FEBRUARY 1, 1915 



Conversations with Doolittle 



An BorodnriKD, New York. 



UNITING WEAK COLONIES. 



'' Last year my bees came out 

 weak ill the spring, and many of 

 tlie colonies died before the honey- 

 llow commenced. By the way 

 tilings are now looking, I fear I 

 may have the same experience 

 again. How would it do to unite two weak- 

 lings, so as to make one good colony? " 



There is no doubt that the uniting of two 

 weak colonies to make one strong colony is 

 profitable; still, that uniting must make the 

 one better than either of the two would have 

 l)een when the honey harvest an'ives, or our 

 labor of uniting is worse than useless. 

 We do not hear so much about " spring 

 dwindling " as we did twenty years ago, 

 when often half the colonies in an apiary 

 would be so poor and listless from poor 

 wintering that it seemed almost impossible 

 to get them to build up much before settled 

 warm weather came on, and hundreds of 

 colonies would die during March, April, and 

 May. Then we were told that the time to 

 unite was when it was discovered that anj' 

 two colonies were too weak to be of use 

 alone. But it Avas soon found out that, as 

 a rule, the united colony would be no better 

 at the end of a month than each would have 

 been if left separate. In some instances the 

 united colony would perish when two no 

 better than was each of those united would 

 have pulled through and become good colo- 

 nies in time for the buckwheat flow. Years 

 ago, when I experimented along this line, 

 I put as high as seven such colonies of 

 ''worn-out vitality" into one hive, the seven 

 making a rousing colony at the time, and 

 in a month all were dead; while some sepa- 

 rate colonies, no stronger than some of the 

 best united, survived and built up for winter. 

 The trouble seems to be that, where two 

 or more such colonies are put together, the 

 bees feel they are now in condition to do 

 great things, and so work themselves up to 

 great activity in starting a large lot of 

 brood, which wears out what little vitality 

 they have before enough of this brood can 

 emerge to take the place of those wearing 

 out daily, hence all perish; while if they 

 had been left to themselves they would have 

 been less active; the few young bees which 

 emerged would have taken the jilace of those 

 which died, and. when settled warm weather 

 came, the bees in the hive at that time could 

 care for a large lot of brood in proportion 

 to their numbers, so that the colony would 

 build up for the next winter, if nothing 



more. I find in an old diary, that I once 

 had a colony become so weak in this way 

 (hat there were, by actual count, only 8.3 

 bees with the queen on June 10; and yet 

 tliis little colony, without any assistance 

 from any other colony, built up into a good 

 colony for winter, and gave six sections of 

 nice buckwheat honey. Since then my way 

 has been to confine small colonies to as few 

 combs as they can cover, these combs having 

 plenty of honey in accordance with the 

 number of bees, so that they do not feel any 

 need of scrimping along this line, building 

 them up as fast as possible when it comes 

 warm weather, and then uniting them just 

 before the honey harvest, leaving a nucleus 

 lo catch the few bees which may return to 

 I he old stand of the weaker of the two which 

 has been placed in the stronger. This will 

 give one colony strong enough for storing, 

 and a nice nucleus to rear two or three good 

 queens from ; or if the old queen is left with 

 a comb of honey and the few bees that ad- 

 here with her, and these given a frame 

 having a little brood in it, this will build up 

 into a fair colony for winter should the 

 flow prove good from fall flowers. 



CONTROLLING DRONES. 



" I have six colonies of bees — four blacks 

 and two Italians. Would it be well to give 

 the Italians a comb of drone comb and put 

 drone-traps on the blacks when the young 

 Italian queens are mating? " 



If queens are to be mated to Italian 

 drones, of course one must control all drones 

 from undesirable colonies. Drones can be 

 controlled with traps; but we must buy the 

 traps, keep them on the colonies, and fur- 

 nish the honey necessary to rear and feed 

 the drones, all of which is an expense. 

 Traps would be necessary with box hives; 

 but such ai'e not so much in use these days. 

 For frame hives, much the best way would 

 be to remove all drone comb from the black 

 colonies, and replace it with worker comb. 

 Ill this way trouble and cost of producing 

 the drones will be saved, as well as the cost 

 of the traps and the disturbance the traps 

 bring to the bees for the first few days after 

 they are put on. Besides this you will rear 

 50 worker bees to every square inch of such 

 comb you use to replace the drone, instead 

 of the 32 drones, these workers storing 

 honey for you in place of the drones eating 

 it. In any event you could not be sure of 

 having your Italian queens purely mated 

 unle.^s tliere were no black or hybrid bees 

 within three to five miles. 



