1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



643 



provement over his old hat, then I will send 

 him my Hopatcong all the way to Marengo, 

 free of charge. 



Oh ! hy the way, as I was wearing the 

 Hopatcong constantly. I very thoughtlessly, 

 on my way to the basswood orchard, one 

 day went through the streets of our village 

 with this odd-looking head protection. I 

 could not quite imagine why everybody was 

 staling at me; nor could I guess, when I got 

 back further into Iloosierdom, why the 

 farmers would constantly look at me. Then 

 I reflected that it was my Hopatcong. Well, 

 I consoled myself with the feeling that 1 

 was not considering looks but comfort. I 

 mention this incident to show you that it is 

 an odd-looking hat, and if you wear one you 

 must not be surprised if you are stared at 

 by visitors. 



THE CANADIAN HELMET. 



While on the subject of hats I may men- 

 tion the Canadian helmet— such a hat as is 

 worn by bicyclists and others, made on the 

 same principle as the Hopatcong, as above 

 illustrated ; and if they only afforded a bet- 

 ter shade they would be as cool. I have 

 myself worn one during one season ; and 

 my brother-in-law, Mr. Calvert, wears one 

 every day (he is a Canuck, you know). As 

 years go by, I begin to see these hats more 

 frequently on the streets. When I visited 

 I). A. Jones, he insisted that I should wear 

 one of his helmets, which I did under pro- 

 test ; but I very soon learned to like it ; and 

 after I came home I seized the first oppor- 

 tunity to get one. 



SWARMING AT 1TIE HOME OF THE HONEY- 

 BEES. 



Very soon after the last issue was mailed, 

 swarming began to " let up," and we had 

 only about one swarm a day. We now have 

 none at all. I am satisiied now that our ex- 

 cessive swarming was largely if not entirely 

 due to the number of old queens in the 

 apiary, some being three years old. This 

 apiary, on account of foul brood during last 

 year and the year before, has not been used 

 for filling orders, consequently this year al- 

 most all the queens are old. 



HOW MANY BEES IN A POUND? 



A short time ago a prominent pharmaceu- 

 tic concern in the city of New 1 ork gave us 

 an order for 1000 beestings. Perhaps I 

 should explain here, that from bee-stings a 

 medicine is prepared called apis melifica. 

 This medicine is used only by homeopathic 

 physicians, who give it to patients in cases 

 of swellings, skin ruptures, etc. To return : 

 Stings can not be extracted from the bees 

 in any wholesale way. It must be done one 

 by one, and with suitable tweezers. Our 

 method of procedure was as follows : A 

 frame of bees was put in a comb-holder, 

 just before the window. Our Mr. Spafford 

 took a pair of tweezers and grasped the bee 

 by the thorax. A slight pressure caused the 

 bee to protrude its sting a trifle. Another 

 pair of tine tweezers grasped the sting and 

 pulled it out. A cruel operation, you say. 

 Yes, but the bee was crushed immediately 

 after the removal of the sting, by the tweez- 

 ers holding the thorax. There was no other 



way than to count each individual sting as 

 it was pulled out and dropped into a recep- 

 tacle to receive it. In the tray, after the 

 whole job was completed, we had 1000 sting- 

 less bees. These bees were placed on some 

 very delicate scales, and weighed. As near- 

 ly as we could get at it, 1000 bees weighed 

 2% ounces, minus their stings; but as the 

 sting itself is such an exceedingly small in- 

 strument—much smaller and more delicate 

 than the point of the finest cambric needle, 

 and very much lighter, it would not play 

 any very great part in the weight of the bee. 

 However, it would be fair to suppose that 

 1000 stings might weigh I of an ounce— not 

 more, I think.' These bees, at the time of 

 killing, had very little honey in their honey- 

 sacs— about as much as bees usually have 

 when sold by the pound. In round num- 

 bers, then, 1000 bees will weigh three ounces. 

 At this rate a pound will contain just exact- 

 ly 5333. If the bees have very much honey 

 in their sacs, this number would be reduced 

 to something like an even 5000, or perhars a 

 little less ; so it is fair to suppose, under or- 

 dinary circumstances, if my estimate was 

 correct, that a pound of bees would contain, 

 on an average, about 5000 bees. For several 

 years back we have said in our price list, 

 "As nearly as we can make out, there are 

 4000 bees in a pound." In our next edition 

 we will put it 5000, unless somebody makes 

 out that I have made a mistake. I should 

 like to have some one else experiment and 

 see if my figures are correct. There is no 

 practical bearing as to how many bees there 

 are in a pound ; but it is interesting to know, 

 when we are talking about the numerical 

 strength of a colony, how many thousand 

 bees there should be in a hive to bo able to 

 take advantage of a honey-flow. Some col- 

 onies of bees contain 8 pounds, and some 

 even 10; the average working colonies, not 

 much over 5 pounds. The number of bees 

 in a colony might range, then, all the way 

 from 5000 up to 50,000. Now, will not some- 

 body be kind enough to weigh the bee's 

 load, and tell us how many grains or ounces 

 of nectar 1000 bees can carry V 



Since writing the foregoing, I discover on 

 page 313 of Dadant's Revised Langstroth 

 that a Frenchman, L*abbe Collin, has found, 

 by careful experiment, that, in a normal 

 condition, it takes about 5100 bees to make 

 a pound. Considering the difference in 

 bees and circumstances these figures are 

 pretty close to mine. He says again, while 

 in a natural swarm supplied* with honey it 

 takes less than 4300 bees. Now, on the sup- 

 position that the latter figure is correct, how r 

 much does one bee-load weigh? Heieisa 

 chance for our young bee-keepers to use 

 their arithmetic. Well, I will give my an- 

 swer. One bee-load weighs in round num- 

 bers 2 .- >( \„o of a pound ; or, in other words, it 

 takes'25,000 bees to carry a pound of honey. 

 According to this it must take a tremendous 

 big swarm, say 12 lbs. of bees (estimating 

 4300 to the pound), to carry on the wing 

 with them even 2 lbs. of honey. It seems 

 as though there must be a mistake some- 

 where, for an average swarm ought to be 

 able to carry with them more than a pound 

 of honey. 



