THE WISCONSIN FARMER.



manual. It ought to be in the hands of every
one who owns, or intends to own, a hive of
bees. It is a standard work. Langstroth's
Hive and Honey Bee is another excellent trea-
tise-perhaps the most scientific of the two,
but not quite so well adapted to everybody's
comprehension. With the knowledge gained
from these two works, no one need be badly
gulled by travelling agents, or owners and in-
ventors of patent dividing, artificial-swarm-
ing, anti-moth, honey-persuading hives.
                          L. L. FAIRCIULD.
 ROL.LING, PRAIRIE, JUly 2C, 18W3.



           September Management.
  In some sections of the country, where fall
blossoms abound, bees will find pasturage
during a considerable portion of this month;
and though much of the honey they now gath-
er is less palatable than that collected at an
earlier period, it will answer well for their
own subsistence in the coming winter. But
their accumulations derived from honey-dews
on evergreens generally prove injurious to
the stock.  This honey is of a very inferior
quality, and cannot be properly purified by
the bees, because of the lateness of the season
at which it is gathered; and as it, for the
most part, remains unsealed in the cells, it is
apt to become acid and produce disease, if the
bees happen to be long confined by the sever-
ity of the winter, or the inclemency of the
weather.  Besides this, when tempted to fly,
bv the occurrence of such honey-dews at so
late a period, many bees will be lost by be-
coming entangled in the webs of spiders, or
be destroyed by hornets, which now eagerly
watch for, catch and devour them.
  Towards the close of the month the colonies
usually contain very little brood; and, if kept
in common hives, the bees of such as are not
intended to be wintered as independent stocks,
may now be driven out and given to the best
provisioned standards. The stores and combs
may either be appropriated at once, or reserv-
ed in the hive for spring use, to receive the
earliest swarms. Where movable-comb hives
are used, it is unnecessary to defer these op-
erations to so late a period, as the combs still
containing brood may at any time be trans-
ferred to the hives intended to be wintered,
and colonies can be united without producing
much commotion among the bees. Such colo-
nies only as are in a healthy condition, have
a young and fertile queen, and ample stores
of honey and pollen, should be wintered. The
attempt to carry feeble stocks through the
winter will almost invariably end in disap-
pointment, besides being attended with con-
tinual vexation of spirit.  The making of



artificial colonies, properly employed, is of
incalculable importance in bee culture, main-
ly because we can thereby always severe a
supply of young and vigorous queens, but it
becomes ruinous to an apiary when the bee-
keeper multiplies stocks injudiciously and in-
ordiaately, and then undertakes to winter his
feeble and ill-provisioned colonies.  None
should be reserved for wintering but such as
have at least twelve pounds (nett) of sealed
honey on the first of October, and have sound
clean combs, a healthy vigorous queen, and
bees enough to cover five or six combs when
clustered on them in the evening. All that
fall below this standard should be broken up,
adding the bees to other stocks, and using the
stores for further provisioning the weaker of
i those retained. The poorer the season was,
the more care should be taken to unite and
strengthen the colonies in the fall. All the
good, new and clear combs obtained by these
operations should be carefully preserved for
spring use-they will "come into play" when
hiving early swarms or making artificial col-
onies. These, if supplied duly with good
empty comb, will, in three or four weeks, be
quite as valuable as an old stock whose feeble-
ness exacted much attention and constant
care during the winter. He who is in the hab-
it of wintering weak colonies must never ex-
pect to become a prosperous beekeeper. lie
will have trouble during the winter, and with
all his watchfulness will lose some stocks;
those which survive will make slow progress
in the spring, be laggards during the summer
and, instead of yielding him some surplus
honey in the fall, will probably need renewed
nursing.
  Even if after a favorable season, it be found
that all the colonies in an apiary have secured
sufficient supplies, it will not be advisable to
winter them all. Among them there will prob-
ably be some whose queens are old and de-
crepid.  Should these chance to survive till
spring, the number of eggs laid by them would
be too small to replenish the population of
their respective hives adequately and early.
Such had better be disposed of in the fall. If
the hives contain good combs and a sufficiency
of stores, the superannuated queens should
be removed and replaced by a young one from
a colony not so well prepared in other respects
to pass the winter safely. Italian queens may
at this time be more conveniently introduced
into common colonies than at almost any oth-
er period. There being now but little brood
in the combs, the workers are less disposed to
build royal cells after the removal of the old
queen; and the Italian queen may, without
disadvantage, be kept confined in a cage for
a week or longer, till the bees have become
entirely willing to accept her. Queens may
likewise be used whose genuineness has been
previously ascertained or fully tested.
  Those who still practice the old mode of tak-



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