IpIO. 



American Hee JowniAJi 



keeper has probably noticed its resem- 

 blance to the heartsease in the "knots" 

 o{ the stem, the shapes of the blossom 

 and of the seed. 



The Persicarias are fully as common 

 in Europe as in America, but I have 

 never heard of them as great honey- 

 producers on the European Continent. 

 They have a certain credit as medicinal 

 plants, and in Russia, India, China and 

 Japan, the leaves and the roots are em- 

 ployed for making dyes. (United States 

 Dispensatory.) 



The Grand Dictionnaire Larousse 

 mentions the plants of this family as 

 good soil-enrichers. I believe this is 

 correct, for I have often seen buckwheat 

 grown purposely to plow under as they 

 do with red clover. 



This article being longer than I an- 

 ticipated, I will mention the Spanish- 

 needle in another number. 



Hamilton, 111. 



Increase vs. Honey-Production 



BY LEO E. G.ATELEY. 



Shall the professional honey-pro- 

 ducer set aside certain colonies for 

 making necessary increase, or shall the 

 entire apiary contribute toward such 

 an end? This is a question that I have 

 never settled to my complete satisfac- 

 tion, and is one, I believe, which must, 

 to a great extent, depend upon condi- 

 tions. 



By setting apart a share of the apiary 

 to be used for increase, those remain- 

 ing can be kept in an ideal condition 

 for storing surplus; but in order to 

 prevent swarming among such colonies, 

 when run for section honey, it becomes 

 necessary either to practice shook- 

 swarming, or at one time or another, 

 deprive the bees of all or most of their 

 brood. Where only a small increase is 

 desired, it can be supplied by this re- 

 moved brood with no appreciable effect 

 upon the amount of surplus secured. 



As soon as the hives are well popu- 

 lated, whether the honey-flow is on or 

 not, I place over each colony a second 

 story of empty combs or foundation. 

 This will delay swarming until the 

 queen has moved up into the top hive. 

 By the time this occurs there should be 

 quite a flow on, and the upper story 

 with the queen can be removed to a 

 new stand. The lower story is then 

 given a ripe cell or virgin from choice 

 stock, and a super added. As the hive 

 on the old stand now contains sealed 

 brood only, it cannot swarm as there 

 are neither eggs nor larvae from which 

 to start cells. The return of the field- 

 bees from the top-story so diminishes 

 their force that all danger of their 

 swarming is removed. The emerging 

 brood left upon the original stand, re- 

 inforcing the field-force, work in the 

 sections will go forward with a rush. 



The old queen and bees in the new 

 hive should by winter build up into a 

 fair colony; but if so great an increase 

 should prove undesirable, the top 

 stories can, as they are removed, be 

 tiered up to any depth without quarrel- 

 ing, and all of the old (jueens will be 

 killed but one. 



This method of management I find 

 secures a crop of honey equal to any, 

 supplies young queens to a good share 

 of the apiary, furnishes sutTicient in- 



crease, totally prevents swarming, and 

 keeps all of the original number of 

 colonies at work in the sections. 



As most of my colonies are in sec- 

 tional hives, another plan is used to 

 prevent swarming with such. Like the 

 first, it involves the removal of brood, 

 but this is taken away gradually, one 

 division at a time, and the old queen is 

 left upon the original stand. 



My preference for such methods of 

 increase arises chiefly from the fact 

 that there is so little labor connected 

 with them. There is no handling of 

 frames whatever, and if no more than 

 100 percent increase is needed, it can 

 be formed without lessening the honey 

 crop in the slightest, and while per- 

 forming only necessary operations in 

 the production of the crop. 



If a greater increase is needed, a 

 division of the brood removed can, un- 

 der favorable circumstances, be made, 

 but it would in all probability be found 

 advisable then to adopt other measures, 

 even though they involve some trouble 

 and expense. In fact, the foregoing 

 plan is not so much in line with the 

 requirements of those wishing to build 

 up an apiary quickly, as it is suitable to 

 the practical honey-producer who does 

 not care to have his increase interfere 

 with his business of securing the larg- 

 est possible yields of surplus. 



Sebastian Co., Ark. 



Hatching of a Queen-Bee's Egg 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



" I see that you sometimes answer ques- 

 tions in the American Bee Journal, giving 

 some length to (lie answer. There is some- 

 thing which I wish to know more about, and 

 I thought that Doolittle miglit be able to 

 shed some light on the matter. It is this; 

 How do the bees iiatch the eggs which the 

 queen lays ? Or is this question worded 

 wrong? Let me put it another way; Do the 

 eggs laid by the queen honey-bee hatch of 

 themselves the same as do the eggs of our 

 birds and barnyard fowls, just from the 

 warmth they are exposed to during incuba- 

 tion ? or do the bees, by some secret of their 

 own. cause them to hatch ? Again, How 

 long can the eggs the queen lays be kept and 

 then hatch?"— A Correspondent. 



These questions are very interesting, 

 and those on which I have often 

 thought I would experiment, but when 

 the rush of the season comes on I find 

 that many of the scientific things I 

 desire to look after have to step to one 

 side from the pressure which is brought 

 to bear from the dollar-and-cent point 

 of the apiary; for, say what we will, 

 the harvest of queens, bees and honey 

 is the main " lever " resting under all 

 of our work with the bees. With the 

 hope that some one not having so 

 much to do as I have, will take this 

 matter up and carry it further than it 

 has been my lot to do, I will try to tell 

 all I know in this matter. 



Several years ago there came a dearth 

 of honey just when it was necessary 

 that the eggs laid by the queens should 

 be matured into bees, if I was to have 

 the maximum number of bees on the 

 stage of action when the flowers giving 

 my harvest of white honey were in 

 bloom. Being anxious for the best re- 

 sults I watched carefully to see that the 

 eggs laid by the queen were hatching 

 into larvx, and these larvae fed till 

 sealed up; for years of observation had 

 told me that with the sealing up of a 

 cell containing a larva, such was the 



same as insured for a perfect bee about 

 12 days later, if no unforeseen accident 

 happened to that colony. That when 

 the bees considered it necessary to re- 

 trench in brood-rearing from any 

 cause, that retrenchment was always 

 begun through a limitation of the eggs 

 allowed to hatch, and lastly by with- 

 holding the proper food from the 

 queen so as to restrict her egg-laying. 



After the dearth above spoken of 

 had been on for a few days, I found 

 that the larvs were being scrimped of 

 food, and a day or two later all of the 

 brood contained in any of the hives 

 was in the egg or sealed-brood form. 

 Desiring to do the best possible with 

 the bees, I commenced to feed about 

 half of the colonies, hoping to see the 

 eggs hatch ; but from some reason 

 those colonies fed refused to do any- 

 thing different from those not fed. All 

 of the days were cloudy and cool, so 

 that the bees were kept confined to the 

 hives, except as those fed would fly for 

 a time after the warm feed was poured 

 into the feeders. I have always thought 

 that had I commenced the feeding be- 

 fore the bees began to scrimp the food 

 of the larvae they would have gone 

 right on, the same as if there was no 

 dearth of nectar caused by this cool, 

 cloudy spell which was of two weeks 

 duration. However this might be, I 

 noticed at every examination of the 

 hives that there was an unusual num- 

 ber of eggs being retained in the 

 combs, aggregating many more than 

 there were before the dearth com- 

 menced, as the queen filled with eggs 

 very many of the cells from which the 

 larvae were removed, while those on 

 the outside of the brood-circle were 

 still retained. 



It now came off bright and warm, 

 and in less than 3 days — that necessary 

 for the incubation of the eggs of the 

 queen — the combs were teeming with 

 larvae to an extent never before ob- 

 served, the largest larvae being on the 

 outside of the brood-circle, instead of 

 on the inside, or next to the sealed 

 brood, as is usually the case. I care- 

 fully inspected these combs, holding 

 one for some time, and watching the 

 bees put their heads into the cells. I 

 next fi.xed my gaze on a certain place 

 where the eggs and hatched larvae ran 

 along side by side in two rows of cells 

 matching each other for some 2 inches, 

 when a bee put its head into one of the 

 cells containing an egg. Immediately 

 on the withdrawal of the head, I peered 

 in and saw that the " shell" of the egg 

 was wet, apparently with the milky food 

 the larva was fed on. I marked this 

 cell, and on looking a few minutes 

 later found the shell partly melted 

 away, as nearly as I can describe it, 

 and the smallest larva I had ever wit- 

 nessed lying on the part of the shell 

 under it, still, in a measure, intact. 



From this and other observations 

 similar to it, I have always believed 

 that the bees hatched the eggs laid by 

 the queen by their manipulation of the 

 larval food on part or all of their sur- 

 face, something in the way the capsules 

 containing medicine are melted with 

 the saliva coming in contact with them 

 when swallowed by a patient. The ex- 

 periment I had planned to use to prove 

 this matter was to put a clean comb 

 into a colony of bees, leaving it till the 



