1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



649 



It surely can not be advantageous to make a 

 new colony where the making of such colony 

 injures the successful wintering of two or 

 three others. People become reckless, espe- 

 cially beginners, and think that number of 

 colonies makes success, no matter how weak 

 they are; but from all of my experience in 

 the past, Ouinby's advice, given nearly half a 

 century ago, which read, "Keep your colo- 

 nies strong" was the best advice ever given 

 to beginners in apiculture. So if you can not 

 make a colony, or colonies, this fall without 

 injuring the prospect of those from which yox± 

 take the bees, don't make the colonies. In lo- 

 calities where bees breed during the month of 

 September, and where a queen is given to the 

 made colony when it is made, as is proposed, 

 one-half the bees, or from two and one-half to 

 three pounds, will do fully as well as the five 

 or six pounds would where no broo 1 was 

 reared after the colony was made. Then, 

 again, if the person making such colonies had 

 the time and means to feed moderately dur- 

 ing the month of September, three pounds 

 would do well enough; for by thus feeding, 

 brood would be reared during the month of 

 September in almost any part of the United 

 States. Where one has the time, and can af- 

 ford to buy the sugar, there is nothing in the 

 bee business that gives greater pleasure than 

 building up colonies of bees ready for winter 

 during the fall. After they have been fed 

 from five days to a week, brood-rearing will 

 commence in earnest; and if you do not have 

 all the combs you wish for these colonies, 

 they will draw out foundation in the most 

 beautiful manner for the person who is will- 

 ing to work along these lines in the right 

 manner. But a half-hearted slipshod person 

 had better not undertake such matters, for he 

 will only make a failure of it. 



UNITING IN THE BROOD FORM. 



Question. — As you have recommended in 

 the bee-papers uniting bees in the brood- 

 form ( I think the latter part of August and 

 first weeks of Saptember), will you please tell 

 us in Gleanings how many Uangstroth 

 frames of brood would form a colony that 

 would be strong enough for wintering, where 

 left on the summer stand, they to be fed up 

 as soon as all brood has emerged from their 

 cells ? 



Answer. — Uniting brood, or bees in the 

 brood form, is better done during August, 

 though it can be done as late as Sept. 10 to 

 15th, if brood enough is put together at the 

 latter date. Early in August, three frames 

 which are quite well filled with brood will do 

 very well for tfcis locality; and further south, 

 or where bees breed up to October, two would 

 do, providing the hives are filled with empty 

 combs or frames filled with foundation. Of 

 course, these combs of brood and bees are to 

 have a queen with them, for the bees which are 

 carried with them will not stay where put un- 

 less there is a queen with them, or some other 

 precaution is taken. And, having a queen, she 

 will, of course, go right on laying, so that by 

 October you will have quite a strong colony 

 where two frames are used. But if you are 



not too anxious for increase, three frames are 

 better than the two. The latter part of Au- 

 gust you should have at least four frames, 

 from half to two thirds full of brood, and in 

 each case the queen should go on one of the 

 frames, and the adhering bees on all of them. 

 By alternating the frames from different hives 

 no quarreling will result, and the mixing of 

 the bees causes them to mark their location 

 anew; and to a greater extent where the col- 

 ony is formed just at night, so that but few 

 will return to their old location. If this unit- 

 ing of brood is to be done as late as the mid- 

 dle of September, then I should want at least 

 six frames having brood in them. I have 

 made many colonies the first week in Septem- 

 ber by taking five to six frames of brood, 

 taking the same from as many nuclei which 

 I had used during the summer for queen- 

 rearing, and taking the queen from one of 

 the nuclei on the frame of bees from her little 

 colony, setting the whole six in an empty 

 hive placed where I wished a colony to stand, 

 when I gave four full frames of honey, put- 

 ting said honey all on one side of the hive, so 

 that, during winter, the bees would not eat 

 their way to one end, and starve with two 

 frames of honey on the other side of the hive, 

 and had the colonies thus formed make the 

 very best for honey-gathering the next year. 

 The mixing of bees, and the giving of this 

 honey, caused the queen to lay nicely for 

 about a week, and the bees from these eggs 

 added strength to those from the brood that 

 was in the frames when united. If neither you 

 nor any other person has ever done any such 

 uniting, it is always well to "go slow" till 

 you are perfectly familiar with the workings 

 of the matter, when you can "venture out 

 with confidence." 



WHY NECTAR DID NOT SECRETE FROM THE 



FLOWERS ; BUILDING SIDEWALKS IN 



FLORIDA. 



I've been endeavoring all summer to solve 

 the problem why there was no honey secreted 

 in the flowers. There have been all sorts of 

 weather — hot days and nights, cool days and 

 nights, dry weather and wet, yet, all the 

 same, nectar was wanting. I've looked at 

 plots of white clover, white as snow, yet I 

 could not discover one bee humming over the 

 blossoms. Sweet clover, white and yellow, 

 had been luxuriant, yet seldom has a bee 

 been seen working upon. either. The reason 

 is an unknown quantity to me. 



In a recent drive I noticed one reason why 

 our bee-pasture is less. Formerly the garden- 

 ers did not use their ground as they do now. 

 At this season of the year, where their early 

 \ sgetables and potatoes had been raised it 

 would be waving like waves of the sea with 

 polygonum, Spanish needles, and other fall 



