406 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



by such flowery tales as some writers 

 would have us believe. Then the bees 

 kept by most farmers are allowed to re- 

 queen themselves from scrub stock, and 

 are (to use a street phrase) " holy ter- 

 rors " to have around, and are a source 

 of constant annoyance to the practical 

 apiarist whose yard is within range of 

 their flight, and who wishes to keep the 

 improved and more desirable races of 

 bees, that are a pleasure to behold. 



But perhaps the greatest evil which is 

 being done by this slip-shod class of so- 

 called bee-keepers, is that when they do 

 perchance have a colony of bees that 

 happens to be in the proper condition to 

 store a little honey, they remove it from 

 the hive and start for town forthwith, 

 not even stopping to scrape the propolis 

 from the sections before selling it for 

 what they are offered (which is usually 

 an insignificant sum), and take it in 

 trade, thus establishing a price which 

 the bee-keeper cannot raise, and. when 

 asked why they sold so low, they will 

 tell you, " Well, I didn't have but a lit- 

 tle, and thought it wouldn't pay to 

 bother much with it." 



Now let us see how it is with the 

 dealer in supplies. Do such men make 

 profitable customers for them ? Again, 

 I say no ; and why? Because (a woman's 

 reason) they don't want much any way, 

 and seldom order that little until it is 

 too late lo use it, and then grumble and 

 find fault because they do not get it the 

 next day ; whereas, the successful bee- 

 keeper estimates ahead what he expects 

 to need, and orders accordingly, when a 

 few days of unavoidable delay may not 

 cause so much worry and disappoint- 

 ment. Why, even such men as Doolittle 

 realize this fully, as told by him when he 

 says that a box-hive is as good for a 

 farmer as any, or words to that effect ! 



In conclusion, I believe that most 

 farmers can buy a sufficient quantity of 

 honey for family use much cheaper than 

 they can produce it, and if more of them 

 would practice this plan, I believe much 

 good would eventually come of it, and 

 no fear of any lack of bees to fertilize 

 the blossoms of fruit, for in nearly every 

 neighborhood there would be a fair and 

 encouraging outlook for some experi- 

 enced and progressive bee-keeper, who 

 in turn, no doubt, would not be slow to 

 improve the opportunity thus offered 

 him. 



West Galway, N. Y. 



Important Fall Operations for 

 Wintering Bees. 



Written fo7' the ''Country Gentlenuin ■'' 

 BY W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



Have You Read the wonderful book 

 Premium offers on page 889 ? 



Winter comes creeping on apace and 

 will soon be here. It is none too soon 

 to be making preparations for the win- 

 tering of bees. " An ounce of preven- 

 tion is worth a pound of cure," and now 

 is the time when the prevention part of 

 the programme may be carried out. In 

 most parts of the country the honey- 

 flow is over. Where there has been a 

 good fall flow of honey there wil) prob- 

 ably be no necessity of feeding ; other- 

 wise it is wisdom to examine all colonies 

 as to the amount of stores on hand. It 

 is not necessary to even weigh every 

 colony ; weigh an empty hive and a set 

 of empty combs. To this weight add 

 about five pounds for the weight of the 

 bees and what bee-bread there may be 

 in the combs. Then decide upon how 

 much honey should be allowed .to each 

 colony. 



Most authorities advise 20 pounds for 

 in-door wintering, and 25 or 30 for out- 

 door. With 8-frarae Langstroth hives, 

 I have usually allowed 5 pounds less 

 than this, but have sometimes been 

 obliged to feed the bees in the spring, or 

 else equalize their stores. It is well- 

 known that some colonies consume much 

 more in winter than do others. By ex- 

 amining them all in the spring, and 

 equalizing the stores, spring feeding is 

 seldom needed. 



AMOUNT OF WINTER STORES. 



Supposing that an empty hive and 

 combs weigh 15 pounds, and the bees 5 

 pounds, then, for in-door wintering each 

 colony ought to weigh at least 35 

 pounds. Weigh several hives until one 

 is found that weighs this amount. 

 " Heft " it carefully several times until 

 the weight becomes impressed upon the 

 muscles and brain. This hive is now 

 the pattern. By going through the yard 

 and lifting the hives it can quickly be 

 determined which are much heavier or 

 lighter than the "pattern." It may 

 sometimes be necessary to return to the 

 original hive and try it occasionally, to 

 strengthen the memory. It may be 

 necessary to weigh those that are so 

 near the required weight that there is 

 doubt as to the amount of stores they 

 contain. 



This method of guessing the weight of 

 a colony with considerable accuracy was 

 suggested to me by Mr. R. L. Taylor, 



