THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



283 



with any purpose of usinj^ them as eggs. 

 3. Queens do not go through exchiders 

 to lay an egg in each of several queen- 

 cell cups and then return through the ex- 

 cluder. 4. YeSi workers or a worker laid 

 the eggs. Close observation will reveal 

 the fact that they do that very frequently 

 under such circuni.stances. 



Lapeer, Mich., Aug. 26, I.S9.S. 



EXXRMOXeO, 



THE FEEDING OF SUGAR. 



How it may aid in Securing a crop of Honey, 

 and yet not ^et into the Sections 



In this issue of the Review Mr. Hasty 

 takes Mr. Vernon Burt and Gleanings to 

 task for the feeding of sugar, that he 

 thinks may be stored in the sections. 

 ( See what he says in his comments this 

 month. ) In order that the readers of the 

 Review may judge fairly of the matter I 

 will quote from Gleanings the editorial 

 paragraph to which our friend Hasty has 

 reference. It reads as follows: — 



Owing to a great crowd of general 

 work I was not able to get down to friend 

 Burt's until yesterday, the 13th. You 

 will remember that I re])orted in our last 

 i.ssue that he was getting a crop of hon- 

 ey when the rest of us around here were 

 getting no surplus; that the secret lay in 

 tlie fact that he had fed his colonies a la 

 Boardman until the brood-nest , were 

 crammed full or sealed sugar syrup and 

 sealed brood at tlie opening of the har- 

 vest, the nectar, when it did come, and 

 what there was of it, went right into the 

 sections. 



According to my way of thinking Has- 

 ty has not fully understood the matter. 

 At least, /understand that the feeding is 

 done only before the openingjof the white 

 clover honey harvest — not continued 

 after the haryest has opened and sections 

 are put on. In mj- opinion, but little, 

 if any, stores are removed from the 

 brood-nest to sections after the main 

 harvest begins. 



USING TWO-STORY BROOD-CHAMBERS. 



Which is the More Important, Keeping the 



Queen Occupied, or the Combs 



Occupied ? 



In the American Bee Journal for Au- 

 gu.st 4, page 486, someone asks Dr. Mill- 

 er's advice in regard to the use of two- 

 story - brood chaml)ers. Here is the 

 query: — 



You advise for comb honey two-story 

 8-frame dovetailed hives, or 16 frames, 

 until the time to put on supers, then one 

 story is to be taken off, reducing them to 

 one story or eight frames. My experi- 

 ence is that in this locality the honey 

 harvest opens and supers are to be put on 

 somewhere near May 15, and up to that 

 time the queen never occupies or fills 

 more than eight frames with brood. In 

 that case I should think it would not be 

 ne,cessary or practicable to put on the 

 second story. Am I correct or not ? 



To this the doctor replies as follows:— 



I don't know. If a single story gives 

 all the room the queen will occupy, and if 

 no more room is needed then there can 

 hardly be an}- advantage in giving a sec- 

 ond story. But you can hardly be very 

 sure about this if you've never tried it. 

 .\re you sure none of your queens will oc- 

 cupy more than eight frames if they have 

 a chance ? I think you'll find it true that, 

 as a rule, bees don't like to u.se either of the 

 two outside combs for brood, using them 

 only for honey and ])ollen. If you find 

 brood in either of the outside combs ( and 

 you may find it in both ) n'ou may feel 

 pretty sure that they are somewhat crowd- 

 ed for brood-room; and if you find eight 

 combs occupied with brood in an 8-frame 

 hive, the probability is that more than 

 eight frames would be used if the bees 

 had two stories. Keep a strong colony in 

 one story of eight frames, and it will nave 

 brood in not more than eight frames, if, 

 indeed, it has more than six, whereas the 

 same colony in two stories may have 9 to 

 14 frames with brood. Some colonies do 

 not need the second story; some do. If 

 you practice using two stories you'll find a 

 good many more of your colonies needing 

 them than if you kept all of them constant- 

 ly confined to one stor}'. That is, by 

 giving always all the room needed, you'll 

 have stronger colonies. 



It seems to me that some of us are 

 not looking at this matter in the right 



