702 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1.5. 



suit. By giving a laying queen to a colony im- 

 mediately after it has cast a swarm, we bring 

 about the same result (natural swarming) as 

 before, or we place the bees in tlie same condi- 

 tion. The only difference is, that, having plen- 

 ty of brood, they build up quicker and are pre- 

 pared to swarm in a shorter time. As this sec- 

 ond swarming, brought about by giving the 

 laying queen, comes right in our basswood- 

 honey harvest, it cut^ oflf the surplus honey; 

 for it is well known that bees having the swarm- 

 ing fever do little or no work in the section 

 boxes; and if allowed to swarm, the object we 

 have sought (section honey) is largely beyond 

 our reach. 



Having given my experience on this point, let 

 us see how the same colony would work had we 

 not given the bees a laying queen. 



Eight days after the swarm issued, the first 

 young queen would have emerged from her cell, 

 as a rule, when the apiarist should remove all 

 the other queen-cells from the hive, so that sec- 

 ond swarming is entirely prevented. In ten 

 days more our young queen is ready to lay. 

 which is about the lime basswood begins to 

 yield honey largely. During this period, be- 

 tween the time the swarm issued and when the 

 young queen commences to lay, the bees, not 

 having any bees to nurse for the last half of the 

 time, consume but little honey; hence, as fast 

 as the young bees emerge from the cells they 

 are filled with honey; for bees not having a 

 queen nor any unse^Jed brood seldom build any 

 comb in the sections. Thus, when the young 

 queen is ready to lay she finds every available 

 cell stored with honey. At this point the in- 

 stinct of the bees teaches them that they must 

 have brood or else they will soon cease to exist 

 as a colony, and a general rush is made for the 

 sections. The honey from below is carried 

 above, so as to give the queen room, and in a 

 week we have, as a result, the sections nearly 

 filled with honey, as this honey carried from be- 

 low, together with that from the fields, now 

 gathered with renewed vigor, rushes things 

 along wonderfully. I have had such colonies 

 fill and complete section honey to the amount 

 of sixty pounds in from ten to twelve days, 

 while those to which I had given a laying queen 

 immediately after swarming did little else than 

 swarm during the same time. Different loca- 

 tions may give different results; still, I think 

 nearly all locations give a large flow of honey 

 at a certain period during the season, rather 

 than a steady, continuous honey-harvest the 

 whole summer. To such sections these remarks 

 are applicable. 



My second reason is, that, after basswood, we 

 have a lioney-dearth, hence the bees from the 

 introduced queen are of no real value, but, on 

 the contrary, become consumers. On an aver- 

 age it takes 37 days from the time the eggs are 

 laid till the bee goes to the field to labor; hence 

 the eggs for the honey-gathering bees must be 

 deposited in the cells that length of time before 

 the honey -harvest ends, or else they are of no 

 value as honey-producers. As the basswood is 

 all gone before the eggs of the introduced queen 

 Isecome honey-producing bees, and as the larger 

 part of them die of old age before buckwheat 

 and fall flowers yield honey, it will be seen that 

 a great gain is made by letting each old colony 

 having cast a swarm rear its own queen; for 

 thereby we save the expensive feeding of the 

 larvte, which are to become expensive consum- 

 ers of the honey of the hive. The chances also 

 are, that, where the colony rears its own queen, 

 it will be better stocked with younger bees for 

 wintering in November than where a queen 

 was introduced immediately after swarming. 



The one point worth knowing above all oth- 

 ers in bee-keeping is a thorough knowledge of 



the location we are in, as to its honey resources, 

 and then secure the largest amount of bees pos- 

 sible at that time or those times to gather the 

 honey, having just as few at all other times as 

 is consistent with the accomplishm<'nt of this 

 object. In working so that we have the bees 

 out of season, we have to pay the same price 

 for them that we should to secure them so that 

 each one becomes a producer instead of a con- 

 sumer. 



If all who read this article will study their 

 locality, and then rear the bees in reference to 

 that location, I think they will find that their 

 bees will do as well as those of their more suc- 

 cessful neighbors. We often hear it said, that 

 one colony in an apiary did much better than 

 the rest; and, had they all done as well, a large 

 crop of honey would have been the result. The 

 reason that one colony did so well was because 

 it happened to have a large proportion of its 

 bees of the right age to gather honey just in the 

 honey-harvest; and if we can get all in this 

 condition we can secure a like result from the 

 whole apiary. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y., Sept. 5. 



A GLIMPSE OF A WISCONSIN APIARY. 



OUR OLD FRIEND F. L. SNYDER, AND SOME- 

 THING ABOUT THE HONEY CROl'. THE 

 FAMILY, ETC. 



Friend Root: — Do you remember that, just 

 four years ago to-day. you left our home for 

 Mr. Pickard's, Freeborn's, and Hatch's ? It 

 seems many years to me since then; and as I 

 read in Gleanings about your travels, I thank 

 God that he gives you health and strength that 

 you may go and see, and tell us of the wonders 

 there are to be seen. I have not so much honey 

 now as then, but my garden is much nicer. 

 My Early Sunrise and Potentate potatoes are 

 wonderful, while the Freeman and Polaris are 

 trying to outdo each other. 



While I am talking with you in regard to my 

 garden I will spud you a picture of a part of our 

 bee-yard and home, just as it looked two weeks 

 ago. 



Last year was a total failure here, except, 

 while many of the best bee-keepers had to feed 

 sugar, mine had enough honey to winter on: 

 and this year we are working them "■ for all 

 there is in them." We have had the worst 

 spring dwindling in 1893 we ever had. We lost 

 fully half, hence not so much honey as in other 

 years. We do not use queen-excluding honey- 

 boards, so you see the boys are after the queens 

 in the top-boxes. Charley, on the right, is now 

 14 years old. All he knows in bee-keeping is 

 what he learned in our yard, and by reading 

 Gleanings and the ABC; yet I think he is 

 able to take care of and make it a success with 

 a thousand colonies, if he had men to do the 

 lifting. You see, he has his bee-hat in his 

 hand. He will work but very little without it, 

 and he will use no smoker but the Bingham. 

 He does^not like the bees, and they do not like 

 him; but he will not be driven out of the yard. 

 Then he has his smoker, but he declares he will 

 never have a bee on his place when he gets to 

 be a man. 



Right in front is Grover C, 9 years old. His 

 hands are not strong enough to blow a Bing- 

 ham, so he takes the Clark. He thiuKS the 

 Clark is better, for it does not make the bees so 

 hot when the smoke hits them. He is, perhaps, 

 the most restless boy in the bee-yard, living. 

 More than half of his time he is without hat or 

 stockings or shoes on. He has been working 

 with the bees about four years himself; and he 

 and his brother Ernest, two years younger, 



