FEBRUARY ir>, 1910 



155 



couple of large milk-buckets, and we were 

 on the road to " rescue the perishing." It 

 was apparent that the feeders would not 

 work, or the bees, rather, as they were too 

 weak to crawl to the feeders. What was 

 to be done with these starving creatures in 

 the middle of the summer, with the temper- 

 ature around 60 F. to save them"? We 

 poured the syrup on the empty combs, and 

 shook the bees on to them. This scheme 

 worked fine, and the bees began to take up 

 the syrup rapidly. We filled every comb in 

 every hive, closed up the hives, and went on 

 our way, rejoicing that we had saved our 

 pets from starvation. 



Three days later we again examined the 

 hives, and not a drop of syrup was to be 

 seen. This looked expensive. Could we 

 afford it? Fourteen dollars' worth of sugar 

 every three days, and rain between spells ! 

 We figured that every cloud has a silver 

 lining; and if we could save the bees they 

 surely would repay us next year. As the 

 San Jose scale is said to be a blessing in 

 disguise to fruit-growers, so this bee-famine 

 is probably a blessing to the up-to-date bee- 

 keeper in that it eliminates the box hive 

 and cleans up a lot of foul brood and weak 

 colonies that were a menace to the beekeep- 

 ing fraternity. 



Fall came, and with it an early frost 

 which ruined the prospect for a flow from 

 goldenrod and aster. Feed we would, and 

 feed we must, even if it cost us $5.00 per 

 colony. This would be cheap for good 

 strong colonies next spring. We began a 

 systematic gathe.ring-in to the home yard of 

 every colony scattered throughout our nu- 

 merous outyards for the convenience of 

 preparing them for winter. Weak colonies 

 were given special attention; and if large 

 enough to fill a quart measure they were 



not united ; but every, comb was filled with 

 extracted honey or good thick sugar syrup ; 

 and they were packed away snugly for win- 

 ter. I do not believe it pays to unite weak 

 colonies in the fall, as it is but a short time 

 till the colony united is no larger or strong- 

 er than it was before you added the other 

 colony to it. 



The law of the survival of the fittest was 

 amply exemplified during the jjast season. 

 A few colonies seemed determined to live 

 and sting, and gather some stores in spite 

 of adversity. Occasionally in our examina- 

 tions we would find a colony with its ac- 

 customed vigor and a slight amount of 

 stores, and even some brood when things 

 seemed to be going backward rapidly in 

 most of the hives. Most assuredly these 

 colonies were marked, and in the future 

 we shall breed from them in preference to 

 the colonies that were too weak to take the 

 feed offered it. We have also learned that 

 the goldens are absolutely Avorthless in a 

 season like the past ; and we pinched the 

 head of eveiy golden in our yards when we 

 were feeding and preparing for winter. 

 We have learned that a cross between the 

 Italian and gi'ay Caucasian makes a hustler 

 worth tying to. We divided a colony of 

 Caucasians early in June, putting in some 

 brood from the parent hive with a few 

 combs of Italian for a start. This hive was 

 placed in an all-Italian yard where the 

 virgin would be sure to cross Avith an Ital- 

 ian drone. This hybrid queen bred up very 

 rapidly, and at the close this colony had 

 more stores and bees than any other colony 

 in the yard. 



We liave a storehouse full of empty 

 sections, plenty of foundation, supers, and 

 empty hives, eating southern extracted hon- 

 ey, and have abundant hopes for tlie future. 



Washington, Ind. 



COMBS OF HONEY IN A PACKED SUPER 



BY L. S. EDISON 



In the illustration on next page a novel 

 and effectual scheme for wintering is pic- 

 tured. It is adapted to double-walled or 

 single-walled hives whei'e a telescope cover 

 is used. A regular su^Der for flve-inch-high 

 sections is best. 



The inner boxes or trays are made of 

 thin boards from orange-boxes with •''s-incli 

 ends, and filled with ground cork. They fit 

 flush with the top of the super. Between 



them will be seen two section-holdeis and 

 two shallow frames. They contain unfin- 

 ished sections and combs of honey which 

 insure the colony plenty of stores and room 

 for tlie fiist light flow from flowers and 

 fruit bloom. In the eight-frame super the 

 space admits only one section-holder and 

 two fi'ames. 



Over this is placed a super cover with 

 screen tacked on the escape space, and thei\ 



