164 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 



until the tenth day after they were 

 grafted. They will then be ripe and 

 will hatch some time late in the af- 

 ternoon of the eleventh day. These 

 cells should be handled very carefully 

 on the tenth day or cells will fail to 

 hatch, or crippled queens will be the 

 result. The colonies you wish to re- 

 queen should be made queenless at 

 least 24 hours before giving them a 

 cell, and if any trouble is experi- 

 enced from the bees tearing down the 

 cells, they should be made queenless 

 48 hours. However, if the nectar is 

 coming in and the weather is fine, 24 

 hours will be long enough. But I can 

 almost hear this question asked: 

 "Why not use a cell protector?" Be- 

 cause if you wish to get the best re- 

 sults in rearing the best queens, you 

 should not use them. 



After conducting some experiments 

 along that line, I believe that many 

 do not realize that one of the car- 

 dinal points in rearing the best of 

 queens is "proper incubation." To 

 secure perfect incubation of queen- 

 cells the bees must have free access 

 to the cells at all times. Cells will not 

 hatch perfect queens at all times if 

 they are allowed to hatch in cages or 

 cell protectors, for the reason that 

 the bees cannot cluster around the 

 cells and keep the temperature just 

 as it should be. Where the bees have 

 the opportunity, they will closely 

 cluster about the cell and just before 

 the queen is to hatch they will re- 

 move the wax, leaving the bare thin 

 cocoon through which the virgin 

 queen may be seen moving about. The 

 cell cannot have -this care if placed 

 in a cage or cell protector. Again, it 

 is of the utmost importance to have 

 the virgin queen hatch among the 

 bees, for a virgin that has just 

 hatched is a very frail, weak affair, 

 and needs all the nursing and atten- 

 tion she can get if it is queens of the 

 first quality you are after. The meth- 

 od just described, if i roperly carried 

 out. eliminates all doubtful features. 

 If it is desired to use nuclei, the same 

 method is employed, only the cell is 

 given to the nucleus instead of to the 



full colony. This will necessitate in- 

 troducing the laying queen to the col- 

 ony, which is another story. 

 Indiana. 



Spring Management of Bees 



By Kenneth Hawkins 

 Spring is the season when the poor 

 beekeeper attempts to remedy his 

 mistakes of the fall before and when 

 the better beekeeper devotes his en- 

 ergy to keep the bees working in the 

 channels of increasing strength, 

 which he provided for in months gone 

 by. 



The three prime essentials of spring 

 management which must be supplied 

 to every colony of bees, have been 

 repeatedly emphasized by George S. 

 Demuth as: "Room, stores and pro- 

 tection." The value of these requi- 

 sites is apparent to every beekeeper 

 who is thoroughly acquainted with 

 what goes on inside his colonies in 

 spring. 



These requisites are the means of 

 providing the greatest strength in 

 bees per colony at the beginning of 

 the main honey flow in your locality. 

 No colony of bees can succeed in 

 gathering the maximum yield of sur- 

 plus honey if they are compelled to 

 use part of the time and nectar of 

 the honey flow in building up colony 

 strength. 



Definition of Room and Stores 



The amount of room necessary for 

 a colony depends on the strength of 

 that colony. Under better beekeep- 

 ing methods, spring finds the bulk of 

 the colonies at approximately equal 

 strength. This reduces the labor of 

 spring management. Room in this 

 case means provision for the maxi- 

 mum egg-laying capacity of the queen 

 and such additional room as may be 

 necessary for the first surplus stored 

 for the daily needs of the colony. The 

 trend of modern beekeeping indicates 

 the value of having all this space in 

 one hive body. The "Standard" 10- 

 frame hive body is seldom ample at 

 this time. 



Most prolific queen bees can occu- 

 py more than 10 Hoffman frames 

 when settled warm weather is immi- 

 nent, and beekeeping practice with 

 present equipment has worked to- 

 ward two full brood-chambers for the 

 use of the queen and the storage of 

 the honey necessary for safely pro- 

 viding for the brood. 



The amount of stores necessary at 

 this time should be more than suffi- 

 cient to feed the brood already in the 

 hive for at least a week, in case of in- 

 clement weather or failure of the 

 early flows. A larger supply is better. 

 This should probably be the equal of 

 not less than four Hoffman frames 

 well filled with honey as a minimum. 

 Running with less, the beekeeper may 

 have to feed at short notice, and fre- 

 quently suitable feed is not available. 



Uniting Weak Colonies 



Where weak colonies are found, 

 they should be united with other 

 weak colonies, until the strength in 

 bees and honey of all the colonies 

 in the yard is nearly equal. The ex- 

 tra queens at uniting may be disposed 

 of at the will of the beekeeper. It 

 should be a very valuable queen to 

 prevent the uniting of a colony which 

 has come through i poor condition. 



Where insufficient stores have been 

 left on the colonies the fall before, 

 the colonies should be fed at once 

 more than they need for at least a 

 week ahead, at the first examination. 

 The writer prefers c.lways any type 

 of feeder which feeds above the clus- 

 ter . Two parts sugar to one part 

 water, by bulk, is an ideal spring 

 feed. In uniting bees in spring it is 

 advisable to unite directly, shaking 

 bees alternately from frames taken 

 from both hives to be united, before 

 the hive where they are to remain. 

 This allows placing the honey and 

 brood all in one brood-chamber and 

 obviates danger of chilling. 



Watertown, Wis. 



Spring in the clover region of Virginia 



From a Polish Settlement in 

 Manitoba 



By H. W. Sanders 



Up here in Manitoba, in spite of a 

 severe climate, beekeeping is on the 

 increase and some very successful 

 apiaries are now being operated. 

 There are many settlements of for- 

 eign-born immigrants and they have 

 in some cases brought tlieir knowl- 

 edge of bees from Europe. At Beau- 

 sejour, in the northern part of the 

 province, is a settlement of Poles, 

 and on one of the farms is a produc- 

 tive bee-yard, in which the enclosed 

 photo was taken. It shows a colony 

 in one of the home-made Polish hives 

 in whicli a great many bees are kept 

 in tliat locality. Tlie hive is inter- 

 esting historically, because it appears 

 to be a "descendant" of the hive in- 

 vented by Prokopovitch, in Russia, 

 back in the 30's of last century. He 

 seems to have been a man greatly in 

 advance of his times and the princi- 

 ple of the movable comb was em- 

 bodied in his hive. He conducted a 

 school of beekeeping in addition to 



