HINTS TO YOUNG BEEKEEPERS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2065, 1 October 1885, Page 3

HINTS TO YOUNG BEEKEEPERS.

[Bt Mit J. Kuu,, Oiiah'O.] Thi-v It tlio tune of the yeai you should spo that your beesaie well supplied with honey, as they will have now a gieat lot of hiood in their hives to feed. If you have not fed your bees yet this spiing, I am almost snie th.it their old stores are petting very ~>hoit, and m some cases it will bo nil consumed, and you mint not think when yon see a few flowers about and a few fruit trees in blos.som this tune of the year that there is Ruffioient new honey coming in to feed all the brood ; that is wheio ninny aiG mistaken. You will always hoar people talking about their boos dying just after the peaches blossom. Well its just simply this, the little early honey they bi ing in encourages the queen to l.iy, and if the weathor is favourable, tlio eggs will hatch in threo days, and of course, the lai\u£must bo fod. If there is not enough of new honey coming in to food thu blood, they w ill draw heavily on tlio old stole--. Of couise, the queen goes on Living and the bees go on with nursing and feeding until the old stores aro out, and if tlieie is not enough of now honey coming in the bioocl must starvo ; so the old been got discouraged and st.nt di.iggmg tho young beos out of the combs. I snpposo you h.ive seen them dragging them out of tln v hi\i\ If there happens to bo thxoo or foui d.iys bad weathor, they give up altogether ; in fact they get so dihcourasred they will not woik in fine weathnr without being fed with honoy or hyrup. Now I will tell you how to got your bees leady for the honey season. You niuut ooinmonoo feuding about kin. weeks before the honoy neai<>n commences m your locality. Theie aio a good many feeders now in use, and I like none better than tho ordinary comb. If you want to try my way of feeding, take an empty black comb out of your hive ,md l.iy it flat down in a tub ; t.ike ,i tin holding about .1 qiuit, and pierce some small holes thiough the bottom i fill it with thick syiup and hold It over the comb about a foot above it and fill the whole Mdc of the comb and then turn it over and fill the other hide; then hang the comb up in a tub oi box to diip off. If \on think yoyir hive is strong enough put this coml) of syi up alongside of tho broodnest. If jou w.mt to brood up very fast, bpread tho brooij-ue.st, and put this comb of syrup ritfht in the centie of it. Now tho beeH will take the syrup out of the oomb, and put it where they want it, and tho queen will fill it up with eggs. You want to lepeat this every eight or nine days until the honey season has commonoed. If theio isn't sufficient honoy in that comb which you havn put in tho oontre, give them another full one at the side. If you hft\e honey in combs from lant season, break thn capping and give it to them instead of syrup ; if the comb is a white one put it on the hide of the broodnest, never put a while comb in the oentia of tho brood-nest in the oayly spring if you can a\oid it, buonuse. tho queen does not like to lny in o, new oomb if she can help it, in tho early part of the season. Make your syrup with white sugar, by pouring boiling watei on it. Stu it until it is all dissolved, Don't ni.iko tho syrup too thin, beoauso you gam nothing by |t. This has been so far a rea,l flood wjntor and spring for buu* ami for queen rearing, with which ] am \tny busily engaged just now, and I think I will have it good many young puro Italian queens in about four weeks. I will have them advertised in Tho Waikato Tim«-<, as some of our bee-keepers nuphfc want to ti y the Italians. J revive j two selected, tested Italian, queen* from California on the, 33^ of Vhis month, and am happy t\.\ say (hat they have just coino in tii^e for queen i earing, in which I am luMUg no tuno. They wero packed in an mdinary hiv«j with a division boaid in the oon'tie. One queen and bees had four combs in their depaitment, and tho other queen and bees had threo combs, >Joth queens vvoie in good health, and laying when anived, and had. about a pint of live bees each, nn.U, plenty of sealed up honoy, but the fapouges and water bottles wer* quite diy. __________

Loviirv Ci uins.— Jhpro are lom?]j- climes and plai -;s m which the evening *eph\rs arc loaded uithmilarU and the poison of fever and epidiinio fodut-ll there in health is impossible, without a. supply of Hop Hitters at hand. 'Iheso Amcric in ( o's Hitters impirt an equalising strt'n^th to the system, and prevent the accumulation of deadly spores of contagion. Bo sure and ico.