83. When the warm weather approaches and the colonies gain rapidly in strength, say about fruit bloom time, these two bodies should be reversed, the one that has been above being placed below and the one below being placed above. This will induce the queen to spread out her brood nest, and encourages more rapid building up of the colony. This procedure sometimes in the north doesn't give the queen sufficient egg-laying room for strong colonies in favorable situations because the bees may fill an entire hive body with honey from dandelion and fruit bloom. Bees should be very carefully watched at this time to make sure that they have adequate room, and if not, another (third) hive body should be added.

84. The management of bees that have been wintered outdoors is very similar to that of bees wintered in the cellar. Of course bees wintered outdoors do not have to be moved from their summer stand and one of the major benefits of giving bees protection and packing when wintered outdoors is the value of this protection to them during the changeable days of spring. It is perhaps of greater importance that colonies to be wintered outdoors should be very carefully prepared in late summer so that the number of colonies in which the queens are failing or absent will be reduced to a minimum in spring. Furthermore, it is of the utmost importance that they be provided in fall so that they may have sufficient stores in spring and may not be uncovered until late spring.

85. These preparations not having been made in fall, it will be necessary to remove the packing to make sure that the colonies are queenright, have enough room for stores, and the expanding brood nest, and that there is sufficient honey in the hives to carry them through. Likewise hives in which bees have died or which appear queenless in spring or too weak to coddle, may be treated just as provided in paragraph 82 where the bees were wintered in the cellar.

Questions You Should Be Able To Answer

1. What is meant by a vigorous queen bee?

2. When is the best time to remove bees from the cellar?

3. Name three things that cellar-wintered colonies should receive upon removal from cellar.

4. Why is it inadvisable to disturb the packing of outdoor-wintered bees early in the season?

5. How many pounds of bees should remain in a colony at the time of first examination in spring?

6. How can you tell which colonies should be fed when all have been removed from the cellar? How much feed should be given each?

7. Why does the necessity of too much spring work indicate that insufficient provision was made the previous fall?

8. What is the prime requisite for the queen in spring so far as honeycomb is concerned?

9. Why can spring work only partially make up for neglect the previous fall?

10. What are the colony requirements in spring?

11. In what principal way does spring management of cellar-wintered bees differ from outdoor-wintered bees?

12. Give the three principles of management of outdoor-wintered bees in spring ?

13. Why is it inadvisable to open colonies for examination before settled weather in spring?

14. How can you avoid drifting and robbing of bees when removing them from their winter cellar? Name two rules.

15. How can you tell if a colony is queenless in spring?

16. How may you take the first steps toward swarm control in handling the bodies of each colony in spring?

17. What should be fed to bees in spring? How does it differ from feed to be given in fall?

18. Why will bees wintered outdoors in two-story hives usually be found in the top story in spring?

19. Is it a good rule to set bees out of cellars in the heat of the day?

20. What flower should usually be in full bloom at time bees are removed from cellars?

21. How can you find out when a spell of weather suitable for examination of bees is likely to come on?

Fig. 32-Bees loafing. Make them work foi you as they are in Fig. 33.

Fig. 33-These bees are not loafing. They have plenty of room to store their honey.

Fig. 34 - Thousands of young bees should be emerging from their cells daily previous to the honey flow.

Fig. 35-What the bee eggs look like. There is only one egg in each cell. Light reflection caused the white effect around the eggs in some of the cells. The cell with the large white circle round it shows pretty well the appearance of an egg. The circle was made by the artist. Four cells contain larvae. Photo from A. B. J.

Fig. 37-Worker larvae about 36 hours after they have hatched from the eggs. See the milky food around them. Photo from Practical Queen Rearing.

Fig. 36-The four peanut like objects on this comb are fully developed queen cells. Compare their size with the worker bees in the background. Photo from A. B. J.

Fig. 38-A comb of evenly capped worker brood. Note capped honey in upper left corner.

Hold Working Force Together During Honey Flow

1. Objects of swarm control.

a. To keep entire working force under one roof.

b. To keep storing instinct dominant.

c. To save time of the beekeeper.

d. To prevent swarms from absconding.

2. Contributing causes of swarming.

e. Cause of swarming unknown-contributory conditions.

f. Increase in swarming due to old queens.

g. Swarming increased by lack of adequate egg-laying room for the queen.

h. Causes of insufficient comb room even where adequate hive room is provided.

i. Storage room for honey, j. Ventilation and shade.

3. Clipping queens.

k. Value to prevent absconding, to mark queens and assist in hiving swarms.

4. Control of after-swarms.

1. Why after-swarms occur. Their control by changing position of parent colony.

m. Transfer of supers from parent colony to hive containing newly hived swarm.

n. Automatic destruction of queen cells under proper management of parent colonies following swarms.