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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



July 20, 190S 



Knowing the Age of Bees Quite Necessary 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE 



MANY seem to suppose that a knowledge regarding the 

 age of bees is of minor importance, and something which 

 only scientists should be interested in. This I think is 

 a very mistaken idea, for in all our manipulation of colonies 

 we shall succeed only as we keep the right proportion of bees 

 of all ages in each or any colony we may make. 



Nothing in the bee-business has given me more pleasure 

 in the past than experimenting to ascertain the different ages 

 of bees, and the different ofBces they perform at certain ages 

 when in a normal condition. When these conditions are not 

 complied with the colony is thrown out of balance, and in that 

 unbalanced condition we find that bees will feebly perform 

 any office of the hive till they can arrange matters normally 

 again. Then it is that we find very young bees going into the 

 fields, when they will bring less than one-half the load that 

 the bees over 16 days old will carry. Old bees will rear 

 queens which are not of half the value of those reared by the 

 younger or nurse-bees, and some workers will even lay eggs, 

 while this office is usually restricted to the queen. 



In these experiments I have found that queens reared un- 

 der the most favorable circumstances attain the average of 4 

 years, and that, too, under the great stimulus which is 

 brought to bear on them under our modern bee-keeping, 

 wherein a queen is coaxed to lay more eggs each year than 

 did the queens of our fathers. In this way queens are con- 

 strained to lay from 3000 to 4000 eggs daily, while in box-hive 

 times, if a queen layed from 2000 to 2500 eggs in a day she 

 was doing remarkably well. 



On one occasion I had a queen that lived and did good 

 work till she was nearly 6 years old, laying prolifically till 

 within about 3 months of the time of her supersedure, while 

 several have lived to be nearly or quite S years old. 



Then I have had queens reared in little nucleus boxes, as 

 was quite the general way 30 years ago, which would not live 

 more than 5 to 9 months, and never keep more than 4 or 5 

 Langstroth frames full of brood while they lived. Those rear- 

 ing queens in this way were generally the ones who did not 

 think that there was anything worth looking after regarding 

 the age of the bees, which bees were making the best they 

 possibly could out of the bad plight into which their would-be 

 bee-keeper placed them. In a state of Nature neither all old 

 bees nor all very young bees rear queens, unless some accident 

 happens to force them to do so ; and I have found it a good 

 plan not to adopt the " accident " policy if I wish to rear 

 queens which will tend toward an improvement in the bees in 

 the apiary. 



The worker-bee rarely attains to a longer life than 45 

 days during the months of June, July, August and September, 

 while those emerging from their cells in September may live, 

 many of them, till the next May or June, if not injured by our 

 winters, their life being prolonged above the 45 days just in 

 proportion to the work that they do, or the amount of hard- 

 ship they are required to undergo. Never have I known a 

 worker-bee to survive a single year, and I do not believe it 

 possible for such a thing to come to pass. 



I find that, approximately, the bee is in the egg form 3 

 days ; in the larva form 53^ to 6 days, and in the pupa form 12 

 days. After emerging it takes the bee from 6 to 12 hours to 

 get fully straightened out, soon after which it begins prepar- 

 ing chyle for the larvie of the hive, doing this work very 

 largely till it is 6 days old, when, if the weather is- pleasant, 

 it comes out of the hive for the first time to take an airing 

 and mark its location, still continuing its work inside of the 

 hive— feeding the brood, building comb, evaporating nectar, 

 etc. — until it is 16 days old, when it goes out to labor as a field- 

 bee, after which it does very little of the inside work of the 

 hive, and dying of old age from 25 to 29 days later. While 

 these bees that are over 16 days old can be forced, through 

 being made queenless, to prepare chyle and rear queens, still 

 queens so reared will work after about the same order as will 

 the workers at field-work, when forced out after honey and 

 pollen when only 5 or 6 days old. In all our artificial increase 

 of colonies it is well so to form them that bees of all ages will 

 remain in each part of any division made. 



I find that the life of the drone is nearly the same as that 

 of the worker undnr favorable conditions, but a very preca- 

 rious life he lives; for at any time when a scarcity of honey 

 prevails, and the bei^s are not fed by the apiarist, the drones 

 are unmercifully driven from the hives or are killed by the 

 workers. I have seen it stated that the drones do not live 

 one-half the time tlu' \v<]rkers do, the proof of which was the 

 writer's experiments made with a nucleus colony. All bee- 

 keepers should know that drones are " commoners ;" that is, 



they have the privilege of entering, unmolested, any hive that 

 allows its own drones to remain, and that if they are driven 

 from one hive they are allowed to enter another which is re- 

 taining its drones. Such is the experience with all close ob- 

 strvers along this line. 



A nucleus having a queen just fertilized has no more need 

 of drones, and persecutes them till they leave, or, if they per- 

 sist in staying, kills them. But with an isolated hive, and 

 feeding when there is a scarcity in the fields, it is quite easy 

 to prove that drones will live from 40 to 45 days. 



It is a rare thing that any drones live over the winter, but 

 in one or two cases when the hives were unusually full of 

 stores, all during the late summer and fall months, I have 

 had them live so as to be flying in February, but they seem to 

 wear out faster during a state of inactivity than do the work- 

 ers, for with the advent of pleasant days in the latter part of 

 March and the first of April they are soon all gone, and that 

 when they are not driven from the hives. 



Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



=\ 



(£onr>cntton 

 Procecbtngs 



«/ 



Report of the Chlcaeo-Northwesteru Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Convention, held at Chicago, ill., 

 Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 1904. 



[Continned from page 490 J 



ABSCONDING OF SHOOK SWARMS. 



"How to prevent absconding of shook swarms." 



Mr. Smith — I find hiving them on a frame of brood as a 

 rule would prevent that. 



Dr. Miller — May I ask Mr. Smith whether he finds in 

 hiving on a frame of brood they start cells on that brood? 



Mr. Smith — Yes, I have found that also; not as a rule, 

 though. 



Dr. Miller — One of the writers says, Give them a frame 

 of brood and within two or three days take it away again 

 to prevent them starting queen-cells. 



Mr. Becker — If I have two swarms that come out at the 

 same time I hive them on a frame of brood, and I never 

 had one yet that left if I did that : and I always do it if I 

 have two swarms come together. 



Dr. Miller — Are you talking about natural or shaken 

 swarms? 



Mr. Becker — -Natural swarms. 



Mr. Snell — I never practised that very much, but when- 

 ever I have done so I have given the colony a frame of 

 brood, and as yet I have never had them desert, 



Mr. Whitney — I have practised shaking swarms and I 

 have never had the shaken swarm leave the hive. Some- 

 times if I shake them on comb I take the queen with them, 

 and I never had them leave. 



Mr. Hutchinson — I never have had any experience myself 

 with shook swarming, but quite a number of those who have 

 written articles on that subject have made one point quite 

 clear, that the bees should be pounded and disturbed and 

 jarred until they fill themselves thoroughly with honey. The 

 natural swarm fills itself when it starts out, and when that 

 point has been attended to there has been very little trouble 

 with absconding. Whereas, if we simply take them off the 

 combs without any of this previous disturbance there will 

 quite frequently be absconding. 



Mr. Abbott — I want to ask if the people who practise 

 shaking swarms give them the queen at once? The question 

 is asked if they start cells on the comb? Do they not have 

 a queen given them at once? 



Mr. Hutchinson — They have the old queen. 



Mr. Abbott — Suppose you make two or three swarms out 

 of a colony? 



Dr. Miller— We don't. 



Mr. Abbott — I thought if they would give them a queen, 

 and they had brood, I couldn't see why they would start 

 cells. 



Dr. Miller — As a matter of fact they do start cells. There 

 are two things you are getting a little mixed, the absconding 

 and the starting of queen-cells. The point is, Do they start 

 cells? They have started cells for me in more than one case, 



