THE BEE-KEEPERS REVIEW. 



75 



lu the same way I unite colonies wlieu they 

 are set out of winter quarters ; but no cloth 

 is necessary between the hives, nor is it 

 necessary to kill one of the queens. Being 

 of the same scent, they unite without confu- 

 sion ; and often both queens continue work 

 for some time. There has been much of the 

 best thought of our best apiarists expended 

 in devising methods by which brood-rearing 

 could be judiciously encouraged early in the 

 season, when the colonies are light, and are 

 struggling against vicissitudes of weather, 

 with a large amount of brood to care for. 

 Contraction of the brood nest by use of di- 

 vision bo irds and dummies, the use of cush- 

 ions and packing and care have been re- 

 sorted to for the purpose of protecting the 

 colony and economizing the heat. But these 

 are all expensive, and involve much labor 

 and continual fussing, and I think they are 

 only arguments in favor of smaller as well as 

 more properly constructed hives. 



I have not called attention to the advan- 

 tage of a small hive over a large one, in the 

 lifting, carrying in and out of winter quar- 

 ters, etc. The ground has all been gone over, 

 but this I consider an important item not to 

 be overlooked. 



After all, the question is not whether A can 

 get better results with a large hive than with 

 a small one, but whether A can get better re- 

 mits with a large hive than B can with a 

 small one under the same conditions. 



East Townsend, Ohio." 



I was much impressed with Mr. Crane's 

 article in the last Review, and am inclined 

 to agree with him that locality has some- 

 thing to do with the size of hive that it is 

 best to use, but in my locality I know that 

 all of the arguments used by Mr. Boardman 

 hold good. Following right along in the 

 same line, as though to pile proof on proof, 

 this same number of Glenninys contains an 

 article from Mr. Doolittle that I reproduce 

 below. It seems to me that the facts and ar- 

 guments set forth by these two men are irre- 

 futable, but, if any of my readers think oth- 

 erwise, I shall be only too glad to give place 

 to their arguments. 



Laying Capacity of Queens. 



" Question. — I see that very many of our 

 most practical apiarists are recommending 

 eight Langstroth frames as the right size of 

 brood chamber for a strong colony of bees. 

 Such eight-frame Langstroth hive, if entire- 

 ly occupied with worker comb, contains lUis 

 square inches of comb, or about r)S,40() cells. 

 From this we must deduct at least 10 per 

 cent, of the space for the usual supply of 

 honey and pollen, leaving about r>'2,r)i)0 cells. 

 Allowing 'Jl days for the bee to hatch, and 

 one day for the bees to tix the cell and for 

 the queen to lay in it again, we have an ave- 

 rage of a little less than 2,500 cells for the 

 queen to fill per day. Now, is 2,400 eggs the 

 utmost daily laying capacity of a queen in a 

 strong colony ? and if not, should any queen 



be restricted to that amount when she could 

 and naturally would lay more ? I ask these 

 questions to help me determine what size of 

 hive to build this Vinter, having up to this 

 time supposed that a ten-frame L, hive was 

 the smallest hive that could be profitably 

 used. 



Answer. — If a colony of bees having a 

 good prolific queen is given ;50 Langstroth 

 irames, using but 8 to start with, and adding 

 two or three at a time, as the bees can oc- 

 cupy them, until the 30 are all in, it will be 

 found that such a queen will lay from .5,000 

 to (!,00U eggs daily, during the best part of 

 the egg-laying season, and die of old age or 

 exhaustion when but l>s or 20 months old ; 

 while with the 8-frame brood chamber she 

 will give as good results in comb honey, if 

 not better, each year, and live for four or 

 five years. I take it for granted that our 

 questioner is a comb honey producer, al- 

 though he does not say so, and shall give my 

 views of the matter wholly along that line. 

 With the large hive the bees are quite likely 

 to get the start of the queen, and commence 

 to store honey in the brood combs before 

 entering the sections at all, and in such a 

 case the bees seem loth to go into the sec- 

 tions, and continue to store honey in the 

 brood chamber in preference to going into 

 the sections, thus crowding out the queen 

 with honey in the comb which ought to be 

 occupied with brood, till we have as a result 

 very little section honey in the fall, and a col- 

 ony in poor condition for winter. Besides, 

 it is well to remember that all queens are not 

 equally prolific ; and while 20 per cent, of 

 our queens would keep the brood chamber of 

 a ten-frame Langstroth hive properly sup- 

 plied with brood to give the best results in 

 section honey, the other 80 per cent, would 

 not be prolific enough to do so ; hence in the 

 majority of the hives in the apiary we should 

 have a condition working against our best 

 interests, which could not be overcome by 

 the extra amount of comb honey produced 

 by the 20 per cent, whose queens were pro- 

 lific enough to work in these ten-frame hives 

 to advantage. For these reasons it would 

 seem best to adopt a size of brood chamber 

 which any and all queens, which were worth, 

 keeping at all, would have occupied with 

 brood at the commencement of the honey 

 flow, thus securing the best yields of surplus 

 section honey at all times. Because a queen 

 may lay G,000 eggs daily by using plenty of 

 comb capacity and coaxing it does not 

 necessarily follow that it is to the best ad- 

 vantage of the apiarist to accommodate or 

 even coax a queen to bring her fullest laying 

 capacity to the front at any time. Queens, 

 in any well-regulated apiary, are among the 

 smallest part of the expense incurred, while 

 labor, hives, and combs go toward making 

 up the larger part of the same. For these 

 reasons I claim that the capacity of the queen 

 should rather be above the capacity of the 

 brood nest than below it. so that all combs • 

 may be fully occupied with brood. Unless 

 this is the case the outside combs continue, 

 in most cases, to be dead capital from year 

 to year, unless we argue that they are neces- 

 sary to insure the safe wintering of the bees. 



