396 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUI.TURE. 



May 1 



Siebold, knock the very props from under the 

 Dickel theory. But there is one thing that 

 still remains ; and that is, Dickel maintains 

 that the sex of the larvae is changed after they 

 are hatched from the egg, because he says 

 that he can give drone eggs or worker eggs to 

 a colony of bees, and, under the right condi- 

 tions, secure from either set of eggs, workers, 

 drones, and queens.* 



While we do not care to go into a discussion 

 of this matter, because we believe that that 

 statement is not borne out in the experience 

 of queen -breeders in this country, yet I be- 

 lieve it will prove interesting to our readers to 

 glance over briefly a subject that has occupied 

 the attention of the European bee keepers for 

 so long a time. — Ed.] 



WORKING FOR COMB HONEY. 



" Good morning, Mr. Doolittle. I came all 

 the way from Iowa (by letter) to have a talk 

 with you regarding how best to work for 

 comb honey so as to be sure of securing a good 

 crop should the season prove favorable." 



"Not knowing your surroundings, etc., I 

 will say that, to be successful, you must have 

 a simple movable-frame hive of some kind. I 

 formerly thought that there was nothing equal 

 to the Gallup form of the lyangstroth hive ; 

 but with years of working with the regular 

 Langstroth hive at the out-apiary, together 

 with cellar wintering, I am quite sure that the 

 man who adopts the regular Ivangstroth hive 

 and frame is making no mistake." 



" How large a hive do you use ? " 



" In using the Langstroth hive I make the 

 bodies to hold ten frames, and work all good 

 colonies on the ten frames till the honey har- 

 vest opens, when the colonies are each con- 

 fined to the number of frames the queen has 

 brood in at that time." 



" How do you manage to confine the bees 

 on any certain number of frames, that number 

 being governed by those having brood in 

 them?" 



"This is done by division -boards or dum- 

 mies, as you have frequently read of in the 

 bee-papers of late. The combs not having 

 brood in them are taken out, and one of these 

 boards put in the hive in place of each frame 

 taken out. In this way the colony having 

 brood in only six combs is as fully prepared 

 for the honey harvest as is the one having 

 brood in eight, nine, or ten frames, and will 

 store fully as much in proportion to its num- 

 bers, according to my experience ; while if 

 the whole ten combs were left in the hive, 



*If I mistake not, drone eggs have been repeatedly 

 put into queen-cells, and each time a dead or cadaver- 

 ous overfed drone, and only a drone, was the result. 



There are other ways of explaining Dickel's obser- 

 vation on this point besides the one on the supposi- 

 tion of a new fact in science. 



scarcely a pound of section honey would be ob- 

 tained." 



" But is this all there is to do to secure a 

 good crop of comb honey ? " 



"By no means. But it is one of the very 

 important factors in the matter." 



" Well, what of the other factors? " 



" All know that bees gather honey or nec- 

 tar, instead of producing it, and thai the eggs 

 laid by the queen produce bees ; consequently 

 the more eggs the queen lays at the proper 

 time, the more bees we have on the stage of 

 action at the commencement of the honey 

 harvest, and the more bees we have at that 

 time the more honey they gather." 



" That sounds very pretty." 



"Yes. But it is a matter of fact as well, 

 that the queen is really the producer of the 

 honey ; for without her no honey could come 

 about, from lack » f bees. Therefore, if we 

 wish good returns from our bees we must see 

 to it that we have good queens — queens that 

 can be' so worked that they will give us combs 

 full of brood before the honey season com- 

 mences, so that, when the honey harvest 

 comes, these solid combs of brood, together 

 with the boards taking the place of any combs 

 not containing brood, will compel the bees to 

 place the honey in the sections, as there will 

 be nowhere else for them to store it." 



"But how shall we secure combs full of 

 brood and plenty of bees to do all the necessa- 

 ry labor, to secure the best results by the time 

 our honey harvest begins ? " 



" As soon as spring opens, our bees should 

 all be examined by lifting the frames in each 

 hive ; and any colonies which are weak in 

 bees are to be shut to one side of the hive by 

 means of one of the division -boards spoken of 

 before, so as to economize the heat in the clus- 

 ter of bees as far as possible, confining the 

 bees to as few combs as have brood in them." 



" But suppose there is not honey enough 

 for food in the combs they are shut on ? " 



"In case there is not, I leave a comb of 

 honey next to the side of the hive, and be- 

 tween that and the first comb of brood ; and 

 if a part of the cappings to the cells are brok- 

 en a little on the side next to the brood it will 

 help on the brood-rearing so much the 

 more." 



" How long do you keep them confined to 

 these few combs? " 



" Till the queen has filled them solid full of 

 brood, and the bees begin to be crowded out 

 beyond the division-board." 



" What then do you do? " 



"As soon as the queen has filled these 

 combs, and the bees begin to be crowded on 

 them, they are spread apart, and a comb of 

 honey having the capping somewhat broken 

 is set in the center of the brood-nest, or be- 

 tween those occupied with brood, and in a 

 few days' time the queen will fill this also, 

 and thus we are to keep on till all the combs 

 the hive will hold are filled, or the honey har- 

 vest arrives, when, as spoken of before, the 

 queen is now liinited to as many combs as are 

 filled with brood on the arrival of the honey 

 harvest." 



" Why do you put these combs of honey in 



