794 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1.5. 



queen it becomes good-natured. That seems 

 to teach that the presence of the queen makes a 

 difference in the temper of the bees. Is it al- 

 together unreasonable to suppose that one 

 queen will not make exactly the same differ- 

 ence as another ? 

 Marengo, III. 



[Perhaps some of our readers are becoming 

 tired of this hive question; but I think it is an 

 exceedingly important one, and I do not believe 

 we can afford to drop it just yet. What we 

 want is more facts. Let us hear from both 

 classes of bee-keepers — those who find they can 

 produce more honey with a larger hive, and 

 those who can do better with smaller hives — at 

 least, secure just as much honey with less labor 

 in lifting. It seems to me that A. F. Brown, in 

 the article on page 79() did pretty well with 

 the eight-frame hive — that is, two eight-frame 

 bodies, one on top of the other, when he pro- 

 duced 52,000 lbs. of honey from 193 colonies, or 

 an average of over 269 lbs. It is true, there are 

 larger averages from other bee-keepers, in the 

 same locality, and it is possible that they used 

 a larger hive. I wish Mr. Brown had told us 

 the size and style of hive used by each in his 

 enumeration of the large yields of the different 

 bee-keepers. But after all, suppose it should 

 turn out that some of those who secured larger 

 averages used larger hives; does that necessa- 

 rily prove that they produced 100 lbs. of honey 

 with less labor, if we consider the fun of han- 

 dling—that is, the lifting of twelve-frame hives 

 and Long-Idea hives? 



I have a sort of feeling myself, however, that 

 the larger hives will produce larger averages 

 (and they ought to, surely) per colony; and I 

 presume that, when we get up as high as the 

 twelve-frame size, swarming will be reduced to 

 a minimum, and here indeed must be a saving 

 of considerable labor. But T will stick to it 

 yet, that I do not want to lift twelve-frame 

 hives full of bees and honey. I would rather 

 lift it half at a time. If a twelve-frame is bet- 

 ter than a ten-frame hive, is not a sixtf^en- 

 frame better than a twelve-frame? and if a 

 sixteen-frame capacity is right, then the eight- 

 frame is all right as it is. Two hive-bodies 

 would be far easier to handle than one twelve- 

 frame.— Ed.] 



HIVES VS. HIVES. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF A BROOD-NKST SUITET) TO 



THE season; a well-written article. 



By C. W. Dayton. 



Editor Oleanings :—Jn regard to this hive 

 discussion which has been going on, I would 

 say that it may not be so much holding upon 

 the amount of brood there is as upon how 

 much brood there is not; or, how well the bees 

 work at honey-gathering. 



I took a trip along the San Bernardino range 

 of mountains after sage bloom. In one apiary, 

 near Calabassas, one colony in an apiary of 140 

 had stored two supers of comb honey, while the 

 rest had done hardly any thing. Near San 

 Fernando, 12 miles farther east, two or three 

 colonies stored their supers full for extraction, 

 probably 40 lbs., while the rest of the apiary 

 had done nothing. Ten miles farther east, only 

 half a dozen filled their hives for winter, out of 



an apiary of 200. Six miles farther comes to a 

 part of my apiary where 56 colonies gave two 

 21-lb. supers of faultless sections, and a 20-lb. 

 super for extraction— not a variation of 10 lbs. 

 in the whole batch. 



A friend, who secured 150 lbs. to the hive in 

 1888, knowing that I sometimes write for the 

 bee-papers, said, " Now, I can make a big re- 

 port as well as you." I asked him to find one 

 of my reports, either big or little— I should like 

 to see it. It seems that, with all his reading, 

 he did very little thinking. 



There is no mistake that this has been a far 

 worse season than common. In such seasons, 

 even the instincts of the bees seem to change. 

 Before sage bloomed they received so little out- 

 side encouragement that they became low- 

 spirited and disheartened, but, through force 

 of habit, kept up a small supply of brood at the 

 expense of old stores. Then when sage bloom- 

 ed they occupied two weeks at little more than 

 gathering courage, and then used the remain- 

 der of the harvest in extensive brood-rearing. 

 The flow of honey was so light that, with plenty 

 of space, there could be used up in brood the 

 next four weeks of gathering. Bees are like 

 shoemakers, printers, and railroaders — prefer 

 to stay at their old occupation. If they are 

 slightly attracted from it they eventually get 

 back again. So the principal drift of energy 

 this year was brood-rearing. The queens knew 

 nothing of the scarcity of rainfall last winter. 

 Their business was egg-laying, and it devolved 

 upon the bees to care for them. The first as- 

 piration of bees being brood-rearing, they lay 

 up a winter store with no more design than 

 cattle move forward to pastures green — a thing 

 they seldom do until present pastures fail. 

 The reason pollen or honey accumulates in the 

 combs at any time is because a large proportion 

 of bees are too old for nurses, and have culti- 

 vated the gathering habit. In seasons of scarci- 

 ty, brood may consume all they gather until 

 the latter end of the flow, when there comes 

 a superabundance of old bees, or more than the 

 queen could keep occupied caring for brood. 

 This may depend upon how long the flow last- 

 ed, or how weak the colony was at first, and 

 how large it became at the end. About this 

 time the bees conclude that, if the queen's 

 wants are supplied, they will be content. There 

 is many a man who would accumulate a fortune 

 if he could scrape up the dollars by the measure- 

 ful; but when it comes to delving for a "cop- 

 per " here and there, he takes readily to the 

 corner dry-goods box. If the habit of delving 

 for coppers were cultivated, it might grow 

 upon him. 



It is not so much matter as to how many tons 

 some one has received, as why these individual 

 colonies so far outstrip the rest of the apiary. 

 And, even in their case, might not their condi- 

 tion be varied so that they would have done 

 even better? When we are able to produce 



