MANAGEMENT OF BEES 3 



the sun or the wind will change to a cold quarter or a sudden shower will 

 come up. The chilled bees fall to the ground and perish. 



To prevent this, probably the most serious loss of bees, the modern bee- 

 keeper will feed^his bees at home. Rye flour, scattered on a board with a few 

 drops of perfume will attract Gees and make them work on it. Thin sugar sirup, 

 fed in a warm sheltered place, will keep thousands of bees at home and out of 

 danger until they can find natura) h "^ey. 



Inside the hive, cold will kiH^££es in spring by lowering the inside tem- 

 perature and the wind by blowing through the cracks of the hive. The cluster 

 of bees will contract to keep warm and the brood nest will shrink accordingly. 

 As the bees must generate an enormous amount of heat to keep the brood at 

 a temperature of 98 degrees Fahrenheit, they exert themselves and die. The 

 queen stops laying, and even after the weather becomes warm again and the 

 wind ceases to blow it will be several days before egg production will be normal 

 again. In some bee yards the bees suffer many such checks every spring. 



To prevent such losses, the apiary in the first place should be located in a 

 sheltered place with either natural or artificial windbreaks against prevailing 

 winds, especially cold winds. The hives should be air tight. The top of the 

 hive should be covered with some insulating material to prevent escape of heat. 

 The cluster of bees should be dividedi from the cold uninhabited part of the 

 hive by a division board. The cheapest division board is a newspaper. Lowered 

 down edgeways between two combs until it reaches the bottom board, it is 

 then bent over the frames occupied by the colony and inserted beyond between 

 two combs, reaching again the bottom board on the other side. Being just 

 about the right width, it will enclose the bees in a small, warm, snug compart- 

 ment where they can breed in comfort. Some beekeepers cover the whole hive 

 with insulating paper or patent insulating board. Others use carpets or sacks. 

 Others use deep telescope covers, which they push down over several thicknesses 

 of newspaper or other insulating material. Individual ingenuity will suggest 

 other means of protecting bees from wind and cold during the trying period 

 of early spring. 



Starvation 



Starvation of bees in spring will cause the queens to stop laying. There 

 are two kinds of starvation. One is absolute, when the bees have no honey. 

 This means death. The other is relative, when the bees have so little honey 

 and pollen that they can not raise brood. 



The wise beekeeper prevents starvation by giving his bees in the spring 

 solid frames of honey from the preceding season, and by feeding them with 

 Boardman or Alexander feeders whenever the weather is such that they 

 can not fly. 



PRODUCTION OF COMB HONEY 

 General Recommendations 



a. Comb honey should be produced only during a strong honey flow. 



b. Comb honey should be removed immediately when finished. 



c. Nothing but A I sections should be used with full sheets of thin founda- 

 tion and three-eighths inch thin bottom starters. 



d. Only strong colonies must be used which have at least eight frames of 

 brood and the brood chamber overflowing with bees at the beginning of the 

 honey flow. 



e. Bait sections should be used in the first super given. 



