THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



177 



3. It is known that the old queen emigniteri 

 with the new colony. The brood in the parent 

 hive that forms the second and sometimes the 

 third swarm, are the product of the old queen. 

 Suppose the first swarm gathers forty pounds 

 for winter, twenty pounds surplus ; the second 

 swarm gathers twenty-five pounds for winter ; 

 the old one gathers twenty pounds besides winter 

 stores. It will be recollected that this is the work 

 of the product of the old queen. The young 

 queens will only be ready to supply workers to 

 take the place of the old laborers, who have 

 finished their labor with the close of the season 

 and passed away. We have now, if we add 

 twenty pounds for the third swarm, one hundred 

 and twenty-five pounds, besides the winter stores 

 for the old colony. If we add to this fifty pounds 

 lost by idleness during the preparation for swarm- 

 ing, we liave from the colony one hundred and 

 seventy-five pounds in surplus in the one hive. 

 Can any one assign a reason why this result 

 should not be reached ? 



Mr. G. informs us— " When I commenced 

 bee-keeping in this country, I had only one 

 colony, which doubled itself tlie first summer, 

 but gave me no honey. In ten seasons, during 

 which my stocks had, by natural and forced 

 swarming, increased to fifty-three, I obtained 

 surplus honey from hives and caps only in two 

 seasons." 



Again, he says: — "In twenty-one years the 

 bees in my home apiary have not gathered a 

 pound of white clover honey ; nor, with the ex- 

 ception of one season, have they stored any in 

 boxes from buckwheat, while some of my neigh- 

 bors, three or four miles off, have had white 

 clover and buckwheat honey stored in most 

 seasons." 



Has not Mr. G. been engaged in raising bees 

 for sale, increasing his stock by artificial swarm- 

 ing, and raising queens, in nucleus hives ? If so, 

 may not this account in part for lack of sui'plus 

 honey ? Are not his hives calculated to secure 

 these objects ? Are they not simply box hives 

 with cap and boxes on the top, or Langstroth's 

 with but little box room for surplus honey ? 

 This may account in part for the failure in sur- 

 plus. 



I have brood from four colonies in the two thou- 

 sand cubic inch box hives, with boxes on the top 

 covered with a cap. Three of these gave one 

 swarm each, and not one ounce of surplus honey. 

 One gave no swarm and twelve pounds of honey. 

 Thirteen colonies in the farmers' hive, with 

 boxes of seventj^ or eighty pounds capacity to 

 each hive, gave an average of a fraction over 

 sixty-one pounds each. 



Four Eureka hives, in 1867, with box room for 

 one hundred and twenty-five pounds per hive, 

 gave an average of one hundred and twenty-five 

 pounds each. This Wi-.5 in a field where neigh- 

 bors near by, in the old style box hive, would 

 only compare with the common results of such 

 hives. 



Now I know not why my friend G. may not 

 do as well with the same appliances. One hive 

 gave one hundred and seventy-four pounds ; and 

 more than one hundred pounds of this was 



from white clover, and so fine as to sell for forty 

 cents per pound. 



If I had Mr. G.'s apiary, I should put the 

 colonies doubled into the Eureka hive ; place 

 them in two fields, well ventilated and shaded, 

 expecting thus arranged to obtain from them an 

 average of from one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred pounds each. 



I think Mr. G. gives his highest average of 

 surplus honey in his hives at fifteen pounds. 



A colony of bees will pi'obably consume sixty 

 pounds or more, within the year. On this sup- 

 position Mr. G.'s bees consumed four-fifths of the 

 hone}^ gathered, and he secured one-fifth. He 

 had four hundred colonies at one time. They 

 must have required for consumption twenty-four 

 thousand pounds. This is twelve tons. Suppose 

 it was at this time he had his average of fifteen 

 pounds per colony ; then he secured from all six 

 ifhousand pounds, or three tons. 



My colonies in the Eureka hives gave an 

 average of one hundred and twenty-five pounds. 

 At the consumption of sixty pounds per colony 

 they gave five pounds per colony more than 

 two-thirds. Fcmr hundred colonies in Eureka 

 hives would have given fifty thousand pounds or 

 twenty-five tons. This presents the follovving 

 question : " Shall we place our bees in hives in 

 which they will give us but one-fifth of the ■ 

 honey in our fielcT, or in hives that will give us 

 more than two-thirds of it ?" 



A word on the Italian Bees. — I obser,ve, in a 

 communication in your issue for Januafy, 1870, 

 a mistake which, I think, should be corrected. 

 In 1867 I had four colonies of bees in the 

 Eureka hive^one Italian and three native. I 

 gave an account to the " Earal New Yorker'''' of 

 the result that season. The product of the 

 Italian colony was two swarms and one hundred 

 and six pounds of surplus honey ; of one native 

 colony, two swarms and ninety-seven pounds of 

 surplus ; of one other native colony, no swarm 

 but one hundred and twenty-three pounds of sur- 

 plus honey ; the other colony gave no swarm 

 but one hundred and seventy-four pounds of 

 surplus honey. I gave this result as the fruits of 

 that season. But I think I was not such a novice 

 as to say or suppose that that settled the ciues- 

 tion as to which kind of bees was best. In 

 1868 I had seven or eight additional colonies of 

 Italian bees, purchased in 1867. They stood in 

 the same apiary with my native bees. The bees 

 in our field of three miles each way, were 

 nearly or quite doubled from the previous year, 

 and gathered less than half the honey per swarm 

 on the average. My four highest colonies gave 

 respectively one hundred and forty-seven, one 

 hundred and six, seventy-nine, and seventy-five 

 pounds. Neither of the colonies of the black 

 equalled the lowest Italian by several pounds. 

 The success of the Italians was reported in 

 several papers, in which I gave a report of my 

 apiary for the year. 



I should not trouble you with this correction, 

 but I am unwilling to be considered as prejudiced 

 against the Italian bees. I think the friends who 

 are seeking to introduce them into the country 

 are doing a public benefit. 



In reply to your correspondent's hint of the 



