56 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



April 



stands can be examined without in- 

 jury; this I always do. By this time 

 you will be able to tell if they have 

 sufficient honey. My way of doing 

 this is to open each hive. If the first 

 hive is good and dry with enough 

 honey, it is marked No. 1. If the 

 second hive lacks anything or is not 

 in first class condition it is marked 

 No. 2. Suppose the next hive is 

 short of stores or otherwise need early 

 attention it is marked No. 3, and so 

 on with the balance. After this it 

 will not be necessary to go through 

 every hive to be sure all is good but 

 only to hives marked 2 and 3 until 

 spring has come to stay, which will 

 greatly lessen work etc. 2 and 3 

 should have proper attention, put in 

 a division board if they have gotten 

 weak,' supply them with honey, not 

 only have honey enough in the hive, 

 but have it where they will be sure to 

 get at it. We may yet have some 

 very cold weather, where bees will 

 starve with plentv of honey in the 

 hives, but where they cannot get at 

 it. Also keep them perfectly dry. 

 To manage this raise each hive about 

 two inches at the back to give the top 

 pitch to hurry water off, also place 

 some board or boards on the cover, 

 placing an inch stick between them 

 and the covers which will again in- 

 crease the pitch and make practically 

 a double cover. Even when covers 

 are perfect and well painted I always 

 have some boards on top in winter to 

 keep hives and bees perfectly dry and 

 in summer to keep the hot sun off, 

 This should however all be done in 

 the fall before they have had a chance 

 to get wet or damp. This should 

 suffice until spring, or warm weather, 

 when all hives should be cleaned, 



frames spaced perfectly, and hives all 

 leveled, at the same time increasing 

 or diminishing the size of the brood- 

 chamber, according to the size of the 

 colony of bees that occupy them. 

 Don't crowd the queen ; give her 

 plenty of room, but remember that 

 the hive may be too large for the 

 size of the cluster of bees, this to 

 my idea is worse than not room 

 enough for if you want brood-rearing 

 to go on rapidly you should help the 

 bees to keep up the required amount 

 of heat, which is greatly needed at 

 this season of the year, and cannot be 

 had or produced by a small cluster of 

 bees in a large hive. They should al- 

 so be perfectly packed above. For 

 this I prefer a piece of muslin, with a 

 super on top, well filled with dry 

 maple leaves, or any kind of leaves 

 that are soft and not too large. 

 (III.) Yours, &c, Chas. Thies. 



Editor American Bee-Keeper. 

 Dear Sir : — You ask for articles from 

 your readers for publication, so I will 

 give you the following short one. 



It is often asked, " does bee-keep- 

 ing pay ? " To answer this question 

 I would say it is like all other occu- 

 pations, or nearly so. For instance, 

 take farming and say, " does farming 

 pay?" Farming pays when there is 

 a progressive farmer that understands 

 how to turn things to the best advan- 

 tage, but if one don't understand how 

 to farm properly let hin get some farm 

 journals and get an understanding 

 how to farm. The next thing is to go 

 at it and do it as he has learned. In 

 a like manner is bee-keeping. First 

 get some good bee book, paper or jour- 

 nal. Read them until you under- 

 stand something about the character 



