GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



April, 1921 



following their natural instincts as to brood- 

 rearing at this time. Too often, however, 

 something happens to prevent the bees from 

 developing their greatest strength at this 

 time. If egg-laying should be stopped en- 

 tirely for a single day when the queen is 

 laying at full capacity, the number of work- 

 ers that will be ready for the honey flow is 

 reduced by just that much. In some cases the 

 eggs laid by the queen in a single day will 

 result in a half pound of young bees three 

 weeks later. It is, therefore, extremely im- 

 portant that nothing shall be permitted to 

 interfere with brood-rearing at this critical 

 time. 



During the first half of the building-up 

 period it is better if the bees do not crowd 

 brood-rearing too much. The cool weather 

 and stormy days of April may be a de- 

 cided advantage in this respect, for when the 

 main honey flow comes in June it is better 

 for the heaviest brood-rearing to be done 

 in May. Remembering that the bees are 

 more than willing to do their utmost in 

 brood-rearing in the spring, especially in the 

 North, the beekeeper needs only to see that 

 the bees are not hindered in carrying out 

 their own program in their own way. Stimu- 

 lative feeding and spreading brood should 

 not be practiced during April in the North. 

 These, if done at all, should be done some 

 time in May when brood-rearing should be 

 heaviest. 



Spring Protection. 

 Colonies that "have been wintered outside 

 should be left packed until the middle of 

 May or later, if this can be done without too 

 much trouble. Colonies that were wintered 

 in the cellar should be well protected from 

 wind and the covers should be left sealed 

 down during early spring unless it becomes 

 necessary to open the hive. Colonies may be 

 examined without removing the cover, by 

 looking in from below. In some locations bee- 

 keepers find that it pays to pack the bees 

 after they are taken out of the cellar, tho 

 in most cases this is not done. 



Room for Brood-Eearing. 



In order that the bees may rear the great 

 army of workers for the honey flow there 

 must be suflScient room in the combs for the 

 greatest amount that the colony can pro- 

 duce, which in the North may be 60,000 to 

 70,000 cells in the best colonies. "While this 

 number might all be crowded into 10 or 11 

 standard combs, it is usually spread over 

 more. 



For this reason the combs should be as 

 nearly perfect as possible, for imperfect 

 comb in the brood frames not only reduce 

 their capacity for brood-rearing, but they 

 also stand in the way of the rapid expansion 

 of the brood nest in the spring. If a comb 

 which is not suitable for brood-rearing is 

 between the comb on which the queen is 

 working and the other combs beyond, this 

 imperfect comb stands as a barrier to prog- 

 ress in brood-rearing. Drone comb in the lower 



corners of the brood frames and comb that 

 is too badly stretched to be used for worker 

 brood in its upper portion greatly reduce 

 the capacity for worker brood, and when 

 two stories of such combs are used to supply 

 sufficient room for brood-rearing, this im- 

 perfect comb near the top-bar stands as a 

 barrier to the free expansion of the brood 

 nest thru the two stories. 



Stores for Spring Brood-Rearing. 



Most colonies that are normal in April 

 but which fail to develop their full strength 

 before the honey flow in June, fail because 

 of a lack of stores. One of the hardest 

 things for beekeepers to learn is the sur- 

 prisingly large amount of stores needed for 

 the colony to rear the large force of workers 

 required to gather the crop of honey. During 

 the latter half of the building-up period the 

 amount of brood is increased with aston- 

 ishing rapidity, provided the bees have suf- 

 ficient food to convert into young bees. 

 When there is no opportunity to gather nec- 

 tar from the fields at this time on account 

 of cold or wet weather the stores of honey 

 within the hives disappear rapidly; but, if 

 the reserve supply runs low, brood-rearing is 

 reduced to a degree that is ruinous at the 

 very time that the "harvest hands" are 

 being reared. 



In the clover region there is an old say- 

 ing among beekeepers something like this: 

 "If the bees do well on the early flowers 

 and fruit bloom, there will be a good crop 

 of honey in June." This old saying implies 

 some mystic relation between the two, by 

 which it is possible to predict what the 

 honey crop will be by noting how well the 

 early flowers yield. This relation is no longer 

 a mysterious one; for the up-to-date bee- 

 keeper, by supplying the deficiency in stores 

 when the early flowers fail, is still able to 

 produce a crop of honey as he thus furnishes 

 the food which is necessary to produce the 

 workers that gather the crop. 



An Automatic Feeder. 



During the month of May in many of the 

 northern States, and during April or earlier 

 farther south, most of the brood which is 

 destined to make the "harvest hands" is 

 being reared. Whether the food used in rear- 

 ing them is being brought in from the fields 

 or is being supplied by the beekeeper thru 

 feeders or is stored in the hive, the amount 

 must be sufficient if the colony is to attain 

 full strength in time. One of the easiest 

 ways to insure this is to give each colony a 

 second story of combs which are about two- 

 thirds filled with honey. This second story 

 becomes an automatic feeder, feeding the 

 bees only as food is needed; and, in many 

 localities at least, such a feeder, in addi- 

 tion to being automatic in its action after 

 being filled the first time, is usually re- 

 filled each season without cost because 

 of the better condition of the colonies thus 

 abundantly supplied with stores. 



