138 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feh. ]5. 



to fix the cell and for the queen to lay in it 

 again, we have an average of a little less than 

 240() cells for the queen to fill per day. Now, is 

 r.'4<)0 eggs the utmost daily laying capacity of a 

 queen in a strong colony ? and if not, should 

 any queen be restricted to that amount when 

 she could and naturally would lay more? I 

 ask these questions to help me determine what 

 size of hive to build this winter, having up to 

 this time supposed that a ten frame L. hive 

 was the smallest hive that could be profitably 

 used. 



Ansiver. — If a colony of bees having a good 

 prolific queen is given 30 Langstroth frames, 

 using but 8 to start with, and adding two or 

 three at a time, as the bees can occupy them, 

 until the BO are all in, it will be found that 

 such a (jueen will lay from ,5000 to (1000 eggs 

 daily, during the best part of the egg-laying 

 season, and die of old age or exhaustion when 

 but IS to 2i months old; while with the 8-frame 

 brood-chamber she will give as good results in 

 comb honey, if not better, each year, and live 

 for four or five years. I take it for granted 

 that our questioner is a comb-honey producer, 

 although he does not say so, and shall give my 

 views of the matter wholly along that line. 

 With the large hive the bees are quite likely to 

 get the start of the queen, and commence to 

 store honey in the brood -combs before entering 

 the sections at all, and in such a case the bees 

 seem loth to go into the sections, and continue 

 to store honey in the brood-chamber in prefer- 

 ence to going into the sections, thus crowding 

 out the queen with honey in the comb which 

 ought to be occupied with brood, till we have 

 as a result very little section honey in the fall, 

 and a colony in poor condition for winter. Be- 

 sides, it is well to remember that all queens are 

 not equally prolific; and while 20 per cent of 

 our queens would keep the brood-chamber of a 

 ten-frame Langstroth hive properly supplied 

 with brood to give the best results in section 

 honey, the other 80 per cent would not be pro- 

 lific enough to do so; hence in the majority of 

 the hives in the apiary we should have a 

 condition working against our best interests, 

 which could not be overcome by the extra 

 amount of comb honey produced by the 20 per 

 cent whose queens were prolific enough to 

 work in these ten-frame hives to advantage. 

 For these reasons it would seem best to adopt a 

 size of brood-chamber which any and all 

 queens, which were worth keeping at all. would 

 have occupied with brood at the commence- 

 ment of the honey- flow, thus securing the best 

 yields of surplus section honey at all times. 

 Because a queen may lay 6000 eggs daily by 

 using plenty of comb capacity and coaxing, it 

 does not necessarily follow that it is to the 

 best advantage of the apiarist to accommodate 

 or even coax a queen to bring her fullest laying 

 capacity to the front at any time. Queens, in 

 any well-regulated apiary, are among the 



smallest part of the expense incurred, while 

 labor, hives, and combs go toward making up 

 the larger part of the same. For these reasons, 

 I claim that the capacity of the queen should 

 rather be above the capacity of the brood-nest 

 than below it, so that all combs may be fully 

 occupied with brood. Unless this is the case 

 the outside combs continue, in most cases, to 

 be dead capital from year to year, unless we 

 argue that they are necessary to insure the 

 safe wintering of the bees. After an experi- 

 ence of over 25 years, I can not consider any 

 argument along this insurance line as aught 

 but fallacious. 



Again, suppose that a queen can average 

 .5000 eggs daily for a certain period. What is 

 the price or worth of those eggs? Does the 

 sum and substance of bee-keeping depend on 

 keeping all queens employed at egg-laying to 

 their fullest capacity? Bees, when they come 

 on the stage of action at just the right time, 

 are very valuable; but eggs are of no value, 

 onlv as they tend in the direction of producing 

 these valuable bees. Aye, they tend toward a 

 positive disadvantage, and to take away the 

 value we already have, only as they are look- 

 ing toward the end of producing the required 

 bees in the field at the time of the honey-har- 

 vest. Here is a point often lost sight of by the 

 large-hive advocates. As I said before, eggs 

 cost practically nothing; but as soon as the 

 bees begin to perfect them toward bees, then 

 they begin to cost; and if this perfecting is go- 

 ing on to any great extent at a time when the 

 perfected product is placed on the stage of ac- 

 tion either before or after their presence in 

 large numbers is needed, we not only have the 

 cost of their perfecting to pay for, but the cost 

 of their consuming, after being perfected, as 

 well. This consuming part, we always have to 

 pay for; but we willingly do it at any time 

 when the production of the individual bee is 

 greater than its consumption. But I can see 

 no object in doing this at any other time, sim- 

 ply that the extra laying capacity of any queen 

 may be gratified. A hive that is large enough 

 to gratify the greatest aspirations of very pro- 

 lific queens, at the times of these greatest aspi- 

 rations, will have too much capital lying idle 

 in it the largest share of the year, and be a 

 bungling hive at that. From all past experi- 

 ence I think that 2400 eggs per day would be a 

 good maximum average for any queen. Rain, 

 cold, or other disturbing influences often retard 

 the activity in the hive and of the queen, and 

 thus it happens that at times the best of queens 

 often do not lay more than 1000 eggs in a day, 

 while, with the right conditions, she may mul- 

 tiply this number by four, and still have plenty 

 of room in a hive which will give an average 

 of only 2400 daily. Then, again, as two and 

 one-seventh generations of bees can be brought 

 on the stage of action to where one steps off, 

 we find that, in a hive giving an average of 



