THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



127 



I presume nearly all who keep anything 

 like accurate records of individual colonies 

 have felt the want of some definite way to 

 express the number of l)et<.s and brood m a 

 colony they have examined. To such I re- 

 commend my way of domg it, wliich here 

 occurs for the first time— Bees (7) Brood 

 (3tJ.j Eight frames well covered with bees 

 would record Bees (24) three to a frame. 

 My Italians, as not infrequently happens, 

 had so nearly all gone with the swarm that 

 only enough remained to properly cover a 

 little more than two combs. I presume I 

 feared to trust so few bees with a hive full of 

 brood ; and perhaps also the prevention of 

 after-swarms was in my mind a little. 

 Practically brood seems able to make some 

 warmth for itself, and, rather seldom 

 perishes in such cases. An enthusiast must 

 needs be a little fussy, aud so I put the 

 brood elsewhere. But to return to the re- 

 cording method, it is easy to contract the 

 habit of giving each frame its number as 

 one takes it up, and adding it to the total 

 already in mind. Then when all have been 

 lifted you have the census of the colony in 

 convenient shape to be marked down. The 

 number is three to each comb, if properly 

 covered, two or one if scantily covered, and 

 four or five if the comb is somewhat, or 

 more than somewhat, piled with bees crawl- 

 ing over each other. As to brood my unit 

 of count is the quarter thousand ; which 

 makes a patch a trifle over three inches 

 square. Holding a frame before me I note 

 how many three-inch squares the patch of 

 brood would divide up into ; double the 

 figure for the two sides, and add up the 

 totals just as in the census of the bees. So 

 Brood (36) means 9,000, thus rudely counted. 

 I must confess I have never counted the 

 bees on a normally covered comb. It would 

 be a little over 2,000 if a 4 tb swarm covers 

 8 combs — same if we assign each bee a space 

 half an inch long by a quarter inch wide. So 

 Bees (1) would be G6(J; and Bees (7), as in 

 this case, ifiCiS. I see with interest that 

 comrade Aikin has a recording system in 

 last Review (page 97). It is easier than 

 mine, but does not come so near accuracy. 



" May 20th Devised robber-trap to decrease 

 snatching, and to find out which stands rob 

 most. Flour thrown on them wlien let out." 



Lots of ingenuity was expended on this 

 implement ; but after a few days' trial it 

 went to the lumber-room, and never got out. 

 When robbers are bad the proper course is 

 to stop, and resume after bees have stopped 



flying for the day. If matters are so peremp- 

 tory that you cannot stop you must have a 

 tent of some kind, big enough to cover your- 

 self and hive. My trap had an upper story 

 into which robbers crawled, fly-trap fashion 

 and couldn't get out. Caught lots of them — 

 that was not the trouble — but the number 

 bothering one while at my work was not 

 much decreased. Sometimes I kept my cap- 

 tives till the next morning and then destroy- 

 ed them ; sometimes after a brief imprison- 

 ment I let them go. 



" May 24tli. The Italians at 10-9 swarmed 

 again, but went back. They are not strong 

 enough to swarm, and have no young brood or 

 queen cell. Probably a case of following the 

 young queen out on her mating flight. They 

 flew very high and scattering. Removed the en- 

 trance-blocks from all but a few weak swarms. 

 Hope the metliod of keeping pretty closely 

 closed, and then opening in a warm time when 

 they begin to think (»f swarming, will assist to 

 check the swarming impulse." 



Vain, vain, vain, all vain both these and 

 all my other anti-swarming devices so far. 

 Just notice these Italians. They had swarm- 

 ed themselves down to one pound of bees ; 

 and their keeper's oificiousness had reduced 

 them to 9,000 head of brood, one half of 

 which may have been out at this time, and 

 here they were eager to swarm again the 

 minute the queen left the door-step — and the 

 regular swarming season not begun yet. It 

 certainly was not the honey flow that put 

 the mischief into their heads. For two 

 weeks 3 ounces had been the largest run, 

 and most of the days nothing at all. All the 

 same we shall have an effective anti-swarm- 

 ing method or device some day I hope. The 

 very fact that I have in my efforts to prevent 

 swarming greatly increased the number of 

 swarms from the colonies treated shows 

 that something can be done, if it is only 

 rightly done. 



RiOHAKDS, Ohio, April 19th, 1892. 



The Kind of Bees, Food, Packages, and 



Management Needed in Shipping 



Bees by the Pound. 



G. W. GATES. 



¥0U suggest, in your leader for March, 

 that I give more particulars in re- 

 gard to the food given bees in ship- 

 ping. The food used for the bees sent you 

 was powdered sugar and honey worked thor- 

 oughly together aud allowed to stand several 

 days before being used. 



This always carried well when the cages 

 were kept right side up as they usually were 



