348 



GLEANINGS IN BRE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



prospering In the way of brood -rearing. There, 

 this colony has some brood in four combs, equal 

 to two full combs. Pretty good for this time of 

 year! " 



" Now, Manum, I get a little confused in cal- 

 culating the amount of brood or honey in your 

 hive when reckoned by frames. You see, I use 

 the Langstroth size, while you use the Bristol 

 frame, which is much smaller than mine. Now, 

 what portion of my combs would be occupied 

 by the amount of brood contained in two of 

 your combs?" 



" That depends somewhat upon the comb sur- 

 face in the L. frame, since it varies somewhat, 

 owing to the varying thicknesses of top and 

 side bars. There is in one of my frames 114 

 inches of comb surface, while an L. frame has 

 about l."^! inches, making 37 inches more in the 

 L. frame than in mine. The comb surface in 9 

 L. frames just about equals that in 12 of my 

 frames, so that it takes nearly 2f, of my frames 

 to equal 3 of yours. Here is a colony that was 

 strong in bees when we opened them last week, 

 and just see how they have dwindled down. 

 Oh! I see — the queen is a cripple. She can but 

 just drag about; and see! there is a dent on her 

 back. She has been caught in a tight place 

 somewhere, to have met with such an accident. 

 Well, I might as well break up this colony at 

 once. What few bees there are I will unite with 

 that light colony over on the other row. The 

 queen I will drop down here and put my big 

 foot on her. That makes one more colony to be 

 numbered among the dead." 



" Why couldn't you use these bees for a nu- 

 cleuslior queen-rearing, and save the breaklng- 

 up of a colony later on, as you spoke of this 

 morning?" 



"It is altogether too early in the season for 

 that, Jones. I never think of forming nuclei 

 before the 15th of May, and then only a few. I 

 form the greater part of them after the first of 

 June; because, of late years, the most of my 

 orders for queens are for yearlings, which I 

 commence to ship about the first week in June; 

 and, furthermore, such bees as these would be 

 nearly worthless for queen rearing, as there are 

 so very few young bees among them. You see 

 they are all old settlers, and would be short- 

 lived at best. In fact, I do not suppose they are 

 even worth the bother of uniting with other 

 bees; but I will unite them just for the sake of 

 showing you how I do it. Now, there are just 

 about bees enough here to cover three of my 

 combs, hence we will remove all but three combs, 

 and close the hive for thirty minutes or so, 

 and in the mean time we will transfer two good 

 colonies from my hives into these little experi- 

 mental non-swarming hives; and as the season 

 advances we will watch their progress. Now 

 we will unite those bees. First, I will remove 

 three combs from the light colony, from near 

 the cluster, leaving one comb of honey close to 

 the cluster, and now I will place the three 



combs, with the queenless bees, next to this 

 honey, and the job is done. You will observe 

 that this comb of honey between the two lots of 

 bees keeps them separated until they become 

 better acquainted, or all of the same scent, and 

 then they will unite of their own accord." 



" Manum, I see on this next hive a blue stick 

 tacked on the front gable end. What does that 

 indicate?" 



"That indicates that the queen in that hive 

 is one selected last fall for a breeding-queen; 

 that is the way I mark them, so that, when I 

 am in a hurry, I can go right to one of these 

 hives without having to refer to my book. We 

 will open up this hive and see what is in it. 



"Goodness! this is a strong colony; see the 

 brood! Why, they will swarm in two weeks, I 

 should judge by the strength of the colony. 



"Yes, this is a good queen; just see how large 

 and plump she is, and how large and strong 

 appearing her bees ai'e. I am tempted to steal 

 a comb of hatching brood from this colony and 

 give it to that light colony, to which we gave 

 the queenless bees. It would help them won- 

 derfully — much more than those old bees will. 

 Yes, I will do it, although it is too early for 

 such work; but this colony can well spare the 

 brood. The only fear I have is, that the light 

 colony may not be able to care for the extra 

 brood. But I will heat a brick and put it into 

 the unoccupied half of the hive every night and 

 morning, for a few days, and I think there will 

 be no loss of brood." A. E. Manum. 



Bristol, Vt. 



Our Symposium. 

 THE LARGE OR THE SMALL HIVE. 



LARGKST YIELDS FOUH TIMES OUT OF FIVE 



FROM THE LARGE HIVE; NOT A QUESTION 



OF LOCALITY; A STRONG ARTICLE. 



By J. A. Nash. 



I have read with much interest many of the 

 articles on the hive question, but did not intend 

 to say any thing myself, until the editor re- 

 marked that the subject was stlH open; then I 

 concluded to say a few words. 



In a number of the articles on this subject, 

 the writers speak of a large hive for one local- 

 ity, and a smaller one for another. Mr. Editor, 

 is there so very much in this? I have been in- 

 terested in bees since I was a boy; have kept 

 them for the money there was in them, as well 

 as the keen enjoyment I derived from a study 

 of their habits; and in the years that are gone, 

 when the flowers of our Iowa prairies and 

 groves secreted honey, I believe I secured my 

 share of it. Now, if the experience of over a 

 quarter of a century has taught me one thing 

 more thoroughly than another, it is this: While 

 you can keep a small colony in a large hive, it 

 is another matter altogether to have a large 

 booming colony in a small one; and that a small 



