]v[arch, 1909. 



99 



American l^ee Journal J 



)^^^m^'\ 



brood-rearing may go on to tlie best ad- 

 vantage, for bees will not breed up 

 properly when there is fear of starva- 

 tion from lack of stores. All colonies 

 should have at least 10 pounds of 

 honey and 15 to 20 pounds is better thus 

 early in the spring. If any are short 

 of 10 pounds they should be supplied by 

 feeding, and the very best way to feed 

 at this time of year is by setting in 

 frames of sealed honey that have been 

 reserved for this purpose from the sea- 

 son previous. There is nothing that 

 pajs the apiarist better than to carry 

 over one or two combs of honey for 

 each colony wintered, from the previous 

 season, to use for feeding purposes the 

 next spring. 



Having the bottoms all sweet and 

 clean, and knowing that all have honey 

 enough to carry them in prosperity till 

 pollen becomes plenty from the elms and 

 maples, there is nothing more neces- 

 sary till the pollen arrives, except to 

 see that all colonies are tucked up as 

 warm and comfortable as possible. At 

 this early period of the season, we must 

 be on our guard about opening hives 

 when it is very cool, and especially about 

 allowing frames having brood in them 

 10 stand outside of the hive for any 

 length of time unless the mercury is up 

 to 70 degrees or above : otherwise the 

 lirood will be so chilled tliat it will be 

 removed, in which case we make a big 

 loss, often more than counteracting any 

 gain we may have made. 



Bees can be safely handled with the 

 mercury at 50, if we do not expose the 

 brood to the outside air for more than 

 from half a minute to two minutes' 

 time, the two minutes doing less harm 

 in a still, sunshiny day than the half 

 minute will do in a cloudy, windy day. 

 Then, if the mercury is from 70 to 

 90 in the shade, as is sometimes the 

 case with the early spring days, we will 

 have to guard about the 1)ces rnbhing. 

 for there is no time of the year when 

 bees are likely to get demoralized 

 through the opening of hives, as on the 

 liot days of early spring. .\t such times 

 it is tiest to wait about opening hives 

 till after 3 or 4 o'clock in the after- 

 noon, when we will work as rapidly as 

 nossilile. and as long as we can see. 

 leaving the necessary vacant space for 

 setting in the combs of linney till near 

 dark, when they can W put in safely. 

 without danger from robbing, as any 

 and all colonies will get things straight- 

 ened up by morning so that they can 

 care for themselves. The one who gets 

 robbing started througli feeding during 

 the middle of hot days in early spring. 

 will not need to be told the second time 

 10 avoid "the very appearance of evil." 



When pollen becomes plenty from the 

 elms and maples, we go over the apiary 

 again, looking after the amount of 

 stores, the gOf>dne-s of the queens, and, 

 if we think that way, clipping all queens 

 which are good enough to keep. There 

 is a difference of opinion about this 

 clipping business; but the most of our 

 practical bee-keepers still think it pays 

 to clip. In this age of non-swarming 

 I do not consider that clipping is as 

 essential as it was when natural swarm- 

 ing was allowed, still, all there is against 

 clipping, is the time it takes to find the 

 queen and clip her ; and I somctim.-.-. 

 think that this is more than offset by 



the ease of finding her when we wish, 

 ever afterward during her lifetime, as 

 a queen properl} clipped can be founi!, 

 by the eye "catching on her," very much 

 more easily than can one having her 

 wings. 



In clipping I generally cut off from 

 two-thirds to three-fourths of both her 

 wings on one side of the thorax ; and 

 for experience's sake I have many times 

 cut off three-fourths of all 4 wings, and 

 from these repeated experiments I can 

 see no difference Ijetween the longevity 

 or the laying qualities of such queens, 

 and those which have their wings as 

 not molested by man. And queens thus 

 denuded of their wings attract the "eye." 

 so that they are sure to be seen, almost 

 without effort, whenever and wherever 

 they come under the vision, so that they 

 really do not have to be looked after. 



Where colonics are found having poor 



queens, which are laying only a little, 

 and scattering their eggs all about 

 through the cells of the combs, rather 

 than forming a compact brood-nest, such 

 queens are killed and a weak or weaker 

 colony united with them, by setting the 

 weak colony on top of this now queen- 

 less colony at nightfall, a !a .-Mexander. 



All colonies should certainly have at 

 this time at least 10 pounds of stores 

 to carry them profitably as to brood- 

 rearing over till apple-blo6m. Don't 

 be a "penny wise and pound foolish" 

 man in trying to see how much you can 

 economize as to stores at this "time of 

 the year, for nothing counts as great an 

 advantage during the harvest, as having 

 the bees feel ricli during the early spring 

 months. Having good queens and plenty 

 of stores, our spring work witli the bees 

 is done. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Rcfleciiofiiy^ 



California Bce-Keq)cr 



By W. A. PRVAL. Alden tjtation, Oakland, Calif. 



Skunk.s in the Apiary. 



The apiarist who lives among the 

 hills has had more or less experience 

 with skunks — I mean the four-footed 

 rascals that come prowling about at 

 night and destroying bees — not two-leg- 

 ged ones that sometimes does the bee- 

 man up brown by robbing liim or tak- 

 ing undue advantage of him to his sor- 

 row. 



A skunk will not tear a hive to pieces; 

 neither will it knock it over in its at- 

 tempts to rifle it of its contents. The 



A Skunk's Bee-Trap. 



skunk has little chance of getting honey 

 from a bee-hive, though it would like 

 to do so very nuich ; the animal is too 

 small to apply sufficient strength to 

 damage a hive. Not being al)le to get 

 at the honey-combs, it docs the next 

 liest thing it can to have some honey. 

 It comes to a hive, scratches about the 

 entrance to cause the bees to come 

 forth ; finding the little animal molest- 



ing their abode they proceed to punish 

 him, or, at least, they imagine they can 

 inflict condine injury to him. They 

 pile into his fur — hundreds of them do 

 to his skunkship's delight — he's so thick- 

 ly furred that he is proof to the bees' 

 darts. 



When the sKunk tnniks he has enougn 

 bees for one time he rolls over and 

 over in front of the hive, thereby kill- 

 ing the bees. Sometimes he will scratch 

 again and bring about the destruction 

 of more bees. Then he picks the little 

 slaughtered honey-gatherers up and ex- 

 tracts tlie honey they contained. Often 

 a colony suffers greatly by such depre- 

 dations, in fact, the whole population is 

 depleted. The constant or repeated roll- 

 ing and scratching in ^ont of a bee- 

 hive, is well illustrated in the little 

 lialftonc here shown. I saw the work; 

 1 made the photo. 



I was on a short visit to Mr. Patrick 

 Keating, near the New Almaden Quick- 

 silver mines a few years ago. Pat has 

 quite a respectable sized apiary, as I 

 liavc stated and illustrated heretofore 

 in the American Bee Journal. One day 

 Pat said to me, "Come up with me to 

 the bays; I want to show you phat a 

 foin burd has been doing in the af- 

 fiary," or something pretty nuich to tliat 

 effect. 



1 went up the hill to the apiary, and 

 over at tlie further end Pat pointed to 

 one of the hives, and said, "Just look at 

 that; did youse ever see the loike?" 



I admitted that I hadn't, and to be 

 pleasant I thought I would cross-ques- 

 tion him: 



"What did it, Pat ; do your chickens 

 come away up here to dust in front of 

 that bee-hive?" I asked. 



"Be off wid yeas; do ye think my bid- 



