298 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 5, 1906 



Now in order to see just where the wax is going we 

 should stand within an open door. Rays of white light (from 

 the clear sky) must pass in at the cap and strike the inside 

 of the can and be reflected back out the cap or we cannot 

 see anything within the can. Rays of skylight passing in from 

 many directions as it would out-of-doors or before two or 

 more windows will criss-cross one another and obstruct the 

 fainter rays coming from within the can. The one who 

 understands this can clean cans twice as well, and twice as 

 rapidly, and earn four times as much as 'the one who thinks 

 it all depends upon elbow-grease and soap. Even in simple 

 matters we have need of photography and chemistry. Even 

 those who would ignore these if shown where to hold a can 

 would soon wobble out of the right position, and not be able 

 to find it again. 



Hives and Frame-Spacers. 



Again, let us take a 10-frame hive with frames spaced 

 \y> inches apart, and allowing y 2 inch for the extra space, 

 we have the width of the hive as 15^ inches. This is for 

 loose frames. If the frames are spaced by spacers they will 

 work equally well spaced lfg inches apart. Allowing Ys inch 

 for the extra outside space we get 14}^ inches for 10 frames 

 — a difference in the width of the two hives of l^j inches. 

 The Langstroth hive is 18 inches long and 10 inches deep; 



\y& off one side equals 246 cubic inches. This 246 cubic inches 

 means bees. This amount of bees would fill 14 pound sec- 

 tions entirely full or 28 sections half full — more than a super. 

 It shows that the advantage of close spacing is one super 

 quite fairly tilled with bees. Do you think it would pay to 

 put 10 cents' worth of spacers in a hive? The spacer shown 

 here is simply a strip of 28-gauge galvanized-iron cut out one- 

 inch wide and as long as the rabbet of the hive. The notches 

 can be chopped out rapidly with a die costing about $10, or 

 a pattern can be laid on and marks made and then snipped 

 out with the tinner's shears. Then the leaves can be bent 

 over and pounded down flat in a vise. But the spacer should 

 be so arranged that the bees can travel under the ends of the 

 top-bars in the rabbet behind the spacer. 



The spacer shown on page 53 is a good one where bees 

 are not moved. But in moving, the spacer would jump out of 

 the notches and travel, and the combs would soon get to- 

 gether and crush bees. Then there would be a smell of stings 

 and crushed bees, and other colonies will get scared and be- 

 come overheated, etc. It is easy to tell by scent how the bees 

 are standing the ride, by walking behind the load. That 

 spacer is simple, but it will be found considerable labor or else 

 requiring expensive machines to make it. 



The spacer on page 47, Fig. 2, allows the frames to rest 

 flat on the rabbet where they would be glued fast. Conse- 

 quently plain staples driven into the rabbet would be of equal 

 service. I use plain staples in the upper stories where ac- 

 curate spacing is less consequence than in the brood-chamber. 

 Another thing, where we use close, accurate spacing, the 

 frames are more difficult to be gotten out of the hive, and 

 should not rest upon a rabbet that will permit them to be 

 glued down. Chatsworth, Calif. 



8— Dadant Methods of Honey-Production 



BY C. F. DADANT. 



FOR the successful prevention of swarming, it is not suffi- 

 cient to have large hives. Other things are necessary. 

 One of them has been already mentioned by me, in 

 article No. 3. that is. the removal of drone-comb and replac- 

 ing it with worker-comb, in colonies that we do not wish 

 to use as reproducers. The production of a large number of 



drones tends to the increase of natural swarming. Some of 

 the experienced bee-keepers who read this will think that 

 this rule works also from the other end, that is, that a ten- 

 dency to natural swarming causes the production of a large 

 number of drones. That is true. 



When the queen has been breeding largely and the sexual 

 organs are fatigued by too constant laying, she seeks rest by 

 laying eggs in drone-cells, for the eggs that she lays in drone- 

 cells are not impregnated from the spermatheca, and there is 

 a very probable change of sensations to her that gives her 

 rest. This is the only explanation that has been advanced of 

 the reason why she seeks for drone-cells at times. So an 

 old queen will lay drone-eggs more readily than a young and 

 vigorous one. But we find that when a hive is overcrowded 

 with drones, when already well supplied with worker-bees, 

 there is a feeling of unrest. The workers are compelled to 

 hang out at night, and sometimes in the daytime for those 

 burly and noisy fellows stay, closely at home, except for a 

 couple hours of the day, and they are very much in the way of 

 the workers. It does not take much of an effort to picture to 

 ourselves the discomfort which they must create, and the con- 

 sequent propensity to sallying forth to establish another 

 colony. 



In a good harvest, the bees feel too good-natured to de- 

 stroy the drones — evidently the requirements of nature are 

 followed according to circumstances — and it is only when a 

 disappointment in the crop follows that the bees begin to ex- 

 terminate them, angered by their laziness and gluttony. So 

 the result of a surplus of drones is a tendency to swarming. 

 It is. therefore, a very good policy to remove all we can of 

 the drone-combs. Some of our teachers in apiculture hold 

 that we must leave a little drone-comb, or the bees will tear 

 down worker-comb in order to be able to rear drones. I con- 

 fess I have often tried to test this, but have never found an 

 instance where it had taken place. 



A friend bee-keeper once said to me triumphantly that the 

 bees did change the worker-combs to drone-comb ; that he 

 had a sheet changed to drone-comb in one of his hives. I 

 asserted that it must be a mistake. "No," said he, "that hive 

 had every frame filled with foundation." 



We opened the hive in question and in the meantime he 

 told me how he fastened foundation and said that he always 

 put in three wires whenever he used foundation. On exam- 

 ination, the sheet in question had no wires, and he waS forced 

 to acknowledge that there must have been a mistake. 



Sometimes, ,'f full sheets of foundation are overlooked 

 with bees when n - st given to the colony, some of the cells will 

 be changed to drone-cells by stretching; this is easily detected. 

 At other times, W'Hcer-comb may break down from heat and 

 drone-comb will i__ built in its place. But whether the bees 

 do change worker-comb into drone-comb, in case we leave 

 them no drone-ccib at all, there is very little danger of this, 

 for I have never y et been able to remove positively every 

 cell of drone-comb from a hive. There will be cells of "accom- 

 modation," little patches in the corners, and occasionally a 

 few stretched cells. But a few-hundred drones are not to be 

 considered. It is the big sheets of drone-comb, especially 

 when they are in the center of the brood-nest, as they are 

 sometimes placed during manipulation by a beginner who does 

 not take notice of little things. It is the big sheets, I repeat, 

 that make trouble. 



Have you ever figured how many drones may be hatched 

 in a piece of drone-comb a foot square? Let us calculate this 

 together. A square inch of drone-comb contains 18 drone- 

 cells on each side, or 36 cells. In a square foot there are 144 

 square inches — 144 times 36 makes 5,184 drone-cells. Not 

 only will those over 5,000 drones be in the way and induce 

 swarming, if the season is at all good, but you must bear in 

 mind that they have cost the bees about as much to rear as a 

 patch of the same size of worker-brood, which would contain 

 about 7,800 worker-bees. I do not mean to say that there 

 would be 7.800 workers reared in the same space, for the 

 queen might not fill that space with worker-eggs, and conhl 

 not fill it in the same time, but there would be a chance 'for 

 more workers and less drones, and it would be better to have 

 the queen idle, or losing eggs, rather than laying such a 

 quantity of drone-eggs. 



Those drones cost you a great deal to rear. and. after they 

 are reared, thej are in the way, and are expensive, for they 

 always eat at home. L'abbe Collin, who was very accurate in 

 these matters, states that in their out-door flights the drones 

 lose about 8 percent of their weight, which is very probably 

 ■ inly a portion of the loss, and evidences how much food they 

 must consume. We have, oyer and over, ascertained that the 

 colonies that had few drones were less likely to swarm than 

 those which, other things being equal, had many drones. 



