393 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



away, his fingers begin to feel trembly, and 

 be wishes Mr. Queenbreeder had clipped her 

 before sending. 



A little advice to such beginners right here 

 may prove to be helpful. First practice on 

 clippmg drones. Learn to pick him up by 

 the wings until you can do the little act deft- 

 ly and neatly, without pinching or hurting 

 him. When this is accomplished, grab his 

 waist between the thumb and fore finger of 

 the other hand. In that position he can be 

 held without injury and his wings be clipped. 

 Now try her majesty the queen. The job 

 will then be easy. When grasping her by 

 the waist or thorax do not be afraid of . urt- 

 ing her, for a very slight pressure will do no 

 harm, as the hard bony substance that goes 

 to make up her corset waist, we will say, 

 will protect her from any injury. After 

 clipping, open the fingers on top of the frames, 

 allowing the queen to crawl off quietly by 

 herself. There are a good many other ways 

 of doing the work; but this for the beginner 

 is about as simple as any unless one uses the 

 little Monette queen-catcher and clipper sold 

 by'G. W. York & Co., of Chicago.— Ed.] 



luitb , 



moiittii 



GETTING THE BEES READY FOR THE SUR- 

 PLUS. 



"Mr. Jones, how did you succeed in pre- 

 paring your supers and hives for the surplus 

 season of 1907 which we talked about when 

 you were here last?" 



"First rate, Mr. Doolittle. I have all the 

 supers cleaned, fixed, and made, that I think 

 I shall need this season, and the sections 

 well under way for filling them." 



"That is good. The winter and early 

 spring is the time to get all our hives and 

 supers ready for the summer's operations, 

 and I am glad you are beginning right." 



"I was thinking this morning that all this 

 surplus of hives, supers, and sections would 

 be of little use to me unless I knew some- 

 thing about getting the bees ready to take 

 the best advantage in them, and so I thovight 

 I would come over and see you about this 

 still more important matter of getting the 

 hees ready, so I could be meditating on it 

 and thus be ready to act when the time 

 comes to put it in practice." 



"Good idea. In fact, our time for study 

 and preparation all along the line of bee 

 work is during the winter months; and he 

 who takes time by the forelock is the one 

 the most likely to succeed." 



"Very good. What is the first work along 

 this line? " 



"My first work is to gee that each colony 



has stores enough to carry them to where 

 the hives can be successfully opened and the 

 combs manipulated, and to know about the 

 strength of the same as to number of bees." 



"How do you find this out in early 

 spring? " 



"This is easily done on some cool to cold 

 morning where chaff-packed hives are used, 

 by taking off the cover and turning up one 

 corner or one side of the covering, cloth, or 

 quilt that lies over the frames to keep the 

 chaff from falling down among the bees. 

 Turn it back till you can see the edge of the 

 cluster of bees; and as you do so. look along 

 the combs for sealed honey, and if such is 

 seen in four or five of the combs you can 

 safely calculate that such a colony will be all 

 right till pollen becomes plentiful, at which 

 time you can open the nive and make a 

 thorough examination." 



"But sujDpose I do not find much or any 

 sealed honey, what then?" 



' ' You are to mark that hive and feed the 

 bees in some way, the very best of which is 

 to set in frames of sealed honey. If yoii do 

 not have such, take out a comb and put in a 

 division-board feeder next to the cluster of 

 bees, when you feed them by pouring feed a 

 little more than blood-warm in the feeder, 

 the smell and warmth of the feed arousing 

 them sufl3ciently so they will take the feed. 

 But remember that a comb of sealed honey 

 set right in there where I tell you to set the 

 feeder is the best possible way to feed bees 

 at any time of the year where bees need 

 feeding." 



"Well, as I have quite a few such combs 

 which I saved for future use last summer, I 

 shall be all right here. But how about as- 

 certaining the strength of the colony as to 

 bees? " 



"After having found out about the amount 

 of honey, just turn up the covering till you 

 come to the first edge of the cluster of bees 

 on one side, then turn up the cover on the 

 opposite side till you come to that side of the 

 cluster, then count the number of spaces be- 

 tween the combs they occupy, and you have 

 the thing at your command at once." 



"How is that? " 



"Suppose you find bees in from seven to 

 ten spaces, you can know that such colonies 

 are extra good ones; and if they have honey 

 enough they will need no further attention 

 except to know that they have a good queen 

 later on. If you find bees in five and six spaces, 

 such colonies are good ones, and will bring up 

 to strong colonies in time for the honey harvest 

 from clover; but if you find bees in only two, 

 three, or four spaces, you may know that 

 there is little chance for the two-space clus- 

 ter to live to see the flowers blossom, and 

 the show is poor for the three-space cluster; 

 but the four-space cluster will be apt to get 

 ready for the basswood-honey harvest with- 

 out much trouble." 



"But a part of my hives are not chaff-pack- 

 ed. How can I tell about these? " 



"This is done by lifting them up from the 

 bottom-board and looking between the bot- 

 tom-bars of the brogd-framea. H the hive is 



