THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



23 



out of the one luindiecl sijuare inches of 

 comb in each fi-auie perha[)s not more 

 than one-third is available for brood. 

 From the time' the main lioney-flovv 

 begins until frost comes 1 use a brood- 

 chamber containing eight hundred 

 inches of coml) and it is evident to the 

 most superficial observer that I can- 

 not afford to peruiit the bees to use 

 very much of that space as store-comb. 

 With the fixed frame I have been us- 

 ing, I could not prevent the evil, but 

 happiiyjrelief is at baud and hereafter 

 my frames will be spaced 1^^ inches 

 from centre to centre. One of my cor- 

 respondents says he' spaces his frames 

 1^ inches and prefers that distance to 

 any other, though it makes it hard to 

 handle combs containing (h'one brood. 

 In a private letter, Mr. M. M. Bald- 

 ridge, that veteran apiarist of St. 

 Charles, 111., who began keepiug bees 

 early in the fifties, and who has for 

 many years nuuibered his colonies by 

 the hundred — now upward of four 

 hundred — says : "■! want all my brood- 

 combs only I of an inch thiclc, and a 

 space between them of | of an inch is 

 ample. ... I cannot see why any- 

 one should use H inches from centre 

 to centre. That might do in top- 

 story for extracted honey — and I use 

 theui thus." Who could ask for more 

 conclusive evidence? 1 will add by 

 way of postscript, that since '72 Mr. 

 Baldridge has used a frame 7f X 17^ 

 inches outside measure, nine to a 

 hive — pretty good testimony for the 

 contracted brood-chamber. 



Fertile- workers . 

 For some years 1 have been anxious 

 to meet that dreadful thing so n)uch 

 talked of and written about — the fer- 

 tile worker. Well, she was so ac- 

 commodating as to come along the 

 past season — evidently several of her, 

 for the first thing I knew her eggs 

 were scattered through all the couibs 

 in the hive, and many of the larvae 

 were capped over. Did I carry the 

 bees and combs away a hundred yards, 

 shake the bees ofi" and let tUem come 



home leaving the would-be queen (or 

 queens in the grass), ''then give them 

 a ripe queen cell," etc? Not if I re- 

 member correctly. Time is too prec- 

 ious for fooling that way. 1 picked 

 the colony- up and placed it ou top of 

 its next neighbor. The latter was a 

 powerful colony working at a good 

 rate in the sections. I removed the 

 section-case and honey-bOard and 

 placed the queenless colony directly 

 on the brood-chamber of tlie colony 

 that had a queen. I then placed the 

 section case above this double brood- 

 chamber and work went on as though 

 nothing had happened. In two or 

 three days I gave the double colony 

 another case of sections ; and when the 

 work was well begun in this second 

 case I se|)arated the brood-chambers 

 in the evening "^nd gave one case of 

 sections to each. At the tiuie of di- 

 viding I examined only so far as to 

 see that the queen had occupied all 

 the available cells in the brood- cham- 

 ber that had before been queenless. 

 I did not care which hive she was ih 

 for I knew that the other was in con- 

 dition to raise its own queen. I do 

 not think that the bees lost five min 

 utesof time from their harvest ; in fact 

 I think there was a gain of energy 

 resulting from the great number of 

 bees in the double colony. The queen- 

 less bees were encouraged to oo to 

 work and the result was more honey 

 from the two than I would have got 

 had they remained separate. When 

 an intelligent and well-read beginner 

 will get on his horse and ride four 

 miles to ask me what Itio with fertile 

 workers " because the bee-books and 

 papers make such a fuss about 'em," 

 I am led to believe that some of us 

 have made much ado about nothing. 

 Audubon, loioa. 



The Apiculturist and some of its 



correspondents indorsed. 



W. F. Kanzlek. 



Friend Alley : A thousand thanks 

 to you for sending me Vol. VI, of the 



