THE beekeepers' DIRECTORY. 85 



of the many feeders now in use which will get the syrup as near 

 the bees as possible, so that should a cold snap occur they need 

 not starve with plenty of food in the feeder. 



How to know that a colony has a good queen. 

 When settled warm weather comes, it is necessary that each 

 colony contain^ prolific queen, for if the queen in any colony 

 should be old and failing, that colony could not be gotten in 

 proper shape to take advantage of the honey harvest. As the 

 queen is the mother of all the bees in the hive, she must be able 

 to lay rapidly so as to increase the population quickly, and if 

 such an one is not in the hive she should be superseded by a 

 better queen. To know what kind of a queen there is in each 

 hive, inspect the combs, and if no eggs or larva are found in the " 

 cells, you can reasonably expect that they are queenless, while 

 if the eggs and brood are scattered about in different cells with- 

 out regularity, the queen is unprolific, so that in either case an- 

 other queen should be given them. While looking over the 

 colonies at this time, I clip the queen's wings, as swarming is 

 conducted with a safety and ease which are not attained when 

 the queens have their wings. After seeing that each colony has 

 a good queen with clipped wings, the next thing to be done is 

 to prepare for the surplus crop of honey. Do not put this off 

 till the honey harvest arrives, for if this is done, we are often 

 -caught by having the best part of the season pass while we are 

 getting ready. Always have the "dish right side up to catch the 

 honey." A few days' neglect at this season will often turn what 

 might be a splendid success into a failure. 



SpreadinK brood, etc. 

 If you have not already done so, get your surplus arrangement 

 for honey all ready to go on the hive, so that there will be no de- 

 lay when the bees are getting honey. We must now get the bees 

 fully prepared for the harvest by getting the comb full of eggs in 

 sufficient time for the bees hatching from those eggs to becorne la- 

 borers in the harvest. But how shall we get the eggs laid just when 

 we want them ? There are several ways of doing it, but I will give 

 only one here. About May first to fifteenth I commence to do 

 what is known as "spreading the brood," which is simply turning 

 the brood-nest by changing the places of the combs in the hive 

 so that those in the centre of the nest are on the outside, and the 

 outside ones in the centre, which causes the queen to immedi- 



