1894. 



VII E AMERICAN li E E- KEEPER. 



171 



filled. If at any time they should 

 start to building drone-comb, then 

 use frames filled with foundation, for 

 his is the time foundation can be 

 used profitably. By fall this colony 

 will be in good condition for winter, 

 while No. 2 will have given three 

 times the honey the two would have 

 done if left to themselves, or had 

 they been united in early spring. — 

 G. M. D. in Am. Bee Journal. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



THE TSE OF A DIARY IN APICULTURE. 



I am of the opinion that there are 

 few bee-keepers who recieve the bene- 

 fits from a diary that they could. 

 Too many are apt to associate a diary 

 with past events, whereas the most 

 practical and valuable uses of it is 

 the record of the future. It will not 

 be the object of this article to show 

 the advantages arising from a well 

 kept record of the past, but rather to 

 illustrate its value when emloyed as 

 a help for the future. Various ways 

 have been recommended to remind 

 the apiarist of duties to be performed 

 in the apiary, duties that if neglected 

 at the proper time must result in loss 

 and trouble. There is nothing to my 

 mind like a diary for relieving one's 

 memory in the management of an 

 apiary either large or small. It need 

 not be a printed one, one to cover the 

 whole year, but an ordinary blank- 

 book with 100 or more pages is what 

 is required. The best book is one 

 that is large enough to contain a 

 record of the colonies and then the lat- 

 ter part can be used for the diary 

 proper. Have a page for a day or 

 more if necessary. There is no one 

 who has kept bees to any extent but 

 knows that each day there will arise 

 work that should be attended to later 



on. For example about ten days ago 

 I had occasion to place a few frames 

 of unsealed brood behind a division 

 board in an ordinary colony. I neg- 

 glected to record this to be attended 

 to to-day. The consequence was, sev- 

 eral young queens were reared and 

 hatched, the colony swarmed, the old 

 queen was killed, and a large apple 

 tree had to be ascended to secure 

 them. When a colony swarms, I 

 make a note of it in my diary to be 

 attended to in the way of destroying 

 unneeded queen cells seven days lat- 

 er. In strengthening weak colonies 

 after it is not desirable to increase 

 the laying capacity of the queen, I 

 usually place the brood behind the 

 division board. Now these should be 

 examined for cells ten days later and 

 a note made of it, for that day a 

 young queen is hatched. Make a 

 memo of it for ten days later to see if 

 laying. You may notice a colony 

 that will soon require more room. 

 Mark it down on the day it should be 

 attended to. You deprive a colony 

 of their queen, this fact should be re- 

 corded so as to look after their cells 

 nine or ten days after. In fact, every 

 work to be attended to at a specific 

 time should be recorded. In begin- 

 ning the day's work you simply look 

 at your diary for the day. You can 

 see at once the work that must be done 

 and then the regular duties of the 

 day will follow. In queen rearing I 

 have found it very valuable. I for- 

 merly made a note of all such needs 

 consecutively, but a page for each 

 day's requirements is much better and 

 will be found superior to the various 

 devices recommended for this purpose. 

 — G. A. Deadman , in C. B. J. 

 Brussels, Ont. 



