Sept. 6, 1906 



755 



American Itee Journal 



Contributed 

 r»: flrf ides 



Can't Manage Bees by Rules 

 -Value of Bee-Literature 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE 



Lately I received a letter from a cor- 

 respondent, written evidently by one 

 who was not in an easy frame of mind 

 when he wrote, containing, among 

 other things, the following : 



" All the writers on bees are as opposite in 

 their opinions and practices as it is possible 

 to be. I have looked in vain for some one 

 person whom I could follow with a certainty 

 of success, and as freely as 1 would a teacher 

 of any of the common branches of human 

 knowledge. Dr. Miller teaches one thing, 

 you another, Alexander another, Hutchiosoa 

 still another, and 60 on, none of you agreeing 

 on anything, except that you all wish to get a 

 living and a little something more out of the 

 bees. Why don't you work alike? This is 

 the way people of other trades do.'' 



As there seems to be an opinion 

 similar to the above prevailing with 

 many bee-keeper.', especially with be- 

 ginners in apiculture, perhaps a few 

 words trying to explain these matters 

 may not be amiss, and it may also help 

 the readers of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal to understand each other better, 

 or, at least, help us to understand why 

 nothing pertaining to bee-lore can be 

 followed like a rule in arithmetic. 



Twice two makes four every time, 

 because it can not be otherwise, no 

 matter by whom multiplied, nor at 

 what season of the year the computa- 

 tion is made, or in what locality ; 

 hence, we have the rule of multiplica- 

 tion as being always the same through- 

 out all parts of the world. The same 

 of addition, subtraction, etc., but if 

 we come to apply any rule similar to 

 the above to bees, we find it won't 

 work, for the reason that every season 

 brings its changes, and every locality 

 its different sources of bee-supply or 

 forage, heat and cold, while some one 

 less than 100 miles distant has a full 

 supply of nectar when we have none, 

 or the ground is fairly flooded with 

 water while the soil in our neighbor- 

 hood is so parched that vegetation is 

 withering and dying. And so some- 

 thing that will work successfully with 

 Dr. Miller on July 4 will not work at 

 all here, and something which is emi- 

 nently successful in my hands on that 

 date will not work at all with him. 

 Now, what shall I do? Tell him that 

 he is a fraud and trying to mislead me 

 in what he writes? By no means. I 

 must use charity, and try to find out 

 wherein the conditions with him are 

 different from what they are with me. 



To illustrate : One season in our 

 basswood honey harvest I found I 

 could introduce a queen by letting her 

 run in at the entrance and smoking the 



bees 2 or 3 minutes after I let her go, 

 having removed the old queen during 

 the day, and running the new queen in 

 with smoke during the twilight of the 

 evening of the same day. And as I 

 did not lose a single queen out of 

 nearly 100 so put in that season, I set 

 it down as a rule that queens could be 

 thus introduced safely every time. 

 Now, thought I, here is a common- 

 sense rule that will apply to bees like 

 the rule of multiplication applies to 

 the multiplication table; but when I 

 came to use the same rule after the 

 honey harvest was over I found my 

 rule was " no good," as 3 out of every 

 4 queens put in in that way would be 

 lost. I was foolish enough to write to 

 a friend at the time I was having such 

 grand success how to introduce queens, 

 in reply to such a question from him, 

 and when he tried it in a different 

 locality he lost every one so tried. The 

 result was that he called Dollittle any- 

 thing but a "teacher of any of the 

 common branches of human knowl- 

 edge." Now why was it that my friend 

 did not succeed as I did ? Simply be- 

 cause all thecircumstancesas to honey- 

 yield, state of the weather, etc., were 

 not in the same condition in his locality 

 that they were in mine. Again, when 

 there came a change in the conditions 

 in and about my apiary I also failed ; 

 and I doubt if those exact conditions 

 ever came to my apiary again. 



Then, I have been successfully using, 

 and supposed successfully recommend- 

 ing, the superseding of all old and fail- 

 ing queens immediately after the bass- 

 wood harvest by the plan of killing 

 the old queen, and at the same time 

 giving a caged ripe queen-cell (one 

 reared during the honey-flow from 

 basswood, when the best of queens are 

 reared) at the time of the removal of 

 the old queen. The cell being caged, 

 keeps the bees from destroying the cell 

 before they miss their old queen, and 

 thus when the royal occupant emerges 

 from the cell from 24 to 36 hours later, 

 she is accepted, no queen-cells reared, 

 and she soon becomes mother to the 

 colony. This, in brief, has been my 

 way of superseding old queens for the 

 past 20 years, and, with the exception 

 of now and then a case the plan has 

 given perfect satisfaction. Now and 

 then the bees would start queen-cells 

 from their own brood, killing the 

 queen after she emerged, when they 

 would perfect a queen from their 

 brood, when she, in time, would be- 

 come the mother of the colony, giving 

 the colony a young, vigorous queen 

 just the same, only she would not be 

 just the " blood " which I wanted them 

 to have. Imagine my surprise to re- 

 ceive a letter a few days ago telling me 

 how the writer had used the plan for 



the first time this year, aud only 3 out 

 of some 30 or 40 colonies had accepted 

 the young queens, while the rest had 

 killed these young queens, reared 

 queens from the brood left, and had 

 gone to swarming with the voung 

 queens to an excessive rate. Now, I 

 do not remember ever having a swarm 

 when trying this plan at the close of 

 the basswood harvest (though I have 

 had just the conditions he describes 

 when trying it during clover bloom), 

 for we have a scarcity of bloom from 

 basswood to buckwheat, so that no 

 colony thinks of swarming, no matter 

 how many queen-cells are reared and 

 perfected in a hive at that time. But 

 from his "swarming" it is evident 

 that the same conditions exist with 

 him after the basswood flow that do 

 here in June when the clover is in 

 bloom. 



Thus we see that no rule in bee-cul- 

 ture can be formed which will do to 

 follow throughout the United States 

 and the world, as can the rules in 

 arithmetic, and the only thing we can 

 do is to try the plans of others cau- 

 tiously till we know that they are suited 

 to our wants, using charity all the 

 time. There is a great difference in 

 individuals. Some experiment care- 

 fully, proving everything critically 

 step by step as they go, arriving 

 almost at a definite conclusion at the 

 first experiment, while others experi- 

 ment in such a careless, slip-shod man- 

 ner that their experiments at the end 

 of several years are of little value. 

 Notwithstanding all of these draw- 

 backs, any careful readers of what is 

 written on apiculture will find much of 

 value after they have sifted the chaff 

 from the wheat. It is often necessary 

 to apply what was written a long time 

 ago in the " good book," where it says, 

 " Prove all things; hold fast to that 

 which is good," when reading much of 

 the literature of the day on many other 

 subjects besides bee-keeping. 



However much there may be of im- 

 perfection in our bee-literature, $100 

 per year would not hire me to dispense 

 with it, for it is to this same literature, 

 very largely, that I owe nearly all the 

 knowledge I possess, and the success I 

 have obtained, in bee-keeping. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Supers, Fences and Sections 



BY ADRIAN GETAZ 



I have tried several kinds of supers 

 and sections. All have some advan- 

 tages and some disadvantages. Some 

 of the late contributions to the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal have shown me clearly 

 that in a few cases, at least, the locality 

 has more to do with the selection of 

 the right kind than I had supposed 

 until now. 



Supers. 



I have used the T-supers to some ex- 

 tent, both with loose and fixed T-tins. 

 I have several yet, and occasionally 

 use some when I am short of the other 

 kinds 



My objections to them are that the 

 top and bottom of sections are left un- 

 protected, and that the tins keep the 

 sections apart and give the bees a 

 chance to push propolis between them 



