189o 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



161 



and again, that the smallest crops came from 

 the smallest hives, on the average, and that, 

 whenever the crop was short, twenty-seven out 

 of every thiriy small hives had to be fed, while 

 the large colonies had generally enough, we 

 transferred all the bees out of these ten-frame 

 Langstroth hives, and we now have a lot of 

 these old hives piled behind our honey-house, 

 waiting for a buyer. But they will probably 

 soon make kindling-wood. 



The same experiments have been made by 

 large producers in this country and in several 

 countries of Europe, with the same results. 

 Some of these are related in Langstroth Re- 

 vised. 



That a large hive gives better results may be 

 easily explained, and without rational contest, 

 since it can not be denied that the amount of 

 honey gathered by a colony is in proportion to 

 the number of bees the hive contains. The 

 writers of old books on bee culture, being un- 

 able to reckon correctly tlie number of eggs 

 that a queen could lay, had guessed it very 

 much too low. Now it is proven that most of 

 the queens, in favorable circumstances, lay 3.500 

 eggs in 24 hours, during spring. We have as- 

 certained that some of our queens laid more 

 than 4000 eggs; and a bee-keeper, Mr. P. Bois, 

 of Jersey, a reliable man, reported in the Revue 

 Jnternatio7iale, that one of his queens laid as 

 many as .5000 eggs in 24 hours. Is there any 

 thing improbable about this ? Authorities 

 agree that the queen can lay her weight of eggs 

 in 48 hours, consuming honey in proportion. 

 We have often seen a queen, in an observing- 

 hive, lay six eggs in a minute; this would make 

 3600 in ten hours, 4320 in 12 hours. Now, as it 

 takes 21 days for an egg to become a bee, if we 

 suppose a possible laying of 3500 eggs the queen 

 needs a number of cells equal to 3500x21, or 

 73,500 cells, in addition to the cells needed for 

 the indispensable stores of food, honey, and 

 pollen. 



The Langstroth frame measures 142 square 

 inches; and as every square inch contains 55 

 worker-cells, 27 or 28 on each side, one frame 

 contains about 7800 cells; an eight-frame hive, 

 therefore, has but 62,400 cells, and a ten-frame 

 78,000. Deducting from this number about 

 20,000 cells for stores and a little space ahead 

 (for the queen surely can not fill every cell as 

 soon as vacated), we have, to receive the daily 

 laying of eggs, 42,400 cells in the eight-frame, 

 and .58,000 in the ten-framo hive; and this, di- 

 vided by 21 days, gives us a capacity of but 2000 

 and 2800 eggs per day. In short, an eight- 

 frame hive can accommodate only a rather in- 

 ferior queen. Will you need authority for this? 

 We can give you some very near home. 



We read in the A B C of Bee Culture (are you 

 acquainted with the author?) under the head- 

 ing, " Loss of Queen," " If we assume the num- 

 ber of eggs a queen can lay in a day to be 3000, 

 by taking her away a single day we should, in 



the course of events, be just that number of 

 bees short right during a yield of honey." Then 

 the lack of room in a ten-frame hive reduces 

 the laying, according to this author, 200 eggs 

 per day, or 4200 during the 21 days; and the 

 famous eight-frame hive reduces the number of 

 workers, in 21 days, just 21,000. Would not this 

 make a fine little swarm? What qualities do 

 you find in the eight-frame that will make up 

 for this loss? Mind, we take the number of 

 only 3(K30; but what is the loss if the queen is 

 capable of laying 3500 eggs or more per day? 

 As a matter of course, even with these ten- 

 frame hives you will not know what she is 

 capable of doing, and you will ignore your loss 

 altogether. We acknowledge that the author 

 of the work above cited must not have been 

 very sure that the average queen could lay that 

 many eggs, else why should he ever advise any 

 one to change from a ten-frame to an eight- 

 frame hive ? And yet when he states the 

 probability of her being able to lay that num- 

 ber, he places himself with only the most con- 

 servative authors — Dzierzon, Thos. W. Cowan, 

 and others. 



In 1857, Berlepsch counted the eggs laid by a 

 queen in 24 hours, and this number was 3021. 

 Numbers of writers agree that the minimum 

 laying of a good queen. in the busy season, is 

 2000 eggs per day. With your eight-frame hive 

 you compel them to the minimum rate. 



About three or four years ago a bee-keeper 

 wrote, in the German bee-journals, that queens 

 were unable to lay more than 15 or 16 days in 

 succession, and stopped very often for five or 

 six days at a time. The Swiss bee-keepers, who 

 nearly all use large hives, investigated this 

 matter, and unanimously reported that they 

 had been unable to find a trace of any such 

 intermissions. The explanation was easy: The 

 German hives are all small, and the queens fill 

 them very quickly. Their cessation of laying 

 is caused by their being short of room before 

 the hatching of the first- laid eggs. 



In very small hives, not only the queen but 

 the bees are dissatisfied, and swarm frequently. 

 Some bee-keepers, who wish to increase the 

 number of their colonies, may like this; but 

 the men who have enough colonies, and want 

 honey, do not relish the swarming so well, for 

 it compels them to watch their hives, and often 

 to leave their occupation to harvest swarms 

 that are often of little value. The increase by 

 natural swarming is less desirable than that by 

 artificial division; for in the latter case the bee- 

 keeper can select his breeders. Natural swarm- 

 ing is, therefore, objectionable in several ways. 



You will object here, that you can give room 

 to your bees by piling two or even three hives 

 on top of one another, thus giving the queen all 

 the space needed, and more. Aye, " and more.'''' 

 In fact, you give them too much space this 

 time, and often too early, when the weather is 

 too cool, or too late, when the crop is very near 



