GESTEKAL SUMMER WOEK 131 



brood-nest. This is preferable to feeding meal out in the 

 open, while the weather is still sufficiently cool to chill a 

 number of bees. 



On the next visit, say iu eight or ten days' time, the 

 apiarist should keep a careful watch for the queen, and 

 if not clipped, this matter should then be attended to. He 

 should also make sure that the amount of store is 

 sufficient, — this is an important point. It is astonishing 

 how the honey will disappear when brood-rearing is 

 under way; should the colony be short of stores, the 

 nursing part of the bees' duties must suffer. This is a 

 critical time, for if the hives are not pushed on in the 

 spring they rarely recover in time to be of any service. 

 American and English bee-keepers believe in letting the 

 colonies have "millions" of honey in early spring, as 

 this sense of bee-richness is a determining factor in 

 brood-rearing. 



Scan the frames to see if the queen is doing her share 

 by laying well enough to keep her place. Have a record 

 of every hive in a pocket book, and if the queen fails to 

 enlarge the brood-nest in a satisfactory manner, make a 

 note thus: "23 (if that should be the hive number) 

 remove Q." When cells are available, all queens 

 recorded thus should be destroyed, and a "ripe" cell 

 given to the colony. 



At this time of the year, three weeks may elapse 

 before the next visit to the out-yard. On the next trip, 

 should there be any new honey about, and the queens at 

 all crowded for room, remove the outside combs of honey, 

 and substitute empty ones. (A word here : the previous 

 autumn in shutting the bees down for the winter make a 

 special point of placing the defective combs, if any, on 

 the outside of the brood-nest. Subsequently, if unfit for 

 further use extract the honey and render them into wax.) 

 These combs are placed in boxes, awaiting the formation 

 of early nuclei for queen-rearing. 



About this time, new white wax will begin to show 

 along the top bars. The honey-flow is, perhaps, just strong 



