140 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Feb. IS, 1906 



honey, and were in a starving condition when the experi- 

 ments were ceased to save the bees. Baron Berlepsch con- 

 cludes from this that the bees can't become field-bees earlier 

 than at the regular age, even at the most pressing conditions. 



According to the Schoenfeld-Gerstung theory, which I 

 have accepted, the young bee in a normal colony is engaged 

 during the first 3 or 4 days of her life in cleaning the empty 

 cells, just on that spot of the hive where she hatched from 

 the cell. During this time she commences to prepare larval 

 food or chyle, and at the same time the laying queen will 

 arrive on her circling way on the comb here on this spot, 

 and the first surplus chyle prepared by the young bees is 

 offered to her. Three days after the egg is laid the young 

 larva is becoming a consumer of the larval food, and is fed 

 during about 6 days, then the cell is capped by the same 

 Ifees. This work is done during the first 9 or 10 days of the 

 bee's life, and this is the age at which bees generally have 

 the first play-spell in front of the hive. The young bee does 

 other housework afterwards, and will become a field-bee 

 when 16 days old. This is the normal way, and it is no con- 

 tradiction to this theory, that older bees, too, can feed the 

 larva;, if this should be necessary. The young bees prepare 

 the larval food instinctively, and a single bee can feed more 

 than one larva, consequently there will not be a surplus of 

 chyle as long as the brood is increasing, and consequently 

 no swarming-fever, as we suppose that a surplus of this 

 chyle — for which the young bees can't find enough con- 

 sumers — causes an extension of the blood, and thereby the 

 swarming-fever. 



We see, if this theory is correct, that young bees in the 

 first 9 or 10 days of their age only prepare the larval food, 

 consequently a surplus of bees of this age only can cause 

 the swarming-fever. Even suppose that under certain cir- 

 cumstances a bee could become a field-bee about 4 days 

 earlier than usual, this could not have any influence in this 

 respect at all. 



We will now consider the condition of the dequeened 

 colony at the time when all the brood is sealed. As soon as 

 the queen is removed or caged no more eggs are laid. A 

 worker-larva is capped on about the 9th day, and 4 days more 

 make 13 days, during which time the queen must be kept 

 from laying eggs. During these 13 days many young bees 

 will hatch, but less and less brood is to-be fed. The colony 

 will have the swarming-fever even more than before ; queen- 

 cells will be started, which have to be cut out at the proper 

 time, so a swarm or further preparations for swarming are 

 now impossible, as no queen, no eggs, and no young larva; 

 are present. This fact — that the swarming-fever is not sat- 

 isfied or cured by caging the queen — is one of the reasons 

 why I do not like the plan. 



A better explanation of the fact that such colonies do 

 not swarm, seems to me is the following : During these 13 

 days of confinement of the queen a large number of cells 

 will become empty by the hatching of young bees. As soon 

 as the queen is now released, chyle will be fed to her in 

 large quantities, stimulating her egg-laying power, and she 

 will find plenty of empty cells in which to lay eggs. This 

 is the first consumption of the surplus chyle ; 3 days after- 

 ward young larva; are to be fed, and will become consumers 

 of chyle. In most cases this will be sufficient to do away 

 with the swarming-fever. 



But we will suppose that new preparations for swarming 

 should be made, queen-cups started, and the queen should 

 lay eggs in them, as it is natural with prime swarms. Be- 

 fore a swarm would issue normally, at least one of these 

 cells must be sealed ; this can't be before %}i or 9 days after 

 releasing the queen, or 21% days after caging her. As a 

 worker-bee hatches from the cell 20 days after the egg is 

 laid, all the young bees will have hatched from the cells at 

 that time. The colony has many young larva; to be fed 

 compared with the young bees, and no more young bees are 

 hatching. Under such a condition no desire to swarm can 

 exist. If the colony had actually started queen-cells they 

 would be destroyed. Cibolo, Tex. 



# 



Wintering Bees on Solid Sealed Combs— 

 Carniolans 



BY E. F. ATWATER 



I NOTE the discussion in regard to wintering bees on 

 solid combs of sealed honey. Dr. Miller seems to think 

 that the way to do it is to give the bees room to cluster 

 below the combs. That may be all right in the cellar, but 

 I doubt if the bees would cluster under the frames to any 



extent when wintered out-doors. I think they would prefer 

 to be up among the frames. 



Now, I'll tell you how I have wintered bees on solid 

 sealed combs in the cold Dakota climate. I used a Hill's 

 device with room for quite a large part of the cluster under 

 it. and a porous quilt covered with a chaff cushion above. 

 The Hill's device would be almost solid full of bees. Those 

 combs do not stay full long. By Jan. 1, I suppose that 

 there are plenty of empty cells. 



Now, regarding Mr. O. L. Abbott's big yield from "Carni- 

 olans," page IS. From Mr. Abbott's writings in the late 

 Western Bee Journal, I infer that his so-called Carniolans 

 are not Carniolans at all. In that paper he speaks of his 

 "Adel Carniolans," which, as every one knows, were a 

 strain of golden bees bred years ago by Mr. Alley, and origi- 

 nally from grey Carniolan stock, but mated in a locality 

 not free from Italian drones. By selecting the yellowest all 

 the time, I maintain, as do many others, that Mr. Alley bred 

 out all the Carniolan blood, and had practically a good strain 

 of golden Italians. Mr. Alley, himself, now advertises them 

 as his golden "Adel Italians." 



Mr. Abbott, in the paper above mentioned, quoted from 

 the biography of Capt. Hetherington in favor of the Car- 

 niolans. Now, be it known that the Carniolans that found 

 such favor with the late Capt. Hetherington, were of the 

 genuine grey Carniolan stock, and not any so-called, but 

 not proven, Adel "Carniolans." I have handled the "Adel" 

 strain, and, I say most emphatically, that they are not Car- 

 niolans. 



I like the grey Carniolans the best of any bees that I 

 have ever tried for comb honey in this locality. They give 

 no more trouble from swarming than Italians here. They 

 do surely combine most of the good qualities of both blacks 

 and Italians, and average gentler than the Italians. In 

 four years' trial their faults have yet to be seen. They use 

 less propolis than any other race. Meridian, Idaho. 



=\ 



Southern 

 4- 23eebom -f 



Conducted by Louis H. Scholl. New Braunfels, Tex. 



"Fair Shake" for Canadians 



J 



Hello, "Canadian Beedom !" A return handshake 

 from " Southern Beedom" for the greetings on page 69. 

 But, look here, ye Canadians (and we won't say it in an 

 " aside stage whisper"), are we Southerners to be beaten 

 just because you have those " long winter evenings " suffi- 

 ciently cold to aid in " crystallizing your own thoughts ?" 

 While you may have those advantages " Up North," bee- 

 keepers " Down South " have those of warm weather that 

 would make their thoughts flow out in gushing streams ! 

 But it is not our intention to " flood out " others ; neither 

 will we be prone to let others " freeze out " us, but we ex- 

 pect to go hand in hand and work for the good of all, for 

 " we be brethren." 



Something About Baby Nuclei 



"The baby nuclei are a success, but there is too much 

 work to get the same results as from the lar*ger nuclei on 

 standard frames." — W. H. Laws, in The Apiarist. 



He says in another paragraph: "If we had only a 

 small number of colonies, and devoted all of our time to 

 queen-rearing, we would certainly use the baby nucleus 

 plan of mating queens exclusively, for a large number of 

 queens can be mated with few bees ; but there is an im- 

 mense amount of labor attached to this method. With our 

 bees scattered for 30 miles, and our chief business that of 

 honey-production, we find it more convenient to have our 

 queens mated from the partitioned upper stories of hives on 

 standard frames, and above wire-screens." 



A double screen is used over the brood-nest, and a hive- 

 body partitioned into three sections with a flight-hole to 

 each at different points is placed above this. A nucleus on 

 several combs is made in each of the compartments, and be- 

 ing queenless above the double screen, a queen is mated in 



