330 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



put them in a place where they tell nothingr accord- 

 ing to stone vocabularj-, thus enabling me to tell if 

 thieves or inquisitive people have visited my yard 

 at any time. 



To return: Seeing that all have honey, the apiai-y 

 is- left undisturbed till the first pollen is brought. At 

 this time I look over each hive to see if all have lay- 

 ing queens, and honey. If any are found without a 

 queen, a weak colony having a queen is united with 

 the queenless one, and those short of honey are 

 supplied as before, when they are again left till the 

 trees begin to put forth their leaves. We can now 

 safely calculate on settled warm weather, and the 

 season's woi-k can be advanced more now by an 

 hour's labor than several days' work would accom- 

 plish previous to this. At this time I carefully go 

 over each colony, noting its strength ; and all colo- 

 nies that have four frames or upward, having 

 brood in them, are incited to greater brood-rearing 

 byhavingtheir frames of brood reversed, by placing 

 the two frames having the most brood in them on 

 the outside, and those having the least, in the cen- 

 ter. This does not spread the brood properly, but 

 causes the queen to fill the outside combs of brood, 

 Avhich are now in the center, with eggs more fully 

 than were the center ones before, thus giving frames 

 compact with brood, instead of small batches of 

 brood in many frames, thereby economizing the 

 heat of the cluster of bees. Those not having four 

 frames having brood in them are shut on to what 

 frames of brood thej^ do have, together with a frame 

 of honey, by means of a division-board. The amount 

 of honey is also noted, the proliflcness of the queen, 

 etc., and the stones are used in various positions on 

 the cap, to tell the condition of each, inside, and 

 also what should nex t be done. In a week I again 

 go over those having their brood reversed, this time 

 putting a frame of honey or a comb of syrup in the 

 center of the brood-nest. As the bees remove this 

 honey or syrup, the queen is fed and the comb 

 quickly filled with eggs from top to bottom. I for- 

 got to say, if sealed honey is used the cells are 

 broken by passing a knife flatwise over them. It 

 will be seen that thus far the combs of pollen ne.xt 

 the brood hold the same position to the brood that 

 they have heretofore, and they are not disturbed 

 till all the other frames are filled with brood, when 

 they are placed in the center to have the pollen ex- 

 changed for brood by the bees. Thus each week 

 the brood is reversed, or frames of honey placed in 

 the center till all is filled with brood. Bj' this time 

 the stronger of the weak colonies (those I shut up 

 with the division-board) have then three or four 

 combs filled with brood from bottom to top, when 

 they are quickly built up by giving fi'ames of 

 hatching brood taken from those already having a 

 hive full. Thus all are made strong for the harvest. 

 This, in short, is my mode of management previous 

 to swarming or the busy season. 



Borodino, N. Y., May, 1884. G. M. Doolitti.e. 



Eriend D., we have often used stones on 

 top of the hives to indicate something, much 

 as you do, but I never before thought of 

 having tlie position of the stone liave also a 

 special meaning. This may be an interest- 

 ing item to many of us. — In regard to spread- 

 ing brood, with the number of frosts we liave 

 here in April, and even into May sometimes, 

 I liave about settled down to the idea that 

 spreading the brood-nest, and putting a sin- 

 gle clean worker comb in at a time was about 



enough. If the hive is pretty full of bees, 

 they will crowd over on to this comb so as 

 to cover it pretty well the first day. One 

 great advantage of this is, that the queen 

 can go to work and fill this comb with eggs 

 that will hatch out almost at the same time. 

 This gives the bees an opportunity of caring 

 for the brood with less running about than 

 thev would have to do otherwise. 



FHOM 16 TO 51, AND 3600 LBS. HONEY. 

 The Way Friend Balch Did It. 



u. 



SEE REPORT ON PAGE 23, JAN. NO. 



TES, pa, you will have to write an article so 

 ii long;" and he stretched out his arms 

 ^I^ nearly full length, as he read the postal 

 ■^ asking me to tell how I got that wonder- 

 ful yield of honey and increase. 



" Yes," I exclaimed,, " I am very sorry indeed that 

 I gave that report; and more so, to think I promised 

 to tell how it was obtained, as it will not be of much 

 account to the experienced ; and I fear the beginner 

 will get into trouble if he feeds outdoors as I do, es- 

 pecially if he has blacks or some of the new races of 

 bees." Now I will try to confine myself to the text, 

 and in as few and simple words as I can, convey my 

 thoughts. You must not ask me what kind of hive 

 I use, neither what kind of bees; and above all, do 

 not ask me to send you a queen, as I do not rear any 

 for sale ; past experience has proven to me I can not 

 rear a good queen for Sl.OO; if ever I do, I will ad- 

 vertise. 



As I said in my report, I was badly reduced last 

 spring, having only 16 colonics in all; 6 were strong 

 —too strong to ship, in safety, and the other 10 too 

 weak to think of selling at all. Here comes the first 

 throh that aroused me. Wife says, " I am so glad 

 you have no more bees this spring to care for, with 

 all your work and poor health;" then the neighbors 

 would come along with xuch a grin! It did look 

 lonesome when I took the last lot of bees to the 

 depot. 



I wrote immediately to a friend to send me some 

 bees and queens, if he had them to spare. He sent 

 me 5 pounds of bees, and I bought six queens to use 

 before I could raise my own. 



Eight here let me tell you how many frames of 

 comb I had on hand to start with. I had about 200 

 drone combs, 2.50 worker combs; these worker 

 combs I used in building up nuclei, and for increase ; 

 the drone combs in upper stories for extracting. 



Now for the modus operandi. Scrape out all the 

 dead bees. I use no division-boards nor dummies 

 in my hives; then close the entrance to the hives 

 according to the strength of the colony; not with 

 loose blocks, but with twisted paper, rags, or any 

 thing that will make acoi-k. Remember, my bottom- 

 boards are nailed fast to the hives. The weakest 

 swarm's entrance should be just large enough for 

 one bee to pass at a time, the entrance to the strong- 

 est, three inches by one-half inch. Next cover 

 all the hives with strong paper, if you have not 

 enameled cloth; over that put your sacking, quilts, 

 or whatever you choose, and place on some kind of 

 a weight to make it just as tight as you can. The 

 weakest, I stop in every night; and if it is cold, 

 leave them stopped up until it is warm enough for 

 them to fly, even if it is for a week. Count the 



