51S 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



in C. B. J. thai for 15 years he has not failed to 

 make an absconding swarm settle by vigorous- 

 ly ringing two good cow-bells, keeping always 

 in front of the leaders of the swarm. 



Geodes are not a peculiarity of Tampa Bay, 

 friend Root. I found many of them near 

 Johnstown, Pa., in a deep cut made for the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad. The water doesn't get 

 inside the stone; the stone grows around the 

 water. 



DooLiTTLE has been misunderstood to claim 

 that all five-banders have the same origin. He 

 explains in Progressive that others have pro- 

 duced them from Syrian, Cyprian, and other 

 bees, but he thinks all the five-banders of 

 Italian origin have come from Mr. Hearn or 

 himself. 



Canadians have in general held out against 

 wiring frames. The last Canadian Bee Jour- 

 nal touches the subject in a gingerly manner — 

 doesn't approve, doesn't condemn — just says 

 that the method of fastening wires by electrici- 

 ty works beautifully. On this side the line the 

 wiring works beautifully too, whether fastened 

 by lightning or not. 



Says Doolittle, in Progressive, " I have 

 been in the bee-business as a specialist for the 

 past twenty years, yet I feel that what I don't 

 know of the business stretches out wide and 

 vast, away out into the unknown; and I sit as 

 a child at the feet of some vast problem, much 

 of which is beyond my comprehension." Shake, 

 brother Doolittle, shake. 



This troubles me: Some report— particular- 

 ly in Europe— that very strong colonies with 

 unlimited brood room do nothing but rear bees 

 to be fed, while other colonies with limited 

 room for breeding lay up a surplus; and on the 

 other hand we have reports where it's the un- 

 limited room for the queen that goes with the 

 surplus, and little brood room means little sur- 

 plus. 



FoK SHADE over hives standing in the sun, 

 try this: Cut some grass— long slough grass if 

 you have it: pile it on the hive six inches or 

 more deep, and anchor it with two or three 

 sticks of stovewood. Lift cover and all, and it 

 will last through the season. But I want 

 shade over myself as well as the bees. [So do 

 I; but somehow it is not always convenient to 

 have it so.— Ed.] 



A SMALL NUMBER have for years paid an an- 

 nual tax for the benefit of bee-keepers in gener- 

 al. Is it fair to continue the Bee-keepers' 

 Union in that way ? Is there no way by which 

 a large number can become interested in the 

 Union and the North American ? Large mem- 

 bership is the thing to strive for, rather than 

 large attendance at meetings. In union there 

 is strength. [How would it do to have smaller 

 membership fees and a larger membership? I 

 think it would be well to consider this.— Ed. 1 



LARGE VS. SMALL HIVES. 



WHY IT IS A QUESTION OF LOCALITY ; A GOOD 

 ARTICLE. 



By J. E. Hand. 



Editor Gleanings: — I have read with much 

 interest the discussion on the subject of large v. 

 small brood-chamber hives. This is a subject 

 of vital importance to the bee-keeper, and one 

 on which depends his success or failure in the 

 production of surplus honey, perhaps, as much 

 as on any other one thing except, possibly, loca- 

 tion. I am persuaded it is all a matter of loca- 

 tion, and length and time of honey-flow, that 

 must ever decide this question of whether a 

 large or small brood-chamber hive will give 

 the best results in surplus honey. There can be 

 no iron-clad rules laid down in regard to this 

 matter, but it should be carefully considered 

 and decided upon by each bee-keeper for him- 

 self, and according to his location, and time and 

 duration of honey-flow, etc. Because a bee- 

 keeper in Colorado has splendid success in the 

 production of comb honey with a twelve or even 

 fourteen frame hive, it does not signify that I 

 should not have as good or even better success 

 in my location with an eight-frame hive than 

 with his large hive. 



I will try to explain why it is altogether a 

 matter of location. In the first place, every 

 bee-keeper in the North (especially in Central 

 Iowa, where I have kept bees for the past 12 

 years) knows that the hardest thing for us to 

 do is to get our hives full of bees and brood in 

 time for the white-clover harvest, which usual- 

 ly begins about June 1st, after which basswood 

 opens about July 1st, and lasts from 5 to 30 

 days, according to the season, conditions of the 

 weather, etc., 21 days being the longest flow I 

 have ever known from basswood in Iowa; and 

 as we do not have any surplus from fall flow- 

 ers, our harvest closes with basswood, about 

 July 10 to 15. Now, then, it is conceded by our 

 most scientific apiarists that a bee does not be- 

 come a field-worker until about 16 days old; 

 and as it takes 31 days from the egg to the bee, 

 then 37 days must elapse from the time the egg 

 is deposited by the queen until it becomes a 

 field-worker; hence all eggs laid after 37 days 

 prior to the honey-flow which yields your sur- 

 plus become worse than useless, because they 

 become consumers instead of producers; and it 

 has cost much honey and time of the workers 

 to raise them, which might otherwise have 

 been employed in gathering honey from the 

 fields. 



Now, then, 37 days prior to July 1st brings us 

 back to May 33d; hence it will be seen that all 

 eggs, in order to produce workers for the bass- 



