754 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1 



■eS^ 





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UNITING AND FEEDING FOR WINTER. 



"Where is our buckwheat honey now, 

 Doolittle?" 



" Evidently all gone. Passed away in 

 about ten minutes yesterday, and the hun- 

 dreds of acres on which it was in such a 

 flourishing' condition j'esterday morning 

 might better have been left unplowed and 

 unsown. But I pity the farmers more than 

 I do us bee-keepers. We lose onlj- a pros- 

 pective honey harvest, while the farmer has 

 not only lost his prospective crop of buck- 

 wheat, but all of his labor, seed, grain, and 

 the use of his land. Such a hailstorm was 

 never known before in this locality at this 

 time of the year, and I hope such a one may 

 never come again." 



" And the loss of buckwheat only com- 

 mences the loss. Oats and barlej' are so 

 thrashed out that the fields will hardly pay 

 for harvesting; corn is in shreds, beans are 

 all broken to pieces, the pods as well as 

 the vines; more than half the apples and 

 pears are on the ground, and what remains 

 on the trees have from three to twenty hail- 

 stone dents in each fruit, many of these 

 dents breaking the skin." 



" Yes, I have seen all of these things, and 

 I can not help mourning. But mourning 

 will do no good. Let us talk about some- 

 thing brighter. What brought you over 

 here to-day?" 



"Well, I had several colonies of bees that 

 I had calculated would build up for win- 

 ter on buckwheat; but now there is no show 

 along that line, so I came over to ask you 

 what I had better do with these light colo- 

 nies." 



"Have they their hives full of comb?" 



""No, not many of them. And that is one 

 of the things which bother me. If they 

 were strong in bees, and the frames all full 

 of comb, I would try to feed them, although 

 I could hardly afford to buy sugar for so 

 many." 



" Well, I would wait till the first of Sep- 

 tember, as we may yet have some honey 

 from an unexpected source. If we do not, 

 then I would unite these weaker colonies, 

 doing it as early as the 10th to 15th of said 

 month, as we never have any yield of honey 

 worth speaking of later in the year than 

 the middle of September." 



"How would you unite?" 



" On some cool cloudy day, when the bees 

 fly but little, or, better still, some day near 

 night, after we have had cool cloudy weath- 

 er for a day or two, so as to keep the bees 

 at home, I would take the weaker of two 

 colonies and carry it and set it right on top 

 pf the colony I wished to unite it with, 



stopping all cracks, if there should be any 

 large enough to allow bees to pass between 

 the two hives. As soon as the cracks are 

 stopped, blow smoke in at the entrance and 

 pound on the hives with the fist till the bees 

 begin to make quite a roaring, this show- 

 ing that they were filling themselves with 

 honey." 



"What do you want them to fill with hon- 

 ey for?" 



" Two reasons — the first of which is, that 

 thej' do not fight or quarrel; and, second, 

 that the colony brought to a new location 

 may mark their new home instead of going 

 back to their old place of abode." 



"Will this cause them to do that?" 



" Yes. A few bees may return and hover 

 about the place where thej' formerly stopped, 

 but soon all will return, so no bees are 

 lost." 



" That is very simple. How long have 

 you united in that way?" 



" Every fall I have a lot of nuclei to unite, 

 left after the season for queen-rearing is 

 over; and last year I found that I could 

 unite bees in this way without loss." 



" But what about the combs?" 



" After placing the hives having the colo- 

 nies in together, as I have told you, wait a 

 few days till the bees have had two or three 

 flights, and have become accustomed to the 

 new situation, when you will go and select 

 out all of the best combs, and those contain- 

 ing the most honej% putting these into the 

 lower hive. In this wa}' you will be liable 

 to secure fairly comfortable combs for the 

 one hive." 



" Yes, I see. But how about those which 

 remain?" 



" Shake the bees off from these, down at 

 the entrance so they will run into the hive 

 with the others, and then you can store 

 these frames partlj' filled with comb for use 

 another year. If much honey remains, you 

 can put an enameled cloth over the hive 

 having the bees in, and turn up one corner 

 of it a little so that but few bees can come 

 out of the lower hive at a time, and then 

 set the hive having the combs left after 

 uniting on top of this; and by uncapping 

 what honey there is that is sealed, the bees 

 will soon carry below what there is." 



" How about the queens?" 



" If 3'ou have any choice, you will want 

 to kill the poorer of the two a day or two 

 before uniting. If you do not have any 

 choice, then paj^ no attention to this matter, 

 and the bees will destroy one of them, as 

 only one good queen is allowed to dwell in 

 a hive at a time." 



" That will be easy, as I do not know 

 that one is better than another. But sup- 

 pose that, when I have the colonies all unit- 

 ed, and the honey all fed up, they do not 

 have enough stores for winter. What then?" 



" Then you will want to feed them till 

 they do have enough." 



" What shall I feed for this?" 



"I would use a syrup made of granulat- 

 ed sugar, as I consider such fully as good 

 as honey, and, as a rule, it is cheaper." 



