246 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



April 16, 1903. 



ing-, the wire screen is removed and the two queens can 

 fight it out. It is probable that the young queen will kill 

 the old one. If the colony in the upper story should get too 

 strong, some of the bees can be brushed from the combs in 

 front of the lower hive at any time. 



If you prefer not to manipulate the colonies except they 

 have queen-cells, you can wait till the iirst cell is capped, 

 but then it is time to manipulate the colony. I thought it 

 too much work to examine so many colonies every 10 days. 



I hope that you will think better now about this plan. 

 Bexar Co., Texas. 



[Accompanying the foregoing was this from Dr. Miller, 

 to whom Mr. Stachelhausen wrote the above : — Editor.] 



Mr. Editor: — One always runs some risk of misrepre- 

 senting when trying to describe something with which one 

 is not entirely familiar, and so, when trying to tell what 

 my good friend, L. Stachelhausen, is in the habit of doing, 

 it is not so very strange that I did not speak entirely " by 

 the book." His letter of correction, although not intended 

 for publication, is so full of interest to bee-keepers in gen- 

 eral, that I take pleasure in sending it to you that it may 

 have a larger reading. C. C. MillER. 



An Overdose of Feeding— Use of Drones. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



AFTER writing the article about feeding bees in the 

 spring, which appeared on page 149, I showed it to a 



friend, who read it with interest, and said to me : 

 "Good. I'll follow these instructions myself. It is an ex- 

 cellent system." 



A few days later my friend came to me with a com- 

 plaint. The feeding had not turned out satisfactorily, and 

 his bees were in an uproar. So we went to his apiary and I 

 soon discovered that one of the colonies which had been fed 

 was being robbed. We carried it away, and as the weather 

 cooled off suddenly, we were soon able to open it and dis- 

 cover its condition. It was a very weak colony, covering 

 only two comb-spaces, and the can-feeder which he had used 

 had been placed over a comb two rows away from the clus- 

 ter. A little honey had dripped to the floor, and as the hive 

 was slanting considerably forward, the honey had run out 

 of the entrance. The robber-bees had found this and had 

 begun pillaging this hive. There was but little to do, the 

 colony being so weak. 



This is in line with some remarks that I have made pre- 

 viously. The beginner cannot be too careful how he feeds. 

 Good, average or strong colonies, when fed, take possession 

 of the food at once. They store it in their cells, and al- 

 though it creates an excitement among them, this soon sub- 

 sides, especially if the feed is given at night right over or 

 close to the cluster. Whether a can feeder is used, or a 

 frame feeder, or a trough over the bees, or a simple dish in 

 the cap, the warning must be the same. 



Feed your bees where they can get at it immediately 

 even if the weather is cool. Do not feed aqueenless colony, 

 or a colony that is too weak to rear brood. If a colony is 

 weak but sufficiently strong to rear brood, it may be fed 

 very successfully and helped along, if the feed is given 

 it properly in the right amount and in the right place. The 

 smaller the cluster, the less the amount of feed to be given 

 at one time. Do not use an entrance feeder, as you will have 

 to close that colony to make sure that the bees of a stronger 

 will not help themselves at the same time and overpower 

 them. If you keep it closed you are apt to forget it, or to 

 open it too early or too late. 



Let your feeding be done so the bees may get the nour- 

 ishment in the warm part of the cluster. To feed the weak 

 colony near the entrance or in too large a quantity is equiv- 

 alent to feeding your newly hatched chicks in the same 

 yard with the grown-up fowls. They will get next to noth- 

 ing. It is even a worse practice with the bees than with the 

 fowls, because the little chickens are fed from day to day, 

 and you do not expect them to store away any of the feed 

 except in their crops. But your bees are fed for future use, 

 and you must not place them in a position in which the big- 

 g'er colony may take away from them that which you know 

 they will need for themselves. 



All colonies that are worth retaining may be fed safely 

 if the correct amount is given them in the proper place and 

 at the proper time. Evening is always the best time to 

 feed, because the night will give them time to store away 

 out of reach of the neighbors and close to the cluster the 

 supply furnished. They also get over the natural excite- 



ment caused by the finding of food. But when all colonies 

 are fed, the strongones at once begin to send out scouts that 

 lurk about all the unguarded spots and soon find and carry 

 away that which is not sufficiently defended against their 

 depredations. 



The lyord & Thomas Advertising Agency have spread 

 over the commercial world a motto which we may well par- 

 ody. They say, " Advertise judiciously." It is not all to 

 spend money for advertising — that money must be spent 

 "judiciously," or the result will be negative, and you will 

 have cause to blame yourself for your bad luck. So it is 

 with feeding bees, and we may well repeat, when the bees 

 are in need of help, feed your hees judiciously. 



USE OR USELESSNESS OF DRONES. 



The point made on the use, or rather the uselessness, of 

 drones is well taken (page 195). Those French or German 

 writers, who support the idea of their usefulness because of 

 the warmth they produce are all disciples of the old school. 

 If drones produce heat, it has taken heat to rear them, and 

 the heat and food used in rearing them would have produced 

 worker-bees that are just as able to keep up the warmth of 

 the hive as the drones are. The workers are small, it is 

 true, but they take less room to rear, and consume less 

 honey, and, when they are reared, if they happen to be 

 needed in the field, they can turn out, and do turn out, and 

 put in their time harvesting honey ; while a drone is a 

 drone till he is exterminated by the active laborers, after 

 having consumed a goodly portion of the surplus of the col- 

 ony. 



In a state of domesticity we need drones only in a few 

 of the best colonies, and it is a mistake to allow them to be 

 reared in every colony as plentifully as the bees would 

 ilaturally do it. Hancock Co., 111. 



Does Much Egg-Laying Shorten a Queen's 

 Life? 



BY DR. E. GALLUP. 



NOW let us look into the theory that many writers ad- 

 vance, that if a queen lays too much she shortens her 

 life, and will lay herself to death before her time 

 comes, or she will empty her spermatheca and become a 

 drone-layer early in her life. 



We will take for an illustration one of the best milking 

 breeds of cows. In order to produce the largest flow of milk, 

 and the richest, all depends upon the amount and quality of 

 her food, good care, etc. Now, do you believe that by extra 

 care, feed, etc., to keep up the greatest possible flow of milk, 

 her life is shortened ? If you do, I do not. Neither do I be- 

 lieve the milk extracts from her vitality, but it is manufac- 

 tured from the food she is fed. 



Now, we will come back to the queen. In a normal or 

 naturally large colony, and a good flow of forage, the nurse- 

 bees prepare her food, it is predigested by the nurse-bees, 

 and of the richest kind. They are constantly ofi'ering it to 

 her, and during the height of her laying she is constantly 

 accepting it. It is estimated that she lays more than her 

 actual weight in eggs every 24 hours. And are those eggs 

 manufactured by extracting the material from her body, or 

 are they manufactured from the amount of the material or 

 quality that she is fed on ? And suppose the flow of forage 

 continues constantly for six months, more or less, accord- 

 ing to atmospheric or climatic condition, and we give her 

 abundant room to deposit eggs, and an abundance of bees 

 to keep up the necessary warmth, she can and will keep on 

 egg-laying. What are you going to do about it ? That is 

 the question. 



Why, if you are afraid she is going to lay herself to 

 death, you can easily stop her laying by withholding her 

 food. 



In close observation of my long-lived and prolific 

 queens, none of them diminished their egg-laying perceptibly 

 until they were superseded, and not one of them, so far as I 

 observed, became a drone-layer, as I did not allow drone- 

 comb in their hives, and they were extra-prolific. My ex- 

 perience has been that all such extra-large colonies supersede 

 their queens before I can see any sign of failure. In two 

 cases the queens were superseded in the fall,' and both 

 mother and daughter wintered together, and both kept on 

 laying until the following June. I have often wondered if 

 after one impregnation the spermatozoa did not keep on in- 

 creasing and multiplying in the spermatheca so as to keep 

 up the snpply. But, when we consider that the sac may 



