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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



April 19, 1906 



if you are tempted to grumble at the endless lists of new 

 and amazing potatoes — immediate result annoying, but net 

 result excellent. We might easily have been eating pota- 

 toes of the size of plums and paying more for them than we 

 do now. I can remember back to the time when they better 

 deserved the name of " Munster plums " than at present. 

 Howsomever, it would be better to eat Munster plums, and 

 have them excellent in quality, than to wrestle down the 

 big, long Merinos and the mammoth, round Pinkeyes that 

 used to afflict us. Page 231. 



Dadant Divisible Brood-Frame 



Many thanks to C. P. Dadant for his picture of a sec- 

 tional frame that will take apart and put together again. 

 I have long wished to experiment with a hive taking double 

 length frames, and the difficulty of putting two frames to- 

 gether halted me in my planning. Page 232. 



A Queen-Rearing Kink 



So a half-built comb of Italian brood will be pretty sure 

 to have some queen-cells built on it, even in an alien hive of 

 hybrids, if placed in the center. Then at the proper time 

 the cells not Italian can be destroyed. Good kink to keep 

 in memory. Page 236. 



Where to Locate an Apiary 



A. C. Allen thinks it's less windy on northern slopes 

 (in warm weather) than on southern slopes. Guess he's 

 right. His deduction is, Don't plant an apiary with a de- 

 cided tilt to the south. But as winter winds come from the 

 northwest and northeast, you should winter bees in the cel- 

 lar if you choose a steep northern slope. Page 238. 



A Long Honey-Comb 



That continuous comb, nice and straight for 9% feet, 

 entitles E. S. Armstrong to wear a small feather in his 

 crown — if he's an " honest Injun." Page 238. 



Iron Rust in Honey Kills Bees 



John W. Pharr's item on page 238 should not be forgot- 

 ten. Iron rust in honey (enough to make it look decidedly 

 rusty) kills bees rigfht straight along. Still, in this case, it 

 -might possibly be that it was a mixture of salts of tin with 

 the iron rust that did the greater share of the mischief. 



=^ 



Southern 

 * Beebom * 



Conducted by Louis H. Scholu New Braunfels, Tex. 



" Brood-Periods " and Arrangement 



J 



A good many of " we'uns," as Mr. Hasty is wont to 

 call "us," hardly stop to think about such things as a regu- 

 lar order in the brood-nest, the meaning of " brood-periods," 

 and a score of other such things. If we would, there would 

 no doubt be a larger number of better bee-keepers. To 

 possess some knowledge on subjects of this kind seems, in 

 the mind of many — quite too many of us — to be entirely 

 unnecessary or useless, in making our returns of the api- 

 ary larger than they may be, in obtaining greater profits 

 for the time and money invested. If, however, one pos- 

 sesses such knowledge, and knows how to apply it, he will 

 soon outstrip his fellow men who must stumble along in the 

 dark. 



Every time I open a hive and look over the combs with 

 brood I can not keep from noticing the arrangement of the 

 brood circles, the number of brood-periods, etc. I can also 

 understand better now why the practise of spreading brood, 

 if not done with proper understanding, will be of little or no 

 gain. Mr. Stachelhausen's article below will tell it. 



Order and Development of the Brood 



Very little attention has been given as yet to the fact 

 that the queen lays the eggs in the cells in a certain order, 

 and that this order is of importance to the welfare and full 



development of the colony, some bee-keepers going even so 

 far as to assert that no order at all exists in this respect, 

 and that the queen lays eggs arbitrarily in the hive. Every- 

 body can prove by inspection that this is a great error. As 

 the age of the eggs and of the brood can be recognized, we 

 can easily see in every brood-nest what the queen's path 

 was. In the center of the globular cluster, on the warmest 

 place, egg -laying is commenced in early sprng. Around 

 the first egg laid by the queen 6 more are deposited in the 

 adjoining cells. In this way, going around in circles, the 

 queen lays eggs in cells next to those in which she had laid 

 a short time before, till she reaches the limit of cells which 

 are warmed up by the brood-bees. 



Now the queen goes to the neighboring comb in the 

 same space, and, commencing in the center again, lays in 

 the same way in a patch of cells probably a little smaller 

 than that in the first comb ; then she goes back to the first 

 comb and lays around the older brood a new circle of eggs. 

 She commences now to lay in the cells on the other side of 

 the first comb, which will be the center comb of the brood- 

 nest. If in this comb, and in the next one eggs are laid, the 

 queen will go back to the other space again, will add new 

 circles, and will probably use the second comb from the 

 center one. 



In this way the queen moves from one comb to the 

 other, always laying a new circle of eggs around the older 

 brood, so that the brood-nest will have a globular form, in 

 which the brood of different ages are arranged like so many 

 shells. 



A worker needs 21 days to develop from the egg to the 

 adult form, and then it gnaws out of the cell. If we inspect 

 a brood-nest 22 days after egg-laying has commenced, we 

 shall see on the center comb the oldest capped brood, and 

 some bees gnawing out ; around the capped brood the oldest 

 larva; just ready to be capped over, then younger larva;, 

 and, outside in a wide circle, eggs. On the next comb we 

 shall find the same order, but in the center the oldest brood 

 is missing, and on the extreme outside comb probably only 

 a small patch of eggs may be seen. 



As the cells after 3 weeks are becoming empty, and the 

 queen can commence egg-laying in the center again, we 

 call this a " brood-period." The fact that the queen is sure 

 to lay the eggs during the second and all other brood-periods 

 only in those cells from which young bees have gnawed out, 

 is sufficient to force her to lay the eggs orderly. If she 

 deposited the eggs here and there, as some think she does, 

 she would be forced to follow the same path in the second 

 brood-period that she took in the first. 



This egg-laying order in circles and in a globular form 

 is inherited by the queen. Some think it can be explained 

 by the influence of the heat in such a way that the queen 

 always lays eggs in only the warmest cells. Heat has, no 

 doubt, a great influence in all actions of the bees ; but if 

 we hive a swarm on empty combs we shall observe that this 

 brood-order is kept more regular than in any other case ; 

 and at that time the temperature is high enough so that the 

 queen can lay eggs anywhere in the hive, and sometimes 

 even so high that the bees are forced to ventilate the hive. 



Alteration of the Brood Order. 



This order of the brood, as described above, is not 

 always possible. There are different influences which may 

 alter the appearance of the brood-nest : 



1. The center of the brood-nest is, if regular, in the 

 center of the middle comb ; but this point may be altered 

 by the heat of the sun warming up one side of the hive more 

 than the other one, or by a neighboring colony if 2 colonies 

 are set close together Then the center of the brood-nest is 

 nearer this heated side of the hive ; the brood-nest has a 

 more semi-globular shape, and the eggs are deposited in 

 semi-circles. 



2. If we have a good honey-flow in early spring, when 

 the brood-nest is yet small, this honey may be a hindrance 

 to the regular enlargement of the brood-nest ; but generally 

 this honey is removed by the bees to give room for the 

 brood. Nevertheless, during a very good honey-flow the 

 honey sometimes keeps the brood-nest in a limited space, as 

 I have observed many times here in Texas ; but hereby 

 some other influences are working in the same direction. 



Of more influence is the pollen, if gathered in larger 

 quantities than needed for the brood. The bees do not re- 

 move the pollen to other cells as they do the honey, and so 

 the pollen disturbs the order of the brood-nest everywhere. 

 If this pollen is used up while the queen is laying eggs near 

 by, she will generally lay eggs in these now empty cells, 

 too, and afterward we shall see some open brood among the 

 capped. If the pollen in these cells is consumed when the 



