April 11, 1907 



301 



American ^ae Journal 





spring Management of Bees 



BV C. M. DOOLITTLE. 



In a letter lying before me I find these 

 words: 



" Will Mr. Doolittle please tell us 

 through the columns of the American 

 Bee Journal what should be done from 

 early spring to the first flow of nectar 

 which gives a surplus, which is white 

 clover in my locality ? I winter my bees 

 in the cellar, and I wish you to begin 

 with the setting from the cellar." 



Some of the articles which I have 

 written lately cover much of this 

 ground, but perhaps I can make matters 

 a little more plain if I try again. As I 

 take it for granted that the questioner 

 has only his one home-yard of bees, I 

 will tell, or answer, him from that stand- 

 point, rather than from the standpoint 

 of out-apiaries. I always set out my 

 bees at the home-yard alone, so have a 

 spring wheelbarrow with a few thick- 

 nesses of old carpet or old blankets on 

 it, so that the bees will experience no 

 jar from running the wheelbarrow rap- 

 idly. This padded barrow and a lighted 

 smoker are left at the door of the cel- 

 lar, when the cellar door is carefully 

 opened and I quickly step in, bringing 

 out the hive nearest the door, and plac- 

 ing it on the wheelbarrow, quickly shut- 

 ting the door again, so that those re- 

 maining in the cellar may not be aroused 

 by the light and outside air coming 

 in on them. 



The bees in the hive now begin to 

 realize that their long winter nap is at 

 an end, and if I took no precautions, 

 they would be out of the hive and in the 

 air before I could wheel them to the 

 stand they were to occupy, many of 

 them losing their home, and stinging 

 me badly. To avoid this, I blow 4 or 5 

 puffs of smoke in at the entrance, clos- 

 ing the same by putting a wet cotton- 

 cloth of suitable size sufficient to cover 

 it without any special work of tuck- 

 ing it about, when this colony is rapidly 

 wheeled to where it is to stand for the 

 season. A few more puffs of smoke is 

 given them, when the hive is set upon 

 its stand and the entrance adjusted to 

 suit the size of the colony, which can 

 be very nearly told by the amount of 

 buzzing that occurs on the blowing in 

 of the smoke. 



With this treatment the bees will com- 

 mence to fly as leisurely as they would 

 had they been on the summer stand all 

 winter, and mark their location as per- 

 fectly, so that we have no mixing of 

 bees, etc. ; while, had not the smoke 

 been given they would have all piled 

 out of the hive with a rush. This go- 



ing out slowly is of great advantage to 

 them in marking their location and re- 

 pelling robbers. 



As soon as set out, the next work is 

 to see that all have plenty of stores; 

 and if in a tight-bottomed hive, clean 

 off the bottom-boards. As I use a loose 

 bottom-board it is placed on the wheel- 

 barrow to set the hive on, so I do not 

 have to disturb the bees afterward on 

 this account. 



To find out about the honey or stores, 

 the first cool morning go to the hive, 

 take ofT the cover, and carefully raise 

 the quilt or honey-board, and look for 

 sealed honey along the top-bars of the 

 frames. If plenty is seen they are all 

 right till they are to be carefully looked 

 after 3 weeks later. If little or none is 

 seen, they must be fed ; for, if we are 

 to reap good results from our bees they 

 must have plenty of stores at this time 

 of the year to encourage brood-rearing. 



For feeding at this time, I prefer 

 combs of sealed honey set in next the 

 cluster, to anything else; and it should 

 be the duty of every apiarist to set 

 apart combs from the extracting hives 

 each year, which are filled with honey, 

 sealed over, especially for this spring 

 feeding. If none such can be had, we 

 must feed sugar syrup, or liquid honey, 

 if we have it ; but the feeding of liquid 

 sweets, thus early in the season, en- 

 tices many bees out to perish in unfav- 

 orable vi'eather, and tends to promote 

 robbing, beyond anything else. 



Three weeks later the hives are to 

 be opened generally for the first time, 

 the goodness of the queen looked after, 

 and the amount of stores on hand, and 

 to see that the brood-nest is located in 

 the center of the hive. For years I have 

 noticed that brood will not go forward 

 nearly so rapidly where the brood-nest 

 is located next to one side of the hive 

 in early spring, for as the bees increase 

 their brood, it seems natural for them 

 to do this from either side alike, and 

 where the first brood is reared but one 

 or 2 combs away from one side of the 

 hive, after a little they can only extend 

 the brood in one way, on account of the 

 other side of the brood-nest reaching 

 the side of the hive. Where I find brood 

 thus located at this time, I always set it 

 over to the center of the hive, and 

 whether I so find or not, I now place 

 2 combs which are the fullest of honey 

 next each side of the brood-nest, one on 

 either side, which helps . brood-rearing 

 along amazingly. 



The great trouble in forcing early 

 brood-rearing, so as to have it in time 

 so that the maximum amount of brood 

 shall be emerged into bees in time for 



the harvest of honey from white clover, 

 seems to be to get the bees to feed 

 the queen prepared food in sufficient 

 quantities so that she will lay prolificly 

 quite early in the season; and the plac- 

 ing of combs of scaled honey next to 

 the bees in this way causes them to 

 remove the honey as brood-rearing goeS 

 on, and, in thus removing, more food 

 is prepared than would otherwise be the 

 case ; and having the food prepared, the 

 queen is liberally fed. 



The scrimping of honey in any col- 

 ony now, is to be "penny wise and pound 

 foolish," for unless there is either plenty 

 of honey in the hives, or plenty coming 

 in from the fields, brood-rearing will go 

 slowly, which means comparatively few 

 bees in time for the harvest. I want 

 as much as 20 pounds of honey to each 

 colony at this time of the year, so that 

 they will not scrimp in feeding the 

 queen or the larvs now. 



As it is about y; days between the 

 Hme of the laying of the egg and the 

 time the worker-bee goes out as a field- 

 laborer, I try, if possible on account of 

 weather, to have all the colonies fixed as 

 above 6 weeks before the white clover 

 opens enough for the bees to work on 

 it to advantage. 



As the colony increases in size, the 

 entrance should be enlarged so that 

 there is no crowding out of the bees, 

 nor any great amount of fanning done 

 at the entrance. In all of this work 

 with the bees, it is well, each time a 

 hive is opened, to see that it is closed 

 as tightly as possible, so that no cracks 

 are left to allow the wind to blow into 

 the hive, or heat from the hive be car- 

 ried out into the outer air. To be sure, 

 the bees seem to be able to confine the 

 most of the heat inside of the cluster, 

 but, in a certain sense, the warmer the 

 hive, the more brood there will be 

 reared. The bees seem able to raise 

 the temperature inside the cluster up 

 to the breeding-point, which is about 

 95 degrees above zero, while that sur- 

 rounding this cluster is only 40 to 50; 

 but, as a rule, the higher the tempera- 

 ture on the outside of the cluster, the 

 more brood will be reared inside the 

 same. Therefore it is always well to 

 lay emphasis on the matter of keeping 

 the interior of the hive as warm as pos- 

 sible during the spring months. 



Borodino, X. Y. 



Queen-Rearing and Nucleus 

 Management 



BY F. L. DAY. 



On page 194 Dr. Miller and "Iowa"' 

 discuss my method of queen-rearing, as 

 briefly mentioned on page 7. In jus- 

 tice to them as well as to myself, I will 

 explain the matter more fully. 



Dr. Miller suggests that my failure 

 to secure laying queens in the 4 nuclei 

 in question, was because of commencing 

 too early in the season; but such was 

 not the case, for I obtained a laying 

 queen in each of the 4 nuclei from the 

 first lot of cells given them. The trouble 

 came later. 



