174 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVlh\i 



Again, I have had very prolific queens 

 whose bees lived long enough ; but they 

 were worthless so far as surplus honey was 

 concerned, for their entire time and atten- 

 tion seemed to be devoted to raising bees, 

 and swarming. 



Last season a poor one in this locality, I 

 had in the home yard a high-priced queen 

 that I had bought the previous summer. She 

 was in a ten-frame hive, and she needed ten 

 frames, for she was very prolific. This col- 

 ony did not swarm. They partly filled one 

 super. There were perhaps 15 sections com- 

 pleted. An eight-frame hive stood right be- 

 side this one, the queen of which was a 

 hybrid. I do not believe she laid an egg in 

 either of the outside combs during the entire 

 season ; yet this colony filled % sections and 

 had plenty of stores for winter ; and it is to- 

 day one of the strongest colonies I have. 

 Another colony, in an eight-frame hive, 

 whose queen, a pure Italian, was also bought 

 the previous summer, filled five supers of 24 

 sections each. There were a few in the last 

 super that were not completed. They also 

 had to 1)6 fed a little in the fall ; but they are 

 in good shape at this writing. This queen is 

 hardly equal to eight frames : but I regard 

 her as one of the most valuable ones that I 

 ever owned. 



Sometimes we see reports of queens that 

 will keep twelve or even fourteen frames 

 full of brood, and their bees store a large 

 surplus. I have had two or three such 

 queens ; but they are very rare, and hard to 

 get ; and If we could get them, would they 

 be any better V Suppose we had queens that 

 would lay as much as two of the best ones 

 we now have : could we get any more surplus 

 for the same number of workers, or per 

 frame, than we now do V I do not believe 

 we could, from my experience. I believe 

 that, after a colony gets a certain strength— 

 a strength with the right kind of queen— the 

 eight-frame hive gives ample room to de- 

 velop, and they will store as much or more 

 for the same number of workers as one much 

 larger ; and I had much rather produce 200 

 lbs. of honey in two eight-frame hives than 

 I would in one sixteen-f rame hive. 



Some of the advocates of large hives tell 

 us that bees in such hives will raise a good 

 many more bees during the latter part of the 

 season, and thus have more bees for winter ; 

 and that, such being the case, they will win- 

 ter better and build up faster in the spring. 

 I will admit that colonies in large hives of 

 twelve or fourteen frames will raise more 

 bees at a time when there is nothing for 

 them to do. This is why colptiies in big 

 hives do not store as much surplus. It takes 

 a good deal of honey to raise and keep these 

 extra bees over winter— enough so that, in 

 large apiaries, it would amount to SKK) or 

 more : and with me they generally die off in 

 the spring before they have done much if 

 any good. Hut I winter in cellars altogeth- 

 er. In outdoor wintering it may be quite 

 different, and the same may.be true of deep 

 frames. I have better success in wintering 

 with bees on the standard frames than I do 

 on those that are eleeper." 



Queens May Be Too Prolific, or Prolific at 

 the Wrong Time. 

 At these times when so many are harping 

 on the great value of extra prolific queens, 

 placing this quality at the head of the list, 

 it is refreshing to come across something 

 like the following from the pen of G. M. 

 Doolittle, taken from a lengthy article of 

 his in the Progressive. 



" Not many years ago J procured a queen 

 from one of our most successful northern 

 honey producers, said to be one of the very 

 best, and I have no reason to doubt that sucti 

 was. the case. The next spring the colony 

 having this queen came through iu ordina- 

 rily good couditiou, and the hive was so 

 marked with many others. Imagine my 

 surprise, when going through the apiary 

 some three weeks later, in finding that this 

 hive had every comb full of brood and the 

 large amount of honey they had when set 

 from the cellar all cousumed, while the oth- 

 ers marked 'good' did not have their hives 

 half filled with brood and plenty of honey 

 still remaining. Had this happened some 

 years ago I should have swung my hat and 

 hurrahed for that colony, but now I did not. 

 I gave them combs of honey from other col- 

 onies, took some brood away from them, 

 and did the best I could, but in spite of all 

 I could do, they did nothing but breed and 

 swarm all summer, and the result of two 

 years' trial with them has been, lots of bees 

 out of season, but none where and when they 

 would avail for honey, save enough for their 

 own use. Others which I have had would 

 not build up till the honey harvest was on 

 hand, and then they would go at brood rear- 

 ing with a will that would take all the honey 

 gathered by the few bees on hand at the time 

 of the harvest, and after the harvest I had a 

 hive full of those which could be none other 

 than consumers. So I say that the queens 

 which can be manipelated so as to give the 

 great bulk of bees just at the right time for 

 the honey harvest, in just that locality where 

 the bee-keeper resides, are the best queens, 

 no matter what their color or from whom 

 they came." 



A Condensed View of Current 



Bee Writings. 



¥' 



E. E. HASTY. 



•"E would rather like to ha^o an apicul- 

 tural society to equal that of the Ger- 

 mans, with its 30,000 meml)ers, (or say beat 

 'em ;) but if the flourish can only he cut by 

 adopting the German methods, as narrated 

 by Graveuhorst in Gletttiinys, 311, I for one 

 incline to say. Let's don't cut it. Free rail- 

 road excursions, free dinners, free wine, free 

 tickets to museums, permission to visit crack 

 irou-clads not usually accessible to the pub- 



