1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



155 



hundred colonies of bees consuming- 400 lbs. 

 of honey per month would liberate not less 

 than 35 to 40 lbs. of water per week. Just 

 suppose two pails of water to be thrown 

 into an air-tight cellar once every Sunday 

 for five months, said cellar to be at a tem- 

 perature of 40 to 50°. Mr. Doolittle is 

 rig-ht. No doubt his hives needed drying. 

 The winter problem remains the probleiu 

 where the mercury for five months registers 

 from 35 above to 12 below zero. 

 Farwell, Mich. 



[I have just been down in our machine- 

 shop basement, where the bees are. Every 

 thing is dry and sweet, and the dust on the 

 cellar bottom is bone-dry. The number of 

 dead b es on the floor is still surprisingly 

 small. 



I wish our friend Doolittle would con- 

 struct a large air-duct up through the roof 

 of his repositorj', of g-ood height, say 16 in. 

 square, and see if there would not be dryer 

 and better air, better wintering, and dryer 

 hives. I am well aware he once had a roof 

 ventilator; but, if I remember correctly, it 

 was very small, having, as I estimate, only 

 a thirtieth of the area of the ventilator rec- 

 ommended by Mr. Bingham. Our Farwell 

 friend is the first one to recommend a venti- 

 lator so large, and our own experience 

 seems to prove that his idea is correct. The 

 little three and four inch ventilators were 

 so small as to be worse than useless. — Ed.] 



TWO-STORY HIVES FOR COMB HONKY; HOW 

 TO WORK THEM. 



I am a beginner, and have read with in- 

 terest Dr. Miller's article, pages 329—331, 

 of last year's volume, and your footnote 

 about handling colonies in a double-story 

 hive for comb honey till the harvest or flow 

 is on, and I would thank you to answer me 

 a few questions. 



1. When taking away one story, is the 

 queen left in the hive full of brood with the 

 bees? As I judge, she having no room to 

 lay, would not this cause the swarming 

 fever? If I am right, how do j'ou avoid it? 

 If she is removed with the lower story, she 

 will raise a new colony, of course. If this 

 is done, do you let the other hive raise a 

 queen from brood? 



I am anxious to find a way to avoid in- 

 crease and prevent bees from swarming-, 

 when raising comb honey. H. Drishaus. 



Omaha, Neb., Jan. 30. 



[As a general thing the queen is left 

 with the brood in the lower story or that 

 stand that is designed to receive the comb 

 honey, although there are times when she 

 may be put with the removed part of the 

 hive; but in our experience a queenless col- 



ony does not show the snap of on? that has 

 a mother. There may be times when 

 swarming might be hastened on by confin- 

 ing her i-najesty to a brood-nest in which 

 there is no opportunity for her to lay eggs. 

 This will be particularly so if the upper 

 story is taken oft' at the bej^inning o/or just 

 before the honey-flow. Our practice has 

 been to leave the super of extracting- combs 

 on till the bees have stored some honey in 

 it. When they get in the notion of going 

 above, and storing there, they are likel}' to 

 keep on storing above in the super of sec- 

 tions that has replaced the one of combs. 

 But if, on the other hand, you notice they 

 are loafing at the entrance, it is better to 

 leave the upper set of combs on until they 

 have ceased loafing or have swarmed. But 

 in using- these double hives the large en- 

 trances should alivays be used. There will 

 then be very little likelihood — at least that 

 is true according to our experience — of 

 loafing- or clustering- out. Tlie point to be 

 remembered is that the upper story must 

 not be removed before the bees get to work 

 storing- honey energeticallj'. W^hen they 

 have ''got their hand in," they will keep 

 rig-ht on, no matter what the queen has got 

 to say about it, below. Locality may alter 

 the behavior of the bees. But in our experi- 

 ence the two-story colonies are not nearly 

 as much inclined to swarm, and, if worked 

 properly, they will secure more comb hon- 

 ey.— Ed.] 



HONEY STATISTICS. 



I write to say that I want some statistics 

 that I felt in hopes 3'ou could give to me. 

 First, the average annual production of 

 honey in the United States. Second, the 

 average production of wax in the United 

 States, and about the number of colonies of 

 bees kept; also what State produces the 

 most honey, and how much. 



Bowling- Green, O. A. J. Kilgore. 



[There are no reliable government statis- 

 tics relating to the amount of honey and 

 wax produced in the United States; but we 

 can give you some fairly accurate estimates 

 on some items. Something like fifty mil- 

 lion pounds of comli honey is produced an- 

 nually in the United Stales, and in the 

 neighborhood of one hundred millions of ex- 

 tracted. The total value of honey, both 

 comb and extracted, would approximate 

 ten i-nillions of dollars. At a rough guess 

 there are all the way from four hundred to 

 five hundred thousand bee-keepers, or an 

 aggregate of half a million all told. This 

 includes both the small and larg-e pro- 

 ducers. 



Concerning the amount of wax produced 

 in the United States, I can not g-ive j'ou 

 very accurate figures. There is something 

 like two hundred thousand pounds of foun- 

 dation made annually in the United States. 

 Just how much wax is used for making- 

 candles for the Roman Catholic Church, 

 dental purposes, and the general arts, I 

 could not say; but probably as much more, 



