Feb. 21, 1907 



American ~Bee Jonrnal 



outhem 



Conducted by Luuis H. ScuuLL, New Bruuusleia 



The Care of Bees in February 



For the progressive Southern bee- 

 keeper October and February are two 

 of the most important months of the 

 year, for in the first-named all efforts 

 are made to prepare the bees for the 

 winter with plenty of stores, so that 

 the colonies may come up in good 

 shape for harvest time the next season. 



In the early spring, as soon as the 

 weather permits, he is anxious to make 

 a thorough examination of his bees 

 and ascertain whether they have 

 " pulled through " all right ; and tries 

 to put them all in such condition as 

 will bring them up to the best possible 

 shape for the honey-flow later ; that is, 

 he manages his colonies so as to have 

 them strong in bees just at the right 

 time to take advantage of the flow. To 

 attain his purpose, upon which the 

 whole art of bee-keeping depends in 

 producing good crops of honey, he 

 must give his attention to several 

 items : 



First, the main examination of all col- 

 onies as soon as warm weather in early 

 spring allows it, which generally be- 

 gins here in February — sometimes even 

 in January in mild winters, and March 

 when the winters have been severe, 

 although this happens very seldom. 



The colonies are examined — 1st, for 

 their supply of stores ; 2d, for their 

 strength of the colonies ; 3d, for 

 " queen-rightness " or queenlessness ; 

 and 4th, as to the condition of the 

 brood-combs. Of each of these points 

 notes are made in the note-book. 



Colonies short of stores would best 

 be fed on full combs of honey, and it 

 is essential to have these at least 

 partly uncapped. By giving such full 

 combs in the spring it will be found 

 how advantageous it is to keep in 

 reserve a stock of them at the time 

 of the honey harvest for use the next 

 season. I do this by leaving a number 

 of shallow extracting supers on strong 

 colonies the year around. Whenever a 

 " short " colony is found one of these 

 supers with honey is simply set on top 

 of it — an easy job. In making such 

 exchanges of combs from one colony 

 to another, it is very important to 

 know for certain that there are no dan- 

 gers of scattering foul brood or other 

 bee-diseases. Without the combs of 

 honey, sugar syrup should be fed as 

 previously given. 



It is an easy matter to ascertain the 

 the strength of the colonies. If the 

 cluster does not spread over the space 

 of at least 4 or S combs, it should be 

 marked as " weak," and should be 

 united with another colony. Such 



uniting should be practised without 

 hesitancy ; even though the number of 

 colonies is reduced, more attention 

 should be paid toward having stronger 

 colonies. 



" Queen-right " are all the colonies 

 having brood in their combs. If queen- 

 less, they should be united if the colo- 

 nies are weak, while good, strong colo- 

 nies should be given a "laying" 

 queen from reserve nuclei kept for 

 that purpose. If no queens can be had 



at this time of the year, uniting with 

 another colony should be done, as it is, 

 in most of our seasons, too early to 

 rear^oorf queens for such colonies. 



The condition of the combs is of 

 great importance for the progress of 

 the colonies. Only nice, clean, straight 

 combs should be tolerated. Crooked 

 combs, or such as are not straight in 

 ,the frames, and bulge out on one side, 

 allowing a hollow surf ace on the other, 

 are detrimental to brood-rearing. In 

 many cases the cells of such combs are 

 not, and can not be, used for brood, 

 especially where there are no cells on 

 the bulged-out side of a comb. All 

 such combs should be removed and re- 

 placed with frames filled with founda- 

 tion in full sheets. 



Drone-comb should be cut out. It is 

 only necessary for a colony to have 

 drone-comb of a total space about as 

 large as a man's hand, because it is 

 better for the colony, as they must 

 have some of it. This should be scat- 

 tered throughout the hive, hence small 

 "batches" can be left in the lower 

 corners of the brood-combs. 



The 



' Old Reliable " as seen through New and Unreliable Glasses, 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B. Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



New Comb Honey in Cellar. 



At the Ontario convention they as- 

 signed to U. H. Bowen, of Niagara 

 Falls, the part that belongs to the lion 

 among beasts (and bee-keepers), to-wit, 

 the production of comb honey. Was 

 he equal to the job ? Yes. But what 

 did he say that might make the rest of 

 us sit up and woggle our ears 7 Put 

 your newly harvested sections down 

 cellar (! I) — and keep more or less fire 

 there every day as long as the honey 

 stays there. (Ah, possibly that might 

 do.) Page 12. 



Few Unfinished Sections. 



I take off my hat to F. W. Hall. He 

 produced S313 sections and had only 18 

 unfinished. Consider myself " some " 

 in getting my sections finished up ; but 

 I don't seem to be in the same class 

 with Mr. H. Page 17. 



Pure Food Law and Its Effect. 



I, for one, feel a little afraid of the 

 effect of so much triumpe 1 triumpe I 

 triumpe ! over the Pure Food Law. 

 Make us all think that purity and good- 

 ness are sure to come without any 

 effort on our part. Make the rogues 

 all laugh in their sleeves, and set some 

 new sails in the full assurance that no- 

 body will go after them just now. I 

 speak feelingly — squealingly, in fact. 

 I'm an invalid and health-food crank. 

 Before the much-praised law came into 



force, there was one place in Toledo 

 where I could (and did) get abundance 

 of excellent and pure peanut butter. 

 Since the law came in force I sent (not 

 went) to the same place for 2 pounds 

 more. I received the product of a dif- 

 ferent firm, and stuff which I can't eat. 

 Adulterated I'm quite sure ; and prob- 

 ably more or less of the adulteration is 

 grease, which I hold greatly in abomi- 

 nation. Page 25. 



Bees and Poetry. 



Can't you let a fellow have any 

 poetic license at all 7 Yes, we can, and 

 lots of it. But when a poet undertakes 

 to write about bees we are a little in- 

 clined to hold his Pegasus clear down 

 to the actual facts. W'M the poet, on 

 page 27, take notice that bees don't 

 die (except by violence) with pollen on 

 their legs? Furthermore, live ones 

 seldom have pollen when working on 

 clover — and when they do it's not 

 golden but dark-colored. Apart from 

 too much license the verses are nice, 

 and the lesson good. 



Parthenogenesis and Other Ways 

 of Reproduction. 



Many, many thanks to Prof. Cook 

 for setting us right about the claim 

 that other men did more to discover 

 parthenogenesis than did Dzierzon. 

 The other men saw with the micro- 

 scope what they were told they would 



