1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



683 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



Liverpool. — Good r'ospects for a crop. 



TEXAS. 



Orange. — Good flow ot excellent honey. 



V'IKGINIA. 



Lindsays. — Good prospects for a crop. 

 Howardsville. — Colonies strong, but the \ 



WEST VIRGINIA. 

 Ravenswood. — Good prospects for a ciop. 



'eather is cold. 

 Bees swarming. 



AN INJURY TO THE EDITOR'S EYE. 



E. R. Root will be compelled to beg the in- 

 dulgence of his readers for some two or three 

 months to come, perhaps, because of an injury to 

 the right eye. He is under orders not to read 

 any proof or printed matter, nor manuscript, for 

 some months to come, and to give both eyes a 

 rest until the injured member can recover from 

 the shock. 



As a warning to others, we would say that the 

 injury was due to looking at a strong arc light 

 for the fraction of a second, at too close a dis- 

 tance. While the injury is, to a certain extent, 

 permanent, it probably will not entirely disqual- 

 ify the right eye from service after it has been 

 given a rest. In the mean time all manuscript 

 is read to us, and all other matter, as hereto- 

 fore, is dictated. Owing to the fact that we can 

 not use our own eyes our subscribers are request- 

 ed not to pass severe judgment in case the editor 

 should say what he does not mean, or fail to 

 give the exact meaning he intends to convey. 



But there is no great loss without some small 

 gain. We are privileged to go outdoors, and we 

 are now finding recreation by working with the 

 bees, helping the boys every now and then, for 

 the specialist does not believe that long-range 

 vision, provided blue glasses be used, or a hasty 

 glance over a frame of bees, will do any harm, 

 but we must not look for eggs. 



The left eye, we are very glad to report, is en- 

 tirely uninjured, and is in every way all right, 

 but the use of it might affect the other eye. 



Caucasians excessive breeders of drones ; 

 what this will mean. 



One of our correspondents, Mr. C. W. Price, 

 in this issue, in uttering words of praise for the 

 Caucasians states one thing that is not very much 

 in their favor; and that is, they are inclined to 

 raise too large a number of drones. We find 

 this to be emphatically true in one yard where 

 we raise Caucasians. They run excessively to 

 drones in spite of the fact that we are using full 

 sheets of foundation. If the cells are slightly 

 elongated, drones are sure to be reared in great 

 numbers. If there happens to be any drone 

 comb built to fill out space in worker comb re- 

 moved it will be solid with drone brood. 



So far as the loss of energy in rearing drones 

 is concerned, that is a small matter. At a yard 

 where we have mostly Caucasians and some Ital- 

 ians, the Caucasian colonies will rear a hundred 

 drones to the Italians one. This simply means 

 that the Caucasians will run out the Italians in 

 very short order ; for if there were a hundred 

 Caucasian drones flying to one of Italian, the 

 whole locality would run to the black strain of 

 bees rather than to the yellow. If, therefore, 

 one introduces Caucasians in his yard for the 

 purpose of experiment he will have to put on 



drone-traps and shave off the heads of the drone 

 brood every now and then — otherwise the yard 

 will run to Caucasians. If they should prove to 

 be undesirable it would be unfortunate to say 

 the least. 



PLANNING WORK AT A BEE-YARD; EXCHANGING 

 BROOD AND STORES. 



A STRONG flow of honey was on from fruit- 

 bloom — so strong, in fact, that we never saw as 

 much nectar coming in, even from basswood. 

 Colonies which, on the opening of the bloom, 

 were on the verge of starvation, filled their hives 

 jammed full of honey, ready for capping, in the 

 short space of three days. Even nuclei made a 

 wonderful showing. The question of giving 

 room was one that required immediate attention. 

 We had only a limited number of supers and 

 empty combs at the yard. It was important to 

 give relief where it was needed the most. We 

 accordingly watched the flight of bees at the en- 

 trances of all the hives. From all those colonies 

 where the bees were flying the strongest we re- 

 moved the upper cover, leaving the thin board 

 super-cover on top. Then we looked at the en- 

 trances of all the hives where there seemed to be 

 the least doing, and turned their covers catacor- 

 nered. This shift of covers was for the purpose 

 of designating the hives. We then took a hasty 

 glance into the brood-nests of every one of the 

 hives of both the strong-working colonies and 

 those that showed but little indication of field 

 work. We thus found the exact condition of the 

 strongest flyers and of the other sets. We now 

 proceeded not only to make the strong help the 

 weak, but the weak to help the strong. The for- 

 mer were made to give up their empty combs, if 

 they had any, to the latter, exchanging unsealed 

 brood for hatching brood. In the case of the 

 very strong ones, where the hives were jammed 

 full of honey, we put on supers. This done, we 

 had the extra strong and the weakest to a certain 

 extent equalized, the strong being given unsealed 

 brood and empty combs from the weak, and the 

 weak, on the other hand, being given sealed 

 brood and combs jammed full of honey from the 

 strong. 



We now had left unexamined only the medium 

 colonies in the yard. Some of them were not 

 suffering for room, and when we went across 

 them we marked them, and from those that need- 

 ed room we took combs filled with stores, and 

 exchanged them for empty or partly filled combs 

 from the marked ones. When we got through 

 the yard every colony had its hive filled full of 

 honey of nearly equal amounts. The very strong 

 ones had mainly unsealed brood, while the weak 

 and the very weak had mainly sealed and hatch- 

 ing brood. 



During this process of exchanging brood and 

 stores it was necessary to keep open some seven 

 or eight hives at a time. During all of our work 

 the editor's eldest son was kept busy opening and 

 closing hives, bringing back and forth combs 

 and brood to and from the hives. 



In this connection we might remark that a 

 comparatively inexperienced man or boy can en- 

 able one good man to do almost two men's work; 

 for the expert can furnish brains for the muscle 

 of two men; and the result is a harmony of plan 

 and of execution. 



