September, 1907. 



Americanize Journal 



would secure the very best results, the 

 brood-n«st mtist fill the brood-chamber, 

 and when such is the case that brood- 

 chamber is literally filled with brood, 

 or has in it only just what is neces- ^ 

 sary for the every-day wants of the 

 brood. If the brood-chamber is only 

 partly occupied with the brood-nest, at 

 the time of the commencement of the 

 honey harvest, then that honey not 

 needed for the daily wants of the brood, 

 which is brought in from the fields, goes 

 into the part of the brood-chamber not 

 occupied by the brood-nest, and thus the 

 brood-chamber becomes the "bank" in 

 which the surplus is deposited, and not 

 the sections'. 



If we are working for extracted 

 honey, and put on supers of empty 

 comb, then there is little need of work- 

 ing so hard to have the brood-nest oc- 

 cupy the whole of the brood-chamber, 

 for bees will enter a super filled with 

 empty extracting combs and deposit 

 their surplus there nearly, if not quite, 

 as quickly as they will place the same 

 in empty cells on the outside of the 

 brood-nest. But to go into a super, all 

 cut up into little section apartments, 

 having separators for partitions, and 

 comb foundation in each section, in- 

 stead of empty comb, the case is alto- 

 gether different, and we must work ac- 

 cordingly if we are to secure good re- 

 sults from our bees. 



With this long preliminary, I come to 

 the matter of "Where do the field-bees 

 deposit their loads?" Surely, not in the 

 cells of the combs, either in the brood- 

 nest, brood-chamber or in the surplus 

 apartment of the hive, if my observa- 

 tions count for anything. I have stood, 

 sat, and lain by the side of an observa- 

 tion hive for minutes, and hours, till 

 these will count into days, and I never 

 yet saw a single bee coming in from the 

 field with a load of nectar, deposit the 

 same in the cells of the comb. The 

 loaded field-bee seeks out a young bee- 

 one less than i6 days old, or those 

 which do the work inside of the hive, 

 when a colony is in a normal condi- 

 tion— and the load of nectar is given to 

 this inside worker, and the sac of this 

 inside worker holds that nectar until it 

 is sufficiently evaporated for depositing 

 in the cells, unless more comes in from 

 the fields than the sacs of the inside 

 workers can contain. When this hap- 

 pens, then this thin nectar is deposited 

 in the cells, generally in those scattered 

 .-ibout amongst the brood, so far as they 

 will hold it, as the nurse-bees use this 

 thin nectar or honey in preparing the 

 chyle for the larvae. If the vacant cells 

 in the brood-nest will not hold the sur- 

 plus of nectar, above what the sacs of 

 the inside workers can contain, then 

 these inside workers deposit it anywhere 

 that vacant cells, not containing evapor- 

 ated nectar (or what has now become 

 honey), can be found. 



In an abundant yield from basswood, 

 I have seen such nectar deposited in a 

 comb left standing near the entrance of 

 the hive on the outside, when on shak- 

 ing the bees off this comb, the thin nec- 

 tar would fly out of the cells the same 

 as it will during a good flow from the 

 brood-combs. And it is not necessary 

 to have an observation hive to prove this 



part of the matter. Just supersede a black 

 queen with one of the golden Italians 

 about a month before your expected 

 flow of nectar, so that at the time of 

 nectar you will have black field-bees and 

 yellow inside workers, and you will see 

 the black field-bees giving their loads of 

 nectar to the golden young bees when 

 they are on a comb you hold in your 

 hands, just taken from the hive. 



Now for another simple proof ; At lo 

 a. m. look at the entrance of any hive 

 where such an exchange of queens has 

 been made from 28 to 36 days previous- 

 ly, and you will see only black bees 

 coming in with loads of nectar. Now 

 open the super of sections and look for 

 black bees depositing their loads in the 

 combs. Surely they will be doing this, 

 if the old ideas of the bees working 

 their way from the fields up through 

 the crowded mass in the hive so they 

 can deposit their loads in the supers, 

 was correct; or that an entrance was 

 needed in the super so that the field- 

 bees could go direct to the sections to 

 deposit their loads. But instead of find- 

 ing black bees there, if the date be 36 

 days after the golden queen began to 

 lay, you will find 9 out of every 10 

 bees in the sections are as yellow as 

 gold, and all transparent from the loads 

 of nectar from the basswood blossoms 

 their honey-sacs contain. 



Now, Messrs. Macdonald and York, I 

 am not in this fight of yours. If either 

 of you can get any good or comfort 

 out of the above, or if the readers of the 

 American Bee Journal get anything out 

 of it which will be of benefit to them, 

 I shall feel well paid for the part I have 

 taken in the matter. 



Borodino, N. Y. , 



Some Practical Don'ts for 

 Bee-Keepers 



EV E. \V. .1LEX.\NDER. 



While we are so free to tell the in- 

 experienced what they should do in or- 

 der to succeed, would it not be well 

 to remind them of some things they 

 should lint do? 



Inventint. Hives. 



First, don't spend either time or 

 money in trying to construct a new 

 form of hive — not but that there are 

 some serious faults in nearly all of our 

 standard hives, but let the experienced 

 bee-keeper remedy those faults. 



M.\N.\nEMENT OF WeAK COLONIES ; Hl)\\ 



TO Prevent Robbing. 



Don't allow your bees to acquire the 

 habit of robbing. Hundreds of weak 

 colonies are lost annually by this pro- 

 voking habit which is frequently caused 

 by the neglect of their owner. One of 

 the worst features of taking bees from 

 their winter quarters, a few at a time, 

 is that it almost invariably starts rob- 

 bing. The colonies that are taken out 

 first, and have had their cleansing fliglit, 

 being well located are in prime condi- 

 tion to attack every colony that is taken 

 out later, and before they become lo- 

 cated the bees from those that were 

 taken out first have full swing at their 



less fortunate neighbors. In order to 

 prevent this costly and unpleasant state 

 of things, where you have to set out 

 your bees at different times, first con- 

 tract the entrance of every colony; then 

 as soon as you find a colony that is be- 

 ing robbed, even thougn it is only just 

 started, close it up and keep it so for 

 several days; then if they have any 

 brood, set them on top of a strong colo- 

 ny with a queen-e.xcluder between. If 

 they have no brood, and still have a 

 queen, give th6m a comb containing 

 brood from some other colony. 



In putting two colonies together in 

 this way don't disturb either of them 

 any more than you can help, especially 

 the stronger one. If you keep a close 

 watch on your apiary, and treat them 

 as above described, you can save nearly 

 all of your weak colonies with but little 

 trouble, and at the same time prevent 

 your apiary from getting into that de- 

 moralized condition which they fre- 

 quentl)' do when they find several weak 

 colonies which they can over-power with 

 but little loss of bees. 



Caution .Against Making Increase 

 TOO Rapidly. 

 Then the desire for more bees is al- 

 most sure to tempt the inexperienced to 

 divide his colonies to that extent that 

 they are almost worthless, either for 

 surplus or to try to winter. So, don't 

 make your increase too fast. If you 

 do, you will not only lose your pros- 

 pect of securing a fair surplus, but the 

 chances are that you will lose many 

 colonies during the following winter. 



Keep Good Bees and Produce Good 



Honey. 

 Then don't be contented in keeping 

 bees that are not good honey-gather- 

 ers. This is the principal thing we 

 keep bees for ; and if they fail to give 

 us a good surplus when they should, 

 supersede their queens with queens of 

 a good honey-gathering strain. 



Then don't produ'.-e poor-looking comb 

 hone)-. You have no more excuse for 

 producing poor stuff' than the dairyman 

 has for producing poor butter ; but pro- 

 duce a quality that you will take pride 

 in stamping on every package of it jour 

 name and address. 



Don't set your bees in a place where 

 they will annoy the public. Either keep 

 them where they will not disturb any 

 one, or sell them and go out of the 

 business. 



Don't allow drone-comb in any hive 

 except one or two, and see that these 

 hives have choice breeding queens. 

 There is no more profit in keeping a 

 colony of bees where a large percent 

 of their combs is drone-comb than there 

 would be in keeping a poultry yard of 

 roosters. 



Don't allow kingl)irds, skunks, toads, 

 and snakes to hang around your apiary. 

 If you do they will weaken the working 

 force of every colony. 



Don't thinic that bees will give you 

 good results in either increase or sur- 

 plus honey if you neglect them and fail 

 to do your part. The day is past when 

 the word "luck" has any bearing on 

 bee-keeping. The man who conducts 

 his business in a careless, slipshod way, 

 taking it for granted that this and that 



