«50 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



sonietitnes the cause of spring dwindling, 

 but Mr. Morgan thinks otherwise, and 

 gives his reasons as follows: — 



When bees are kept in cellars till set- 

 tled warm weather conies and pollen 

 appears they get too excited and rush out 

 to gather vast amounts of pollen every 

 day. This excites the queen to extra ex- 

 ertion and she lays a large number of eggs; 

 this gives the bees an extra amount of 

 work — reari ng this large amount of bri)od , 

 and being old and flying every day they 

 soon drop away, and as no eggs are laid 

 by the queen until they are set out of 

 the cellar, no young bees can hatch un- 

 til the 2ist day from the time the hive 

 was set out. If warm weather alwavs 

 continued, no doubt all would be well. 

 But, unfortunately, after a week or two 

 of warm weather, when the bees have 

 spread their brood to the outer frames, 

 along conies a cold snap and a frost and 

 two or three davs that bees cannot fly 

 out. The bees are obliged to cluster 

 close again to keep warm, neglecting the 

 outside brood, which will chill and die. 

 The number of bees becomes less ;ind less 

 each dav and before any brood hatches 

 the stock has dwindled down to a mere 

 handful, and either dies out entirely or is 

 so weak that it is worthless for the sea- 

 son'scrop. Having learned these facts, I 

 now set my bees out early. 



This matter of the time when it is best 

 to set out bees depends largely upon how 

 the season turns out. I have kept them 

 in until the first of May, and then had 

 them out-strip coloines set out a month 

 earlier. 



SPRING FEEDING. 



The author of "Bee-Keejiing for Profit" 

 says that at no time in the spring should 

 the bees feel the lack of food. If there 

 is a lack he sometimes feeds in the open 

 air, in a large trough with floats to keep 

 the bees from drowning. The feed must 

 be thin -so that it will not stick to the 

 bees, and daub thetn up, anrl so that they 

 will not fight over it. His preference, 

 however, is for the "pepper-box" or at- 

 mospheric feeder that can he used insi<1e 

 the hive. 1 certainlv would see to it that 

 no colony w.is Licking in stores, but my 

 preference would be for solid combs of 

 honey in the hive. I know a few excel- 



lent bee-keepers who favor stimulation 

 in the way of feeding, or the uncapping 

 of stores, but we certainly sho^^ild make 

 haste slowly in the spring in these North- 

 ern St iles, and no stimulation should be 

 done until all danger of cold weather is 

 past. Even then, I believe a man better 

 spend his time in managing a larger num- 

 ber of colonies than in stimulating a 

 smaller number. To .see that they had 

 plenty of sealed stores, and a good queen, 

 and then let them alone, has given me 

 the best results. Stimulative feeding in 

 the spring belongs to intensive bee-keep- 

 ing, that tries to see how much honey 

 per colony can be secured, rather than to 

 that broad bee-keeping that aims to se- 

 cure all of the nectar in the field with 

 the least expenditure of capital and labor. 



After experimenting niiuy seasons, Mr. 

 Morgan finds no advnutage in spring i)ro- 

 tection. Mr. R. L. T.iylor made some ex- 

 periments a few years ago that showed 

 that, in that season, at least, protection 

 was of no advantage. I should be glad 

 to be convinced that it was of no value, 

 but the reverse has proven true with me 

 in several instances. 



.A.nd now we come to whnt I consider 

 the most im])ortant and valua')le advice 

 in the whole book. I scarcely know 

 what kind of a heading to give it, but I 

 think 



M.A.N.\GKMENT AT S\V.\ RMING-TIME 

 will cover the ground as well as anything. 

 I hope my readers will excuse me, per- 

 haps I ought to say, thank me, for mak- 

 ing quite a lengthy extract rii{ht here, as 

 the subject is very important. On this 

 subject our author savs: — 



This is the critical time for the apiarist, 

 for on his management now ilejiends his 

 profits for the se son — wheth-r he is to 

 secure a full cro]) or only half a surplus. 

 The weather is growing warmer eveiy 

 day, cU)ver more abundant and the first 

 supers are nearly full hut not yet sealed. 



ju.st at this stage, out goes the swarm, 

 the most iiatur.d thing that could occur — 

 the natural increase of the a])iarv. But 

 just here is where l)ee-kei-pers fail. In- 

 stead of taking advantage of one of na- 

 ture's laws to secure a large crop of hon- 



