2(1- -Lancaster Farming. Saturday. April 11. 1!)70 Feeding Urged Honey Bee Losses Reported High Losses of hones bees i.m high has stalled Plants such as this wmtei. icpoils the Penn skunk cabbage. ml bud. map'o Stale extension sen ice willow, dandelion and funt aio Arnold tt l.ueck associate impoitanl plants at this time counts agent. lepoiled in a ic Sugar s>utp should be made cent newslettei that sonic bee up of at least I's paits sugar to keepeis icpoitcd almost half of 1 pait hot water by volume then bees aie dead This com- Feeding is best done inside paies to a nainial 10 per cent o 1 (, j me o\cr the brood nest loss due to queen failme and Tins iS wheie the hive is the stanation waimesl, the bees are located. The icason for the high loss this sear was the weather. Many bees did not have a flight for VjlVo JL<3.VOrS six to eight weeks because of snow and low temperatures. Q'L || T\/r Large colonies had less trouble OllCll IVlaLLcl than weak ones. Eggs that „ lade AA and A Bees must have enough warm must ha\e sound noimal shells weather to move the clustei to y a iying degrees of egg thin fold if they are to survive ness are permitted in B and C Locations and upper en- These defects determine trances weie very impoitant the final giade despite the fact this winter. Bees should be pro- interior quality may meet A or tected from the prevailing a a requirements the Pennsyl wmds, and they should be in vanla Department of Agiicultuie sunlight. reports. All colonies will benefit from Poultrymen can aid sound feeding Sugar syrup fed in the shell structure by providing am early Spring will not only save pie shell making material to their some colonies, but will stimu- laying flocks, late brood rearing. Since it After 10 to 12 months of inten takes over six weeks to develop sive production, shell glands of a colony headed by a good some laying hens fail to function queen, feeding should be start- as ably as before and shell de ed late March. fects become more evident. This helps to bring the colony Poultrymen who seek to carry to its peak strength in late May {h e j r better layers into second at the time when most areas year production should deter have their main honey flow nune the feasibility of this prac- It is important that a constant tice on the percent of sound supply of honey or food is shells pioduced toward the end available once biood reaiing of the laying year CCT BBTTtR MUKIN6 for your com mu PARI KOOL Boumatic BUCKETS-PIPELINE-PARLORS. Let us tell you why Boumatic Milking is the best milking you can get. POSEY’S GARDEN CENTER Rear 49 N. Broad St. Lititz 626-2343 ami the food is needed The cn tiancc feeder docs not work as well as a feeder inside the hive since the bees will not go down to gel food on cool mornings. There is a need for pollen in many of the colonies which were checked this Spring Although pollen substitutes aie not as good as natural pol len. they do help in the develop ment of the colony. Pollen is the protein of the bees’ diet and is necessary if brood is to be reared. Pollen substitutes are available through most bee sup ply houses. The ready-mixed pioduct is the best buy for the smaller beekeeper Bees which are fed and cared for properly in the Spring will develop into large colonies in time to take advantage of even the light honey flows. There is danger that these colonies may swarm. Most swarming can be stop ped by proper supering. In the case of two-story colonies, re versing hive bodies is about the same as adding a super. This reversing should be done about the middle of April when the weather is warm. Not all colonies need revers ed, only those colonies which in sist in staying in the top super. Another super may be needed by the first of May when dan delion and fruit are in bloom Since adding supers will not stop all swarming, it is impor tant to check the colony every 8-10 days for the presence of queen cells It is only necessary to check the second story since this is where the queen cells are found under normal conditions This can be done quickly by merely tipping the top supei back and looking up between the frames. If there are queen cells, this is the time to act One of the best ways to handle such a colony is to insert a double screen between the upper and lower hive bodies Be sure to add a super full of combs to the lower body and check to see that the queen is in the lower one Have an en hance to the rear in the uppei body or in the double screen Normally, any queen cells in the lower body are destroyed by the bees, and the bees above the double screen will rear a new queen. This new quen may be used to requeen either the par ent colony or another colony, or the whole top hive body with the new queen may be moved to make a new colony or to strengthen a weak hive. It is seldom that a colony treated in this manner swarms. The par ent colony will produce about as well as one not treated in this manner, and the division may produce during the Sum mer and Fall. Add supers early enough: watch the colony, and as soon as theie is a sign of a honey flow, add one. The next is added as soon as the bees are well estab lished in the first. In the early Spring only extracting should be used. If comb honey is de sired, the supers should be add ed just prior to what is consid ered the main flow.
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