THE AMERICAN APICVLTUEIST. 



drones were black and hybrids, so I knew 

 they must have come from a neighbor's 

 apiary. Upon examining, many colonies 

 I found plenty of drones for a large 

 apiary. At other seasons I have no- 

 ticed the same thing that if the box- 

 hive men and careless movable-comb- 

 hive men only raised pure bees, we 

 would not need lo raise any drones or 

 certainly more than we needed. 



IX'CK IN IJEKKEEPING. 



There is no such thing as luck with 

 bees ; it all depends whether we give 

 them the required care or not. The 

 time is coming, in fact, is here now, 

 when to make bees pay we must feetl 

 them more. Why ? Because we use less 

 brood comljs than formerly, and force 

 them to store their honey in sections. 

 This is one reason the box-hive men 

 do not run out of bees. Generally they 

 use large hives and do not "rob" tl^icir 

 bees unless they are sure they can spare 

 it (a lesson we might well learn of them) 

 and when they do take honey from them 

 they often cut the honey out at the top 

 of the hive when the bees go to work and 

 fill in drone comb ; this is one way 

 tliey rear such hosts of drones. 



15EGRUDGIXG THK BEES THEIR LIVING. 



We are too apt to do this, if not in 

 thought in act ; we take away their hon- 

 ey too closely and begrudge the sugar 

 to make syrup for them sufficient for 

 their well doing. We don't give them 

 near enough, if we feed at all ; some 

 one has said "twice too piuch is just 

 enough." It is witli the bees as with 

 men ; if they have their pockets full of 

 money, they take advantage of the times 

 and make money, while a man with an 

 empty purse has not the heart to venture 



far. So it is with the bees, a hive well 

 stored with honey gives them energy 

 to push around for more, provided they 

 have room to store it. 



A man who worked a year with Mr. 

 Hetherington some fifteen or more 

 years ago, took dinner with us a few 

 weeks since. He said Hetherington 

 used, in the spring, even when the 

 bees had plenty of honey to carry them 

 through, to extract from their combs 

 and feed it back to promote brood-rear- 

 ing. Is not this one secret of his success 

 as a beekeeper? 



SUGAIiED IIOXKY. 



Perhaps some beekeeper fliiled to feed 

 all he should, for fear he may be thought 

 by some to be feeding sugar to be stored 

 for honey. If we do what is riglit and 

 feed no sugar that will ever get into the 

 sections, we need not troul)lc ourselves 

 what others say. Besides, we need not 

 tell our neighbors how much sugar we 

 have fed, unless it is such year as a 

 failure of the honey crop, and then by 

 telling of it and having no honey or but 

 little to sellj'people can see the absurdity 

 of accusing one of having sugared honey 

 especially if one feeds granulated white 

 sugar, and only gets black honey from 

 his bees as we have done the past sea- 

 son. 



We must keep our bees in good con- 

 dition at all times, if we wish a crop of 

 honey when it comes. We can't always 

 know when it will come ; everything may 

 look prosperous for a crop and a {ew 

 weeks of dry weather will cut it off. Then 

 again when we think it almost impossi- 

 ble to get any honey, some plant will 

 spring up and yield nectar more than 

 usual. 



I remember this was the case one fall 



