May, 1922 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



325 



There is an old saying in the clover region 

 that, if the early flowers, such as maples, 

 fruit bloom and dandelion, yield well, the 

 honey crop from clover will be good; but, 

 if the early flowers fail, the honey crop from 

 clover will be poor. The up-to-date bee- 

 keeper refuses to surrender his chances of 

 a honey crop when the early flowers fail, 

 but feeds his bees lavishly when necessary 

 during the building-up period. If beginners 

 will see that each of their colonies has, at 

 all times from now until the beginning of 

 the honey flow, not less than 10 to 15 pounds 

 of honey (enough to fill completely two or 

 three standard frames), there should be no 

 question about their building up to great 

 strength in time for the honey flow, so far 

 as the food supply is concerned. If frames 

 of honey are not at hand, the bees should be 

 fed unless they are gathering plenty from 

 tlie flowers. 



In order to learn what he can about the 

 rapid consumption of stores when brood- 

 rearing is carried on extensively, the begin- 

 ner will do well to look into the hive about 

 once a week until the honey flow begins, to 

 note the amount of stores on hand. 



When a Second Story Is Needed. 



In many eases brood-rearing is hindered, 

 just when the colonies should be raising the 

 most, by a lack of room in the brood-cham- 

 ber. Colonies that have wintered well, 

 which have a good queen and plenty of food, 

 often need more room before the honey flow 

 begins, than a single standard lO-frame 

 brood-chamber. 



If extracted honey is to be produced, a 

 second story should be given to all strong 

 colonies this month, even in the far North, 

 and the queen should be permitted free 

 range through both stories. If this extra 

 story contains a few frames of honey, all 

 the better. If combs are not at hand for 

 this second story, frames filled with full 

 sheets of foundation should be used, but 

 these should not be given until the bees 

 begin gathering enough nectar to cause them 

 to build out the comb. When they begin to 

 whiten the upper portion of the brood-combs 

 with new wax. they will usually work well 

 on the foundation. When foundation is used 

 in the upper story, two combs of brood 

 should be transferred to the upper story and 

 placed in the middle, two frames of founda- 

 tion being put below to fill the space, one 

 on each side, just beyond the last comb of 

 brood. As soon as the bees draw out the 

 foundation in the frames adjacent to the 

 combs of brood in the upper story, they 

 should be exchanged with a frame on which 

 tlie bees have done no work, repeating this 

 until all are built out. If the queen now 

 establishes herself in the upper story, all the 

 better: but. after she has been upstairs 

 about three weeks, she should be put below 

 .-ignin and confined there by a queen-ex- 

 cluder. At this time the upper story should 

 be well filled with brood and honey; and, if 

 at the beginning of the main honey flow, a 

 third story should be given, this time lifting 



some of the "combs of brood into the third 

 story if foundation is used. 



If comb honey is to be produced the brood 

 should be concentrated, and the second story 

 should not be given unless needed to give 

 enough room for brood-rearing, for the two- 

 story hives must be reduced to one-story 

 when the comb-honey supers are given at 

 the beginning of the main honey flow. But 

 even for comb honey, many colonies will 

 need a second story several weeks before 

 tlie main honey flow. In addition to fur- 

 nishing room to rear more workers for the 

 harvest, this extra room at this time goes a 

 long way toward preventing swarming. 



Sometimes the bees gather so much nec- 

 tar from early sources that single-story 

 hives become crowded with honey, thus re- 

 stricting the work of the queen; but often 

 such crowding is for a short time only, and 

 the honey is used up rapidly as soon as the 

 supply of nectar is reduced. 



Sometimes colonies fail to rear enough 

 workers for the harvest because the queen is 

 old or worthless. While this can be reme- 

 died by purchasing a queen from the South 

 to give to the colony in place of the old 

 queen, it is scarcely advisable for beginners 

 to do this; for, by the time the failing 

 queen is discovered, it is often too late to 

 secure another in time to build the colony 

 up for the honey flow unless the main honey 

 flow does not begin until July or August. 



The two things of outstanding importance, 

 before the main honey flow are to see that 

 the bees have a superabundance of food 

 every minute of the time and that they 

 have all the room they can use for brood- 

 rearing. If the bees are not gathering more 

 than they consume, they should be fed lib- 

 erally unless they have 10 or 15 pounds on 

 hand, and a little before more room is need- 

 ed a second story should be given. 

 The Swarming Problem. 



When the hives first become crowded with 

 young bees, which in strong colonies some- 

 times emerge from their cells at the rate of 

 about 3000 per day, swarming may be ex- 

 pected. In some parts of the South bees 

 sometimes swarm in March and April; but 

 in the North the swarming season comes in 

 May and June, often extending into July. 



Before the invention of the movable- 

 frame hive, swarming was considered desir- 

 able, for honey was then obtained by killing 

 some of the heaviest colonies in the fall; 

 but, in modern beekeeping, swarming in 

 some localities is one of the most difficult 

 problems with which the beekeeper has to 

 deal. If colonies are permitted to divide 

 their working force by swarming shortly Vjo- 

 fore, at tlie beginning of or during the main 

 honey flow, the amount of honey secured is 

 greatly reduced. Sometimes the honey flow 

 is so short that it passes by before either 

 the swarm or parent colonj'' recovers suf- 

 ficient strength to store surplus honey. It 

 is onlv where the swarming season comes a 

 moiith or two before the main honey flow, 



