1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



795 



individual colonies we may then have individ- 

 ual apiaries. 



Mathematically, the ten-frame Langstroth 

 hive has capacity equal to the capacity of the 

 queen, and 30 lbs. of honey. In my hive the 

 honey is left oflf by making the frames 414 

 inches shorter, or 93ixl3}.2. These are strictly 

 brood frames. At the beginning of this season 

 it was determined that, if there was no honey 

 stored, there should be very little brood reared. 

 Accordingly I prepared to go to an extreme 

 •measure by transferring the colonies into brood- 

 •chambers exactly fg^ the size of the standard 

 ten-frame L., just about half the space the 

 average queen will occupy with brood. They 

 were kept in prosperous condition by feeding, 

 and gotten as strong as possible in as short a 

 time as possible, and transferred as near the 

 commencement of the sage-bloom as could be 

 determined. This is contraction and expansion; 

 but the adoption of any certain hive for all 

 •seasons, some of which are very good and others 

 •correspondingly poor, is tramplike, because 

 tramps stick heedlessly to the railroad, around 

 curves, thick and thin; but the intelligent 

 traveler secures many shorter across-the-coun- 

 try cuts: and when the long way around is the 

 •easiest, he takes it. This year, colonies which 

 attained a rousing strength in large hives were 

 too late for the harvest, for the simple reason 

 that there was no encouragement to build on 

 except the harvest. Then when strong, honey 

 did not accumulate, because it was hard to get. 

 But there was enough gathered for the brood. 

 They would give their dear lives to save the 

 brood, and they will also give nearly as much 

 to extend the comb-space to suit the laying 

 ■capacity of a good young queen. There is said 

 to be much energy in a newly hived swarm. 

 In the case of a swarm it is unsteady and short, 

 and all the more so if the swarm has an old 

 queen; but in the old colony, with young queen, 

 striving for breeding-space, the energy clings 

 with steady, everlasting grip so long as the 

 new combs are removed, making the brood- 

 space incomplete. Honey was so scarce this 

 year, that, to deprive the bees of their brood or 

 deprive the brood of the old bees, was destruc- 

 tion to both parts. Out of 20 or 30 swarms 

 hived, only four were a success, and these were 

 fed before and after s'^varming. Where they 

 did not abscond they eventually played out. 

 So in beginning the season with 133, and having 

 over 90 swarms, I ended with 135 colonies, then 

 increased 35 artificially. 



Before the harvest I sold a neighbor 25 colo- 

 nies, the best he could pick out. He enlarged 

 the hives one-half, and transferred the bees 

 about the time I reduced my hives one-half. 

 He got no surplus, but increased, by natural 

 swarming, to 45 colonies. Then he felt jubi- 

 lant. Since then he has lost, by starvation and 

 absconding, 22 colonies, with bright prospects 

 'Of losing more. This was three miles away. 



Another, who has taken as much as 35 tons 

 in a single season, said he thought I -was "off 

 on the contraction of hives in California." He 

 was located one mile away. We visited forth 

 and back, and, as he came once in about ten 

 days, I removed a super from a number of the 

 contracted colonies until he saw four 21-pound 

 supers taken from each, and more empty sec- 

 tions put on. He had been particularly bent 

 against section honey. The last time I was at 

 his apiary, seeing a quantity of sections, supers, 

 separators, foundation, Daisy fastener, and 

 Danzenbaker boxes, I asked if he was going to 

 enter the supply-business. He said, "I am 

 going to try your contraction." And this, right 

 on the tail of the harvest! 



Thirteen bee-keepers out of a dozen care very 

 little whether their hives are adapted to the 

 requirements of the one-pound section; but it 

 is amusing to see the pieces of plank, boards, 

 shingles, shakes, shavings, and newspapers 

 they will utilize to conform their hives at times. 



Still another remarked: " Why, it would not 

 matter what kind of queens a contractionist 

 had, with such small hives." 



Yes, sir. I want just as prolific queens as can 

 be reared. The more space the queen wants, 

 the more I can intrude upon her domains with 

 my section-boxes. The bees know a prolific 

 queen better than we, and manifest such knowl- 

 edge by supersedure and building worker comb, 

 even when the queen is not "on the spot" to 

 deposit worker eggs. Therefore ' the bees will 

 extend their energetic work farther from the 

 brood. Although the combs are built for brood, 

 the queens were excluded and the combs were 

 slowly filled with honey as an instinctive re- 

 course. When the combs are removed it threw 

 them back as much in want as at first; and as 

 the outside row of sections were seldom finish- 

 ed they were placed in the new super as a start- 

 er or bait. 



Too large or too small a hive would decrease 

 the yield by increasing the brood or failing to 

 put a new force of workers upon the stage of 

 action as rapidly as the old ones went oflf. 



It is one thing to get a hive full of brood, but 

 a different matter to make bees work. They 

 are more than willing to rear brood; but to 

 store honey beyond the wants of the brood is 

 not a part of their ambition. That they are 

 able to gather far more honey than they do is 

 plain to be seen. For instance, take a swarm 

 weighing 5 lbs. A bee weighs a grain and a 

 quarter, and carries a grain of honey. Then 

 one trip for honey equals 4 lbs. Eight trips a 

 day equals 32 lbs., and for a forty-days' yield, as 

 we had this year and last, they should carry 

 over 1200 lbs., not to speak of those bountiful 

 seasons when six blossoms yield a load, and a 

 trip takes only a few minutes. A prevailing 

 idea is, that in these dry seasons the sage-blos- 

 soms contain no honey. This is disproved by 

 the fact that some colonies do well. Again, 



