THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



227- 



filled with honey it has doubly departed. 

 The careful apiarist will therefore not fail 

 upon the falling of the petals of the bass- 

 wood blossom to remove them from the hive 

 and to store them where they will be secure 

 from moisture, vermin and dust. 



Taking a hint from the concern which the 

 bee has exhibited in her use of propolis for 

 the continued prosperity of her family, the 

 apiarist will next turn his attention to the 

 needs of the individual colonies. That the 

 owner is more liable to neglect the necessary 

 preparations for winter than the bee herself, 

 is a startling commentary on human energy 

 and intelligence ! During the pending peri- 

 od of dearth the utmost alertness should be 

 Exhibited that no opening be left any where 

 for robber bees. No honey should be ex- 

 posed and nuclei and small colonies furnish- 

 ed with the effectual means of self-defence 

 which a small entrance supplies. It should 

 be remembered too that during the month 

 of August almost all the eggs are deposited 

 from which the bees that are to start house- 

 keeping anew next spring are to come, and 

 since this is so, too much care cannot be ex- 

 ercised as to the condition of each colony 

 now as regards its ability to produce a con- 

 siderable amount of brood in the near future. 

 The life and vigor of a queen, now two years 

 old, are highly uncertain, and if depended 

 on are liable to fail when most needed. If 

 any good degree of certainty in wintering and 

 in a prosperous opening of the next spring 

 is desired, all such must be at once replaced 

 by young laying queens reared from cells 

 produced during the late swarming season. 

 The lame and those otherwise injuriously 

 defective should share the fate of the aged. 

 To make this work easy, each of my hives 

 carries a simple record indicating the age 

 and the peculiarity, if any, of the queen em- 

 ployed within. The clipping of the queer's 

 wings is also so done as to make her age 

 known at sight. Sometimes it may be neces- 

 sary to have a care that stores are not want- 

 ing, but in some districts where the fall hon- 

 ey flow is very abundant, that care should be 

 directed to the giving of sufficient room to 

 the bees that they may not be compelled to 

 unload their fresh nectar into cells destined 

 for brood and so circumscribe the domain 

 of the queen. Enough good stores being 

 granted, plenty of brood in August and a 

 vigorous young queen are prime requisites 

 for successful wintering and prosperous 

 building up the following spring.". In con- 



nection with this work all required uniting 

 of colonies should be attended to, and for 

 the highest success in it all care and dispatch 

 are needed that robber bees may not inter- 

 fere injuriously. To circumvent these it 

 may be necessary to choose the early hours 

 of morning or the late hours of the after- 

 noon for the work. The novice may even 

 require a tent, while the adept will do so 

 quickly what is required to be done with any 

 particular hive that it is closed by the time 

 the robber appears. Well planned, quick 

 work, not too long continued at one time, 

 will prevail. 



If attended to at once the careful apiarist 

 may profitably secure the completion of sec- 

 tions that tne close of the basswood bloom 

 left not quite ready for market by collecting 

 them in cases, putting them on populous 

 colonies of hybrid bees and feeding extract- 

 ed honey copiously for a few days. Two to 

 four cases may be put on to a hive at once 

 and more added later, but the brood cham- 

 ber should be contracted to about the capac- 

 ity of five L frames. The honey resulting 

 should be marketed and consumed at once, 

 as a candying is likely to ensue on the ap- 

 proach of cool weather. 



It only remains to be said that where a 

 crop of fall honey may be expected, prepa- 

 rations should be made to receive it, for it 

 is sometimes very abundant. Unless it is 

 liable to be white or nearly so, as it some- 

 times is where the white aster abounds, it is 

 doubtless more profitable to secure it in 

 combs for extracting. It is in such cases 

 that ready drawn combs especially reveal 

 their value. Whether combs or sections are 

 used, let them be adjusted promptly as soon 

 as the nectar begins to come in. 



Lapbbb, Mich. July 22, 1893. 



t-e^^^s^^;^ 



With Energy and the Bight Management 



Bee - Keeping Need Never be a 



Failure in California. 



WM. G. HEWES. 



Let not thy dish be upside down 

 When showers of honey strike the town. 



«||»N many parts of California were it not 

 ^ that brains and energy are lacking one 

 «»'» could not do otherwise than make a suc- 

 cess at bee-keeping. We have a country in 

 which four or five hundred hives may be 



