242 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL-. 



top-bars, the same spaces between and 

 over the frames, obtained after the in- 

 troduction of the metal bearings, as be- 

 fore their use, I will be interested to 

 know what kind of bees and top-bars 

 they were. 



Brace-combs are a nuisance that have 

 long since ceased to annoy in the manip- 

 ulation of my hives, though I use, and 

 would not do without, the metal bearing, 

 and have, during the past two years, 

 had a strong colony at a window in a 

 glass hive, in our dining-room, where, by 

 the closing of doors, walking upon the 

 floor and rapping upon the glass, they 

 are jarred and disturbed almost every 

 hour in the day, yet not a brace-comb 

 has been built. 



Philosophically speaking, " the bees 

 walking over the combs causes them to 

 tremble;" practically, no. The hiw of 

 gravitation would defeat the power of 

 even a drone if applied to a five-pound 

 comb. 



The solution of the brace-comb diffi- 

 culty lies in the use of top-bars l}ix%, 

 dressed on the top and the sides, with a 

 space of 5-16 between, metal or no 

 metal, though inasmuch as the frames 

 will hang more true when the metal is 

 in use, the advantage, if any, would be 

 in favor of metal rabbets, and 1 feel sure 

 that further experiment will prove to 

 Mr. C. that "metal" has no "bearing" 

 on the brace-comb difficulty. 



Titusville, Pa. 



Brool-Eearing anJ Increase of Colonies. 



Written Jar the American Bee Journal 

 BY C. -W. DAYTON. 



Mr. Heddon says on page 261 of the 

 Bee-Keepers'' Review, for 1898 : " The 

 experienced well knows the great differ- 

 ence in the working qualities of different 

 strains of bees of the same race or races. 

 All of you have noticed the im- 

 mense difference in the storing-qualities 

 of different colonies in the same apiary." 



A difference is just as apparent in 

 their disposition to rear brood and build 

 up in the spring, and also in the laying 

 qualities of the different queens. Often 

 we hear of an apiary where the colonies 

 are generally weak, and there are a few 

 colonies which furnish several combs of 

 brood for the assistance of weaker ones. 

 Where ordinarily prolific queens are able 

 to fill 10 combs with brood, these extra- 

 ordinary ones occupy 14 or 16 combs 

 distributed in the lower and upper 

 stories. 



In Iowa (my former location) where 

 the spring nearly always hangs on late, 

 rainy and cold, the colonies are at their 

 lowest ebb about May 1st, at which time 

 the brood increases from three or four 

 small patches (not enough to fill one 

 comb full) to seven or eight combs full 

 by the beginning of clover bloom, about 

 June 15th, a space of about 45 days. 



In California bees enter the most dor- 

 mant state during October and Novem- 

 ber, and from this I conclude that it is 

 as well to put bees into the cellar in the 

 month of October as to wait until late in 

 November or December. 



If we begin about December 15th to 

 feed one of those extra thrifty colonies 

 in California, it would cause it to rear 

 brood as rapidly as in the North in the 

 middle of June. The great drawback in 

 the North is the cold, rainy weather 

 through the last of April, May, and the 

 forepart of June, so that it is nearly im- 

 possible to rear enough young bees to 

 take the place of the rapidly-disappear- 

 ing old workers. Here, in December and 

 January, these old'bees are still young 

 and in their prime, so that one of these 

 extra-promising colonies may be easily 

 encouraged to rear the 14 to 16 combs 

 of brood in the 45 days from December 

 15th to February 1st. About this time 

 it may be divided into eight nuclei, each 

 containing two combs of brood and bees 

 enough to make them decidedly better 

 colonies than the average colonies in 

 Iowa on the first of June. If we furnish 

 combs, queens and feed again, each one 

 of these colonies may be divided into 

 three parts in 45 days more, or the 15th 

 of March. By the same process we can 

 divide each colony into three parts again 

 on April 15th, June 1st and July 15th, 

 when we will have 128 colonies, which, 

 if allowed to run through the fall, will 

 be able to gather their winter stores from 

 tar- weed, flea-weed, pepper- trees, etc., 

 which yield dark, bitter honey, every 

 year through August, September and 

 October. 



If the bees are in a willow or eucalyp- 

 tus district, during January and Febru- 

 ary they will be able to find their own 

 feed. Then by moving them into the 

 fruit-belt to pass March, April and May, 

 they will feed themselves again. [HD 



In Iowa and Wisconsin there were only 

 a few scattering clusters of willows 

 along the streams, but here are localities 

 where willow exists in a continuous, un- 

 broken jungle several miles in extent. 

 Orange and other fruit blossoms continue 

 to open for three months or more, and 

 every day as the weeks go by is a perfect 

 honey-gathering day. 



