October, 1907. 



American Hee Journal 



in weather when the honey-bee would 

 not venture out. In this capacity they 

 would have been important alHes of 

 the agriculturist in the cross-pollination 

 of flowers and in increasing the fruit 

 supply. 



Through the long warm days of sum- 

 mer and while the woods took on their 

 autumn tints the stingless bees, which 

 when they arrived numbered about 

 300, thrived and multiplied amazingly, 

 but the chill, drying winds of the laie 

 fall brought disaster to the busy -n- 

 habitants of the hive. 



They did not seem to mind the cold 

 so much. Indeed, their resistance to it 

 was a matter of astonishment to the ex- 

 perts. What they could not bear up un- 

 der was the dryness which comes with 

 the approach of winter. The hive box 

 was taken from the window into the 

 warmth of the steam-heated museum 

 and honey in abundance was given to 

 the workers, which at once began storing 

 it in their pots. But indoors the air, 

 if comforable from the point of view of 

 temperature, possessed, like that out- 

 side, the fatal quality of being too dry, 

 and though fighting bravely against this 

 unaccustomed and impossible condition, 

 the bees one by one died off, until now 

 none remains. 



Of late we have not heard much about 

 the stingless bees, through the columns 

 of the apicultural press, and it seems we 

 have to "go away from home to get 

 news." Just how much of the forego- 

 ing is truth, and how much is reporter's 

 twaddle, would be interesting to know. 

 Who can give us the necessary in- 

 formation? 



Bee-Management for Beginners 



The month of May, 1907, has been 

 perhaps the most backward for the 

 bees, as well as for everything else, on 

 record. It contained fewer good days — 

 days in which the bees could fly and 

 gather honey and pollen — than usually 

 occur in the month of April. Only bees 

 that had abundance of honey in their 

 hives early in the spring have been 

 able to pull through, unless feeding 

 was resorted to to keep them supplied 

 and to keep the queens laying. Snow 

 has fallen several times during the 

 month, there being half an inch or so 

 on the morning of the 28th. Even at 

 the best of times the cool nights pre- 

 vented the secretion of nectar in the 

 dandelions and other early flowers that 

 persisted in blooming in spite of the 

 weather. 



The beginner who succeeded in hav- 

 ing his bees come through the past 

 winter and spring in good condition 

 may rest assured that the conditions 

 existing in the hive last fall have stood 

 the most severe test successfully, and 

 if he knows just what those condi- 

 tions were, and can have them the 

 same every year, he should never be 

 troubled with winter and spring losses 

 to any extent. But the same conditions 

 do not always produce the same results, 

 and "beginners' luck" often makes the 

 novice's hat too small for him. It is 

 almost safe to say, however, that none 

 of the younger class of bee-keepers has 

 come through the past month with the 



idea still clinging to him that bee-keep- 

 ing is all '"beer and skittles," and the 

 earlier in his experience the beginner 

 learns this fact the better it is for him 



But that is in the past — or should 

 be by this time, if we are to have any 

 honey season at all this summer, and 

 what is no doubt worrying the begin- 

 ner now is, when to put his supers on 

 and a few other things like that. The 

 average beginner seems to have an idea 

 that, as soon as a hive appears to be 

 full of bees, they are ready for a su- 

 per, or top story. This, however, is 

 not always correct. Let us see: 



The super is for receiving the surplus 

 honey, that is, the honey gathered by 

 the bees over and above what they 

 require to feed themselves, and the 

 brood in the hive, and to produce wax 

 (for the production of wax by the 

 bees necessitates the consumption of a 

 large amount of honey). Now, the mere 

 fact that the bees appear to be car- 

 rying in a lot of honey is no sign that 

 they need additional room to store. Per- 

 haps they are not carrying nearly so 

 much as would appear to an mexperi- 

 enced person to be the case, and until 

 clover is well in bloom, it is seldom, 

 very seldom, that the Ipees gather honey 

 faster than they use it, for they use it 

 wonderfully fast at this time of the 

 year. There are cases where a hive 

 becomes so crowded with bees before 

 the rush of the white honey harvest 

 commences that it is necessary, or ad- 

 visable, to add an upper story to pre- 

 vent too much crowding, which induces 

 swarming. In these cases, if the bee- 

 keeper has any dark-colored combs, a 

 hive-body filled with these is placed over 

 the colony and the queen allowed to 

 occupy them with brood until the time 

 arrives for putting on the white combs 

 or the section supers to receive the 

 main honey-flow, which, as mentioned 

 above, comes chiefly from clover and 

 basswood over most of Ontario. 



When the rush of honey begins, this 

 upper story of combs is removed, and 

 any containing brood may be given 

 to colonies which lack one or two combs 

 of having their hives fully occupied with 

 brood of their own. The bees must, of 

 course, be shaken or brushed (brushing 

 is better for combs containing brood) 

 into or in front of the hive from which 

 the combs are taken. If, before lifting 

 the upper story off^, a few good whifi^s 

 of smoke are sent down between the 

 combs, the oueen, along with many of 

 the bees, will be very likely to run 

 below and so be out of danger of in- 

 jury in hnndling the frames. Allow 

 rbout a nu'nute for the bees to run 

 down after the smoking before lifting 

 off the upper combs. 



How are vou to know when honey is 

 coming in faster than the bees are 

 using it? When clover is nicely bloom- 

 ing and you see the bees coming in 

 with heavy loads — so heavv that they 

 often have trouble in navigating, and 

 fall short of the entrance of the hive 

 when returning to it — take a peep in the 

 top of the hive. If you see, between 

 the top-bars of the frames, that the 

 bees are whitening the edges of he 

 combs with new wax, and depositing 

 little flakes of white wax on the sides 



of the top-bars, as if they were look- 

 ing for "a place to build more comb, it 

 is a sign the supply of honey is greater 

 than the demand, and the time has 

 arrived for the storing of surplus honey 

 if there is to be any worth storing. 



When you see these conditions, re- 

 move the cover and the cloth under it, 

 if there is one, and there should be. 

 If running for extracted honey, put on 

 a queen-excluder, and on that place 

 the super of combs or full sheets of 

 foundation. Put on the cloth and 

 cover, and there you are. When run- 

 ning for comb honey, a queen-excluder 

 is not generally used, as a queen will 

 not lay eggs in the small combs in the 

 sections, except in very rare instances. 

 When the white honey-flow begins, any 

 colony which has not yet filled its hive 

 with brood and honey may be con- 

 tracted by having the combs which are 

 not occupied removed and replaced 

 with "dummies" or blocks of wood the 

 size and shape of a comb. This pre- 

 vents the bees from expanding their 

 living-room sidewise and forces them 

 into the supers. If the combs below 

 are left in their places, the bees will fill 

 them principally with honey, before 

 going into the supers. This principle 

 of contracting the brood-chamber to 

 hasten the storing of honey in the su- 

 per is all right when one wishes to see 

 how much honey he can secure from 

 his bees, without regard to how much 

 feeding he will have to do in the fall 

 to get his colonies up to tne winter 

 weight. The writer prefers not to be 

 greedy any more, but to let the outside 

 lower combs be filled solid with th^ 

 best honey there is, which is none too 

 good for the bees in their long winter 

 confinement. Buckwheat honey maybe 

 all right for winter stores where no 

 honey-dew is stored along with it, but 

 that's not in Victoria county, as some 

 bee-keepers have learned to their sor- 

 row during the past two winters. 



It seems early to be talking about 

 getting ready for winter, but if you are 

 going to be a successful bee-keeper, 

 there is one thing you must keep in 

 your mind in all your season's work, 

 and that is. that there is a wmter com- 

 ing. Don't think that because honey 

 is rolling in in June that it is going 

 to keep on rolling until the fall. If 

 you do, you will render yourself liable 

 to disappointment. Clover lasts about 

 6 weeks, as a rule. Basswood follows 

 it (sometimes) and lasts from 2 to 10 

 days. When basswood is done the white 

 honey-flow is past. — ^E. G. Hand, in 

 Canadian Bee-journal. 

 Fenelon Falls, Ont. 



Honey as a Health-Food.— This is a 16- 



patre honey-pamphlet intended to help in- 

 crease the demand for honey. The first 

 part o; it contains a short article on'" Honey 

 as Food." written by Dr. C. C. lliller It 

 tells where to keep honey, how to liquefy it, 

 etc. The last part is devoted to " Honey- 

 Cooking: Recipes " and " Remedies Using 

 Honey." It should be widely circulated by 

 those selling honey. The more the people 

 are educated on the value and uses of 

 honey, the more honey they will buy. 



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