MAY, 192: 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



295 



iuldod above as was done earlier, some bee- 

 keepers take away all the combs of brood or 

 all but one, filling out the brood-chamber 

 with empty combs or frames of foundation 

 and again placing the removed combs of 

 brood above the supers, thus compelling the 

 bees again to establish a new brood-nest in 

 the lower story, confining the queen there as 

 before by means of the queen-excluder. 



During ordinary seasons instead of doing 

 tliis, any colonies that persist in building 

 swarming cells, after having been given 

 every chance to behave themselves, may as 

 well have the queen killed and all queen- 

 cells destroyed; then, after eight to ten days, 

 a young laying queen may be introduced 

 after again destroying all queen-cells. This 

 settles swarming for the remainder of the 

 season and possibly reduces the tendency to 

 swarm the next year, provided the young 

 queen given is reared from stock that is 

 less inclined to swarm. 



NO ONE has even been able to say with half 

 enough emphasis how important it is to see 



that the bees 



Shortage of Stores 



in Spring Still Takes 



Great Toll from 



American Beekeepers 



are a b u n- 

 dantly s u p- 

 plied with 

 stores during 

 the heavy 

 brood-rearing period of spring. In spite of 

 all that has been written on this subject and 

 said at beekeepers' meetings, the lack of 

 abundant stores during this critical time 

 takes an annual toll from beekeepers in this 

 country that would stagger the imagination 

 if the figures could be known. 



Eeports coming to the Editor's desk from 

 widely scattered regions indicate that colo- 

 nies are already dangerously short of stores 

 in certain regions, and in some cases many 

 colonies have actually starved. A glance at 

 the tabulated figures from producers on our 

 market pages reveals this condition, since 

 this month one column of these figures in- 

 dicates the condition of the colonies as to 

 the amount of stores. 



Of course, no beekeeper worthy of the 

 name will permit his bees to starve now; 

 but merely to prevent starvation is by no 

 means enough, for before starvation be- 

 comes imminent the colonies may be ruined, 

 so far as being ready for the honey flow is 

 concerned, by curtailing brood-rearing. Even 

 extensive beekeepers too often make the 

 serious mistake of permitting the stores to 

 run too low for safety during the period of 

 heaviest brood-rearing which, in the North, 

 should take place this month. 



The old way to carry the bees through the 

 building-up period of spring was to feed 

 them daily about a half pint of syrup, made 

 of equal parts of sugar and water, to stimu- 

 late brood-rearing. Today we know that 

 such a meager supply can not alone pro- 

 duce the kind of colonies needed to give 

 good yields. For real safety at this time 



each colony should have not less than 10 to 

 15 pounds of stores in the combs every min- 

 ute of the time that they are not securing 

 from the fields sufficient nectar for their 

 increasing daily needs. If the bees do not 

 have this reserve of stores, it should be given 

 immediately, even though the days are cold 

 or rainy and the bees disagreeable to handle. 

 If frames of honey are not at hand sugar 

 syrup should be fed. It is not necessary in 

 the North to feed a little each day to keep 

 up brood-rearing at this season, but 10 or 20 

 pounds of syrup can be given at a single 

 dose. The friction-top pails having perfora- 

 tions througli the cover make splendid feed- 

 ers for this purpose. The pail filled with 

 warm syrup can be inverted over the escape 

 hole in the bee-escape board used as an 

 inner cover. The packing should be replaced 

 snugly around the feeders. To perforate the 

 covers of the friction-top pails, Harry 

 Beaver of Troy, Pa., drives several small 

 nails through a block of hard wood and then 

 uses this block to punch several holes at a 

 time. Usually, every pound of honey that 

 is given to needy colonies during the six 

 weeks just preceding the main honey flow, 

 is returned by the bees tenfold or more in 

 the increased yield if the locality is at all 



One of the most dangerous practices is 

 that of putting off from day to day the giv- 

 ing of more stores or the examination of the 

 colonies, hoping each day that the next will 

 be more suitable for handling the bees. Too 

 often this results in waiting too long, the 

 damage being done before the beekeeper 

 realizes the seriousness of the situation. 



Many who compel their bees to live from 

 hand to mouth when they should be rearing 

 brood most extensively are the very ones 

 who complain most bitterly about the low 

 price of honey and the high cost of produc- 

 tion, failing to see that the simplest way to 

 make these troubles vanish is to increase 

 their yield per colony by giving the bees an 

 abundance of stores when the workers for 

 the harvest are being reared. In many cases 

 the yield is more than doubled whr©n this is 

 done. 



In the North it often happens that the 

 period of greatest danger comes late in 

 May, sometimes just before the main honey 

 flow. Fortunately, colonies that are really 

 strong enough in the spring to send a large 

 force of bees to the field often gain in 

 stores, while weaker colonies in the same 

 apiary are starving, because the former are 

 able to take advantage of every minute of 

 favorable weather during the spring; but^ of 

 course, these splendid colonies are the ones 

 that suffer the most if the stores finally run 

 too low. 



The beekeepers who give their bees a su- 

 perabundance of stores the previous fall for 

 both their winter and spring needs are usu- 

 ally the ones who are reaping the greatest 

 rewards in honey. It seems to have taken 

 some of us a long time to learn this. 



