494 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



stem close to the axillary leaf-bud for next 

 year, and does not form till after the present 

 season's leaves appear. The fruit-buds of 

 the grape are somewhat similar, and come 

 along the new growth of wood opposite the 

 leaves. I have sometimes known frost to 

 kill the basswood-buds, but it was very late 

 when the basswood was partly leaved out, 

 and the new blossom- buds formed on the 

 present season's growth of wood. 



I AM "overstocked" WITH INFORMATION 



When I started in the bee business I was 

 puzzled to know just how many "gums" I 

 could keep. I got a couple of hives and then 

 wondered if that was too many, or if I could 

 keep a thousand. I thought I would keep 

 three or four hives; but one day I happened 

 to find out that a neighbor, only two blocks 

 away, had six colonies, and my heart sank 

 within me. All my future hopes as a bee- 

 keeper were blasted. His bees outnumbered 

 mine, and, as I thought, would, whenever a 

 flower had any juice in it, beat mine to it. 

 I wondered if he would not get discouraged 

 and qait. 1 thought I might buy his bees; 

 but he would not sell, so I watched sorrow- 

 fully for my poor little darlings to starve. 

 They did not gather any honey, and I was 

 satisfied that my locality was overstocked, 

 as there were eight hives within a radius of 

 — well, they were all the bees I knew of in 

 the county. 



I went to a man who knew all about bees, 

 they told me. In fact, he admitted that he 

 did when I accused him. He had reared 

 queens, he had bought queens, he had im- 

 ported them, he had done every thing with 

 them; and he told me confidentially that I 

 could get enough honey for table use, if I 

 did not make a hog of myself, provided I 

 kept but eight swarms; but as sure as I kept 

 more I not only would get no honey but 

 would have to feed. It was like this: It 

 takes power to propel a bee through the air; 

 there is no such thing as perpetual motion, 

 and in order to generate that power it takes 

 honey, which was to the bee what coal is to 

 the locomotive. Now, after you have more 

 than eight colonies the bees have to go so 

 far to get enough honey to supply power 

 that it is all digested before they get home, 

 and they starve. Then often, in going so far 

 they are never aV)le to find their way back. 

 This, you knuw, was not idle theory, but 

 scientific facts. But I thought I would keep 

 a number just for the fun of it, even if I did 

 have to feed. The first year I got a little 

 honey. I increased to fifteen, and got less. 



Just as he told me. The next year I in- 

 creased to thirty, and got still less. Just as 

 he told me, The next year I increased up to 

 sixty, got nothing, and had to feed. Just as 

 he told me. The next year they all did bet- 

 ter than they ever did when I had only two. 

 Then I began to think that possibly the crop 

 or something else had to do with success or 

 failure besides the number of colonies. I 

 would just read the bee-journals and find 

 out. I read two articles, and that settled it. 

 The first article said that bees gathering nec- 

 tar was just like dipping water out of the 

 ocean with a pint measure. It did not make 

 a blamed bit of difference how much you dip 

 out, the plants will all be full again before 

 another bee can poke its nose in, and a few 

 thousand colonies more or less is nothing. 



The other article substantiated the first as 

 follows: When bees gather nectar it is just 

 like "shuckin'corn." There is just so much 

 nectar; and when the bees go out and shuck 

 it there is "nothin' doin' " till a new crop is 

 grown. You want only just the right num- 

 ber of bees that will gather all the nectar; 

 and if you happen to count your blossoms 

 wrong, and have a dozen or so of bees more 

 than there are blossoms, why, those poor ex- 

 tra little devils will have to starve, and you, 

 you incompetent bee-keeper, their blood be 

 upon your head! It is often amusing to read 

 the arguments on both sides of the over- 

 stocking question; and when there is a fail- 

 ure it is customary to lay it to overstocking. 

 I think a good deal of it is imagination, su- 

 perstition, or something like it. One writer 

 has nearly a thousand colonies in one place, 

 but they all say he has an extra good place 

 — buckwheat as far as you can see, all buck- 

 wheat. He frequently gets a surplus frum 

 white clover. In this locality buckwheat 

 never does produce any white-clover honey, 

 but still this is not a good locality. 



Here is an experiment that I should like to 

 see tried. Necessarily, from the magnitude 

 of the enterprise, it should be undertaken by 

 some gentleman with philanthropic tenden- 

 cies. The government might try it. I think 

 it would give us some light on the overstocK- 

 ing problem. 



Take an average white-clover locality, and 

 take fifty colonies and set them all on a big 

 wagon-scale. Then take five hundred more, 

 put them on trolley cars and run them up 

 beside the fifty. At night weigh the fifty and 

 record the weight. Then during the night 

 run those that are on the cars away for ten 

 miles or so Then the next night again 

 weigh the fifty and keep a record. Then 

 bring back the five hundred beside the fifty, 

 and at the end of the day weigh again, and 

 so on till the flow is over. Then average up 

 the honey the fifty gathered when alone and 

 when the five hundred were with them, and 

 see what the difference was, if any. 



That would be an interesting test, and be- 

 fore it came off all the bee-keepers could 

 have a guessing-contest as to results. I will 

 register my guess now. 1 am not theorizing 

 nor arguing — just guessing. My guess is 

 there would be two per cent difference. 



