1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



951 



as possible. I knew a full frame of drone brood, 

 years ago, in Palestine, which I had discarded, 

 and for the time being I did not know where to 

 put it, so I left it in the honey-room. Well, 17 

 or IS days later I went and uncapped the brood 

 and found them as vigorous as though they had 

 just been taken out of the hive. This was in 

 July. Again, this y^-ar a colonel bought a hive 

 of bees (Algerine-French) of me. In his ab- 

 sence his gardener wanted to work around the 

 hive, and shut it up. leaving them thus impris- 

 oned for 36 hours in the heat of the July sun. 

 Naturally, all were dead. This was July 20th, 

 1895. The servant brought me the hive and 

 combs, to give them another stand instead. I 

 had very much to do; and to avoid a bad smell, 

 etc., I gave the five combs containing the dead 

 brood. I knew by experience that such brood 

 of suffocated hives invariably died with the 

 bees. July 30, fully ten days after the accident, 

 I looked for the comb containing dead brood. 

 To my astonishment, more than half were out 

 and crawling out, but in a lamentable condi- 

 tion — dwarfed. The fuzz seemed stuck to the 

 body; the wings were badly developed; they had 

 outlived the catastrophe of their elders, but it 

 was not worth while to have such bees, for 

 they only barely lived. 



A queen can lay .3000 eggs a day, but not eve- 

 ry day. Here are observations on a colony of 

 bees I followed in Palestine, January to Decem- 

 ber, 1891. As nearly as I could make out, the 

 colony numbered some 10,000 bees Jan. 1. 



Daily 

 average. 



100 



6B6 



700 

 3333 

 :.'6l0 



Total. 



2 0'J0 

 11,988 

 16.800 

 34.99.5 

 .57,~'00 



lO.ono 



.56,997 



50,094 

 30.000 

 10,960 

 4,U00 

 3,000 

 1,000 

 1,000 



Averag-e laying from Jan. 1 to 20, '91, 

 Spring- wakiug-up, Jan. 30 to Feb. 7, 

 Almond flowers, Feb. 7 to March 3, 

 Beg. of orange-blobsoms. Mar. 3—18, 

 Full orang-e-blossiKiis, Mar. 18, Apr. 10, 

 Beg. of no flowers, then cactus, Apr. 10 



to May 31, 1000 



Chaste-tiee blossoms. May 31, June 17, 3111 

 Chaste-tree, then thyme, June 17, July 



10, 2277 



Thyme and end of it, July 10, Aug. 3, 1350 

 Thistles, Aug. 3—29, 460 



Honey in the hive, Aug. 29, Sept. 13, 2' 

 Peppermint and otliers, Sept. 13, Oct. 14, 115 

 Notiiing outside, Oct. 14 to Nov. 11, 35 



Nothing outside, Nov. 11 to Dec. 10, 28 



Nothing outside, Dec. 10 to 31, 



320,034 



About the same at the end of the season as re- 

 gards the number — 20,000 bees. At all events, 

 this gives us an average of 76 eggs a day for 

 365 days, or 1760 eggs a day if we take the hon- 

 ey-flow season from March 3 to August 3. The 

 colony did not swarm, and at the end of the sea- 

 son it was reduced to very nearly what it was 

 in the beginning; 300,000 bees were hatched, 

 and passed away; the hive had produced near- 

 ly 180 lbs. of honey. This honey was taken by 

 the extractor, April 10; April 18, orange-blos- 

 som honey; June 13 to 29, chaste-tree honey; 

 July 10 to August 3, thyme honey. 



Where the bees of a hive go to is, of course, to 

 be attributed to divers accidents — visits, etc. 

 The average bee's life during a honey-flow is 



between 35 and 40 days ; but this is only the 

 average ; for suppose we introduce 6000 eggs, 

 newly laid, into a colony, mark well the differ- 

 ence, take blacks for yellows or yellows for 

 blacks. After the 21 days required to hatch, 

 and 40 days .'supposed to be a bee's life, you can 

 hardly lind a hundred — often less — in some 

 hives. Even 35 days is the extreme limit. The 

 few bees that remain are worn out, and can 

 hardly be distinguished. Where they went to 

 is: 1. Their work wearing them out; 2. Winds, 

 rain, cool weather, overtaking them while far 

 from their hives; 3. Birds, reptiles, insects, spi- 

 ders, which lurk for them either at the en- 

 trance or in the air or on the flowers. The 

 nearer a bee arrives to or passes the thirty, the 

 easier it is caught or killed. It seems, of course, 

 at first sight, that the number of these losses is 

 too small; but it must always be remembered 

 that it is the infinitely small that forms our do- 

 ings, sayings, and surroundings. 



Great streams from little waters flow; 

 Great oaks from little acorns grow. * 



I find very nearly the same figures as the fore- 

 going given in a hive I observed this year at 

 Nice and in the Alps; and I find the average of 

 the honey money months, March 14 to August 

 3, 18.57 per day — almost 100 eggs more here than 

 in Palestine, without giving as much honey — 

 not very from half the amount only. I ex- 

 tracted, too, May 19 to June 3, orange-blossom; 

 July 13 to 27, and August 14, lavender. 



Nice, France. 



PREPARING FOR NEXT SEASON. 



Question. — Having my bees all fixed for win- 

 ter, I wish to know what I can best do during 

 the coming winter months to be of the most ad- 

 vantage to me for next summer's operations 

 with the bees. 



Answer.— The apiarist who is to be suc- 

 cessful has little time to waste; and I judge 

 our questioner is made of the right material for 

 a successful apiarist, for he wants to know 

 what to do next. Right here I wish to say 

 that, if any have started into the bee-business 

 on the supposition that " bees work for nothing 

 and board themselves," they had better get out 

 of it, for no success can be obtained along that 

 line. As soon as the bees are properly prepared 

 for winter, which should be as early as Novem- 

 ber 15th to December 1st, we are ready to go to 

 work for the next season, and so we commence 

 operations at once, remembering the proverb of 

 the ancient wise man who says in the "good 

 Book," " Seest thou a man diligent in busi- 

 ness? he shall stand before kings." 



