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Show NOTES ON BEE CULTURE. It is very rare to find colonies queenless in the spring if they had a good queen in the fall. The queen is usually the last to die. Only put enough combs in the hive in spring to supply space for the bees; keep them covered with bees if it takes no more than three or even two combs. For information as to the method of transferring bees from box hives into those of movable frames, inquirers should procure a good manual of bee-keeping. No one can afford to keep bees in the old style hives. It is not well to put a colony in a hive just as it was left by bees dead from the dysentery. The unwholesome odor and soiled combs would be very likely to drive the bee off. It is safe to give such combs to bees one at a time, but to give no other would be hazardous. One of the most successful apiarists of the United States says that when bees fail to go into the sections above to store comb-honey, he transfers some hive where top storing is in progress, two or three sections, bees and all, to the hive where the bees refuse to do this work. Mr. James Hedden, of Michigan, whose bees brought to him a snug little fortune, concludes that chaff hives are too costly and cumbersome. He also explains why he has given up his house apiary. Many of these structures were built a few years since, but it is mostly deserted now. - N.Y. Tribune. |