ee- 



\eepeps' J \eVieaj. 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to tl^e Iqterests of Hoqey Producers. 



$L00 A YEAR. 



W. Z.HOTCHlNSOfl, HditoP & PPOp. 



VOL, VI, FLINT, .MICHIGAN, MAY 10, 1893. NO. 5. 



TIl^EJ-i^S" TOPICS. 

 No. 4. 



K. L. TAYLOE. 



"Sowing in the morning, sowing in the sunshine, 

 Sowing in t he noon-tide and the dewy eve ; 

 Waiting for the harvest, and tlio time of reaping, 

 We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves." 



[AY should be 

 i-i'l a very happy 

 month for the 

 bees, for, though 

 there are frequent 

 exceptions, yet, 

 generally, warm, 

 bright day.s have 

 become the rule, 

 and such days, 

 with the abound- 

 ing bloom of wil- 

 lows, dandelions, 

 sugar maples and all manner of fruit trees, 

 invite the bees to an almost continual, al- 

 though uncloying, feast ; and to the bee- 

 keeper, too, if his bees have survived the 

 winter in a condition of vigorous health, 

 this should be a time of cheer ; for, though 

 it is not a season of harvest it is a seed-time 

 that, if duly observed, gives promise of 

 abundant harvest in due course. 



This is the seed-time because every thing 

 depends on what is accomplished during this 

 month. Honey and other food supplies are 

 the seed and it is not every planting that 

 produces as abundantly ; not, indeed, di- 

 rectly in kind, but in bees which must be de- 

 pended on to gather in kind a little later. 



Much may be gathered now but large quan- 

 tities are needed, and if everything should 

 not prove auspicious, the amount gathered 

 may come far short of what is required. 

 Judicious management and abundant stores 

 now may easily double the future crop, and 

 care and food these days tell more decidely 

 on the profits of the year than the efforts of 

 any other period ; so the apiarist must now, 

 if at no other time, be on the alert to detect 

 the necessities of the apiary and prompt to 

 supply them. 



Each colony should be as snug as possible 

 and possessed of a good working queen and 

 an abundance — what would generally be 

 called a superabundance of stores. No col- 

 ony will do well on the hand to mouth meth- 

 od. It is not easy to account for all the good 

 effects of a superabundance of stores. In 

 taking my bees from the cellar in April I was 

 struck with the fact that those colonies hav- 

 ing last fall from forty to fifty pounds of 

 stores seemed to be twice as strong in bees 

 as those having but twenty-five pounds and 

 this condition as a rule will continue. Does 

 it produce a sort of contentment that pre- 

 serves vigor and longevity ? I think so ; and 

 the solid walls of honey it may be are just 

 the kind of protection the bees need, and 

 perhaps also when there is so much honey 

 there is not suificient empty comb for the* 

 bees to cluster on and so they are actually 

 compelled to keep warm the honey for their 

 daily use, so that they partake of it without 

 hesitation when needed while those having 

 plenty of empty comb cluster there and have 

 only the cold honey outside the cluster to go 



