A PR 11., 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



155 



fllniig- on ten or Iwenly colonies np to this 

 time. 1 can control swarminc: when using 

 these snpers, but it is hard to stop the desire 

 to swarm. Large colonies often refuse to 

 work thruout the whole season when swarm- 

 ing is prevented. 



I hav.e three out-apiaries, all of them ru:i 

 for comb honey. The fixtures are now the 

 very simplest. I use no separators, no 

 queen - excluders, and never Avatch for 

 swarms. I seldom lose a swarm until the 

 white honey-fiow is over provided I do my 

 part right. Sometimes, however, I get in- 

 terested in other things and stay away from 

 the outyards until the bees begin to swarm; 

 but it takes only one visit then^ and swarm- 

 ing is ended. 



LARGE CAPS FOR WINTERING. 



I winter with chaff cushions over the 

 brood - nest. The cap for the 45 - section 

 super is far better for wintering than any 

 smaller sizes. With the smaller ones the 

 bees die off more, consume more honey, and 

 dwindle worse in the spring. 



I have wintered in clamps packed with 

 straw, and in rustic hives with straw packed 

 about the colony, but the large caps and 



covers are the cheapest and simplest of all 

 the methods I have tried. Several times 

 when I was using the small-topjjrd hives my 

 winter losses cost me the price of the large 

 caps and covers, and all I had to console me 

 in the spring was daubed hivas, em])ty 

 combs, dead bees, and a few weak colonies. 

 A few years ago I could easily count a 

 thousand colonies within a radius of five 

 miles of our home; but a few hard winters, 

 some poor seasons, and bee diseases have 

 eliminated these until today I can not count 

 fifty colonies not my own. 



MY NEXT ARTICLE. 



Next time I will tell how I dequeen all 

 my colonies, and keep them strong until I 

 am ready to requeen again, at the same time 

 securing a larger crop than I possibly could 

 if I allowed natural swarming. 



One of my out-apiaries is eight miles 

 from home, and one is three miles. I have 

 always used horses in traveling, but we have 

 an auto truck that I shall use tliis season. 

 This will shorten the day's work very mate- 

 rially; and, besides, there will be no horses 

 to feed and care for while I am at the yard. 



Sand Lake, Mich. 



SPRING MANAGEMENT OF BEES 



oAlways Help First those Colonies 



that Need the Least Help, Leaving 



the Weakest to the Very Last 



By Dr. C. C. Miller 



IN the spring, 

 under the 

 stimulus f 

 nectar and pol- 

 len brought in. 

 the queen is not 

 very long in get- 

 ting filled with 

 brood and eggs 

 all the cells that the bees are capabla of 

 co\vering. LTntil this happens there d's 

 nothing for the beekeeper to do unless it be 

 to see that the bees are kept warm and have 

 abundance of stores. Often, however, when 

 this point is reached, there will be found a 

 very great difference in the strength of 

 colonies. Some may have only enough bees 

 to cover a patch of brood not larger than the 

 palm of one's hand, while others. will have 

 brood in five, six, or more combs. 



There is a gi-eat deal of difference as to 

 the rate of rapidity with which a colony 

 having three frames of brood — let us call it 

 three brood, for short — builds up, as com- 

 pared with cne having only one or two 

 frames partly filled. In the white-clover 

 regions of the North the first will go right 

 along increasing in strength and be in good 

 condition for tlie clover harvest, while the 

 latter will remain stationary thruout the cool 



days of xVpril, 

 perhaps losing 

 in strength for 

 a time, and be- 

 come fit for stor- 

 ing a surplus 

 only Avhen the 

 time for storing- 

 is over. There 

 is a good reason for tlie difference. In the 

 stronger colony the proportion of outside 

 bees needed to keep up the heat of the clus- 

 ter is very much smaller than in the smaller 

 one. "While only a fourth of the bees may 

 be needed for an outside wall in the first 

 case, it may need seven-eighths in the latter 

 case. 



The aim, then, should be to bring as many 

 as possible of our colonies, as soon as jjossi- 

 ble, up to that j^oint of strength where they 

 will go right along increasing. This is gen- 

 erally called equalizing, and generally it is 

 equalizing, taking from the strong to give 

 to the weak, but in some cases equalizing the 

 strength of colonies would be the very thing 

 to defeat our purpose. Suppose we have 

 only three colonies, two of them so weak 

 that, if left to themselves, they cannot build 

 up in time for the harvest, while the tliird 

 is just strong enough so that it will build up 



