May IS, 1902. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



311 



Does Getting Bees Started In the Brood-Nest Ser- 

 iously Interfere with Storing In the Supers? 



BY G. M. DOOLITTI.K. 



A venerublc tradition has come down to ns, tliiit allowing; liii-^ to 

 get started etorini; in llio lirood-uesl seriously interfercH with I heir 

 storing in supers. I Imve l)owed to that idol ion^c enough, and now 

 stand up to say I don't helieve there's a word of truth lu it. So there, 

 now !— Ur. C. C Mii.i.ek. 



I am halt inclined to think the Doctor is riirht. It there is a sup- 

 porter of that " venerable tradition," let him B|)eak out. — E. K. Hoot. 



By the time the surplus season besfins (lOth to loth ot .lune in this 

 locality), the brood-combs will usually be exhausted ot stores, or 

 nearly so, and no work can be expected in the sections until these are 

 filled to their utmost capacity ; and the amount of the choicest honey 

 ot the season reiiuired tor this purpose would be an important item if 

 secured in the sections. — II. K. Boakdman. 



But the persistence with which they (the bees) continue to store 

 in the brood-combs at this time, is often disappointing — H. R. Boiun- 



MAN. 



The ahove are some items whicli appeared in print some 

 time ago, and I have been waiting ever since to see if 

 some one was not going to say something further in the 

 matter, but so far this is all that has come to my notice as 

 especially bearing on the subject. It would have been very 

 interesting, indeed, to have had Dr. Miller give us the rea- 

 sons he had for saying that he did not believe there was a 

 word of truth in the doctrine as taught during the past, that 

 if bees once got thoroughly started at storing honey in the 

 brood-nest it would seriously interfere with their storing in 

 sections. But I have not seen a single reason given by him 

 in support of his disbelief. 



And it would have been equally interesting had Mr. Root 

 told us what he had run across in his bee-keeping experience 

 which led him to be half inclined to think the Doctor was 

 right in making such a sweeping exclamation against some- 

 thing which hundreds of bee-keepers believe they had 

 proven true. But Mr. Root does not give us even a little bit 

 of experience in support of his half think. 



Mr. Boardman, on the contrary, tells us something 

 which hundreds and thousands of bee-keepers have noticed, 

 doing the same without even hinting at the unbelief of Dr. 

 Miller, or the skepticism of Mr. Root, and probably wrote 

 what he did without a thought that he was running counter 

 to what those gentlemen believe. Were I asked which of 

 the three was right, I should have to decide with Mr. Board- 

 man, for all of my experience of over 30 years arrays itself 

 on his side, and I cannot doubt my own experience. 



When I commenced to keep bees I adopted the 12-frame 

 Gallup hive, and thought that hardly large enough, as the 

 colonies of bees that lived through at that time, year after 

 year, were always the ones in very large box-hives, the colo- 

 nies in the smaller box-hives being lost in winter more fre- 

 quently than otherwise. Everything worked well so long 

 as it was increase I desired more than surplus honey, but 

 with the desire for surplus honey came the fact that I had 

 the most of it stored in three or four combs occupying each 

 end of the hive, these eight combs often containing from 

 40 to 50 pounds of the very choicest of honey, just as Mr. 

 Boardman says is the case with him. Then, after these 

 eight combs were nearly or quite filled with honey, the bees 

 instead of entering the sections, would, as Mr. Boardman 

 says, persistently continue to store in the other four brood- 

 combs, instead of taking to the sections, until, at the end of 

 the honey harvest, if it continues long enough, the colonies 

 in such hives would be very small in numbers, the combs 

 crowded with honey, and very little in the sections for Doo- 

 little. 



As soon as I saw where the real trouble lay, I reduced 

 all of these 12-frame to those holding 9 frames, then worked 

 these hives so that each of the nine frames were solid with 

 brood when the honey harvest commenced, upon which the 

 bees would immediately enter into the sections with their 

 honey (as they had nowhere else to put it), when I had 

 something which gave me from double to three times the 

 yield of nice, salable honey that I had ever had before. 

 Yes, and I used dummies in a part of these hives, too, for 

 any colonies that did not give a prospect of filling the nine 

 frames full of brood by the time the honey harvest was on, 

 ■were confined to the number of combs that would be fully 

 occupied with brood, even through that number was as few 

 as five or six. The older readers of the American Bee 

 Journal will remember my writing several articles on 

 "those six-frame hives," telling how they were worked, 

 and how, in 1877, I secured the unparalleled average yield 

 of 166-3 pounds per colony from the whole apiary, nearly all 

 of which was nice, marketable honey. 



And then to have Dr. Miller stand up and say that he 



doesn't believe there is a word of truth in it (not in the yield 

 of honey, but in the plan), seems strange to me. Will he 

 kindly tell the readers of the American Ilee Journal the rea- 

 sons he has for his unbelief, or give them a better plan, if 

 he has one. I am very anxious to learn, and if there is a 

 better way than the one I have been following I would 

 gladly follow it. And if it is better, the giving of it will be 

 a blessing to the giver, and also a blessing to the bee-keep- 

 ing world. Onondaga Co., N, Y. 



Fertilization of Fruit-Bloom by Bees. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



ON page 280, Mr. Thaddeus Smith makes an assertion that 

 is entitled to consideration, to the effect that he thinks 

 bees are not needed on certain islands to fertilize fruit- 

 blossoms, and then asks : "If not necessary on these islands, 

 why should they be anywhere ? " 



Mr. Smith found a small number of " nectar-loving in- 

 sects " present, and it is possible that they could do all the 

 fertilizing that was needed, while in other places the num- 

 ber of such insects may have been less, so that there would 

 not be enough of them to do such fertilizing without the aid 

 of the bees. 



The testimony of Mr. Smith should be given all the 

 weight to which it is entitled, but he should remember that 

 testimony has been given on the other side that is equally 

 entitled to consideration. That testimony has been given 

 by many — some of them experts with no possible bias in 

 favor of the bees, men of ability on both sides of the ocean 

 — and however honest in his opinion, he should hardly ask 

 us to throw to the winds the testimony of a number of men 

 supposed to be competent and trustworthy, just because the 

 testimony of one man is different. 



The following item appeared in the American Agricul- 

 turist of Feb. 15, as a reply from the extensive greenhouse 

 man, W. W. Rawson : 



How many colonies ot bees do you keep in your house 300 by 40 

 feet when cucumbers are fruiting ; "Usually tour colonies are re- 

 quired for a single house, and they are put in just before the blossoms 

 begin to open, so that they are ready tor work as soon as the flowers 

 are ready to receive them. Early in April the old colonies are taken 

 out and new ones put in. We contract for our bees at S.5,00 per colony 

 and use about 50 colonies each season. We usually lose about one- 

 halt the colonies, even after the most careful attention is given them. 

 Many of them get out of the house through the ventilators, and are un- 

 able to return. Many others lose their lives in the house and various 

 places ; but we find it absolutely necessary to keep the house well 

 stocked to insure fertilization and thus good fruit." 



It will be seen that it costs at least S125 a year to have 

 these bees as fertilizers. Does Mr. Smith think it at all 

 likely that this expense would be endured each year if the 

 bees were not needed as fertilizers ? McHenry Co., 111. 



« The Afterthought. ^ l 



Tbe "Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Qlasses. 

 By B. e. HASTY, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, O. 



NO PROGRAM FOR BEE-FEVER PEOPLE. 



Very true, very true : two men afflicted with bee-fever 

 do not need any program when they meet, and couldn't pos- 

 sibly be made to follow one if somebody should make it. 

 Same of a live convention, I suspect. But when Dr. Miller 

 swung on the ball the next time he didn't do quite so well. 

 Went out on a " fly," as it were, seeing he couldn't go out 

 on a bee. To the conundrum "What's the best honey ? " he 

 just said, " The bees' honey." The correct answer is "The 

 bridegroom's." Page 213. — [Of course it's none of our busi- 

 ness, but we'd like to know how INIr. Hasty knows. We be- 

 lieve he has never " dared " to be a bridegroom. — Editor.] 



SWEET CLOVER HONEY. 



Sweet clover 12 ; white clover 8 ; alfalfa 3 ; orange 2 ; 

 basswood 1 ; California sage 1 ; buckwheat : sweet clover 

 mixtures 3. The commanding lead of sweet clover honey at 

 the Chicago convention surprises me. I had supposed the 

 apicultural world was settling down into the belief that 

 sweet clover honej' had a bad flavor. Can well accept the 



