412 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



ary presence of male companion, is a dis- 

 covery corroborative of the science of mind: 

 because these discoveries show that the ori- 

 gin and continuance of cei'ta'n insects rest 

 on a foundation apart from sexual condi- 

 tions." And he asks whether this is true of 

 any bee and of other insects. No. it is not 

 true of any bee or other insect. Yes, it is 

 true of our honey-bee and of other insects. 

 'It is most emphatically not true in the sense 

 in" which it will be understood by the ordi- 

 nary reader, who will understand it to mean 

 that one could continue his bees from year 

 to year if he never allowed a drone to ap- 

 pear. It is true in the sense that some bees 

 may be brought into life without the inter- 

 vention of drones; but bees so produced will 

 all be drones. No queen or worker can pro- 

 ceed from an egg unless that egg is fertilized. 



Louis ScHOLL says, p 343, "contrary to 

 the arguments of some of our authorities, I 

 believe that hives well painted will last very 

 much longer, keep in shape better, and look 

 nicer than unpainted ones." Who are the 

 authorities, Louis? I didn't suppose any one 

 believed differently. [The authorities referred 

 to must be yourself and Mr. Doolitile. VV^hile 

 it is very true that you are in harmony with 

 the proposition stated by Mr SchtjU, yet you 

 have, if we remember correctly, made the 

 statement that it did not pay yuu to paint 

 your hives. While th's statement, strictly 

 speaking, is not in conflict with the one made 

 above, yet it impliedly is- If we remember 

 correctly your real contention is this: That 

 it does not pay you to paint your hives; for 

 by the time that they will be of no further 

 service for lack of paint you probably will 

 want something of a different pattern, in- 

 volving a different system. In your forty 

 years of bee-keeping you have changed your 

 hives once already. In the period mention- 

 ed you would have gained nothing in dollars 

 and cents to paint the hives This is as we 

 understand your position. Are we right? — 

 Ed.] 



'•Requeening is something that I have be- 

 lieved could be most profltably left to the 

 bees; but I think those on the other side of 

 the question have the best of the argument 

 when it comes to the improvement of stock 

 by selection. If we allow each colony sim- 

 ply to requeen itself when the queen becomes 

 old, there is not much likelihood of the young 

 queen being any better than her mother." 

 —Review, 84. It is a mistake, Bro. Hutch- 

 inson, to assume that those who advocate 

 letting queens do their own superseding al- 

 low each colony simply to requeen itself. I 

 think no one has more earnestly advocated 

 improvement of stock than I, at the same 

 lime allowing queens to do their own super- 

 seding; but not each queen. Any queen not 

 coming up to the mark is replaced by a bet- 

 ter one. Please tell me why that doesn't 

 give just the same chance for improvements 

 as the plan given by S D Chapman, Review, 

 73. Mr. Chapman removes old queens a 

 week before the ckse of the raspberry flow, 

 letting each colony requeen itself, except 



the inferior ones, to which he gives choice 

 cells. I do much the same thing, only I 

 don't cut them off at a year old. Let me say 

 in passing that Mr. Chapman's plan for an- 

 nual requeening is good, excellent, and I'm 

 not so cock-sure that it may not be better, 

 at least for many, than allowing queens to live 

 longer. 



I don't want to say a word belittling the 

 excellence of O. L. Hershiser's plan of man- 

 agement in the spring, p. 348, but I do think 

 he greatly underestimates the capacity of 

 certain colonies in one of his assumptions. 

 He assumes that a colony with from three to 

 four LangstroLh combs fairly well filled with 

 brood five or six weeks before the commence- 

 ment of the main honey-flow (white clover), 

 with a good honey season and a good loca- 

 tion, but no fall flow, "will gather enough 

 honey on the average for winter stores, but 

 no surplus." If such a colony did no better 

 for me, with no attention except putting on 

 and taking off sections, I would count that 

 there was a queen whose head needed to 

 come off, and would feel greatly dissatisfied 

 with less than 50 lbs. surplus, and would be 

 rather expecting 100. On the other hand, 

 the editor greatly overestimates, p. 347, when 

 he talks about "getting all the queens to 

 laying to their full capacity from the time 

 manipulations are begun in early spring." 

 With one- fourth of tne colonies " weak, with 

 from two to three L. frames containing 

 brood," will the queen in those weak colo- 

 nies lay more than one- fourth of their full 

 capacity? [We will let Mr Hershiser answer 

 for himself. As to our statement, it would 

 appear to us that, under the conditions of 

 the very weak and the very strong colonies, 

 each set of queens could with proper coope- 

 ration on the part of the apiarist, lay to the 

 extent of their full capacity; but the queen 

 of the weak colony will have a smaller clus- 

 ter and fewer frames at her diposal. But as 

 these are easily taken out after being tilled 

 with young brood we do not see why she 

 would not be able to lay in a smaller room 

 as many eggs as a queen having a strong 

 force of bees. Strictly speaking, no queen 

 ever lays to her full capacity. If she is a 



food one she will often get ahead of her bees, 

 t is then that the apiarist will intervene in 

 her behalf. — Ed.] 



Majkstic Lake Tahoe, amid the snow- 

 capped Sierras, is soon to be taken in charge 

 by Uncle Sam's engineers who are in the 

 Reclamation Service. The level of the lake 

 is to be raised by building a dam across its 

 outlet, which is the head of the Truckee 

 River. The idea is to control the water so 

 as to irrigate a large extent of land which is 

 now a complete desert. Nowhere has bee- 

 keeping been more successful than in Neva- 

 da where irrigation is practiced. Neither in 

 quality nor in quantity has the honey been 

 excelled. It is, therefore, a pleasure to see 

 that the national government pi'oposes to 

 increase greatly the area of available bee 

 territory. w. k. m. 



