THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



i^i 



Having sold your honey, take part of 

 the proceeds and attend one or more bee- 

 keeper's conventions, for it is time well 

 spent, even if yon have heard about all of 

 the new "kinks" of the trade through 

 the bee periodicals. Take and read the 

 bee-papers, the more the better, be pro- 

 gressive, up to date, ready to receive and 

 give information, keep abreast the times, 

 push your business and alwa3S be ready 

 for the honey flow when it comes, and 

 don't be a drone; be a worker. 



RktreaT, Wis., Mar. 26, 1900. 



^ 



^>i-T<^HMrERATURE AT WHICH 

 HEN'S EGGS HATCH. THE 

 FEASIBILITY OF HATCH- 

 ING THEM IN A BEE HIVE. 

 BY H. G. QUIRIN. 



I notice that you 

 desire information as to the correct tem- 

 perature that eggs ought to be kept for 

 hatching. As I 

 used to turn out 

 several thousand 

 chicks per year, us- 

 ing artificial means 

 fiir hatching them, 

 i think I can throw 

 - line light on the 

 j^ ^ ^j y A. -ibject. 102 de- 



i|d^^B^H^^H^^^ for 



^^^^K^^^^^^H a double-tank ma- 

 ^^^^^ ^^I^B and 103 for 



a single-tank, as 102 

 in a double-tank machine is equal to 103 

 in a single-tank machine. The abov • 

 temperatures are correct for the first week 

 or ten days of incubation; but as soon as 

 blood vessels are noticeable in the 

 eggs, action or motion sets in, and heat 

 will be generated by the egg itself. This 

 is not noticeable until about the tenth day, 

 at which time less oil will be burned, and 

 the heat will also run a little higher. On 

 the eighteenth day the temperature will 

 stand at about 104°, to 105°. /I must 

 nei'C) go higher thau the latter. The 



bulb of the thermometer must rest on 

 and between two live eggs; the bulb not 

 to rest on the large end of eggs or where 

 the air chamber is. It will sometimes be 

 found that the themperature of the egg- 

 chamber is 98^ to 100°, while the ther- 

 mometer resting on the live eggs will 

 register 105°. 



As to the utility of using swarms of 

 bees for hatching hens' eggs, I, for one, 

 do not think that it can be successfully 

 managed here in the North; that is, where 

 it is expected to do the incubation from 

 start to finish. It undoubtedly will work 

 all right b}- having the eggs placed under 

 hens, and, after having been started for a 

 week or ten days, then test out the infer- 

 tile ones and place the good eggs or fertile 

 ones over the top of a good strong swarm, 

 as the eggs themselves will now begin to 

 generate heat. But I do not think it will 

 pay to fool around in trying to hatch 

 eggs with bees, where one has plenty of 

 hens to do the work; but where one has 

 not sufBcient broody hens then it prob- 

 ably would do all right to use what hens 

 there are to start the eggs, testing out 

 the fertile ones and giving them to the 

 bees to finish, while the hens would be 

 given a new lot to start; in this way one 

 might get as many chicks hatched with 

 one hen as%vouid otherwise be hatched 

 with four or five. 



P.\RKER'ro\vx, Ohio. Oct. 2, 1900. 



AX Si:CRETION NOT THE 

 FORTE OF OED BEES. 

 BY ARTHUR C. MILLER. 



Some occurances in my 

 apiary during the past season have brought 

 forcibly to my attention things that I do 

 not recall having seen published hereto- 

 fore, at least not in just the way they ap- 

 peared to me, and a brief statement of 

 them may serve to throw light on some 

 other puzzles. 



I had a very large colony without any 

 brood for eighteen days, at which time 



