1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



419 



You may talk and write about the impor- 

 tance of a'good location, also of the knowl- 

 edge and experience of the man in charge, 

 each being vei'y essential; but to have a good 

 queen of a good honcy-gathci'ing strain in 

 every colony is of more imjyortance than any 

 other one thing connected with the business; 

 for if the colonies have poor old queens that 

 can not be induced to keep their hives half 

 full of brood we might as well give up at 

 once, for we shall get little or no surplus, 

 and our hopes will be blasted. We should 

 continually try to profit by our past experi- 

 ence, not only in caring for our bees, but in 

 disposing of our honey. Don't be satisfied 

 with the results of the past, but strive to make 

 the coming season the most profitable one 

 you have ever had. 



Delanson, N. Y. 



[We notice that our correspondent recom- 

 mends facing the hives in the spring toward 

 the north, with a storm-door or lean-to board 

 placed in front of the entrance to shut out 

 prevailing drafts. There may be something 

 in this, because we have observed in the last 

 few days that, wherever the sun strikes the 

 entrances, storm-door or no storm-door, the 

 bees will fly out of the hives with such en- 

 trances before they will come out of hives 

 having the entrances face toward the north. 

 But over against this we have often observ- 

 ed in the case of our outdoor- wintered bees 

 that colonies with entrances toward the north 

 very often die, and we have attributed this 

 to the north exposure. This is a question 

 that will bear some discussion, and we should 

 be glad to hear from our readers. — Ed.] 



STRONG VERSUS MEDIUM COLONIES 

 AT THE OPENING OF THE HAR- 

 VEST. 



How a Colony May Reach Maturity too Ear- 

 ly for the Harvest, and thus Develoi) the 

 Loafing and Swarming Mania; the Dou- 

 ble-story Ten-frame Hive for tlie Preven- 

 tion of Swarming, and the Busy Man 

 who hasn't the Time to Equalize Brood. 



BY E. D. TOWNSEND. 



["The ideal colony must not be over-pop- 

 ulous. A hive is over-populous when its 

 working force is too great in comparison to 

 the dimension of the hive and to the number 

 of wax-building bees. 



"Such a condition is intolerable to the 

 bees, and they try to help themselves by 

 loafing. Their instinct teaches them to be- 

 gin this loafing even before the hive is over- 

 populous. The bees seem to see the combs 

 are filled and capped, that the bees are daily 

 hatching, and that they will soon be crowd- 

 ed. A colony in such a condition will never 

 perform the wonders in gathering honey that 

 we may expect from one less populous. 

 Such a colony feels instinctively that its abode 

 will soon be too small, and the swarming 

 fever sets in; and we know that, when this 

 is awakened, the bees will continue to loaf. 



At the most, only as much honey will be 

 gathered as is needed for making the swarm- 

 ing preparations. A colony with the swarm- 

 ing fever is of little value as a honey-gather- 

 er."— Gra.venhorst.] 



It is rarely that one finds so much in so 

 few words as is expressed in the above quo- 

 tation. The thought comes in here, that 

 there is a condition involved that is hard for 

 the average bee-keeper to comprehend — that 

 is, if a colony of bees comes to its best or 

 full working strength just two or three days 

 before the honey-flow is on, that swarm is 

 very likely not to store more than one-half 

 as much surplus as one that comes to ma- 

 turity just with the flow. This, of course, is 

 with the supposition that neither one should 

 cast a swarm. 



The other, or medium-sized colony, may 

 not have wintered quite as well as the other, 

 but had a good queen that kept what work- 

 ers there were in the colony just hustling to 

 take care of what eggs she supplied, coupled 

 with all the other work of the hive, so that 

 there was not a single minute but that every 

 bee in the hive had all it could do, and many 

 times more. Such a colony is ready for the 

 harvest when the season does open up. 



Let us look inside of the other hive — the 

 one that was ready before the harvest was 

 on. They have come to maturity a few days 

 too early for the season. Although they may 

 not have any queen-cells started during this 

 time, if you look down between the combs 

 you will find little clusters of bees hanging 

 together; and if the weather is warm, per- 

 haps some may be seen crowding out at the 

 entrance. These bees that have clustered in 

 this hive have learned the art of shirking, 

 and there is nothing to do but let them 

 swarm, because that alone will bring back 

 that energy and hustle they had before com- 

 ing to this stage of stagnation that I have 

 explained above. 



The case cited above is, perhaps, an ex- 

 treme one; but I assure you that bees do not 

 have to come to this stage of development to 

 be worth only half a colony from a surplus- 

 honey view-point. 



Some take brood from the strong to build 

 up the weak, doing this previous to the hon- 

 ey-flow, with the express purpose of prevent- 

 ing this stagnation on the part of the strong, 

 and at the same time building up the weak. 

 Such procedure, if practiced in an intelligent 

 manner, so that the weak and the strong 

 shall be equalized, will produce good results, 

 because none will be too strong too soon. 

 When this is properly done they will all work 

 with the energy of a newly hived swarm; 

 then if there are still left more weak colonies 

 than can be built up into colonies in time to 

 take advantage of the honey-flow, such colo- 

 nies can be allowed to build up into colonies 

 of their own will, or they can be used in an 

 almost unlimited number of ways at the op- 

 tion of the apiarist. 



The shifting of brood by the inexperienced, 

 for any reason whatever, should be done on 

 a small scale, and for experimental purposes 

 only. 



