Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 12, March 22, 1884: A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and FiresideVarious
Science
Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 12, March 22, 1884: A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and Fireside
Various
Agriculture -- United States -- Periodicals; Farm life -- Periodicals; United States -- Rural conditions -- Periodicals
Although yesterday was very cold and inclement, to-day (March 11th) is
warm and pleasant, and bees that are wintered upon their summer stands
will be upon the wing. It would be well on such days as this to see that
all entrances to hives are open, so that no hindrances may be in the way
of house-cleaning. This is all we think necessary for this month, provided
they have plenty of stores to last until flowers bloom. Handling bees
tends to excite them to brood rearing, and veterans in bee-culture claim
that this uses up the vitality of bees in spring very fast. Although more
young may be reared, it is at the risk of the old ones, as they leave the
hive in search of water; many thus perish, which often results in the
death of the colony, as the young perish for want of nurses. Sometimes,
also, in handling bees early in the season the queens are lost, as they
may fall upon the ground, yet chilled, and perish.
Bees consume food very fast while rearing brood; naturalists tells us that
insects during the larvæ state consume more food than they do during the
remainder of their existence. Where a bee-keeper has been so improvident
as to neglect to provide abundance of stores for his bees he should
examine them carefully, and if found wanting, remove an empty frame,
substituting a full one in its place. Where frames of honey are not to be
had, liquid honey and sugar can be kneaded together, forming cakes, which
can be placed over the cluster. Care should be taken that no apertures are
left, thus forming a way for cold drafts through the hive. These cakes are
thought to excite bees less than when liquid food is given; they have
another advantage, also, viz., bees can cluster upon them while feeding,
and do not get chilled.
Bees that have been wintered in cellars, or special repositories, are
often injured by being removed too early to their summer stands. It would
be better to let them remain, and lower the temperature during warm days
with ice, until warm weather has come to stay. An aged veteran in Vermont
that we visited the season following the disastrous winter of 1880-81,
told us that his neighbors removed their bees from the cellar during a
warm spell early in spring, and they were then in splendid condition. He
let his bees remain until pollen was plentiful, and brought them out, all
being in fine order; by this time his neighbors' colonies were all dead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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