March 16, 19CS. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



215 



bees could be improved so as to produce ten more pounds 

 to the colony? Surely a Burbank hold of this matter might 

 give us results that would startle the world. I certainly am 

 in favor of the utmost along these lines, and believe that 

 we all ought to work to have the very best research carried 

 on to a finish. 



A VERY HOPEFUL OUTLOOK IN CALIFORNIA. 



It is unncessary to say that the matter of rain, in Southern 

 California is all-important. With it we have great crops, 

 and phenomenal production of honey. We have been having 

 great rains, not only timely, but they have come so slowly 

 that every drop has been saved to the soil. We now have 

 about eleven inches — as much as we had in all the season 

 last year. At this time last year we had less than one inch. 

 Thus we see that our prospects for this season are very 

 flattering. We shall be very sure of not only a good crop 

 of honey, but we shall probably have a very prosperous year 

 all along the line. In all the eleven years of my sojourn 

 here, we have never had so bright an outlook as we have to- 

 day. 



HONEY PRODUCT FOR CALIFORNIA. 



Mr. C. O. Wilder, of Vermont, asks, "What would be the 

 money value of the honey from 50 colonies of bees in San 

 Diego Co., Calif., and in what seasons in that section are 

 the bees active, and when idle?" I think we can count on 

 an average of 75 pounds per colony. Some years the yield 

 is very much more, but in others, like the one just past, the 

 bees get no honey at all. It all depends on the rainfall. This 

 winter we are getting fine rains, and the bee-keepers may 

 rejoice in the glad prospect of a maximum crop the coming 

 season. April, May and June are the honey months of 

 Southern California, though the bees may gather in every 

 month of the year. 



MORE INFORMATION ABOUT CALIFORNIA. 



Mr. F. P. Briggs, of Massachusetts, "Missouri," and sev- 

 eral Others, ask for more information concerning California. 

 Work here is begging for good workers. I do not believe 

 ihat such need fear. Pay is better for orchard work than 

 in the East. I do not think the cost of living here is more 

 than in the East. I find it as cheap to live here as it was 

 at Lansing, Mich. Chickens do well here, and there is no 

 danger of overdoing this work. The Chinese raise the most 

 of the vegetables, but I pity an American that would suffer 

 from such competition. The schools are of the very best. 

 Here, as elsewhere, all depends upon the man. The good 

 man finds work, and success ; the indifferent one lags in both. 



HONEY OR SUGAR SYRUP FOR BEES. 



Mr. O. A. Stewart, of this State, asks if sugar syrup is 

 a good and sufficient food for bees. Yes, it is certainly as 

 good as honey. Of course neither is enough. The bees, when 

 breeding, must have proteids, which they do not get in either 

 honey or sugar syrup. This is furnished by the bee-bread or 

 pollen. There is a trace of this in the honey, but practically 

 none — none to speak of. We have proved it over and over 

 that sugar syrup is very excellent for a winter food for l)ees. 

 Mr. Heddon used to argue that it was better than honey, as 

 it was entirely free from proteids, and so bees could not 

 breed and were better with the less activity. I should fear 

 neither good honey nor good sugar syrup. 



Los Angeles Co., Calif., Feb. S. 



# 



The Average Length of Bee-Life. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Picking up a mislaid letter, bearing the date of Septem- 

 ber 3, 1904, I find the following in it: 



"About the 20th of last June I made a colony of bees by 

 setting the combs and most of the bees that were on them, 

 out from the old hive into a new one, leaving one comb con- 

 taining brood in the old hive, and filling it out with empty 

 combs. The bees seemed to work well from both hives. 

 July 10th I was called from home, and did not return till 

 August 22. On my return I went out to see the bee^. I 

 found those in the new hive all right; but those in the 

 old hive were nearly all gone, only about 100 or 200 being 

 left. What do you think was the trouble? Why did these 

 bees leave the hive, while the others staid all right? PIcTse 

 answer through the columns of the American Bee Journal." 



This letter should have been answered sooner, but got 

 covered up with other matter in the rush of work which is 

 generally at its height during the time of getting honey I 



ready for market, I have answered the letter to-day, pri- 

 vately, telling why the delay; but in thinking the matter 

 over I have concluded to say a few words further regarding 

 it, as it seems that there is much ignorance along the line 

 of the length of life of bees, from the many letters I get 

 which show a lack of knowledge regarding their average life ; 

 and this life has much to do with the successful making of 

 swarms, or increase of colonies by any of the plans made 

 known, outside of natural swarming. And with natural 

 swarming, it is well to be fully posted in this matter, else 

 we may lose the old colony by its failing to rear a queen 

 from the queen-cells left, from some cause or other. 



It seems strange to me that any one should be ignorant 

 on this subject when one experiment will tell the truth in the 

 matter, and convince the most skeptical that the average life 

 of the worker-bee is about 45 days during the working sea- 

 son. Take a colony of black or German bees, for instance, 

 and about June 10 take the queen away and introduce an 

 Italian queen, keeping record of the date on which the change 

 is made. In 21 days the last black bee will have emerged 

 from its cell ; and if the Italian queen went to laying im- 

 mediately, the first Italian bee will have made its appearance, 

 which fact should be jotted down also. 



At the end of 45 days from the time the last black bee 

 came out of its cell, no black bees will be found in that colony. 

 At 40 days many will be seen, but they grow less and less 

 each 'day, so that on the 44th day it will be very few indeed 

 that will be left. From this, the questioner and the reader 

 will see why there were only a few bees in the hive of the 

 questioner when he returned home, if we take it for granted 

 (which was undoubtedly the fact) that the bees in the old 

 hive failed to get a laying queen from the frame of brood 

 which was left with themi Having thus failed, the last bee 

 in this frame of brood would have emerged 21 days later, 

 or on July 11, and 45 days from that time would have been 

 August 25, so that there would have been only three days of 

 the bees from that frame of brood left, on the return of the 

 questioner. And if there were from 100 to 200 bees left on 

 August 22, they certainly held out well. 



This length of life of the bees of which we have just 

 been talking about is for the summer months, and does not 

 apply at all for those of the fall, winter or spring. The 

 life of the bee seems to depend on the work it does, or on 

 its activity. Thus when it labors the most, its life is the 

 shortest. Hence it comes about that, through the inactivity 

 brought on by the advent of cool and cold weather, the in- 

 dividual bee can live from six to eight months. This is 

 proven by changing the queen as before, only it is to be done 

 this time about the middle of September, in this locality. 

 Soon after the first of October the last black bee will be out 

 of its cell ; but I have often found black bees in such colonies 

 on the first of June of the next year, and in one instance, 

 there were a few still remaining on the first of July; but that 

 year the bees were kept in their hives on account of bad 

 weather very much of the time previous to this. Also, when 

 spring opens there will be but a few Italian bees in the 

 colony so treated, which shows that very little brood is reared 

 from October till April, where the bees are wintered in the 

 cellar ; as well as to tell us that more bees die in two months 

 in the spring than during five or six months of winter. 



The life of the drone is regulated very largely by the 

 workers, for they are usually driven off or killed by the 

 workers long before they would die of old age. Any sudden 

 cessation in the flow of honey from the fields is often suffi- 

 cient reason for their being driven out to die, or the killing 

 of them by stinging, if they are persistent in staying in the 

 hive; so it is hard to tell just what age they might attain to, 

 were they allowed to live to the age allotted to them, without 

 persecution. Most apiarists think that they would live about 

 the same length of time the workers do; but I am of the 

 opinion that they are a little shorter-lived. It is a rare thing 

 that any drones are allowed to stay in the hive after the honey 

 harvest is over for the year; still, I have a few reports of 

 drones which have wintered over, and I have known of a few 

 doing so, and that in a colony having a fairly good queen. 

 But the hive was crowded to its utmost with honey durmg 

 the fall. Where I have tried to keep drones in a queenless 

 colony to preserve them, they would all be gone at the end 

 of about 40 to 42 days. 



The average life of queens, as I find it in my apiaries, 

 where a colony is allowed to stay in a normal condition, is 

 about three years, although I have had one or two live nearly 

 six years, and several four and a half to five years. They 

 live also in proportion to the work they do, or, more properly 

 speaking, in accordance with the number of eggs they lay. 



