THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



159 



ANSWERS BY DR. TINKER. 



We are not to count thirty-seven 

 days from the egg to the working 

 bee, as inferred in the query, al- 

 though we do not get field workers 

 for about thirty days from the egg. 

 We should count onl}' twenty-one 

 daj's in making all calculations 

 about non-producing workers. For 

 instance, the main honey flow in a 

 localit}^ ceases about July 10th, as 

 in this section. Eggs laid twenty- 

 one days before or June 19th, 

 would give us non-producing work- 

 ers. Young bees begin work in the 

 hive very soon after hatching, first 

 as nurse bees and then as wax 

 workers, and it is my opinion that 

 by far the greater part of the work 

 performed by a colony of bees is in 

 the hive; hence it always happens 

 that the more young bees in a col- 

 ony the more field workers can be 

 spared. 



As to limiting the work of the 

 queen, it is well known that Italian 

 and black queens begin to contract 

 their egg-laying about June 20, 

 and for the next forty days, it will 

 be at the minimum rate. About 

 Aug. 1, the brood area is again en- 

 larged as there is also usually a 

 second crop of drones reared. With 

 these races of bees it certainly could 

 not be very profitable to interfere 

 with them in the height of the 

 honey harvest with perforated zinc 

 division-boards. I doubt if the 

 advantage gained would pay the 

 cost of the zinc, let alone the mat- 

 ter of time and labor. The objec- 

 tion, therefore, would be that it 

 would not pay. 



With vSyrians, Cyprians, and 

 Carniolans, and all cross-bred bees 

 on the maternal side from these 

 races which rear brood extensively 

 as long as a hone}' flow lasts and 

 never clog the brood-chamber 

 with honey, the practice of con- 

 tracting the work of queens at 

 proper times is advisable. But ni}^ 

 experience is against contracting 



with division-boards, dummies or 

 anything of the kind, on the score 

 that it does not pay, if we take into 

 consideration the cost of the appli- 

 ances, and the time and labor to 

 use them. Right here comes in 

 the question of hives and the 

 great advantage of sectional hives 

 and queen-excluding honey-boards. 

 Any revolution in our method will 

 be in this direction for in no other 

 way can we so profitably manipu- 

 late brood-chambers and limit the 

 work of queens without serious dis- 

 turbance of the bees in the active 

 working season. I should not care 

 to confine queens in any case in- 

 side the hive with a view to pre- 

 venting swarming. An arrange- 

 ment like Alley's trap to control 

 swarming, that we can get at read- 

 ily, is another thing. But it does 

 not prevent swarming or even re- 

 tard it. It simply traps the queen 

 in coming out and makes the at- 

 tempt to swarming abortive, if the 

 apiarist is not on hand to attend to 

 it. Confining the queen in the 

 hive on one or two brood combs, 

 leaving brood in other combs, would 

 not prevent the rearing of queens 

 cells either in- or outside the 

 presence of the queen, and swarm- 

 ing or the attempt to swarm in 

 due time. 



THE AMERICAN APICUL- 

 TURIST is not a local 2->c(,per. Its 

 circulation extends into every state 

 itt the Union and largely in the 

 western and middle states. We also 

 have a good number of subscribers 

 in Canada, and our foreign circula- 

 tion equals that of any American 

 bee palmer. The Api is as much a 

 national paper as any bee journal 

 published. 



