. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. (Entered as second-class matter July 30,1907, at the Post-Offloe at Chicago, 111., under Act of March 3,1879.) Published Monthly at 75 cents a Year, by George W. York & Co., 118 West Jackson Boulevard. GEORGE W. YORK, Editor CHICAGO, ILL,, NOVEMBER, 1908 VoL XLVni—No, 11 "iforiaf ^ofes and Commenfs fc^. Uniting Weak Colonies Although it is better that the work should be done earlier, there is still time to unite weak colonies, and the begin- ner is urged not to try to winter a num- ber of weaklings. One of the lessons learned by a beginner ve
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. (Entered as second-class matter July 30,1907, at the Post-Offloe at Chicago, 111., under Act of March 3,1879.) Published Monthly at 75 cents a Year, by George W. York & Co., 118 West Jackson Boulevard. GEORGE W. YORK, Editor CHICAGO, ILL,, NOVEMBER, 1908 VoL XLVni—No, 11 "iforiaf ^ofes and Commenfs fc^. Uniting Weak Colonies Although it is better that the work should be done earlier, there is still time to unite weak colonies, and the begin- ner is urged not to try to winter a num- ber of weaklings. One of the lessons learned by a beginner very slowly is that it is the total number of bees one has that counts, and not so much the number of hives in which bees may be found. Mr. Beginner finds it an easy thing to increase. He has hived all afterswarms separately, and perhaps not content with the results of natural swarming he has taken the matter of increase into his own hands and made a number of colo- nies—perhaps better named nuclei—by artificial increase. As a result, not one in 4 of his colonies is fit to enter the winter, if indeed he has not divided up that one in four. With so many hives occupied, he looks forward hopefully to the following spring, and in antici- pation begins to count upon the great increase he will make in the season fol- lowing. He has yet to learn the hard lesson that so long as he believes in wintering weaklings, the larger the num- ber he tries to winter the smaller the number he will have the following spring. The sad part about it is that telling him the truth about it does little good. Only when he learns by experience is he willing to believe that it is better to winter one strong colony, and feel pretty certain he will have that one col- ony at the opening of the next season, than to attempt to winter two weaklings with a fair chance that he will have 2 hives containing only dead bees the fol- lowing spring. But occasionally a beginner will be found who will so far overcome t
Size: 1694px × 1475px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, bookyear1861
