26 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



RAPID AND SLOW FLOWS. 



In Colorado in general, and I think in practical- 

 ly all alfalfa districts where this plant is the source 

 of honey, the flows are, as a rule, slow. Think 

 of a flow lasting sixty days with an average daily 

 gain of 2% lbs. per colony! This, when ripened, 

 amounts to 50 lbs., 25 of it being stored in the 

 brood chamber and the rest in the super, making 

 about one super of surplus per colony. Suppose 

 we double this flow so that there is a five-pound 

 daily gain for sixty days. This would give a 

 surplus of fifty or sixty pounds. More than 25 

 lbs. would be stored in the brood-chamber, and 

 some would be used for brood-rearing. For 

 nearly thirty years I have kept a colony on the 

 scales throughout the gathering season, and the 

 man would be dull indeed who could not get at 

 least a few points during that time with daily 

 weighings. 



In flows where the average daily gain of raw 

 nectar is five pounds (there may be a gain of three 

 pounds one day and six or more the next, just so 

 it does not go over seven or eight pounds for 

 more than two days in succession), the wax se- 

 cretion will be sufficient for building all the comb 

 necessary to hold it. All my observations lead 

 me to the conclusion that, during an average daily 

 gain of about five pounds, the bees of the colony 

 will not only involuntarily secrete enough wax 

 to hold all that is stored, but they will elaborate 

 it into comb as well. 



A hundred-pound surplus gathered in thirty 

 days means at the very least a total gathering of 

 300 lbs of nectar, resulting in a daily gain of 10 

 lbs. Now, if this flow comes on suddenly and 

 fills all the empty combs of the hive before comb- 

 building could get under way there would be a 

 decided loss. But few bee-keepers ever have such 

 a flow, and even those few do not have it often in 

 a lifetime; and such an experience is altogther an 

 exception. 



Admitting all the foregoing, that is, admitting 

 that the wax secretion is sufficient in all ordinary 

 flows so that, if not used, it would go to waste, 

 and that it will be elaborated into comb, we have 

 not yet settled the matter. Any practical apiarist 

 knows that, when the honey-flow is slow, it is 

 hard to get the bees to work in the sections. This 

 is not because of a lack of wax, but on account 

 of a lack of honey, and because the bees are not 

 crowded from the brood-chamber into the su- 

 pers. With light daily gains the honey is more 

 apt to be crowded into the brood-combs, from 

 which young bees are hatching, thereby lessen- 

 ing the amount of brood and aggravating the 

 swarming impulse Nor is this all. The curtail- 

 ing of the brood lessens the number of bees com- 

 ing on for a later flow. Let me illustrate this 

 point. 



My locality has practically two flows — the first 

 coming in the last half of June and the early part 

 of July, and the second from August 1st to the 

 20th. Sometimes there is a more or less steady 

 gain throughout the entire time from June 15 to 

 Augu-st 20, but often there is a complete cessa- 

 tion between times, and much variation in the 

 dates and duration of the flows. Nevertheless 

 we look for the two flows Now suppose the 

 first flow is late. The bees will not go into the 

 supers, but will fill the brood-combs as fast as 

 the bees hatch therefrom, and the eggs which the 



queen would otherwise lay in early July to get a 

 host of workers for August are cut off. I esti- 

 mate that, under such conditions, where my 

 yield amounts to 50 lbs. of surplus, if those 

 queens could be kept laying there would be add- 

 ed to the total yield an additional super, making 

 three instead of two. 



These last points have a bearing on the ques- 

 tion, which will be explained more fully before 

 I finish this discussion. 



Loveland, Col. 



To be continued. 



NATURAL SUPERSEDURE. 



This Plan of Requeening Not Suitable for 

 Modern Methods of Bee-keeping. 



BY J. E. HAND. 



On page 927, Aug. 1, the Straw man takes me 

 to task for intimating that natural supersedure 

 results in deterioration. He seems to think that, 

 if this were true, bees in their wild state would 

 long ago have become extinct. Did you ever 

 stop to think, friend Miller, that an all-wise 

 Providence has provided a remedy for this evil in 

 the survival of the fittest only, and that fully 

 half of the bees in a wild state are deteriorated 

 out of existence every year, thus weeding out the 

 weaklings and leaving only the strong and hardy 

 to breed a hardy strain of bees.-" While nature's 

 plan of supersedure is well nigh perfect when ap- 

 plied to bees in their natural state, it is quite dif- 

 ferent when used in connection with modern 

 methods of bee-keeping, since by supplying 

 foundation, and by judicious feeding, the weak- 

 lings are saved to breed more weaklings; and the 

 result is a weakened and inferior strain of bees. 



On the other hand, by systematic requeening 

 and rearing the queens from our choicest stock 

 we are constantly improving our bees, and are 

 really much nearer to nature's plan of supersed- 

 ure than are those who oppose systematic re- 

 queening, and are laboring under the delusion 

 that they are following nature's plan. 



Mr. Editor, in your footnotes to Dr. Miller's 

 remarks you say, " We find supersedure cells 

 quite equal to those reared under the swarming 

 impulse. I agree with you. It is not that such 

 cells are not liberally supplied with royal jelly; 

 for if the larva- are removed, and others from a 

 vigorous queen substituted, such cells will pro- 

 duce the best of queens. The laws of heredity 

 are as fixed and immutable as the universe; and 

 so long as the constitutional defects of the parent 

 are transmitted to the offspring just so long must 

 natural supersedure result in deterioration when 

 used in connection with modern methods of bee- 

 keeping; for natural supersedure is prima-facia 

 evidence of a weakened condition of the queen. 



As the farmer is compelled to meet the prob- 

 lem of keeping up the fertility of the soil by a 

 judicious crop rotation, so the bee-keeper must 

 face the problem of keeping up the productive- 

 ness of his apiary by systematic requeening or 

 suffer the consequences. 



Birmingham, Ohio, Nov. 2. 



