VOL. LIX— NO. 3 



HAMILTON, ILL., MARCH, 1919 



MONTHLY, $1.00 A YFAR 



BUILDING UP COLONIES IN SPRING 



A Discussion of a Most Important Factor in Securing the Maximum per 

 Colony of Production, by C. P. Dadant. 



I DO not now recall which one of 

 our educators in beekeeping 

 made the wise remark that 

 colonies of bees should be prepared 

 for winter as early as August and 

 September, by seeing that each hive 

 had a good, prolific queen, and a 

 sufficient amount of good honey. 



If those two requisites are import- 

 ant to winter the bees, it follows 

 that they are also important in build- 

 ing up the colonies in spring in time 

 for the honey crop. A good prolific 

 queen, in the early fall, will supply 

 her hive with a plentiful stock of 

 young bees before the inactive sea- 

 son comes. A strong colony will se- 

 cure plentiful stores. So the requi- 

 sites which make for good wintering 

 provide favorable conditions in early 

 spring. 



Since the American Bee Journal 

 has, among its readers, active bee- 

 keepers located anywhere from Que- 

 bec to Florida and from the State of 

 Washington to Washington, D. C, 

 advice upon building up colonies for 

 the crop cannot be based upon any 

 exact dates. The beekeeper must be 

 acquainted with the flora of his dis- 

 trict and plan his building up of 

 colonies accordingly. In some locali- 

 ties the preparations will be made in 

 January. In other localities the 

 bees will be coming out of the cel- 

 lar while the former are through 

 their first harvest. But, barring the 

 dates of the required preparations, 

 the necessity of bringing colonies to 

 the strongest possible condition for 

 the crop is the same. 



Many beekeepers of the old days 

 believed that the worker-bees lived a 

 year or more. The introduction of 

 the Italian bees in hives of black 

 bees made it plain to the masters 

 that bees, in the busy season, do not 

 average more than 40 days of actual 

 life, and that about two weeks of 

 that short space are spent in the 

 hive, previous to active work. 



The eggs laid at a given date by 

 the queen require 21 days to hatch. 

 The worker remains a week in the 

 hive, growing stronger daily, then 

 takes a first flight. Then she re- 

 mains another week in the hive be- 

 fore becoming an active field worker. 

 These dates may be a little length- 

 ened by unpleasant weather. They 

 may also be a little shortened by 

 accidental circumstances. For in- 

 stance, in a hive which has swarmed 

 and lost most of its field bees, the 

 young workers become field laborers 

 earlier. The same thing happens if a 

 division is made which leaves a col- 

 ony with only young bees. Some 

 people refuse to grant the bees any- 

 thing but instinct. That instinct, 

 however, seems akin to reason. 



Since the average time required 

 for the development of the worker- 

 bee is 35 days, we readily see that 

 the laying of the queens on an ex- 

 tensive scale must be begun more 

 than 35 days before the opening of 

 the crop. In fact, to succeed fully, 

 the period of heavy laying should 

 begin early enough to secure a large 

 field force before the opening of the 

 crop. This means the emerging of 

 thousands of bees for at least a 

 month previous to the honeyflow. 



Several requirements must be com- 

 plied with to secure not onlv active 

 laying of eggs, but safe hatching of 

 workers. Warmth is necessary. If 

 the colony has a young, prolific 

 queen, we may depend on her to d'j 

 her duty, if she is fed, as she should 

 be. 



The scientific observers have no- 

 ticed that the bees do not neglect the 

 queen, but feed her as often as she 

 appears to desire it, provided th;y 

 have the food. The food given her, 

 they say, is mainly roval jelly, which 

 many of the bees prepare for th-2 

 feeding of the larvas. Whether the 

 queen is fed on this jelly altogether 

 or on pure honey also matters little. 



The bees feed her, it is clear, and 

 this constant feeding induces the 

 growth of eggs in her ovaries. In 

 order that she may be fed plentifully, 

 the bees themselves must have food 

 in plenty and easily accessible. 



Honey is the first requisite. But it 

 needs to be of a thinner consistency 

 than the honey which has been 

 preserved through the winter. So 

 water is also needed, both for the 

 queen and the brood food. That is 

 why we see so many bees at the 

 watering trough or at the creek, sip- 

 ping the moisture on every pleasant 

 day. Colonies that go after water 

 freely are sure to have much brood 

 and an active laying queen. Our 

 authorities agree that, at these times, 

 if syrup is supplied in place of honey 

 it must be given thin and warm. But 

 syrup is probably not the best food 

 for either the queen or the larvae. 

 Sugar syrup makes good winter food 

 because it does not contain any large 

 proportion of tissue-forming ma- 

 terial, and therefore does not load 

 the intestines of the bees. But in the 

 spring the bees need more solid food 

 for the tissue-forming of the young 

 bees or for the egg-production of the 

 queen. 



Pollen is then indispensable. When 

 no pollen is to be found, which is 

 sometimes the case in early spring 

 and especially in spots remote from 

 woods, we have often replaced it 

 with wheat or rye flour, or fine corn- 

 meal. Some of the later scientists 

 assert that it is not a practical sub- 

 stitute. But we have often supplied 

 hundreds of pounds of flour to api- 

 aries, and it has always been used 

 freely until pollen appeared. The 

 bees actually carry honey with them 

 to dilute the flour thus given in boxes 

 about the apiary. 



When all the honey in the hive is 

 sealed and nothing is found by the 

 bees, in the fields, in early spring, we 

 have found it advisable to uncap 



