202 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Apr. 



as he lias read an empty comb should be 

 placed in the center, to give the queen 

 empty cells in which to put in eggs, he pur- 



gosely divides the brood-nest. As the combs 

 ad been built by the bees, or at least trim- 

 med and lengthened out so as to give just 

 room for the bees to pass and do their work 

 (letting a depression on one fill an elevation 

 on the next, etc.), when they are swung 

 around and replaced, the bees have all this 

 work to do over again. Very likely, if one 

 should look carefully after the hive was 

 closed, he would lind great empty hollows 

 left between some of tlie combs, and bulges 

 pushed right into some comb, in another 

 place. In the latter case, perhaps a dozen 

 poor little bees were mashed into^the next 

 comb.* AVell, this is not the worst of it. 

 Bees have a wonderful tact for economy of 

 steins in the working season. They put the 

 new pollen for the young unsealed brood 

 right in the cells opposite, that the nurses 

 may have the food right where it is needed. 

 Wliere you find a comb of imsealed larva;, 

 you Avill often see the comb opposite to it 

 one solid mass of pollen-lilled cells ; and if a 

 couple of rainy days ensue, tliis pollen will 

 be all used in an almost incredibly short 

 space of time. Now, what will be the effect 

 of interposinga comb just here, or of placing 

 this great wall of pollen off to some other 

 part of the liive? Madam, what would you 

 say," here friend M. jumps up and turns to 

 John's mother, — 



" What would you say if some one should 

 come into your house some ironing-day, and 

 put your cook stove over in the lot across 

 the way, your basket of clothes up stairs, 

 and your ironing-table down cellar, and tell 

 you to go on with your work that way, for 

 modern science had shown that more and 

 better work could be done thusV Now, this 

 is not exaggerated. As we look over the 

 journals, we fall to wondering why it is, 

 that beginners make such awful work of 

 wintering, while the old hands winter their 

 hundreds, losing not to exceed 5 per cent, 

 and some not even a colony. Is it not rather 

 a wonder that they succeed in getting colon- 

 ies through the summer evenV" 



Here our friend wiped his face with a large 

 red handkerchief, and began feeling in his 

 pockets for something he wanted. While he 

 was hunting, John stepped backward, and, 

 striking his heels against the wooden bowl 

 that had not yet been placed on the table, 

 fell over into it, and si)lit it in several pieces, 

 leaving the candy in nice shape to give that 

 poor colony out of doors. 



John's mother was perhaps the most 

 troubled one of the party, at tliis his second 

 accident, and commenced a most humble 

 apology ; but friend M. stopped her by say- 

 ing he was more than half glad it was brok- 

 en, for the bees would have built an empty 

 coml) in the bowl any way, and that, on the 

 whole, he preferred a division-board made 

 with a cushion around the edge, with a good 

 stout handle attached, so it could be ])ushed 

 into the hive with a sort of revolving motion, 

 making so tight a fit that no particle of the 

 warm air of the hive could get out, to say 



*I have found bees thus imtiiisoncd, and still aliv(>, on opcninp; 

 iv hive fuuriliiys after it hail Ucou hastily closed by the careless 

 owucr. 



nothing of leaving cracks or channels where 

 bees can get through. Here he fished from 

 one-of his pockets a copy of the British Bee 

 Journal, giving some of friend Abbot's ideas 

 about working with hives and combs. Here 

 is what friend M. read to his little audience:— 



WHAT TO DO, AND WHEN AND HOW TO DO IT. 



Increasing THE Brood-Nest. — Under the influ- 

 ence of stimulative feeding' in hives in which the 

 bees have been crowded together by the dividing- 

 board, the breeding will go on so rapidly that every 

 available cell will be occupied with eggs and larvte 

 before there has been time for young bees to come 

 into life, and, acting upon impulse, amateurs will be 

 apt to enlarge the nest to give further liberty to the 

 queen to deposit more eggs and cause more brood to 

 be created. In this matter we would advise extreme 

 caution. Bees that arc well able to maintain life- 

 supporting heat for themselves and the brood (for 

 the brood generates comparatively little and needs 

 the presence of bees) in, say, three frames of comb, 

 may IJlnd a dilTiculty in cold weather in generating 

 sufficient for that of a fourth frame, and its intro- 

 duction would probably do mischief. We would, 

 therefore, refrain from adding the fourth until the 

 population has begun to increase and the chief of 

 the brood approaches maturity, and then we would 

 place the added empty comb by the side of it vro 

 trm. Many writers advise that the com!) in question 

 should be placed between those containing brood, 

 which advice is sound when the weather is sufficient- 

 ly mild to preclude danger, but in early days we 

 would prefer that the bees Indicate sufflcicney of 

 strength to take charge of it (by commencing to 

 breed in it) before we would force its absolute care 

 upon them by giving it a central place. Bee man- 

 agement is like playing a game of draughts or chess 

 — it may bo very easy to make a dozen moves, but it 

 is stupidly absurd to move at all without considei'- 

 ing what is likely to happen afterward. 



"There!" exclaimed he after he had fin- 

 ished. " That is wiiat I call good sound 

 sense. Now I want to tell you some of my 

 ideas about feeding:" but," friends, as our 

 story is getting long, I think we will listen 

 to the feeding part next time. 



ClEA«mC S m BEE CULTURE. 



-A.. I- :eicdot, 



EDITOR AND PUBLISHER. 



MEDINA, O. 



TERMS: $1.C0 PER YEAR, POST-PAID. 



FOR CLUBBING RATES, SEE FIRST PAGE 

 OF READING MATTER. 



3Vi:3E3UIl\r-A., -A.I>IT. 1, 1881. 



Foil the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I 

 not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like 

 a Hint, and 1 know that 1 shall not be ashamed. — 



Isaiah 50:7. 

 » ♦ « 



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