208 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. l.T. 



ry; it doesn't pay, these days, to produce sec- 

 ond-class honey. Sections are now so cheap 

 that one can not afford to use the stained ones, 

 and then sell the honey two to three cents per 

 lb. less than the same honey will bring in new 

 clean sections. It is too much like spoiling a 

 50-cent jack-knife to save half a cent. I am 

 ashamed of myself that I have used old sections 

 over and over so long before coming to my 

 senses." 



" Have you decided that the bee-business has 

 seen its best days in Vermont?" 



"Oh, no! not by any means. There are lo- 

 calities where basswood has not been cut off, 

 and probably will not be, for a good many 

 years. In those places, and where they have 

 clover and raspberries in plenty, it will pay to 

 keep bees; and, in fact, I think it will pay here 

 in a small way, but not as well as formerly. 

 But that is not the only reason why I propose 

 to reduce my number of colonies. You must 

 remember, Henry, that I am not as young as I 

 was once; and to look after so many bees, with- 

 out help, is a little more than I feel able to do; 

 and inasmuch as good help is so scarce, I think 

 it as well for j/ie to have fewer bees to look 

 after. Although I have managed, and can still 

 manage, 500 colonies alone in five yards, I pre- 

 fer to have fewer colonies, and devote more of 

 my time to the queen-business as well as to 

 the fruit-business. If I were as favorably locat- 

 ed for the bee-business as are Messrs. J. E. 

 Crane. J. H. Larrabee, V. V. Blackmer, and 

 Mr. R. H. Holmes, I would not think of de- 

 creasing my number of colonies at present." 



" But, Manum, what will you do with all 

 your empty hives and extra clamps, etc?" 



" Well, Henry, I shall offer them for sale at a 

 very low price; and what I can not sell will 

 make splendid kindling-wood. However, I 

 shall not knock them to pieces just yet, as I 

 may wish to again increase my number of colo- 

 nies, providing the fruit-business does not suit 

 me. In such case I shall doubtless change my 

 location, and try to get a safe distance from 

 wood-working machinery, with the hope that 

 basswoods will be let alone. There are yet a 

 few such localities in Vermont that are not oc- 

 cupied; but Bristol is my home, and I dislike to 

 move away if I can avoid it. 



A. E. Manum. 



DOOLITTLE'S REPLIES TO INaUIRIES. 



NECESSITY FOR EARLY BROOD-REARING; SIZES 

 OF BROOD-NESTS, ETO. 



Question.— How many standard Langstroth 

 frames would you use in a hive when working 

 exclusively for comb honey? Should prime 

 swarms issue, which will be the best to produce 

 comb honey, the new swarm or the old colony? 



Answer. — I would use just as many standard 

 Langstroth frames in the brood-chamber, 

 when working for comb honey, as the queen had 

 occupied with brood, when the honey-harvest 

 commenced in earnest from clover or basswood. 

 according as either one abounded in the locality 

 I was in. For this reason I would use a ten- 

 frame Langstroth hive; that is, I would have 

 a hive that would hold ten Langstroth frames, 

 and have it so arranged that I could reduce it 

 to only a four-frame hive should I find a queen 

 that would not keep more combs tiian that 

 number occupied with brood, or a fivi% six, sev- 

 en, eight, or nine frame hive, just in accord 

 with the prolificness of the queen. There are 

 a very few queens which will fill ten L. frames 

 with brood, when they are laying their maxi- 

 mum number of eggs; hence we wish a ten- 

 frame hive for these queens: and as we do not 



know just which hive will have such a queen, 

 we will make all of our hives to hold ten frames. 

 Far more of the queens will keep only nine 

 frames tilled with brood, and for this reason we 

 wish some way of reducing this ten-frame hive 

 to a nine-frame when it is required. Where 

 the hanging frame is used I know of no better 

 way of doing this than by using a Ij^g-inch 

 board, the same being a little smaller than the 

 inside of the hive below the rabbets, and having 

 the top-bar of a frame nailed to one side of it 

 so it will hang in the hive the same as a frame. 

 Where we find a queen capable of keeping only 

 nine frames filled with brood, and we have ten 

 frames in the hive, take out the one the queen 

 does not occupy, at the beginning of the honey- 

 fiow, and slip in the prepared board to take 

 the place of it. But, as a rule, we shall find 

 that by far the larger part of our queens will 

 occupy only eight frames with brood, when we 

 will use one of the boards on each side of the 

 hive, instead of both on one side, as this brings 

 the top of the hive in better shape for the bees 

 to work to the best advantage in the sections, k 

 A few of our queens may not prove up to the 

 average as to prolificness, consequently we 

 wish to reduce the size of the hive still further 

 in such cases, and for this further reducing I 

 prefer to use two frames spiked together, hav- 

 ing ?8 lumber nailed on each side, thus making 

 what is known as a "dummy." With these 

 boards and dummies you are to contract each 

 hive to suit the laying capacity of each queen, 

 in the very commencement of the honey har- 

 vest, if you would secure the best results in 

 comb honey. Why? Because, if you allow the 

 bees to make a start at storing honey of any 

 amount in the brood-frames, it will be found 

 that they will be loth to enter the sections; and 

 instead of doing so they will keep on storing in 

 the brood -chamber, crowding the queen more 

 and more in her brood space, till at the end of 

 the season you will have very little honey in 

 the boxes, and very few bees in the hive below 

 to go into winter quarters. 



Of all the most damaging things to a crop of 

 comb honey, I believe this having lots of empty 

 combs in the brood-chamber at the beginning 

 of the honey harvest is the worst, with the 

 average bee-keeper. Strive to have every 

 queen do her level best at brood-rearing for one 

 month to six weeks before the expected harvest, 

 so that the maximum number of bees may 

 come with the beginning of the harvest; then 

 take away all comb unoccupied with brood, and 

 put on the sections, and you are as near perfec- 

 tion, according to my views, as you can well 

 get; and should the season be a good one, you 

 will be surprised at the good results in honey 

 obtained, if you have never tried this before. 

 But why not kill all the unproliflc queens we 

 happen to have before the honey- harvest, and 

 thus have queens that will have brood in eight 

 frames at least? Because we can not tell just 

 which of the queens we supposed were good 

 ones last fall will be the failing ones, till near 

 the honey-harvest; and should we then change 

 we shall throw the colony into an abnormal 

 condition which will work against our securing 

 as good results from that colony as we should 

 have secured had we left the poor queen till the 

 end of the harvest and then replaced her. By 

 "abnormal condition," I mean this: This young 

 prolific queen, given near the commencement of 

 the hon<^y- harvest, will not be content with 

 the number of combs the old queen was occupy- 

 ing; and if confined to these, swarming during 

 the middle of the harvest will be the result, 

 which all know would blight our prospects of 

 honey of any amount from that colony; and if 

 we gave this queen all the room she needed, say 

 nine frames, it would eiiher result in the bees 



