Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1860-07-19
earmera' Recruitment.
TIE REE GIrLTURE.

To the Editor ofthe Rurot Register.
The present time is. in this section Of
the country, ''the height of the honey
season." and few words on the subject
of "Bco Culture" may be of benefit to
some of the inexperienced amongst the
numerous readers of your valuable jour
nal. The early part of the season has
been for the most part unproptious for
their prosperity; the frequent rains and
cold days during the period early flowers
were in bloom, prevented, in great
measure, their obtaining their usual sup
ply of honey from these sources; such
stocks as had enough. and not too much
"winter supplies" left over, continued
the rearing of brood rapidly, while those
that were deficient in such supplies were
obliged to "cut the coat according to the
pattern" and rear only as many young
as they could find supplies to fecd-those
which had superabundance Thy which
l mean such as had the combs in their
hives filled with honey last fall and had
consumed but little daring the winter
have of course been obliged to limit the
extent of their breeding to the number
of empty cells in their hives The caus-
es which have been detrimental to those
which were deficient, has of course been
beneficial in some measure to such as
had supcrabundancc which are gcncr-
ally fcwcst in Number. "Swarming''
has therefore been delayed until late, in
most cases. AS many stocks have now
numerous population, and honey is gen
orally abundant, surplus honey rccepta-
cles or "Supers' should at once be Civ
en- them, otherwise as fast as the cells are
vacated by the Matching of the young
bees, they will be filed with honey, and
the rearing of young brood instantly
checked.
The result of this as soon as the combs
ere filled with honey will be, the 'loung-
iug' of the bees about the hive during
the balance of the season, neither work
ing or 'swarming," This however, is
not the only evil resulting from want of
room in which to store honey at this pc
riod. AS the lifetime of the worker"
bee seldom exceeds eight or nine months
(and often not much more than half that
period) the cessation Of rearing young at
this time, renders the stock weak in pop
ulation in winter, when, in this climate
strong stocks are almost indispensable to
safe wintering. Let us pursue this a
little further; upon the cessation of breed
ing, the stock of bees gradually dimin-
ish in numbers, so that in all probability
ere the "bee moth" has ceased to fly in
the fall they are unable to cover all the
combs ia their hives; the moth takes ad-
vantage of this condition and deposits
her eggs on tho unprotected combs; these
eggs, unless destroyed by cold, remain
until the warmth of spring, and the heat
of the then increasing bees, hatch them
into worms-these worms in feeding up
on the combs, open cells Of honey, which
drip down upon the stand or bottom
board of the hive and attract robbers,
thus exposing the feeble stock to enemies
from without as we'll as within, at Pc
Rod when they are at least able to resist
them. But let us suppose that the queen
with her small stock of "workers" have
escaped all these enemies and survived
the winter; having been few in number
they have of course consumed but small
part Of their honey. and there are but
comparatively few empty cells in which
the queen may deposit her eggs'tis true
she will have but few workers to hatch
them, and Of course would lay only as
many as they could warm and nurture
into muturity-she commences laying
perhaps in the month of February or
March, after depositing the few eggs her
companions are able to hatch, she waits
'the twenty-one days required to mature
ut the end of which some more Of the
cells have been emptied of their honey,
and she might extend tho area of her
laying to the extent that the newly hatch
ed baes might be able to warm and rur-
ture, but during that twenty-one days
many of her companions have died at
their appointed time" or persisted in
search of water to liquify the bee bread
and dilute the honey to the proper con-
sistency to feed to their young, and she
finds she has gained little more than
young bee for an old one; still she per-
severes, but the best she can do is to
produce moderate stock of bees with
less honey year hence, than now. In
some cases the numbers become so re-
duced before spring that the bees discour-
ragged, abandon their hive and persisted;
in other cases their numbers arc early in
winter SO much diminished rs to be una
BILE to resist the cold and are thus de-
stroyed, for it is only by the united
warmth of large number, that they are
able to withstand the winters Of his and
the more northern regions. have been
asked by persons who have only plain
box hives chow they may apply the 'su-
pers' to them?' simply by boring few
holes in the top Of the hive and setting
a bottomless box over them; if this 'su-
per- has notch on the bottom edge of
Gpe side. say three inches long by half
IN inch deep, all the better, as the bees
may pass directly to and from the super
without having to travel from the bottom
to the top of tho hive with each load of
honey the bring, and back again to 60
in search of the next, thus saving much
time & labor and increasing their stores
the hive in such case should be protect
cd from rain.
1t is only from stocks strong in num-
bers early in the season that profit may
reasonably be expected. Ifthey are weak
at this period, they seldom multiply rap
idly enough to become strong until the
honey season (Which generally ends by
the middle of July.) has passed, conse-
quently they are barely able to gather
sufficient for their winter supply unless
they procure it from buskwheat, which
as it docs not always generate it bouuti