980 



Nov. 29, 1906 



American Ttee Journal 



or 60,000 bees, and will obtain honey 

 from this smaller colony nearly in pro- 

 portion to the number of bees it con- 

 tains. Not quite, for a small colony 

 can not do quite as effective work in 

 any event as can one having bees 

 enough to work in a large amount of 

 room advantageously. 



Then, it is possible, that our corres- 

 pondent pays no attention to the 

 amount of drone-comb in his hives. 

 No matter how strong in number a 

 colony may be, if from one-fourth to 

 one-third of those bees are drones, 

 reared in that number of drone-cells, 

 allowed in the comb of the hive, such 

 a colony can never give the best re- 

 sults as long as that drone-comb is al- 

 lowed to remain in the hive, as the 

 amount of honey taken to feed the use- 

 less drone-brood, and the practically 

 useless drones after they have emerged 

 from their cells, will leave only a small 

 amount to go into the sections. 



An inch or two of drone-comb is all 

 that is needed to satisfy any colony, 

 and all that should be allowed to any 

 and all colonies but those from which 

 we wish to rear the male bees for 

 breeding purposes ; and all colonies 

 having more drone-comb than this 

 should be looked over in the spring, 

 all but the one or two inches cut out, 

 and worker-comb fitted in the place 

 where the drone-comb was cut out. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Bees Don't Puncture Grapes 



BY JOHN KENNEDY 



On page 757, I replied to an editorial 

 in relation to the honey-bees damag- 

 ing fruits, and especially scupper-nong 

 grapes, and I promised in that letter to 

 deal fairly with the bees, that if I 

 found on careful investigation that 

 they were innocent of damaging my 

 grapes, I would so publish the fact. 

 As I wrote, something literally de- 

 stroyed my scupper-nong grapes year 

 before this, and I waited for a recur- 

 rence before I complained. So this 

 year the trouble began just as last 

 year, but the only difference was that 

 whatever was doing it was much worse 

 on last year's crop. But the grapes 

 were punctured the same way, just as 

 if one had stuck the point of a knife- 

 blade in the side of each grape. 



I made every investigation I could 

 think of. I visited the vines at night 

 with a lantern, and often through the 

 day, but could discover nothing to 

 which I could lay the depredation. Of 

 course, the bees were there in great 

 numbers, but they seemed only to be 

 sucking the juice exuding through the 

 puncture made, but I could not say that 

 a bee was seen in the act of cutting the 

 grapes, and I am glad, yes happy, to 

 be able to say that something else 

 caused the trouble. I was loath to lay 

 it to the bees from the beginning, but 

 as I could see nothing else visiting the 

 grape-vines in sufficient numbers to 

 cause all the trouble and damage, I 

 was considerably mystified, and each 

 visit I would leave the vines in doubt, 

 and the least I could say was, " Miss 

 Bee, it looks awfully suspicious, but 

 before I make up my mind as to your 

 guilt or innocence, I will write to the 



American Bee Journal and see if any 

 one else can throw any light on the 

 subject." And I must say that I am 

 greatly disappointed that not a single 

 subscriber to the Journal commented 

 on or referred to the subject, when I 

 thought almost every one who had 

 grapes would have some experience 

 along this line. Not even Mr. Hasty 

 referred to the subject. Therefore, I 

 now especially invite all the readers 

 and the Editor to try to ventilate this 

 subject, for doubtless I am not the 

 only one who has scupper-nong grapes. 



Could it be possible that there ex- 

 ists an insect peculiar to this climate 

 or locality that does not exist else- 

 where, or in higher latitudes, that does 

 such mischief? As I said before, I 

 could see nothing on the grape-vines 

 except the bees, unless it was an occa- 

 sional wasp or bumble-bee. I could 

 occasionally see several of the latter, 

 and of different sizes and kinds, the 

 names of which I am not familiar 

 enough with to distinguish, but I found 

 it difficult or impracticable to catch 

 them in the act of puncturing. They 

 seemed just to be sucking, as the 

 honey-bees were doing, and going 

 from grape to grape. 



In the editorial a reference was made 

 to a Prof. Garman, of the Kentucky 

 Experimental Station, who had found 

 two varieties of tree-crickets working 

 vigorously on grapes at night, and 

 also a June-bug. Well, I feel very 

 well satisfied that there were no crick- 

 ets or June-bugs in this case, and I am 

 as much at sea as ever as to the real 

 culprit. 



During my night visits to the vines 

 I could see no insects upon them, and I 

 know it was not birds, as the Editor 

 suggested with considerable degree of 

 a suspicion. And to sum up all the 

 light I can throw upon the subject, 

 there is nothing but the large bees, 

 which are generally termed " bumble " 

 or " humble " bees. 



These so-called bumble-bees were 

 not the kind that bore into wood to 

 deposit their eggs — a kind very numer- 

 ous here at the first approach of sum- 

 mer, but somewhat smaller, with light 

 colors about the back or end of the 

 wings, being of a very dark color gen- 

 erally over their body — the kind that 

 have nests in the ground ; and there 

 were two or more sizes of them, show- 

 ing them to be two or more different 

 species while similar in general ap- 

 pearance. 



And now, to sum up my verdict, 

 sitting as a Court of Investigation, 

 with what little evidence is before me 

 to judge from, I will say : First, I am 

 prepared to clear the honey-bees of 

 doing the damage to the grapes, and 

 do exonerate them from any guilt 

 along that line, any further than to 

 partake of the juice flowing from the 

 grapes punctured by some other un- 

 known insects ; and that throws more 

 suspicion on the other insects found 

 upon the grapes from time to time ; 

 and this Court is without sufficient 

 evidence to convict any special enemy, 

 and will have to dismiss the case. 



At the same time I hope the subject 

 will not be dropped here in its incipi- 

 ency ; but to strengthen the evidence of 

 the innocence of the honey-bee in the 

 eyes of the fruit-growers, every one 



who has any experience on this sub- 

 ject should add his mite, which may 

 enable fruit-men to discover the guilty 

 culprit, because they, or at least some of 

 them, are ready to believe the honey-bee 

 guilty of this mischief ; and not only 

 this, but she is believed to be the means 

 of carrying pear-blight, which is today 

 one of the greatest drawbacks the fruit- 

 grower has in this part of the country. 

 But I think it is now generally con- 

 sidered with the best-informed fruit- 

 growers (the reading and up-to date 

 class) that pear-blight is carried 

 through the sap, while the means of 

 first starting it and getting it in the 

 sap is still a mystery ; but I, for one, 

 can clear the bees of that charge also. 



I apologize to the Editor for saying 

 that he, at least, made no comment on 

 this subject, as I had overlooked the 

 item on page 750, Sept. 6. Also Mr. 

 Dadant wrote on this matter, on page 

 861. But I hope others will try to 

 throw some light on this subject, in 

 which so many are interested. 



Selma, Miss. 



No. 21— Dadant Methods of 

 Honey-Production 



BY C. P. DADANT 



I believe I have now given the read- 

 ers of the American Bee Journal a suf- 

 ficient idea of our management of bees. 

 After this, I will give some of our ways 

 of disposing of the crop locally. We 

 have succeeded in getting rid of very 

 large crops at fair prices in years past, 

 and without helping to glut the large 

 markets by throwing our crops on 

 these, through commission men, as so 

 many do. These ideas will make the 

 subject of subsequent articles. But 

 before closing up on our methods of 

 management of the apiary, I wish to 

 insist on the advantage of those large 

 hives, and the ease of manipulations 

 they give. Bear in mind that there is 

 nothing patented about them, and also 

 that they are so simple that any car- 

 penter can make them with ordinary 

 tools. I say this to call the attention 

 of the readers to the fact that I am not 

 trying to sell them anything when I 

 recommend this hive. 



Permit me to quote to you a short ex- 

 tract from the October Bee-Keepers' 

 Review : 



" From the experience I have had with out- 

 apiaries, I should use the Dadant hive if I 

 were to start again. About all there is to do 

 is to put on the supers and take off the honey. 

 There is no swarming to speak of; no ex- 

 cluders are necessary ; always plenty of stores 

 in the brood-chamber; good wintering; no 

 trouble to get the bees started into the supers, 

 as there is above an excluder and a better 

 grade of honey, as most of the early honey 

 goes into the supers." 



This friend is rather too optimistic 

 over our methods. We do have occa- 

 sional swarming in very good seasons, 

 and it sometimes happens that the 

 bees go so freely into the supers that 

 they do not keep enough honey in the 

 brood-chamber for winter. But with- 

 out doubt our method is among the 

 most simple of successful methods. We 

 do very little superseding of old queens, 

 use very few rattle-traps, such as 

 honey-boards— no excluders — and our 



