[894. 



THE . I MERIl '. I N BEE- KEEPER. 



1:1 



from the fields. \\ r hat is the result ? 

 Why, all tlic honey they bring is 

 gathered by those bees thai lived 

 through the winter ; at best there is 

 not many of them, and what they do 

 gel is consumed in rearing the young 

 Now, I ask is there any reason 

 why you don't get honey in your sec- 

 tions? Take, on the other hand, the 

 stock that has had its gill of hot feed 

 every night, the queen has commenced 

 to lay, and when the blossoms com- 

 mence to secrete honey, she has her 

 hive overflowing with young and 

 vigorous bees, who are ready to col- 

 lect the sweets as soon as it, presents 

 itself. This honey is for the bee- 

 keeper, not as is generally the case 

 used for rearing brood, when brown 

 sugar would have answered just as 

 well. And by this means, strictly 

 carried out, you can get the apple- 

 blossom honey into your sections, 

 which is extremely rare — some think 

 they get it, but notwithstanding their 

 thoughts, they don't — unless it is an 

 exceptional year for apple blossom 

 honey. So to the beginner I say this 

 is one of the great secrets to a large 

 yield. Simply attend to this part, and 

 then if the honey comes you will be 

 as likely to break the record as older 

 members of our fraternity. 



One more suggestion and I will 

 close for this month. As soon as you 

 commence feeding take the absorbing 

 material from the top of frames and 

 supplement it with a piece of enam- 

 elled cloth with enamelled side 

 down : this retains the moisture 

 which is more than necessary in 

 brood rearing. Should any hive be 

 found queenless, L r >t ;i queen at once 

 from some responsible breeder, if not, 

 unite with some weak colony — for it 



is a losing business to attempt to keep 

 a queenless colony — as before they 

 can rear a queen they will almost cer- 

 tainly lie losl by dwindling, robbing, 



or worms, but if united with a weak 

 one, it makes it strong ami almost 

 double its value.— W. B. T. in 15. K. 



M. (N. V.- 



USE "1 FOUNDATION. 



Foundation is a good thing. I 

 think like Mr. Hutchinson, that we 

 must have perfect brood combs. I 

 know of just two ways to get them; 

 and one of the ways is to have them 

 built on the plan given by G. M« 

 Doolittle some years ago, viz: Use 

 weak colonies, and place empty 

 frames between nice, straight full ones 

 and by spacing close, you can get 

 good worker oomb. Nucleus colonies 

 or any weak colony, will do this work 

 quite well, especially if they have a 

 young queen. A failing queen would 

 give poor results, I would arrange 

 the combs in this way : If you have 

 a two-frame nucleus, put an empty 

 frame betweeu the two, and a frame 

 of drone comb on the outside. So 

 soon as the new frame is full of comb, 

 spread again, and put in two empty 

 frames, either alternating with the 

 others, or put one of the new ones 

 next the hive side, then a full one, 

 and next an empty. 



The reason I would use the drone 

 comb is because if there be plenty of 

 drone comb in the hive, the colony 

 will not want to build any more until 

 they get almost strong enough to oc- 

 cupy the whole hive. If there be 

 about two drone combs used — one on 

 either side of the brood nest — after 

 the colony has grown to occupy three 

 or four combs, you can usually have 



