THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



99 



ered brood, the rule without excep- 

 tion is to feed whenever the bees 

 stop gathering honey. For this pur- 

 pose but little food is required, two 

 or three ounces of largely diluted 

 honey or sugar syrup being all 

 that is necessary. It must be fed 

 regularly however, and to avoid 

 all danger from robbing should be 

 fed at night and within the hive ; 

 and for the purpose I have found 

 no feeder so suitable as Locke's 

 new atmospheric. This feeder can 

 be so regulated as to allow the 

 food to be taken as slowly as is 

 desired, and for stimulation alone, 

 the slower the feeding is done the 

 better. When the season closes 

 and no more honey is expected 

 from the fields, then the queen 

 should be stimulated to her best 

 work, just so long as she can be 

 urged to lay an egg. By this 

 means we shall fill the hive with 

 young vigorous hardy bees, that 

 can withstand extreme changes of 

 heat and cold, and that will not 

 spring dwindle if ordinary care is 

 used in preparation for winter. 

 I keep my queens laying up to the 

 first or middle of November, using 

 the extractor every few days if 

 necessary to give the queens a 

 sufficient number of empty cells. 

 The young bees are the real life of 

 the colony in spring. I have tried 

 the experiment of uniting in early 

 spring three or four weak colonies 

 of old bees in the endeavor to 

 make them strong enough to be of 

 value, but have invariably found 

 that these united colonies lived no 

 longer as one, than they would had 

 they been kept separate. For that 



reason I do not practise uniting 

 weak colonies in the spring, but 

 rather strive to build them up with 

 brood from other colonies that are 

 strong enough to bear the loss. 



As this article is not written for 

 experts, I do not expect they will 

 be influenced by it, but if I have 

 given one beginner any light upon 

 this important subject, and caused 

 him to reflect upon a matter to 

 which he had given but little 

 thought, my aim and mission are 

 fully accomplished. 



Foxboro, August, 1883. 



BEE-CULTURE IN THE 

 SOUTH. 



Bt G. W. Demaree. 



IV. 



The season with us for white 

 clover honey closed about the 

 middle of July, and was the best 

 for years past. Usually our 

 white clover harvest commences 

 about the fifteenth of May, and 

 continues till the first of July. 

 The present season my bees began 

 to bring in honey from the white 

 clover on the twenty-third of May 

 and continued till the fifteenth of 

 July. The red clover was remark- 

 ably luxurious this season, and 

 notwithstanding this disadvanta- 

 geous circumstance as against the 

 workers, my Italians and thorough- 

 bred bees might be seen all through 

 the month of June working indus- 

 triously at the big red clover 

 blossoms the tubers of which were 

 more than a half inch in length. 



