308 



American Hee Journal 



pure and without honey-dew; they 

 must have good, dry, winter protection. 



These rules hold good for such a 

 winter as the last. We did not lose 

 very heavily. 



Platteville, Wis. 



Number of Eggs Laid by a 

 Queen 



BY UR. 1-. C. MILLER. 



Schweizerische Bienenzeitung con- 

 tains a very interesting article, page 

 257, written by Dr. Bruennich. He 

 quotes Doolittle. without at all ques- 

 tioning his authority, giving .jU'Kl eggs 

 laid in a day by a queen whose colony 

 however did not store so much honey 

 as otner colonies with queens less pro- 

 lific. Dr. Bruennich thinks, however, 

 that in America, where heavy yields 

 are obtained, there must be a heavier 

 drain on the strength of a colony, and 

 so a greater amount of brood reared. 

 Of course, he says, with this greater 

 demand on the (lueen her life must be 

 shortened, and so it is credible that in 

 America a queen is no longer profitable 

 in her third year, while in Switzerland 

 she still performs in a satisfactory 

 manner her maternal duties in her 

 fourth year. (Dr. Bruennich, although 

 they may be e.xceptional, tliere are not 

 lacking queens here still doing good 

 work in the fourth year.) 



Last year he took numerous meas- 

 urements of different colonies. He 

 obtained the contents of each comb by 

 ■ multiplying together the two diameters 

 of the ellipse of brood and then multi- 

 plying that product by .8. In his best 

 colony brood-rearing began about 

 Feb. 10. (This was no doubt outdoors, 

 wliere brood-rearing begins earlier 

 than in the cellar.) The amount of 

 brood, small at first, remained moder- 

 ate throughout March, ascended with 

 great rapidity throughout April, and 

 held its ma.\ium throughout May. Then 

 a rapid decline throughout June to less 

 than half the maximum, continuing to 

 decline less rapidly tliroughout July, 

 increasing slightly to the middle of 

 August, then declining rapidly from 

 the beginning to the middle of Sep- 

 tember, when it ceased entirely. But 

 the bees were fed in August, without 

 which Dr. Bruennich supposes the de- 

 cline would have been constant. 



No doubt weather and pasturage had 

 much to do in the case, and different 

 years would give different results. The 

 thing that will seem surprising to most 

 readers is that at the height of her lay- 

 ing this best c|ueen did not exceed 

 liiOO eggs per day, although the colony 

 was strong and stored a good surplus. 

 The laying for the entire season is es- 

 timated at KiO.uiiO eggs, and a half mil- 

 lion for a lifetime. 



May 21, when the brood was at its 

 maximum, it occupied 71) square deci- 

 meters, or 122r) square inches. March 

 II it was 11 percent as much; March 

 2H, 2(1 percent ; April 12, 32 percent ; 

 April 2-1, 60 percent. 



THE I LRVEU LINE OK LAYINl,. 



In conneclion with this article Dr. 

 Bruennich presents to the eye a strik- 

 ing picture of the varying of the 

 queens' laying by means of a curved 



line, which is here reproduced, and 

 which needs no explanation. Along 

 with it he gives the curves of the lay- 

 ing of two other queens. While there 

 is considerable difference, the general 

 outline of the three is much the same. 

 This figure presents material for inter- 

 esting study. The probability is that 9 

 out of 10, if not a larger proportion, 

 have thought of the laying of the 

 queen as much more nearly a straight 

 line throughout the season, with an 

 ascent at tlie beginning and a descent 

 at the end. The most striking differ- 

 ence in the laying of the three queens 

 is that while No. 1-3, the best queen, 

 kept the brood up to its maximum the 

 whole of May, Nos 6 and lit show a 

 sharp decline in that month. Is it 

 characteristic in general of the better 

 queens that they will thus keep up 



the white-clover crop, we are depend- 

 ent upon the eggs laid in May, with 

 perhaps some help from the last of 

 April and the first of June. Bees reared 

 in the first part of .'^pril will not live to 

 see the harvest, yet they are of e.xceed- 

 ing importance, for they are needed to 

 care for the immense area of brood in 

 May. 



Now consider the cause of super- 

 sedure early in the season. That su- 

 persedure occurs because of a failing 

 queen. If it occurs the last of May, 

 the restricted laying throughout that 

 month means a feeble force for the 

 harvest. No matter how vigorous the 

 new queen, her work comes too late 

 to count on a white-clover harvest. 

 "But," says the beginner, "I had one 

 queen superseded the first of May, so 

 that the new queen was in plenty time 



Diagram Showing C'rved Line of Laying. 



their laying while others decline ? 



In this case there was evidently an 

 early harvest with no fall (low. The 

 feeding made a slight elevation in Au- 

 gust. In case of an important fall 

 flow, might not that elevation have 

 been much greater and longer con- 

 tinued ? The curve shown for No. 13 

 is no doubt the best for an early flow. 

 If the brood-area had been kept up in 

 June, it would only have meant an un- 

 necessary number of consumers later 

 on when there was no work to be 

 done. Vet what abo4.it young bees for 

 winter if the drop came too soon ? 



The probability is thai when bees are 

 left to their own devices the great ma- 

 jority of supersedures occur at or near 

 the close of the harvest. Occasionally, 

 however, a queen is superseded early 

 in the season. In such a case the bee- 

 keeper may pat himself on the back 

 with the thought that he need have no 

 further concern about that colony for 

 the rest of the season except to harvest 

 the crop, since with that young queen 

 reared in the hive there will be no 

 thought of swarming before the next 

 year. But if he is observant he will 

 notice that he will also have very little 

 trouble with harvesting the crop of 

 that colony. It will be satisfied with 

 a single super, if it even deigns to no- 

 tice that, while other colonies will 

 need several supers. The beginner 

 will feel puzzled at this, for with a 

 young and vigorous (|ueen he will be 

 likely to expect extra results. A study 

 of that curved line will help to clear up 

 the matter for him. If the life of a 

 worker in the busy season be G weeks, 

 even if there be no diminution of the 

 brood-area until the first of June, there 

 will be no diminution of the field force 

 until the middle of July. In other 

 words, to harvest the early flow, say 



to provide for the crop, y<?t that colony 

 yielded almost nothing. Another queen 

 was superseded early in -\pril, and 

 yielded still less. Surely, that was early 

 enough, was it not ?" In the first case 

 the new queen may have done e.xcellent 

 work, but no amount of laying will be 

 effective if there is not a suflicient 

 force of nurse-bees to care for the 

 brood, and the laying of the old queen 

 had been so poor that the nurses were 

 too few to allow the new (jueen to do 

 much in May. In the second case the 

 new queen was early enough, but for 

 some reason queens reared so early 

 are not worth their salt nine times out 

 of ten. Fortunately it does not often 

 happen that (|ueens are superseded 

 thus early. 



MEASURE.MENTS OF RROOM. 



Desiring to know how conditions in 

 my apiary would compare, I took some 

 measurements July 30. I followed his 

 plan of measuring, and multiplied the 

 length of the area of brood in each 

 comb by its depth, and then multiplied 

 that product by .8. In No. 10, a colony 

 of very yellow bees but very poor 

 storers, I found 1235 square inches of 

 brood surface. In No. 13, a hybrid 

 colony and one of the very best storers 

 in the yard, there were 137if square 

 inches. I do not know how that com- 

 pares with the amount of brood pres- 

 ent in May, but I doubt if there was 

 much more in May. 



The remarkable thing in the case is 

 the difference between Dr. Bruennich's 

 measurements and mine. In Dr. Bruen- 

 nich's best colony there were 1225 

 square inches of brood in May, 

 and about 235 square inches July .30. 

 It will be seen that my best colony 

 had, July 30, nearly G times as much 

 brood as Dr. Bruennich's on the same 



