494 
ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR. 
alder bloom, which occurs the first really warm spell of weather. They will 
take a purifying flight, and then the bee-keeper must seize the earliest 
opportunity of examining each stock to see that all have queens. Any queen- 
less ones may be doubled up, with weak stocks that have queens. All weak 
stocks must be doubled up, whether queeuless or not, else they will dwindle 
away to nothing. Great care must be taken so that they may have plenty of 
food, as there will be a quick consumption of it when breeding begins. I 
crowd the bees up into a very limited compass by means of division boards, 
and fill the spaces between the division-boards and the walls of the hive with 
chaff or cut-straw. Feeding the bees daily stimulates the queen to lay, and 
as the combs become filled with brood, more should be given. By this means 
a large quantity of young bees will be hatched out ready for honey-gathering, 
and by the time white clov.er blooms there will be plenty of active workers in 
the field to gather its yield of honey. Care must be taken not to give extra 
combs too ffist, lest the young brood should rgefc chilled. No more combs 
should be in the hive at any time than the bees can cover. The whole 
season’s profit depends on the observance of these rules. In addition to these 
inside regulations, attention must be paid to the outside of the hive. When 
the weather is cold, and every night through early spring, the entrance must 
^ be closed so as only to admit one bee at a time. When the weather is warm, 
and every morning as the sun begins to mount up in the heavens, the entrance 
must be made larger. A little observation and practice will enable the bee- 
keeper to keep the inside temperature of the hive in that state of uniform 
Warmth which is most conducive to the raising of brood. 
QUEEN REARING, AND ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 
u Get the stock from which you wish to raise queens as strong as possible, 
tto that it will proceed to build queen cells. Now, from each one that is 
strong enough to spare it, take one comb with plenty of brood in it and make 
it nucleus, by using the division-board as above directed, and after from 
twenty-four to forty-eight hours, give them a queen or a cell from those which 
have been started by the extra strong colony already spoken of. In a few days 
the young queen will begin to lay, and brood should be taken from the parent 
stock sufficient to keep it just below the swarming-point. The most honey 
and the best results are obtained by keeping the bees just below the swarming- 
point, which is done by the judicious removal of brood with which to build 
up the young swarm. In this way, both will be boiling over with bees when 
the honey season is at its height. If they cannot otherwise be kept back from 
swarming, draw a comb from each of six or more hives, putting them with 
their bees all in one hive, which makes a strong stock by giving them a 
«pieeu. In every apiary, there should be surplus queens on hand throughout 
