January, ig 



Americanize Journal 



More Bees or Better Yields— 

 Which? 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Not long ago I received a letter from 

 one of our best apiarists, in which he 

 declared that he was going to keep more 

 bees than he had in the past, and do 

 less work with them, as he was confi- 

 dent that double the number of colo- 

 nies would give him more honey from 

 his field or location than he had been 

 getting, and that he might care for liiis 

 doubled number he would do less work 

 on each colony than he had been doing. 

 He felt sure that double the number 

 of colonies would give him more honey, 

 even if he let them take care of them- 

 selves, than he had been receiving from 

 half of them, with all the labor he had 

 bestowed on the number he had former- 

 ly kept. He said that he believed that 

 the system of management used by many 

 in securing large yields from individual 

 colonies, caused a greater amount of 

 labor and manipulation than there was 

 any need of, and henceforth he should 

 adopt exactly the reverse from the plans 

 he had formerly been using, and put 

 more bees into his field, so that he would 

 get the same amount of surplus, and 

 he thought much more, with very little 

 labor. If Mr. Alexander could keep 700 

 colonies in one place, he did not see any 

 reason why he could not keep 500, just 

 as well as to be keeping the 250 which 

 he had been doing. I have not quoted 

 the words used verbatim, but I have 

 given the substance of that part of the 

 letter treating on this matter. 



I know there is an idea prevailing 

 with some bee-keepers, that more money 

 is to be made in apiculture by keeping 

 a large number of bees and letting them 

 largely take care of themselves, than 

 there is by keeping a less number and 

 properly caring for them. But is this 

 idea correct ? Have all the items which 

 bear on this matter been given the 

 proper consideration? As I have been 

 advocating keeping only as many colo- 

 nies as could be properly cared for, I 

 asked myself if I was in the right or in 

 the wrong. After reading the letter, I 

 concluded that it behooved me to con- 

 sider the matter a little, and if I were 

 on the wrong track, I had better get 

 right. The first thing that seemed to 

 impress itself on mc was the extra 

 cost of hives and supers which would 

 be required for double the number of 

 colonies I was keeping. When I first 

 began keeping bees, 40 years ago, this 

 hive item was no great one, for at that 

 time there were forests all about me so 

 that lumber good enough for hives could 

 be purchased at $15 per 1000 feet, and 

 that with honey at from 35 to SO cents 



a pound. But now it is altogether a dif- 

 ferent thing. The same 1000 feet of 

 lumber would cost me $40, while I must 

 pay for the same with 15 to 18 cent hon- 

 ey. This gives this hive problem a very 

 different look from what it used to 

 have, 35 to 40 years ago, and is some- 

 thing worth considering when we come 

 to think of doubling the number of colo- 

 nies of bees we are keeping. 



Then, all do not have a location like 

 Mr. Alexander — no, not one in 500. If I 

 am correct, he is surrounded by thou- 

 sands of acres of buckwheat, with 

 enough nectar-producing flowers before 

 this flow from buckwheat to keep his 

 bees and bring them up to a good con- 

 dition to take advantage of the flow 

 when it comes. The most of us depend 

 upon the flow from clover and bass- 

 wood, which comes so early in the sea- 

 son, and especially where white clover 

 is the source of our surplus, that it is 

 by the most careful coaxing and manip- 

 ulation that our bees are gotten strong 

 enough to be in good condition for this 

 early storing; and failing in these mat- 

 ters, we have an entire failure ; for, un- 

 less we have the bees on hand to se- 

 cure the nectar when it comes, all the 

 bees brought on the stage of action at 

 a later period count for naught, as there 

 is nothing for them to store from. 



With a location giving an abundant 

 yield from clover from June 15 to July 

 10, then from basswood to August i, 

 and then an Alexander location which 

 simply flows with honey from buck- 

 wheat from August 8 to September 10, 

 this keeping of more bees might be 

 something worth considering; for, with 

 such a location, the bees would almost 

 keep in perpetual readiness for the flows 

 as they came, and the yield would be 

 great enough to cover all extra cost of 

 hives, etc. But with the average loca- 

 tion there is something of greater im- 

 portance, as I consider it, than anything 

 before alluded to. 



After carefully looking the matter 

 over, I believe that there is one item 

 regarding these extra colonies which 

 the advocates forget, which is great 

 enough more than to pay for all ex- 

 tra time spent in building each individ- 

 ual colony up to where it can profitably 

 take advantage of any flow of nectar 

 which comes in our locality, which item 

 is great enough more llian to offset all 

 of the others, so that the investing of 

 capital in more hives for the extra num- 

 ber of colonies is worse than thrown 

 away. This item is, that each of the 

 extra colonies put in the field in or- 

 der to secure the nectar-secretion from 

 a given area with but little or no caring 

 for the colonies, costs at least 60 pounds 

 of honey each year to support. So the 

 question, it seems to me, would be, which 



is the cheaper, the labor formerly spent 

 on one-half the number to get them in 

 shape for the harvest, or the extra colo- 

 nies, hives, etc., and the honey that the 

 extra colonies will consume? 



Suppose that 500 colonies produce an 

 average yield of 30 lbs. each on the let- 

 alone plan, and by so doing secure all 

 the nectar in the field year by year. This 

 would make 15,000 pounds of surplus as 

 our share of the field, while each of the 

 500 colonies will use 60 pounds, or 30,- 

 000 pounds as a whole, as their share 

 to carry them through the year. Thus 

 we fail to secure to ourselves only one- 

 third of the honey from our field by 

 employing an extra number of colonies. 

 On the other hand, if we employ the 

 management plan that our best farmers 

 do — that of securing the same amount 

 of produce off one acre of land that 

 the "go as you please" farmer does off 

 of two or three— we shall find our state- 

 ment thus : 45,000 pounds is the product 

 of our field; 200 colonies are all that 

 are needed with good management to 

 secure it. Then 200 colonies must use 

 12,000 pounds of this for their support, 

 leaving 33,000 for the bee-keeper, or the 

 one who adopts the good-management 

 plan. Thus it will be seen that the 

 apiarist who shows "good generalship" 

 gets 18,000 pounds of honey for his 

 generalship, and uses little if any more 

 time than he would use on the 500 colo- 

 nies without any management ; hence, 

 from the standpoint of securing all the 

 honey produced by our field, the man- 

 agement plan is 18,000 pounds ahead of 

 the other plan of "keep more bees," so 

 greatly emphasized by its advocates. And 

 I consider that the same holds good, be 

 the number great or small. 



A live apiarist can care for one-half 

 the number of colonies on the good 

 management plan as easily as he can 

 for double the number as proposed by 

 my correspondent, and this one-half will 

 give the apiarist as good results in dol- 

 lars and cents as will the whole cared 

 for in the neglected way necessary with 

 "keep more bees," and save the extra 

 honey consumed by the extra one-half 

 of the number of bees, as clear gain to 

 the bee-keeper. And, besides this, there 

 is an inspiration and an enthusiasm 

 which comes with the management plan 

 that is worth a whole lot to the bee- 

 keeping world. Look at Mr. Terry, who 

 took that farm in Ohio and made it pro- 

 duce three times the bushels of potatoes 

 which the one preceding Inm did! See 

 what such management did for Mr. 

 Terry, and, much more, see what it did 

 through Mr. Terry for the world. This 

 old world grows better as well as richer 

 through those who are not afraid to put 

 forth a little extra energy, that the 

 small things which they may chance o 

 have can be "made to bud and blossom 

 as the rose." 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



Two Queens in One Hive 



C. p. DADANT. 



In the past few months, some interest 

 has developed among readers of the 

 bee-papers concerning the keeping of 

 two or more queens in one hive. En- 

 thusiastic bee-keepers having noticed 

 that sometimes two queens are found 



