DECEMBER 1. 1915 



97:3 



Conversations with Doolittle 



Aa Borodinio, New York. 



no time or iioctar be lost in the secretion of 

 wax and building of a place in which to 

 store it. Tlie ideal colony must swarm at 

 the right time or not at all — that is, so early 

 that the young queen in the parent colony 

 becomes fertile, and the prime swarm has 

 its combs comideted during the first quar- 

 ter of the blooming of the flowers which 

 give us the main flow of nectar of the se:'.- 

 son. 



The ideal colony must not be over-poi^u- 

 lous too early in the season. A colony is 

 over-populous when the working force is 

 so great a week before the honey harvest 

 begins that the bees contract the swarming 

 fever because the hive is too small in com- 

 parison, and the wax-secreting bees too few. 

 Such a condition seems intolerable to the 

 bees, and they try to help themselves by 

 loafing. Their instinct seems to teach them 

 to begin this loafing even before the hive is 

 over-populous. A colony in such a condi- 

 tion will never perform the wonders in 

 gathering nectar that we may expect from 

 one less populous at the very commence- 

 ment of such nectar flow. The over-popu- 

 lous colony realizes instinctively that its 

 abode will soon be too small, and the 

 swarming fever sets in; and even a novice 

 knows that such a colony is of little value 

 as a honey-gatherer. 



The ideal colony is not kept at home 

 during the best nectar-flow by nursing too 

 much brood. If there is too much brood in 

 proportion to the working force, most of 

 the honej' will be consumed by the brood. 

 With bees which rear a large amount of 

 brood during the main nectar-flow, or near 

 its close, although they are strong in bees 

 and the queen faultless, the combs will be 

 mostly empty, and will stay so, unless there 

 is to be another nectar-flow of good propor- 

 tion from ten days to two weeks later. 



One of the great points of supei'iority 

 with the Italian bee is that, when the big 

 harvests of nectar from the clover and bass- 

 wood come on, the main energj^ of the bees 

 seems to be bent in the direction of securing 

 the harvest, brood-rearing becoming a sec- 

 ondary consideration. If, through our man- 

 agement, and with a race of bees which will 

 yield to our control, can be found some- 

 thing that will make all colonies give a 

 yield equal to the very best in the past, so 

 that all colonies will come up to the "high- 

 water mark," a great sti'ide will be made. 



WHY THE DIFFEKENCE I 



mT^ " The past summer some of my 



^^ colonies stored nearly twice the 

 ^|C* amount of honev that otiiers did. 

 ■PB Is this usual f Why the difference? 

 ^r^B 1 f we can discover the reason we 

 might find a remedy." 

 There are not many observing beekeepers 

 who have not sooner or later noticed that 

 some of their colonies not only stored 

 enougii honey for their own use but liave 

 given a surjilus of from five to Rftj' })ounds, 

 while most of the others in the same apiary 

 did little more than make a living. This 

 condition is more noticeable in poor seasons 

 than in seasons giving a rich flow of nectar. 

 In a good season it has also been noticed 

 iliat some colonies gave a surplus little less 

 than marvelous in comjiarison with others, 

 all having access to the same pasturage, 

 and all coming out in the spring in appar- 

 ently tiie same condition. I say "appar- 

 ently," but it is not often that these condi- 

 tions will hold good to the beginning of the 

 honey harvest, for many colonies will out- 

 strip others in the brood-rearing race dur- 

 ing the first month after they commence 

 active operations in the spring. 



We are often told to keep all colonies 

 strong, as it is only such colonies that yield 

 a surplus; but this is not always possible, 

 even were it desirable. With the uneven 

 results obtained from the whole apiary, 

 with colonies appai'ently of equal strength 

 in the spring; combs, hives, and pasturage 

 apparently the same, there must be other 

 factors not easily discovered to cause such 

 unequal yields. 



From years of observation I believe that 

 there exists a certain something which we 

 call a " condition." under which a colony 

 will gather the most honey, whether it be 

 extra strong or not up to even an average 

 If such condition has not yet been reached, 

 or if it has been passed, the storing of sur- 

 plus will not be so vigorous as it would 

 othei-wise be. 



What is this condition? The ideal colony 

 must have a perfect queen ; be sound in 

 body, in her prime, vigorous, hardy, and 

 prolific, her progeny active and diligent. 

 But such a queen alone will not make an 

 ideal colony. At the right time — that is. 

 when clover, basswood, or fall flowers are 

 in their prime for nectar secretion — there 

 must be the maximum number of field la- 

 borers and plenty of empty comb so that 



