98 



THE AMEBIC AN APICULTURIST. 



come filled with a large quantity of 

 young bees, which all admit are 

 the better able to withstand the 

 severe cold of the northern sec- 

 tions of our country. The chief 

 object is to know how this can be 

 accomplished in the most economic 

 manner. We certainly do not 

 want to be obliged to feed a large 

 number of bees at a time when 

 they can gather no stores, for by 

 that means we are making a posi- 

 tive loss ; all we need is to so reg- 

 ulate matters that the force of 

 foragers will be ready when the 

 nectar is ready for them, and all 

 we have more than is necessary to 

 care for the hive prior to that time 

 are a positive loss to us, by reason 

 of the stores they will use for their 

 sustenance. 



Right here is where study and 

 thought are essential ; and this 

 one point illustrates fairly the idea 

 that no one can become a success- 

 ful and accomplished apiarist with- 

 out devoting time to the studj' as 

 well as to the practical labor of 

 apiculture. If one takes pains to 

 learn the flora of his bee-range, the 

 season of their secreting nectar, 

 and the time when no honey is 

 being gathered, he has taken one 

 necessary step in the right direc- 

 tion. It is better to err on the 

 side of prudence if errors are to 

 be allowed, but we need scarcely 

 err at all if we devote the time we 

 ought to looking up the matter 

 carefully. All know that it requires 

 twenty-one days to rear the per- 

 fect bee from the egg, and experi- 

 ments have pretty conclusively 

 proved that the young bee does 



not ordinarily become a forager, 

 till about the sixteenth day after it 

 cuts its way out of its cell prison. 

 This gives us a key to the situa- 

 tion, but if our colonies pass 

 through the winter safely, and are 

 found ordinarily strong in the 

 spring, we shall find plenty of 

 foragers among those that are left 

 over, as soon as the young bees 

 are able to do the house-work, 

 which they can do when two or 

 three days from the cell. Assum- 

 ing the above statements to be 

 cori-ect, and experience teaches me 

 that they are so, the deduction I 

 make from them is, tbat we do not 

 need to stimulate the queen to ex- 

 tra exertions, before about the 

 middle of March, or the first at 

 the earliest. If we do stimulate 

 the queen to excessive laying much 

 earlier than this, we maj^ have a 

 succession of cold days which 

 cause the bees to leave the brood 

 to perish, in order to cluster more 

 compactly, which will bring about 

 a loss to us and dishearten the 

 colony. I need not give any par- 

 ticular dates for the proper times 

 when stimulative feeding should 

 be done, as each one must make it 

 an individual question, depending 

 upon his locality and the state of 

 weather and temperature. Great 

 care is required in the matter, for 

 if judiciously performed it will aid 

 in bringing about the best results, 

 but if done in a slipshod, hap- 

 hazard fashion it will cause positive 

 injury as well as pecuniary loss. 

 "When settled warm weather at last 

 approaches, and no further danger 

 is apprehended of chilling uncov- 



