THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



139 



Spring- Diagnosis and Management in 



Out-apiaries. 



M. V. FACEY. 



HBOUT one week after 1 set my bees out 

 in the spring, 1 make my first round 

 of my bee yards. 1 want warm days for 

 this round — bright and sunny if possible. 

 By this time nearly all hives having good 

 queenc will have larvae or eggs in the 

 hive. All others, unless there is a special 

 reason for the conditions, may be consid- 

 ered queenless; or, if not queenless, as 

 having a worthless queen. From such a 

 colony I remove one-half, or more, if it 

 can stand it. of the combs. 1 then go to 

 the nearest colony that can use to good 

 advantage the amount of bees in the 

 queenless colony, and remove one-half 

 the combs from this colony also; but place 

 the combs left in the hive on the opposite 

 side of the hive, as compared with the 

 first one. I then place the queenless col- 

 ony above the hive so prepared, and on 

 my next round I place the combs down, 

 carefully, so as to disturb the bees as lit- 

 tle as possible, to the lower hive. United 

 in this way there is never any fighting. 

 Sometimes, however, when I am in a 

 hurry, I remove the combs as above, then 

 leave them for 10 or 15 minutes to allow 

 bees to cluster and place together immed- 

 iately, with each lot of bees on their own 

 frames and on their own side of the hive. 

 A union made suddenly in this way is 

 usually satisfactory, but now and then 

 there is some loss of bees, especially if no 

 honey is coming in. The work need oc- 

 cupy only a few minutes to manipulate 

 the colonies as above, and in case but 

 little stores are coming in, it must not oc- 

 cupy more than a few minutes, it is 

 hardly necessary to tell a bee-keeper that 

 all work inside a colony of bees must be 

 done as expeditiously as possible, either 



when the weather is cool or when there is 

 any danger of robbing. 



TREATMENT OF WEAK COLONIES. 



Early in my bee-keeping experience I 

 often doubled up my weak colonies in the 

 spring, but unless one of them is queen- 

 less, 1 hardly ever do so now. The bees 

 in a colony weak on account of winter 

 losses are generally more feeble than in 

 the strong colonies, and, therefore, when 

 a number of weak colonies, whether two, 

 or more, are united the queen is stimu- 

 lated to rapid brood rearing, the bees are 

 likely to die off quite rapidly; and before 

 there are young bees to take the place of 

 the old ones, the bees may have to so con- 

 tract their cluster as to expose the outer 

 edges of their brood nest and the death 

 of the colony is often the result. In this 

 way a hive of enfeebled bees united with 

 a weak colony of stronger bees are often 

 a real detriment to them. 



Where I find a weak colony on my first 

 trip after taking them out of winter quar- 

 ters, I contract it so as to rather crowd 

 the bees, and. at the same time, I give 

 them a good frame of honey, if they 

 should be short, from a stronger colony. 

 I then close the hive as snugly c^s possible, 

 and also contract the entrance so only 

 two or three can pass at once, and then 

 leave them. Having only a few combs, 

 the queen cannot extend the brood nest 

 greatly; and, having an excess of bees, 

 such frames as they /jave are usually 

 well filled with well-cared-for brood; and, 

 before the old bees have dwindled so as 

 to endanger the brood, the young bees are 

 hatching, and the safety of the colony as- 

 sured. Such colonies can usually be 



