G22 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



draft a list of premiums and present 

 them to tlie managers of desirable 

 agricultural societies and endeavor to 

 get them incorporated into the cata- 

 logues of those societies Passed. 



The meeting then adjourned, for 

 lunch, till 2 p. m. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



Tlie following new members were 

 enrolled : P. F. Reiman, I'edrick- 

 town, N. J. ; C. AV. M. Burroughs, 

 Hillsboro, N. J. ; E. K. Dean, Amenia 

 Union, N. Y. ; W. B. Treadwell, Riv- 

 erdale, N. Y. 



The following was then read by Mr. 

 J. II. M. Cook, of Caldwell, N. J., on 



THE SPEING MANAGEMENT OF THE 

 APIARY. 



I select the subject of spring man- 

 agement because I believe that this 

 is the season when our bees reqiure 

 the most careful attention, and that 

 our crop of honey will depend very 

 much on the skillful management of 

 the apiary at this season. I use the 

 term apiary because I think that a 

 large number of colonies can be man- 

 aged to better advantage than a few, 

 and if I can be the means of eliciting 

 your hearty discussion and severe 

 criticism, I will not have written in 

 vain. I will state that the object to 

 be obtained, and for which the meth- 

 ods described directed, is the produc- 

 tion of comb honey. I advance no 

 idea, but such as I have put to a prac- 

 tical test, and proven successful. 



A\^e will suppose that our bees have 

 been wintered on their summer 

 stands, as is the usual practice in 

 New Jersey, and are in fait condition. 

 We cannot expect tliat they will all 

 be in equally good condition — at least, 

 I have never found tliem so. There 

 are numerous causes to create this 

 difference in our colonies, which we 

 cannot control ;is we would like, and 

 we must take facts as they fire. I 

 would make a general inspection of 

 the colonies, about the 20th of March, 

 or as soon as the weather is warm 

 enough to allow the bees to fly and I'e- 

 tiirn to their hives, without being 

 chilled, and ascertain their condition, 

 making a note of it for future refer- 

 ence. :md remove all drone comb, if 

 any lias Ijcen allowed to remain. If 

 any arc found short of stores, they 

 should be supplied. This can be done 

 by removing the empty combs, and 

 replacing theni with full ones, or 

 combs tilled with s;igar syrup. If any 

 are queenless, they must be supplied 

 with queens in soine manner, being 

 careful to I'eturu the chafi' or other 

 pac'king to keep out the cold wind. 



I do not think much of upward \ en- 

 tilation at this season. If we are sure 

 that all have plenty of stores, we 

 need not visit them again until the 

 weather is settled and "warm enougli 

 to remove the packing, and otherwise 

 clean the hive, which we can generally 

 do about the middle of April. AVe are 

 then ready to commence the cam- 

 paign. The old adage of the plow- 

 man, "To make liasle slowly," is 

 equally aiiplicable to the bee-keeper, 

 as it is very injurious to expose our 

 bees to cold in early spring. We 

 should now examine each hive about 

 once a week, .spread the brood and 



place a comb of uncapped honey in 

 the centre, which will cause the bees 

 to feed the queen, and induce her to 

 lay more eggs, and also give her an 

 opportunity to lay in the centre of the 

 brood-nest." Butthe spreading of the 

 brood must lie done with care and 

 judgment, as the brood will get 

 chilled, if the colony is not strong 

 with bees. 



I would not advise spreading it if 

 there is not brood in four frames, and 

 then not to place in more than one 

 comi) in tlie centre. The stronger the 

 colony, the faster you can increase it. 

 " Ifnto him that hath shall be given.'" 

 By this means we will get our large 

 colonies strong enough to receive liie 

 surplus boxes in fruit-blossom time. 

 As the fruit-blossoms are beginning 

 to open, I would put the sections oh 

 all colonies that have the brood-cham- 

 ber three-fourtlis full of brood, and 

 well-fllled with bees. Place sections 

 only on top, using only those sections 

 tilled with comb remaining over from 

 last year, as we must not expect them 

 to biiild much comb thus early in the 

 season. If we feed a little just before 

 fruit blossoms, it will be w-ell, as the 

 queen will lay faster, and the bees will 

 fill the empty cells of the brood-cham- 

 ber, and be compelled to store all the 

 fruit-blossom honey in the sections. 



I have, .in this way. secured 2-5 

 pounds per hive of choice fruit-blos- 

 som honey in sections. If the pros- 

 pect of fruit-bUissom honey is good, 

 it will, perhaps, pay to double up 

 some colonies which are too weak to 

 go into the sections. This I would do 

 by taking one frame each from several 

 strong colonies, and adding them to 

 the weaker ones, that we wish to 

 box, but. unless the prospect is good, 

 it will not pay as it weakens the 

 others very materially. 



During the last of fruit blossoms, 

 we may expect our first swarms from 

 the stronger colonies, and I W'ould al- 

 low tiiem to swarm naturally at this 

 season, as I wish to secure all the 

 queen-cells fully matured as early as 

 possible, in order to form nuclei for 

 queens. When the early swarms is- 

 sue. I hive .them upon the old stand 

 on frames of foundation, or, which is 

 better, on combs, putting the surplus 

 sections from the old hive upon the 

 swarm, and removing the old colony, 

 and I divide the brood and remaining 

 l)ees into as many nuclei as possible, 

 giving each a (|ueen-cell and two 

 frames of brood, and place them 

 wliere we wish our increase to stand. 



In this way I would manage all my 

 earl>- swarms until I have about as 

 maiiy nuclei as I expect increase of 

 colonies, and as there is generally a 

 scarcity of honey till white clover, it 

 is well to feed tlu' nuclei ; and I will 

 say here that I would not attempl to 

 increase to more than one-half the 

 number of old colonies, as we must 

 keep our colonies strong if we would 

 have l)ox honey. When I have about 

 enough nuclei formed, I continue to 

 hive upon the old stand, placing the 

 sections upon the new swarms as 

 before, but instead of forming nuclei, 

 I divide the brood among the stronger 

 of the weak colonies, and if I have 

 queens that are old and useless, I de- 



stroy them and introduce my best 

 queen-cells. The addition of the 

 brood to the weaker colonies will pre- 

 pare them for boxing. 



As soon as my old hives are all well- 

 tilled with brood, I would continue to 

 hive upon the old stand as before, 

 and divide the brood among the 

 nuclei, which, by this time, will have 

 young laying queens, and if we add 

 brood, we can build them up very 

 fast, and soon prepare them for box- 

 ing also, and from these young queens 

 and hives filled with brood, we may 

 expect a fine yield of honey. 



As the clover season is just open- 

 ing, we should look over all hives 

 which have not swarmed, and swarm 

 all which have started queen-cells 

 with eggs in them preparatory to 

 swarming, putting on the sections, 

 and dividing the brood among the 

 nuclei. 



After the fruit blossoms have past, 

 I would not put the sections on until 

 the colony had swarmed, or. at least, 

 until the clover season is well ad- 

 vanced, for if we keep the sections 

 oft, they will sw;u'm sooner, and I 

 like to get the swarming done up be- 

 fore the height of the clover season. 



The Secretary asked Jlr, Cook if he 

 was reallt/ sure "that he had ever seen 

 a great advantage to a colony whose 

 brood was "spread" in the "spring, 

 over an ecpially good colonv having 

 plenty of honey, but which liad been 

 allowed to have its own way with 

 arranging its brood. 



Mr.'Cook replied that he very de- 

 cidedly had. The Secretary said that 

 he could not be sure that he ever had, 

 although he had practiced the plan of 

 spreading brood. He had no doubt 

 that uncapping honey in the hive, 

 hastened the production of early 

 brood. 



Mr. Root was desired to give his 

 opinion on this matter, and he said, 

 that although we were sometimes apt 

 to be too anxious to hasten bees in 

 the spring, everything must be done 

 that can be doiie judiciously to get 

 the colonies very strong by the time 

 tlie harvests comes on. 



This was the most important part 

 of bee-keeping. He could winter bees 

 well enough. He did not ask to be 

 able to do it better, but it was a sub- 

 ject of most anxious inquiry to him, 

 how to get his bees strongest as soon 

 as he needed them. The hive must 

 be adapted to this purpose. He did 

 not "leave in all the combs, and the 

 hive must be able to be closed up 

 warmly to what was left.. Here was 

 the great imi)ortance of a correct size 

 and shape of frame. There was a 

 great disadvantage in the long shal- 

 low frame, now attempted to be 

 forced uimhi the bee-keeping public as 

 a standard. The frames must allow 

 the bees to arrange the brobd within 

 a spherical cluster. 



The cause of the distinguished suc- 

 cess of Julius Hoffman, who was one 

 of the most aide bee-keepers in the 

 country, was largely due to his frame, 

 his division-boards, and his enameled 

 cloth spread tightly over the tops of 

 the frames. He uses a frame 11 or 

 12x14 inches, and eight of them in a 

 hive — a grand hive. 



