1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



585 



etc., where meals can be secured at from 10 cts. 

 up, depending upon the wants and tastes of the 

 individual — or, perhaps, to speak more correct- 

 ly, the desires and capacity of the individual. 

 The street-cjir passes the hotel, and it can he 

 taken within a block of the normal school, with- 

 out change. The car also runs directly to the 

 exhibition. The hotel is also two blocks from 

 the union station, and not much further to the 

 boat-landing; so I think we are fortunate in 

 this respect. There will be reduced rates to 

 Toronto, covering Canada. Michigan will have 

 a single rate, return tickets. There will be 

 other very low excursion rates from various 

 points In the United States, of which notice 

 will be given you later. Those not within those 

 limits should take regular rate till they reach 

 such territory, and then the excursion rate to 

 Toronto. There will be very low boat rates via 

 Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. 



The honey-flow has been rather poor, but I 

 believe there is a very general determination to 

 attend the North American Bee-keepers' Con- 

 vention in Toronto. The leading papers over 

 here are giving us every assistance, and the 

 meeting will be well advertised. 



Brantford. Out. 



[We may be sure that no stone will be left un- 

 turned by Bro. Holtermann for the convenience 

 and aiTOinmodation of the bee-keepers. We 

 were treated handsomely at Brantford.— Ed. J 



HOW MANY BEES IN A LARGE SWARM T 



SOME INTERESTING EXPEKIMENTS OF HOW A 

 BEE-ESCAPE WAS USED TO COUNT THEM ONE 

 BY one; what is THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF 

 EGGS A QUEEN WILL LAY PER DAY? AND 

 WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM? 



By J. L. Hyde. 



Perhaps what I am writing may be old to 

 you; but if not, you may have it for what it is 

 worth. 



I have been weighing my bees that swarmed 

 this summer, or three or four of them, to see 

 how many constitute a swarm; and the best 

 that I could do I could not make out more than 

 7 or 8 lbs. This would make about 3100 or 2400 

 by my reckoning. I had a swarm come out 

 July 3, that I counted, and I want to tell you 

 right here how I counted them. I had the 

 queen clipped, so I caught her when she swarm- 

 ed, then covered the hive with a sheet so no bees 

 could go back into the hive. After I had caged 

 the queen I put her into a small basket and 

 hung it on a stick a little way from the hive 

 (the bees had clustered on a tree while I was 

 doing this); and when the bees returned they 

 all went into the basket with the queen. I 

 then shook the bees out of the sections (as I 

 had already put the sections on), and made 

 them cluster with the others that wi re in 

 the basket. I then took out all the old comb 

 with brood, and carried these to a new hive. 



after shaking some of these bees off the combs, 

 and getting them also to alight with those that 

 were clustered, until I had 8 lbs. in the basket. 

 Then I took a small wooden box that would 

 hold about two quarts, and scoopi-d into it a 

 little over ?4 lb. of the bees. 



Before they went into the hive, when hiving 

 them I placed the box with the bees in it on the 

 Little Detective scales that I bought of you. I 

 had ready in my hand at this time a Lareese 

 bee-escape; and when the bees had flown out 

 of the box sufficient to weigh just Z^" lb. without 

 the box, I clapped the bee-escape on the box so 

 that no bee could get out without going 

 through the escape right before my eyes. I 

 then set the box on to a board, and by pufBng a 

 very little smoke in among the bees they were 

 in a commotion, and very soon they commenced 

 to march out through the escape in single file, 

 and they came along just about as fast as I 

 could count them, until they were nearly all out. 

 Well. I counted 747 bees in }4 Ib-i which would 

 be about 3000 in a pound. Now, if there were 

 3000 in one pound, there would be in 8 lbs. 

 24,000, which were about all that the hive con- 

 tained. There might be about one pound more 

 that I carried with the brood to the new hive, 

 together with the ones scattered about the 

 ground and hive. This is about as large a 

 swarm as I have. 



Now, what I should like to know is, what 

 becomes of all of the bees if the queen lays 3000 

 eggs per day, and her eggs all hatch into bees? 

 Doolittle says that she sometimes lays more — 

 4000 or 5000, I think. If she lays only 3000 eggs 

 per day, in 21 daysshe would have 63,000 eggs 

 and brood; and in 21 days more there would be 

 that number of bees which are notable to fly 

 much, so they would not die by wearing out 

 their wings. Now, we will wait three weeks 

 longer, and have as many more; and the first 

 three weeks of bees would not be all dead yet; 

 so we should have by this time something like 

 100,000 bees; that is, in a six- weeks' hatch we 

 should have that number; and the fact is, we 

 do not have more than a quarter as many. 

 Wouldn't it he better-to say that the queen lays 

 on an average 1000, and seldom lays 30(X) eggs? 

 Or will some one tell where the bees go to? 



Pom fret Landing, Ct., July 16. 



[Years ago, from the most careful estimates 

 we could make, not counting them one by one, 

 we found that a pound of bees, not filled with 

 hont'y, as is the case of bees just swarmed out, 

 would aggregate between 4.500 and .5()(X); that 

 when filled full with honey this number would 

 drop down to between 3000 and 3.500. You see, 

 you weighed bees that had come out with a 

 swarm; and. of course, as thev always do on 

 such occasions, they filled themselves with 

 honey to enable them to start building comb, 

 and to leave enough rations besides to enable 

 them to hold out until field-bees can bring in 

 more. Your figures, then, would corroborate 

 very closely those that were ohtained by our- 

 selves and friend Hasty years ago. 



Along about that time I personally weighed 



