34 



THE AMERICAN IlKK-KEEPEIl. 



Mar, 



which was left out, and go to one of 

 the nuclei, taking out the frame hav- 

 ing the laying queen upon it, and put 

 the frame of brood in its place. I now 

 take, the frames, bees, queen and all, 

 and set in the place left vacant for it 

 when arranging the combs of brood. 

 Next I put on the sections required, 

 according to the strength of flying 

 bees, and having all complete, I move 

 the colony to a new stand and set the 

 prepared hive in its place. Thus I 

 have a laying queen and enough of 

 her own bees to protect her, together 

 with a hive filled with combs of brood, 

 and all the field bees from the re- 

 moved colony. In a very few days 

 this colony is ready for the sections, 

 and generally make splendid colonies 

 for storing section honey. The loss of 

 bees to the removed colony stops the 

 swarming impulse, and in about a 

 week they have so regained their loss 

 by the constantly emerging brood 

 that they are ready for the sections 

 again. It will be seen that my aim 

 has been, in using the above to have 

 all strong enough to work in the sec- 

 tions [during the best of the harvest] 

 to advantage, and still have none of 

 them desire to swarm right in the 

 height of the best flow of honey. Bv 

 adopting a plan called " nucleus 

 swarming," I once had my bees [af- 

 ter an early division] nearly all 

 swarming right in the height of the 

 best honey harvest, by which I lost at 

 least 8500 ; for swarm they would in 

 spite of all I could do, and while the 

 swarming fever is on, but little work 

 will be done in the sections, as all best 

 apiarists know. This taught me a 

 lesson, and I hope to profit by such 

 lessons, else, why the use of learning 

 them, and I here give what gives me 



the best results in this locality, so as 

 to save others from being obliged to 

 go through a losing process of learn- 

 ing, when they can be saved that or- 

 deal through the little help I may be 

 allowed to give. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



Spring Management of Bees. 



BY MRS. FANNIE B. DE WITT. 



March is one of the most trying and 

 severe months of the year in this 

 northern latitude. The alternate sun- 

 shine and clouds together with the 

 cold winds, destroy thousands of bees 

 by alluring them out of the hives and 

 chilling them to death so that they 

 never return again. This is one of 

 the main causes for spring dwindling, 

 which is so much feared by us north- 

 ern bee-keepers. It is almost impos- 

 sable to prevent the bees from coming 

 out of the hive when the sun is warm 

 even though the air is cold. There 

 are, however, some fine days in which 

 they can fly with safety, and these 

 should be utilized to their full extent. 

 Feed your bees rye meal by placing 

 it in shallow boxes in some sunny 

 spot near the apiary. They will soon 

 And it and carry it in large quantities 

 for food for the young brood. This is 

 especially useful if the hives do not 

 contain much pollen. It also keeps 

 them at work near home when the 

 weather is to cold for them to forage 

 in search for natural stores. They 

 should also be fed a thin sugar syrup 

 to stimulate them to breed strongly. 

 The best plan is to use the simplicity 

 feeder and fill it with syrup made out 

 of cheap sugar. Feed regularly when 

 ever it is warm enough for bees to 

 take down the feed, but do not dis- 

 turb them when it is cool, as you 



