132 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



September 



for more. Let them come, and come 

 fast. Every one counts and helps to 

 swell the swarm of bee-keepers that 

 will be buzzing in the air in our fair 

 city, October 16-18, 1894. We will 

 furnish the hive, if the people will 

 only swarm. 



Emerson T. Abbott, Pies. 

 St. Joseph, Mo. 



Equalizing Colonies in Early 

 Spring. 



BY KEY. STEPHEN ROESE. 



Since the invention of movable 

 frame hives the art of bee-keeping 

 has made a fast onward move towards 

 perfection, for by their means the 

 bee-keeper can early help a eolony 

 which has decreased in some way, 

 dwindled down or is iu need of stores 

 for winter, but bee-keepers are greatly 

 mistaken when taking advantage of 

 the modern improvements for the sake 

 of equalizing strength of colonies in 

 early spring. It is true a colony can 

 be saved in early spring when its 

 normal strength has gone down so low 

 that the young brood will perish in 

 the cellar for want of animal heat to 

 keep them alive, but to take frame 

 after frame of hatching brood from 

 a strong colony and build up with it 

 the weak colonies in order to equalize 

 the strength of the different colonies 

 is a mistaken idea. Many frames of 

 hatching brood are sacrificed and go 

 to ruin with the weaker colonies to 

 which they are given, where the col- 

 onies from which the brood was 

 taken would have been ten pounds at 

 least better off in honey for the bee- 

 keeper at the time of the honey flow. 

 The strong colony in early spring is 

 the one that will richly reward the 



bee-keeper for his time and labor 

 spent on them, both in honey and* 

 swarms, and a weak colony which has 

 been doctored from early spring until 

 the time of honey flow will just about 

 get strong enough to get ready for 

 swarming and have lots of bees when 

 the honey now is over, when if left to 

 pull through themselves they would 

 not have swarmed that season, would 

 have gathered some honey and would 

 have been in good shape for winter- 

 ing. The writer practiced equalizing 

 strength of colonies in early spring 

 for several seasons and got very tired 

 of it. When swarming time came 

 from six to eight swarms would issue 

 at oue time on some days, clustering 

 together, and if not properly divided 

 would often prove a total loss and 

 would keep the bee-keeper in hot 

 water from day-light until dark, when 

 on the other hand, if left in early 

 spring as the opening of the season 

 finds them, they would be ready for 

 swarming more apart, and would give 

 the bee-keeper time to hive each one 

 before the other swarm came off. In 

 short, a colony which is not strong 

 enough in early spring to pull through 

 itself is not worth bothering with, and 

 the doubling and tripling is also not 

 advisable, for bees in early spring are 

 old and their time is up, and they lack 

 vigor and strength, but not so with 

 young bees. 



"A word to the wise is sufficient." 



Bee and Honey Notes. 



BY WM. M. EVANS. 



Our honey crop is about half the 

 average. We had no Poplar nor Lo- 

 cust bloom, and but little honey was 

 gotten from fruit blossoms because of 



