. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. 324 age, go out foraging, and do no more housework if they can help it. Five to 6 weeks is the age worker bees at- tain during the height of the honey sea- son. They disappear—worn out by hard work, a prey to birds and other ene- mies, drowned, get entangled in the grass, etc. A hive would be decimated in a short time were it not for the great fertility of the queen, who is capable of laying as many as 3,000 eggs in a day. This is the routine of business in a bee-hive. But there is no rule without an exception. So we find in early spring the old bees
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. 324 age, go out foraging, and do no more housework if they can help it. Five to 6 weeks is the age worker bees at- tain during the height of the honey sea- son. They disappear—worn out by hard work, a prey to birds and other ene- mies, drowned, get entangled in the grass, etc. A hive would be decimated in a short time were it not for the great fertility of the queen, who is capable of laying as many as 3,000 eggs in a day. This is the routine of business in a bee-hive. But there is no rule without an exception. So we find in early spring the old bees nursing the first young and doing all the housework. No hive is in a thriving condition without plenty of young bees; and as the honey yield is often of a short duration no colony can bring in a large crop of honey without a huge number of old worker bees at the proper time. To have strong colonies in the early part of the season, and to keep them strong as long as the season lasts, should be the object of the bee-keeper. It happens often to inexperienced bee-keepers that a hive is without a queen for some time, and that, with their best efforts, they do not succeed in introducing a new queen, as the bees will kill every queen liberated among them, and destroy every queen cell given them to hatch. The reason for such conduct is generally that the bees are all old—too old for nurses and for housework—feel no necessity for a queen, and will not tolerate one among them. Give to such a colony 2 or 3 combs with hatching brood and all the adher- ing young bees, from some strong colony or colonies, when a queen will be ac- cepted without any trouble, and the colony will soon be in a normal condition again. Cincinnati, Ohio. For the American Bee Journal. Honey Dew Again, Etc. WM. MAXWELL. Bees are doing poorly in this vicinity, the loss by starvation and spring dwindling being heavy ; what few came through did pretty we'll, while the fruit bloom lasted, but now there is a scarcit
Size: 4244px × 589px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, bookyear1861
