Jan. 3, 1907 



American Hee Journal 



grain is n'/ii-, not l)L'forc or aftc-rvvards. 

 Kvuryljody knows about lliis, yet in bee- 

 keeping tiiotisands pay no attention to 

 this matter of securing hiborers in time 

 for the harvest, and llien wonder why 

 tliey secure only a meager return from 

 their bees. Working thus, their bees, 

 instead of becoming" producers, far more 

 often Ijcconie consumers, as the tend- 

 ency of bees, wdicn left to themselves, 

 is to produce the greatest amount of 

 brood wlien the harvest is in its prime, 

 ratlier than before it. Consequently, this 

 greatest amount of brood emerges into 

 bees just after the harvest has passed 

 by, and thus have to be fed all through 

 their lives from the supply of honey 

 gathered by the few, while the many 

 were in the brood form. I wish 1 could 

 so emphasize this that it would "strike 

 home" to every bee-keeper, be he novice 

 or otherwise. 



The queen is the mother of all the 

 bees iu' a colony, she laying all the eggs 

 producing them. Under the greatest 

 stimulation she is capable of laying from 

 3,000 to 4,000 eggs a day, yet often she 

 is laying only from SCO to 8oo eggs 

 daily at the time she should be doing 

 her best. After the egg is laid it takes 

 about 3 days for it to hatch into a larva. 

 ■ This larva is fed about 6 days, during 

 which time it has grown to nearly fill 

 the cell, wdien it is capped over and re- 

 mains hid from view for nearly I2 days 

 more, when it emerges a perfect bee. 

 When every thing is in a normal con- 

 dition, this bee works inside the hive 

 for 1 6 days, doing such work as feed- 

 ing the larvae, building comb, evaporat- 

 ing nectar, etc., when it is ready to go 

 out of the hive as a field-laborer; and 

 at 45 days, during the working season, 

 froin the time of emerging, it dies of 

 old age, and another generation takes 

 its place. 



From the above it will be seen that 

 the egg must be laid at least 37 days be- 

 fore the honey- harvest, in order that our 

 bee has the opportunity of laboring in 

 that harvest to the best advantage. Now, 

 if the harvest is basswood, commencing 

 to bloom, say July 7th, the egg for our 

 laborer should be laid on or before 

 June 1st. 



But how shall we secure the laying of 

 the eggs just when we want them? 

 There are several ways of doing this, 

 such as feeding the bees thin sweets 

 when you wish the queen to lay more 

 prolifically : giving young bees from 

 other colonies that will feed the queen an 

 extra amount of egg-producing food; 

 spreading the brood, etc. But I will 

 speak here only of the plan which I have 

 used more lately to give a success great- 

 er than anything else which I have tried, 

 taking everything into consideration. It 

 is this : 



About 40 to 45 days before the ex- 

 pected honey-harvest see that each col- 

 ony has stores enough to make the bees 

 feel very rich, so much so that there is 

 no thought of any retrenchment ; in 

 fact, so that they can say "millions of 

 honey at our house," and keep saying 

 it all the time they are feeding it to the 

 brood ; when you will see that the 

 queen will be fed so that the combs will 

 be teeming with eggs as fast as the 

 honey is removed from the cells to feed 



the br(jod liatching from those eggs. A 

 few days of cold or rain will not stop 

 this brood-rearing, as it does when the 

 colony is living from "hand to mouth," 

 as is more often the case than other- 

 vvisc', wlu'rc no .■illention is paid to this 



matter. As to where this feed should 

 come from, it is easy to set aside full 

 combs of scaled honey from the ex- 

 tracting supers the season before, in- 

 stead of extracting from them. 

 Borodino. N. Y. 



ConJucted by Emma M. Wh.son, Marengo, ill. 



Lady Bee-Keepers and Large Hives 



On page 962, Mr. T. V. Bingham says : 

 "I often wonder how the lady bee-keep- 

 ers get along with the massive hives 

 generally used." Just why he thus won- 

 ders he does not say ; but it is probably 

 fair to suppose that he has reference to 

 the greater weight of such hives as com- 

 pared with his own, and the feebler lift- 

 ing powers of the sisters as compared 

 with those of the sterner sex. 



There is no question that it is a de- 

 sirable thing to make the work of bee- 

 keeping as light as consistent, and the 

 matter that he suggests is well worth 

 considering. Ought the sisters to have 

 hives smaller than those in general use? 

 At the outset comes the objection so 

 strongly emphasized generally, that it is 

 a bad thing to have odd-sized goods. 

 But if all the sisters should use a hive 

 of a particular pattern or style, would 

 there not be enough of them to make 

 it worth while for manufacturers to 

 keep on hand a line of "Ladies' Hives." 

 just as a line of "Ladies' Goods" may 

 be found in the stores? 



Suppose, however, that such a hive 

 were agreed upon, and some sister wish- 

 ing to enter the ranks of bee-keepers 

 should desire to purchase a colony or 

 two of bees with wdiich to make a start, 

 Of course she would want her bees in 

 the kind of hive she expected to adopt; 

 at least she would want the frame 

 of the right size, and to have anything 

 lighter than- "the massive hives generally 

 used" would require a smaller than the 

 Langstroth frame ; for to use less than 

 8 Langstroth frames in a hive is hardly 

 a thing to be considered. Then to get 

 her bees on "ladies' frames" she would 

 be obliged to buy only of some sister, 

 and sisters that keep bees are not al- 

 ways near at hand. Those near Mr. 

 Bingham would, however, be specially 

 favored. Again, if she would wish to 

 sell, she could only sell to some sister, 

 thus being handicapped w'hether she 

 wants to start or stop. 



But are we not told that the smaller 

 hives are used because hives and not 

 frames should be handled? Would it 

 be any lighter work to handle a whole 

 hive — even so small a hive as that of 

 Mr. Bingham — than to handle the sep- 

 arate frames of Langstroth size? 



On the first cover-page of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal for Nov. 22, is a very 

 interesting picture of some of Mr. Bing- 

 ham's hives. Would ft be the lightest kind 

 of work to lift down that 8th story? and 

 wouldn't it be a rather precarious busi- 

 ness to use :\ ladder to get to the top of 

 pile? 



All this talk, however, is more or less 

 theoretical. Mr. Bingham's knowledge 

 of small hives is obtained from actual 

 practise, and if he can tell us just how 

 bee-keeping for the sisters can be im- 

 proved, we will gladly give him a place 

 in our corner, with our most respectful 

 attention. It is generally understood 

 that he is much given to "smoking;" 

 but there need be no fear that he would 

 be so ungentlemaiily as to smoke in the 

 ladies' presence!. 



A Plea for More Good Reading- 

 Matter for the Home 



A new year is just ahead of us — a 

 new year christened "1907." A year? 

 Possibly not all of it shall be ours, but 

 what are we going to do with our allot- 

 ment, be it all or only a portion of the 

 next twelve months? 



" Fill up each hour with what will last, 

 Buy up the moments as they go ; 



The Ute Above, when this is past. 

 Is the ripe fruit of life below." 



Now is the time when lots of think- 

 ing is done, but of what use are 

 thoughts and sets of newly-formed reso- 

 lutions unless put into action? Why the 

 sadness always attendant upon the de- 

 parting year? Is it because our cen- 

 suring conscience convinces us of hav- 

 ing lost a part of it, or at least of not 

 grasping or making the most of the 

 opportunities it offered? 



Strange that this feeling is repeated 

 with each passing of a year. The ques- 

 tion just now under consideration is, 

 How forcibly will it put in its appear- 

 ance when the time shall have arrived 

 for the retrospection of 1907? 



The young year of 1907 brings to bee- 

 keepers that which none of its prede- 

 cessors brought — protection from adul- 

 teration and misbranding of their prod- 

 uct, through the enforcement of the 

 Pure Food Law. Most bee-keepers, 

 while masticating their Thanksgiving 



