I8;i4 



GLExVNINtJS IN BEE CULTURE. 



that beautiful and wonderful provision of 

 Nature for fertilizing such a common and use- 

 ful grain as corn. Each individual silk-like 

 strand of the female tlower is connected with 

 each and every embryo grain of corn, and some 

 of the subtle dust pollen from the tassel must 

 fall upon and enter into each and every thread- 

 like strand of the " silk," and be conveyed in 

 some occult way through the whole length of 

 this silk, which is sometimes several inches or 

 a foot long, to where the grain of corn is to be 

 formed, in order to fertilize and make a perfect 

 ear of corn. It is as mysterious as that other 

 wonderful provision of Nature that enables a 

 queen-bee to lay thousands of fertile eggs with 

 only one meeting with the drone. 

 Pelee Island, Out. 



THANSFKRRING BKES, A I^A HEPDOX. 



Question. — I have some colonies of bees I wish 

 to transfer about the first of May, or during 

 fruit-bloom, which comes ' about that time. 

 Would it not be well to drum out one colony, 

 having straightest combs and most brood, and 

 give each of the other colonies transferred one 

 frame of this brood after fitting it into frames, 

 to help them, and put into the super of their 

 new hive the honey they may have, to help 

 them, as they will have no brood ? 



Answer. — By the tone of the question I should 

 judge that what is known as the Heddon plan 

 of transferring is to be used; that is, the bees 

 are to be driven from their hives and hived in 

 new hives, the frames of which are filled with 

 foundation. If I am correct, Mr. Heddon never 

 advised this plan of transferring, where the 

 same was to be done in early spring, or before 

 the hives were filled with bees and brood. 

 With me, the time of fruit-bloom is just the 

 time the bees are beginning to rush things by 

 way of brood and a general preparation for the 

 main honey-harvost; and if we transfer i)y the 

 Heddon plan at this time we make a break in 

 the plans of the bees at a time wlu^n we wish 

 every egg possible, laid by the queen: an;], if I 

 am any judge of such matters, transferring at 

 this time, and in this manm-r, may make all 

 the difference witli us between a good crop of 

 honey and no surplus at all Five hundred 

 dollars would not tempt me to allow any man 

 to transfer 100 colonies of bees for me in such a 

 way in fruit-bloom, as I should then calculate 

 that I should lose that much by so doittg, in an 

 average season. Our correspond(mt shows that 

 he knows something of the worth of brood at 

 this time of the year, in that he proposes to 

 give each colony after the first a frame of the 

 same. If one frame of brood is a good thing. 



five frames would be live times as good; and 

 th(! old plan of transferring is the only one I 

 would use when transferring in fruit-bloom, and 

 the one I prefer at all times, unless the colony 

 to be transfern'd has such crooked combs that 

 it makes great labor in fitting them into the 

 frames. I have always failed to understand 

 the logic that clamors for the melting up of 

 good straight worker combs for the sake of 

 making the wax coming from them into foun- 

 dation, fitting it into frames, and obliging the 

 bees to draw it out, and add more wax to it in 

 the process, that we might have only good 

 worker combs again. If any wish to go through 

 with this process, of course I have no objec- 

 tions; but I have often noticed that the very 

 men who recommend such a waste of time to 

 themselves and the bees as this are the very 

 ones who cry out about the foolishness of be- 

 ginners when spending a little more time than 

 seems good to them in the pleasure and profit 

 which comes from the manipulation of bees. 

 Fruit-bloom is a good time to transfer bees by 

 the old way; in fact, transferring at that time, 

 where their own combs are fitted into frames, 

 seems to give them renewed vigor, so that they 

 make better colonies for gathering surplus 

 honey than they would have done if left un- 

 disturbed. 



SPACING FRAMES. 



Question. — I think of spacing my brood- 

 frames l^i; inches apart. At present they are 

 1%. My apiary consists of about 100 colonies. 

 What do you think of the venture '? 



Ansiver.—WeU, to be candid, it is a venture 

 that I should not want to go into. If I thought 

 I could see some gain in such close spacing, I 

 would try it on, say, ten of the 100 colonies for 

 a year or two; and then if it pleased me I would 

 fix the other 90 in the same way. Here is some- 

 thing that so many lose sight of, and rush 

 headlong into any project which seems good to 

 them, using the whole apiary to experiment 

 with, when they could try the experiment j^ust 

 as well with half a dozen colonies; and if the 

 pet project proved a failure, as is apt to be the 

 case four times out of five, but little loss would 

 be the result; while such an experiment, car- 

 rying the whole apiary with it. often results in 

 a loss hard to be l)orne. I really wish some one 

 competent would tell us, in a logical way, what 

 there is to be gained, in a real practical dollar- 

 and-cent way, by this close spacing of frames, 

 which seems to be a craze just now. I have 

 carefully experiinented for several years to find 

 out whether I was wrong in using 1}4 inches 

 from center to center of frames, that being the 

 average, as I measiire it, of combs built by the 

 bees when they have their own way, and so far 

 see no practical reason for changing to either 

 a greater or less distance. If there could be 

 artificial heat used, so that the hive could be 

 kept warm enough for brood-rearing in any 

 part of it during the spring months, then the 



