1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



393 



heavy, and you find bees covering four to 

 seven frames, you can count such hives as 

 all right till you can open the hives with 

 safety for a careful examination of the combs 

 as to both brood and honey." 



"Why need I vs^ait about this opening of 

 the hive? It woiald seem better to know the 

 exact condition of things at once." 



"It is better that no sealed covers should 

 be moved nor frames disturbed thus early in 

 the season, for it often does more harm than 

 good through the chilling of brood, and leav- 

 ing the hive in poor condition to keep in the 

 heat arising from the cluster of bees. We 

 must be careful here, if we would reap the 

 best results." 



"But if I consider such hives short of stores 

 .I-must open the hives in order to feed them, 

 must I not? " 



"No, not necessarily." 



"How is it to be done, then?" 



"Just set an empty super on the bottom- 

 board, and in this super set a pan or square 

 tin, dripping-pan, or some like kind of dish, 

 then pour in your syrup or feed, the same 

 being about as hot as you can well hold your 

 finger in. Put on top of the feed a w^ooden 

 Hoat made of a piece of J-inch board about \ 

 inch smaller all ai'ound than the bottom of 

 the dish containing the feed, and over the 

 whole spread a piece of an old towel or a 

 piece of cheese-cloth, seeing that the latter 

 lies down so it touches the feed all around. 

 This is to keep the bees from getting daubed 

 or drowning. Now set the hive of bees over 

 the super, and the wai'mth and scent from 

 the feed will cause the bees to come down in 

 masses till they cluster below the frames and 

 touch the cheese-cloth, thus forming a line of 

 bees from the brood above to the feed below, 

 which, thi'ough the warmth of the feed, will 

 enable them to carry up from two to four 

 quarts in a night, according to the strength 

 of the colony." 



"I see. I had not thought it necessary to 

 have the feed warm, but I now see there is 

 an advantage in it. But can I feed at any 

 time in this way?" 



"At any time when the bees are not fiying. 

 To feed in this way during a warm day 

 would almost surelj' I'esult in robbing, and 

 should be done in the twilight of the evening, 

 or on cool or rainy days, and never when 

 the bees from other colonies are likely to be 

 attracted to such colonies as are being fed." 



"What am I to do with such colonies as 

 have only one or two frames enclosed by the 

 cluster? " 



"That is a matter over which some of our 

 best bee-keepers disagree: but the most of 

 them now think that it is best to do nothing 

 with them, only that they be not robbed, 

 through which the whole apiary is often de- 

 moralized. As a rule, if left alone the fittest 

 will survive, and all which do not are to have 

 their hives cared for so that the honey in 

 them is not carried off by other bees." 



"Why could not several of these small col- 

 onies be put together, thus making one strong 

 one of the several ? ' ' 



"That looks I'easonable to the one who has 



never tried the matter; but to those who 

 have tried it, the knowledge has come through 

 the facts in the case, that, nine times out of 

 ten, such united colonies will be no better at 

 the end of three weeks than would be any 

 that survived of those left untouched." 



"That is strange." 



"So it is, and it has puzzled many of our 

 best bee-keepers during the past. About the 

 only way of helping these weak colonies 

 seems to be the giving to them a frame of 

 brood where lots of young bees are just 

 emerging, taking their combs all away but 

 two of honey, and putting the frame of 

 emei'ging brood between these comics of hon- 

 ey, and confining the whole to these three 

 combs by means of a dummy and warm 

 blankets around the whole, thus keeping 

 them warm till the young bees are able to 

 care for more room." 



"Why would that not be a better plan than 

 eithel- uniting or letting them take their 

 chances? " 



"At first glance it would; but after repeat- 

 ed trials it is generally found that, with the 

 exception of saving some extra good queen, 

 or for some special reason for wanting to 

 save just that one colony, the taking of that 

 frame of brood away from the stronger col- 

 ony thus early in the season does more dam- 

 age to the strong one than is gained by sav- 

 ing the weak one; and, besides, it often hap- 

 pens that the bees that were in the weak col- 

 ony die before the young bees from the brood 

 become old, and strong enough to care for 

 things, and so we not only lose our weak col- 

 ony Ijut this frame of brood from the strong- 

 er, making a loss of the whole thing, and 

 having only our labor for our _pains." 



BUCKAVHEAT AS A HONEY-PRODUC- 

 ER. 



The Conditions that Control the Flow of 

 Nectar; the Season more Important than 

 the Amount of Bloom; Overstocking;; 

 Preparing for Winter in July. 



BY E. W. ALEXANDER. 



In the June 1st issue of Gleanings I no- 

 ticed the following questions: "How many 

 colonies will 60 acres of buckwheat support, 

 or how much honey can be gathered from 

 it?" As the editor calls my especial atten- 

 tion to this question I will give some of my 

 experience in keeping bees m buckwheat lo- 

 cations. I first wish to say that this question 

 never can be answered exactly; the px'inci- 

 pal reason is that, during the time that buck- 



