time, 

 April 6th. It may do from now on. 



Peach, pear and other early fruit 

 trees will soon be in bloom, Apple 

 trees look as though they would bloom 

 full. Let the harvest come. I guess 

 my bees will be ready for it. Have 

 lost -none during winter and spring so 

 far and all seem healthy and strong 

 except one which shows signs of bee 

 paralysis in the last few days. It is 

 strong in numbers and each colony 

 has plenty of honey of their own get- 

 ting last season to do them some time 

 yet. 



Chillicothe, Mo, 



"How to Manage Bees " is a 50c 

 book for beginners in bee keeping. 

 We will send it postpaid for 25c. 



