The Opelousas courier., 1895-03-30
FARM AND GARDEN.
BEES AND THEIR WAYS.

How to Fut knowledge Obtained from
books Into Practice.
We advise everyone who intends tc
learn agriculture to begin in the spring
with a colony Or two of bees, and Their
he can put his knowledge obtained
from books into practice. This is the
only way to become an expert.
To everyone contemplating a pur'
chase of a colony or two of bees wo
would suggest the following: Do not
be carried away with the notion that
the heavier a colony of bees is the bet
ter it is. We have known many sadly
disappointed in following Gus this idea.
The colony selected may have very few
bees in it. 1t may be full Of honey, to
be sure, but the bees that made it
may have long since disappeared, the
queen may have died and no bees have
been reared and, consequently, no con-
sumption of honey was demanded for
raising young brood. Hence the great
quantity of honey left. If the box in
which the colony is be large, as many
of them are in the old style, there may
be a great deal of honey and a good
colony of bees at the same time.
To ascertain whether q colony has a
live, active and laying queen is another
important matter which a be easily
found. In movable comb hives it is
very easy to discover the presence pt
the queen, even if you do not see hef.
Taking up a frame in the brood chan
Der, neal the center, and examining i
- +lo a>j~ry, hoe q rrn1ifo r11aa,, nrn
and brood in all stages of development
will be found about the last of Febru-
ary or during the month of March. 1t
these are not visible during the last
named month the queen has disap-
peared, and, if a goodly number of bees
yet remain, the colony should be fur
nished with another queen, if n can
be secured. Giving such a colony a
frame of comb, with eggs and brood
from another strong colony, is general
ly recommended, but for our own part
we have not found this to work SO we'll
as giving the bees in early spring to
another colony.
Taking combs of brood from even a
strong colony weakensand discourages
it, and what is gained OF the one hand
is lost on the other. Any weak colony
will be strengthened by the accession
of ever a pint Or quart of bees from
another hive. The difficulty of getting
drones in early spring to fertillze a vir-
gin queen is SO great that several
queens have to be reared before it can
be accomplished. The colony will be
still weak until it secures a laying
queen. All this requires care and at
tention, and frequently issues in disap-
pointment. We have abandoned the
practice.
In an old box hive it is far more diff
fcult to ascertain the presence of the
queen. BY fitting such a box to one
side and looking at the board on which
it is placed, if imperfectly formed grubs
or parts of their bodies are seen, it is a
sure evidence hat brood rearing is go-
ing on and the colony is all right. In
the absence of these indications, we
have inverted such boxes, and by blow
ing some smoke on the bees have
driven them to the top so that we could
by separating the combs see the brood.
Some think that when bees in the
begin to carry in pollen it is a
sure sign that brood rearing is going
on, but in our experience it is not in
Anyone by close observation can
easily discover in the course of a week
whether the bees are increasing OF not.
They increase rapidly after they begin
carrying in pollen.-Farm Journal.