58 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURJST. 



cells will furnLh aU the'room tlie most 

 ])rolific queen can utilize to advantage 

 for her eggs. Hives should not be con- 

 structed to see how many combs a 

 queen will use for brood, nor for the 

 storage of honey in the brood chamber. 

 Anyone should understand that the 

 more room there is in a brood-cham- 

 ber, the less number of bees will enter 

 the sections. I believe in the crowd- 

 ing theory if it can be called a theory; 

 but haven't we passed the theory stage 

 and reached rock bottom on this point? 

 The more the bees are crowded in 

 the brood-chamber the more likely they 

 are to enter and work in the sections. 

 In order to get the best results from a 

 colony of bees, they should be obliged 

 to go upwards for storage room. Sec- 

 tions placed at the sides, or under the 

 brood-chamber are not practical. This 

 has been demonstrated many times. It is 

 as natural for bees to go upwards for 

 room as it is for water to run down hill. 



QUKKNLKSS COLONIKS IN SPRIXG. 



It is not unusual to find in any apia- 

 ry one or more colonies queenless in 

 the spring. Such stocks iieed not be 

 lost nor the bees united to other colo- 

 nies. Another queen should be pro- 

 cured as soon as possible from some 

 reliable -dealer in the south. This will 

 not be a paying operation however, if 

 the hive has become very much depopu- 

 lated, as in that case there would not 

 be enough bees to nurse and protect 

 the brood. Before the queen is intro- 

 duced, the combs should be carefully 

 examined to see if there is not present an 

 old queen, or a virgin queen which miglit 

 liave been reared after the laying or miss- 

 ing queen had either •died or been su- 

 perseded. If the bees have long been 

 queenless, the fact may be determined 

 by the manner in which the brood in 

 the combs is capped. When a colony 

 has been withjut a queen six weeks, 

 there is usually more or less scattering 

 brood in the cells. This l.TOod is 

 capped the same as any drone larvae 

 (raised caps) but is in the same cells in 

 which the worker be js are reared. This 



brood is the work of "ferti'e" workers. 

 In my opinion nearly every bee in the 

 hive has a hand in laying these eggs, 

 and not one particular bee. If there 

 is a large number of bees in the hive 

 it is safe in most cases to give them a 

 queen, and at the same time take a 

 frame of brood 'from some strong col- 

 ony and place in the brood-nest. The 

 bees of the queenless hive are proba- 

 bly too old to nurse the new brood, and 

 the newly hatched bees will be needed 

 to do such work. In all such cases of 

 introduction of queens, use tobacco 

 smoke. 



AKTIFICIAL POLLEN EST SPHES'G. 



I have always made it a practice to 

 place some wlieat flour in a warm corner 

 in the apiary early in the spring for the 

 bees to take into the hive to start the 

 first brood. 



In order to induce the bees to work 

 in the flour, a very small piece of comb 

 honey is placed in the box with the 

 flour ; this soon attracts the bees. When 

 the honey is gone the bees commence 

 on the flour, which is utilized in rear- 

 ing brood, as in order to rear brood 

 there must be pollen of some kind in 

 the hive. As soon as natural pollen 

 can be found, which is after a few warm 

 days in April, the bees suddenly de- 

 sert the flour. Place the flour in a deep 

 box and cant the box so that the warm 

 sunshine will furnish the needed warnlth 

 while the bees are getting the flour 

 worked into little pellets on their legs. 



On March 8 (1892) nearly all the 

 colonies in the fay State apiary were 

 working in flour. 



FIXKD BOTTOM HOARDS FOR HIVES. 



There are advantages and disadvanta- 

 ges in fixed bottom boards of bee-hives. 

 The advantages are, however, decidedly 

 in favor of the loose bottom. The be- 

 ginner should not make the mistake when 

 jHH-ciiasing hives and get those having 

 fast bottoms. Neither should anyone 

 make the other mistake that all do who 

 purchase and use single- walled hives. 

 Doubled-wall hives are better for both 

 winter and summer. 



