332 



April 18, 1907 



American l^ee Journal 



usual white honey. Hence, I conclude 

 that a mid- winter flight this year saved 

 colonies from coming out weak, if not 

 from actual death. 



Thus do the years run. There is 

 almost never a winter in which all the 

 bad conditions combine, for if the 

 stores are bad the bees are more than 

 likely to have a good mid-winter flight. 

 If the winter is severe, then the bees 

 are more than likely to have good 

 stores, and so be able to endure the 

 confinement. 



Let any one who fails to winter his 

 bees successfully put more brains into 

 his methods of wintering. Let him see 

 to it that all colonies are reasonably 

 strong in bees. Let him see that all 

 colonies have plenty of stores — the bet- 

 ter the stores the more likely the bees 

 to survive. Let him house his bees 

 well, protecting them from the winter 

 blasts. If he puts them into the cellar, 

 let the cellar be properly fitted for 

 their welfare. If he leaves them out- 

 side, then let each hive be adapted to 

 keep the bees in it dry and warm. If 

 any fail to winter well, let him study 

 the matter, pondering over everything 

 that could possibly have to do with the 

 poor result. If observant, he will more 

 likely than not find the cause of his 

 failure, and can in future avoid it. 



I can shake hands with Mr. Byer in 

 all that he says in the last paragraph. 

 Though I recognize the possibility of 

 bad results in wintering even with the 

 best of care, I do not recognize any 

 probability of such results. I consider 

 that in the vast majority of cases bad 

 wintering should be considered a dis- 

 grace to the apiarist rather than a mis- 

 fortune. It is a misfortune, and a sad 

 misfortune, to have our bees die be- 

 cause of a combination of circum- 

 stances which lies beyond our control. 

 It is a mighty good bit of fortune that 

 such a combination is so rare that it 

 scarcely falls more than once in a life- 

 time. 



Norwich, Conn. 



Getting Ready for the Honey 

 Harvest 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE 



In nearly all localities where bees 

 can be kept there are certain plants 

 and trees which give a yield of surplus 

 honey at a certain time of the year, 

 while, aside from this, there is little 

 more honey obtained by the bees than 

 is needed to supply their daily wants 

 and that consumed in brood-rearing. 

 Some localities give a surplus at three 

 stated periods— from white clover, 

 basswood and buckwheat ; others at 

 two, white clover and basswood, or 

 white clover and buckwheat, or, per- 

 haps, basswood and buckwheat ; while 

 quite a large number give only one, as 

 from white clover, or basswood, or 

 buckwheat, or other fall flowers. Hence 

 it must be apparent to all that if such 

 a honey yield, or yields, should pass by 

 without surplus, none can be obtained 

 during the season. 



From this it will be seen that in or- 

 der to be a successful apiarist, a person 

 must have a knowledge of his locality, 

 and also know how to secure the labor- 

 ers (bees) in the right time, so that the 



largest or maximum number can be on 

 hand just at the time that the flowers 

 giving the greatest yield of surplus 

 nectar are in blossom. Failing to do 

 this, no one can expect to attain to the 

 highest and best results in the produc- 

 tion of honey, and the object of this 

 article is to set those to thinking who 

 have not thought on this subject, so 

 that they can obtain the best possible 

 results from their bees. 



First, then, we have the location. 

 Here, in central New York, our honey 

 crop comes mainly from linden or bass- 

 wood, which blooms from July 1st to 

 12th, and lasts from 10 to 25 days, ac- 

 cording to the weather. In other locali- 

 ties in this State, white clover is the 

 main crop, coming in bloom June 

 ISth to 20th ; and again in others 

 buckwheat, yielding honey in August ; 

 and in a few localities there comes a 

 surplus from all three of these sources. 

 But as nearly all have a yield from 

 basswood, I will speak of that as the 

 source from which we obtain our honey 

 harvest. Bear in mind, however, that 

 it devolves on the reader of this to as- 

 certain, by careful watching, just when 

 and what is the source of his surplus 

 honey crop, so as to work accordingly. 



When you see by opening one of 

 your hives that the bees are storing 

 honey so that they are lengthening 

 out the cells with new white comb 

 along the top-bars of the frames, with 

 plenty of nectar glistening in any 

 empty cells there may chance to be in 

 and about the brood, then is your time 

 to go out in the fields and in the woods 

 till you find what the bees are at work 

 upon ; then watch as the years go by 

 to see if a yield comes from this source 

 nearly every year, and, if so, work for 

 the bees in large numbers at that time 

 of the year. Do not depend upon the 

 " say so " of some old citizen, for he 

 may not know any better what he is 

 talking about than did the old bee- 

 keeper whom I asked nearly 40 years 

 ago, when I first began bee-keeping, 

 where the bees got their first pollen ; 

 and he told me that all the pollen 

 which the bees gathered before fruit- 

 trees bloomed came from the willows. 

 I believed this till I came to look for 

 myself, when I found that the very first 

 pollen came from skunk cabbage, the 

 next from elms and soft maples, with 

 a still more bountiful yield from the 

 hard maples a little later on, with very 

 little from the willows at all, and that 

 only from the pussy willow, all the 

 other willows yielding honey but no 

 pollen. 



After having determined when we 

 may expect our harvest of honey, the 

 next step is to work for the bees so 

 they may be in just the right time for 

 the harvest. If you have a field of 

 grain to cut, you hire the laborers 

 when the grain is ripe, not before or 

 afterward ; yet in keeping bees very 

 many pay no attention to the matter 

 of securing the laborers, so that, as a 

 rule, they are more often produced so 

 as to become consumers rather than 

 producers, and thus we quite often 

 hear persons claiming that bee-keep- 

 ing does not pay. 



The queen is the mother of all the 

 bees there are in a colony, she laying 

 from 3000 to 4000 eggs a day when 

 coaxed to do this, either by a moderate 



honey-flow being on from the fields, 

 or the bee-keeper so fixing his colonies 

 that the bees feed the queen abund- 

 antly just when he wishes the queen 

 to be depositing these 3000 or 4000 eggs 

 in the cells each day in preparation for 

 the maximum amount of bees just in 

 time for the harvest. And yet the 

 queen often lays only from SOO to 1000 

 eggs daily at the very time she should 

 be doing her very best, just because 

 this moderate flow of honey is not in 

 line with our wants, or else the would- 

 be bee-keeper is paying no attention to 

 this matter of securing laborers in 

 time for the harvest. 



After the egg is laid it takes 3 days 

 for it to hatch into a larva. This larva 

 is fed about 6 days, during which time 

 it has grown so as nearly to fill the 

 cell, when it is capped over and re- 

 mains hid from view for about 12 more 

 days, when it emerges a perfect bee ; 

 thus making a period of about 21 days 

 from the laying of the egg to the per- 

 fect bee. When the colony is in a nor- 

 mal condition, this bee now works in 

 the hive for 16 days more, doing such 

 work as feeding the larvae, evaporating 

 nectar to the consistency of honey, 

 building comb, etc., when it is ready 

 to go outside as a field-laborer, and at 

 45 days from the time it emerges from 

 the cell it dies of old age and another 

 generation takes its place. 



From the above it will be seen that 

 the egg must be laid at least 37 days 

 before the time which we have ascer- 

 tained by watching that our honey 

 harvest is to begin, in order that our 

 bee has the opportunity of laboring in 

 that harvest to the best advantage. 

 Now, if the harvest is basswood, com- 

 mencing to bloom say July 8, the eggs 

 for the laborers should be laid on or 

 before June 1 ; and if from white clover 

 then they should be laid on or before 

 May 10, provided we have ascertained 

 that white clover blooms so the bees 

 can work on it to advantage about 

 June 16. 



But how shall we coax the queen to 

 lay the eggs just when we want them 7 

 There are several ways of doing this, 

 such as spreading the brood, feeding 

 the bees warm syrup every night, etc., 

 but I will speak of the one I find just 

 as good as any, and one which requires 

 the least labor of anything I know of. 



About a week before we wish the 

 queen to be at her height of laying, 

 take combs which are filled nearly or 

 quite full of sealed honey to the amount 

 of 20 pounds or more (that is, see that 

 each colony has at least 20 pounds of 

 stores in the hive), and break the seal- 

 ing of the cells of 2 of these combs, 

 after which one of these is to be set in 

 the hive right up next to the outside 

 combs of brood on either side of the 

 brood-nest, doing this work just at 

 night so that no robbing need be 

 started by attracting other bees than 

 those in the hive where you set the 

 honey. Put the other frames of honey 

 outside of these 2 frames, when the 

 hive is to be closed up as warmly as 

 possible by stopping all cracks, etc. 

 There is nothing that incites brood- 

 rearing like this, as it incites the bees 

 to the greatest activity in removing 

 this running honey from the cells, thus 

 causing them to feed the queen freely 



