The Lambertville press. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1858-1???, 1859-04-07
APR. r, 80.
8 nrifu1tMFal.
Spring Management of Bees.


and successful bee-culturist, who has devoted
nearly twenty years to the business, first in New
York and latterly near Cincinnati. The COM
munication did not reach Us in time for our last
paper. It is still in time to be useful Eds Ohio
Culticdtor.
The first care of the bee-cuturest in spring, is
to inspect his hives, lifting them gently from the
stool, and sweeping away all dead bees, eggs of
moths, scrapings of wax, mouldiness or other Of
fensive matter that NAV have accumulated du-
ring the winter and clean and dry the floor
board effectualy The lower part of the combs,
where hive is exposed to the weather, and
where the population is scant, is sometimes
found to be mouldy it will save the workers
much trouble and contribute to their health, to
cut those parts away. In the months of March
and April when the weather is not cold or stormy,
the bees will be observed venturing cautiously to
the mouth of the hive, and if the sun shines out
about midday, the little foragers will launch
forth into the air, though with low timid flight,
and roaming from bush to bush in search of
some plant that may yield lnodicum of farina;
for the Queen has already began to lay the eggs
of workers, and although there is certain guam
tty of this kind of food iu the hive, the product
of the preceding years gathering for the coming
brood, the provident insects are aware that an
additional supply will soon be required. The
collection Of farna however is, at this early Pc
Rod very scanty, and the owner cannot help
them, however anxious to do so, as far as this
kind of food is concerned In other respects,
however, equally important, he has it in his pow
er to minister essentially to their welfare; name
iy, by supplying them plentifully with honey or
syrup of sugar For even to the well provisioned,
q little additional supply will prove advantage
ous nfusiBg fresh spirits into the hard working
laborers, encouraging the laying of the queen,
and consequently contributing greatly to the ra-
pid increase of the population, and to the produc-
ton of early swarms. We need not fear being
over iberal-the bees are excellent economists,
and will carefully husband what we entrust to
them. AS the consumption of food in spring
is very great in consequence Of the prodgious
quantity of brood reared the queen rearing at the
rate of 100 to 200 daily, the cultivator must see
that there is an abundant supply, and commence
feeding, if there is any thing like deficiency
The food given to bees in autumn may be either
honey or sugar. but in spring, it should always,
if possible, be honey, as sugar does not afford
the natural aliment for the young brood
No branch of bee management requires more
attention than the feeding and very many hives
are injured by the neglect of this duty or by the
injudicious manner in which tits performed. A
simple mode of fleeing, is by means of small
drawer dug out of inch plank about l inch
deep, with a float, perforated with many holes,
and laid over the honey in the drawer, so as to
prevent any Of the bees from drowning while it
is so thin as to enable them to reach the honey
through the holes, and so small that it will settle
down as fast as the heney is consumed / have
four holes through this feeder to correspond with
the four first holes in the top of my hive, by
which the bees pass up into the feeder, and back
into the hive, with box over it, and the top of
the hive shnts over the whole. Here then, you
have feeder in the immediate vicinity of the
mother hive, and without admitting the cold or
the robbers to aonoy the bees. The heat of the
hive follows the bees into the feeding apartment,
which soon becomes the temperature of their ma
tive hive. One convenience that attends feeding
with such drawer, is the exclusion of stranger
bees, as the sole communication with the interio
is from the top Of the hive Bees fed in this man.
ner, fill up their empty cells, and when the flow
ers appear, we get the purest of honey stored in
the boxes for market EDWARD TowNLEY.