If the food be given in small quantities brood rearing will be encouraged and still greater supplies of food will be called for, rendering it absolutely necessary to give a large amount at once or continue the feeding until natural sources fully supply the needs of the bees and brood, otherwise both may starve. Three pounds of sugar dissolved in one quart of water will make a suitable sirup for spring feeding. Dry sugar may be used instead of sirup. The bees will liquefy it themselves if they have access to water. For stimulative purposes honey; s better than sugar, "strained honey" being better than extracted. This is because of the greater amount of pollen which the strained product contains, the pollen being highly nitrogenous, hence capable of building up muscular tissue. But if the liquid honey is one-half more in price per pound than sugar the latter would doubtless be the more economical, certainly so if a plentiful supply of good pollen in the combs or fresh from the fields can be had. Eye flour put in sunny places and sprinkled with honey to attract the bees will be collected until new pollen comes.
When the weather has become sufficiently settled to render safe the inspection of the brood combs, or, in general, when the bees fly the greater part of each clear day, the work of the queen may be inspected. Should the comb having the largest area of brood in it be toward one side of the hive it is best to locate it as near the center as may be, placing on either side successively those combs having smaller circles of brood and on each side of these the combs containing no brood, but well stored with pollen, while those having honey only will come still outside of these. The brood nest will then have an opportunity to develop equally in all directions. Empty combs are of little use at this time outside of the brood nest as thus arranged, and should be replaced by combs of honey if the latter is needed, or removed altogether. If the combs are well crowded with bees and the queen shows by her regular and compact placing of the brood, as well as by the quantity she seems to have, that she is vigorous and thus capable of accomplishing more than any ordinary brood nest will require of her at this time of the year, a frame filled with worker comb may be slipped into the center of the brood nest. This will be taken possession of immediately by the bees, cleaned and warmed up, whereupon the queen will soon have it filled with eggs. From time to time other combs may be added in the same manner. If cautiously and judiciously followed this plan, supplemented by liberal stores, will increase the brood area and eventually the population of the hive. But the utmost caution is needed, for if done too early cool weather may cause the bees to cluster more closely and result in the chilling of some part of the brood which has thus been spread. The very object sought is not only missed, but the loss of brood will prove a serious setback to the colony. The escape of any of the warmth generated by the bees, as also sudden changes in the weather, should be guarded against. Warm covering above and outer protection are therefore absolute necessities if the best results are to be attained. With favorable weather for the development of brood it is certain that stimulative feeding, if made necessary by the fact that the natural honey resources of the country will not alone bring the strength of the colony fairly up to the desired standard by the opening of the harvest, is to be begun six to seven weeks before the opening of the honey flow from which surplus is to be expected.
If, however, this honey flow comes so early that it is likely to be preceded by weather unfavorable to the development of brood, it will be necessary to allow for this by beginning the stimulation even earlier, so that it may be done more gradually, and the greatest care will have to be taken to retain all the heat of the brood nest. Should the main flow be preceded by a lighter one, especially if the latter comes some weeks before the chief harvest, it may be important to watch the brood nest closely lest it becomes clogged with honey to the exclusion of brood, inclining the bees not to enter surplus receptacles placed above and causing the colony to be weak in numbers later in the season. This state of affairs can be easily avoided by the timely use of the honey extractor, since the brood combs, emptied of the honey which the workers in an emergency have stored wherever they found vacant cells, are made available for the queen. Before the main harvest opens it may even be necessary in order to keep the combs filled with brood to feed back gradually this extracted honey or its equivalent; but by taking it away and returning it gradually the object sought will have been accomplished, namely, keeping the combs stocked with brood until the harvest is well under way, or as long as the larger population thus gained in the hive can be made available.
It is in this getting workers ready for the early harvest—hives over flowing, as it were, with bees—that the skill of the apiarist is taxed to its utmost. The work properly begins with the close of the summer preceding the harvest, for the first steps toward successful wintering should be taken then, and unless wintered successfully the colony can not be put in shape to take full advantage of an early honey harvest.
Good judgment in the application of the hints given in this chapter, with careful and frequent attention, will bring colonies to the chief spring or early summer flow of honey in good condition, with plenty of bees and with combs well stocked with brood, provided they have wintered well and have good queens.
TRANSFERRING.
If colonies have been purchased in box hives, it is advisable at the first favorable opportunity to get them into frame hives.
Fig. 53.—Transferring—drumming the bees from a box hive into a frame hire. (Original.)
Early in the season—that is, in April or May in middle latitudes, before the brood nest has reached its greatest extension and while the hive contains the least honey—it is not a difficult matter to drive the bees from their combs, cut out the latter, and fit them into frames. If the combs thus fitted in are held temporarily in place in the frames, the bees, under whose care they should be placed at once, will fasten them securely in a few hours or days at most. To drive the bees from the box hive proceed as follows: Toward the middle of a pleasant day blow smoke into the hive to be transferred, and after the bees have been given a few minutes in which to lap up their fill of honey, invert the hive and place over the open end an empty box, or the frame hive itself, making whichever is used fit closely on the hive ([fig. 53]). By rapping continuously for some minutes on the hive the bees will be impelled to leave it and cluster in the upper box. A loud humming will denote that they are moving. The hive thus vacated may then be taken into a closed room and one side pried off to facilitate the removal of the combs. The box containing the bees is to be placed meanwhile on the spot originally occupied by the box hive, the bees being allowed to go in and out without restraint, only two precautions being necessary, namely, to shade the box well and provide for ventilation by propping it up from the bottom, leaving also, if possible, an opening at the top. When the combs have been fitted into frames, the hive containing them is placed on the original stand and the bees shaken from the box in front of it.