1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



IS 



hive. This is n guess from observa- 

 tion. Then 20,000 bees gathered 20 

 pounds of honey in two days, or 2,000 

 bees gathered one pound of honey in 

 one day. If they made ten trips each 

 day it would take 20,000 trips for 1 

 pound of honey. Then two bees filled 

 one cell each day. The answer is, 

 guess at the number of trips per day, 

 then multiply by two, and you have 

 the number of trips required to fill 

 each cell. 



If each two bees made 5 trips each 

 day, each cell would hold 10 trips. 

 The honey in each cell weighs as 

 much as 5 beer. 



If each bee brings one-fourth her 

 weight in honey, then it would re- 

 quire 20 trips, each bee making 10 

 trips each day to fill one cell. 



If my swarni had 20,000 field bees 

 and each one made 10 trips, that 

 would be 200,000 trips each day, 20,000 

 each hour, 333 each minute, or 5 each 

 second. 



I think this is as near as you can 

 come to it without actually counting 

 the bees for a whole day. 



New Jersey. 



Wiring Frames 



By J. E. Crane 



SDMETIME last winter or early 

 spring I wrote for the American 

 Bee Journal in regard to wiring 

 frames to prevent sagging. 



From the number of letters re- 

 ceived from different persons, I have 

 come to think the subject is one of 

 more than ordinary interest. In the 

 brief article referred to I did not go 

 very much into particulars, but stated 

 in a general way that the wiring 

 should be where the most danger of 

 sagging came. Since that was writ- 

 ten I have had opportunity to exam- 

 ine many hundreds of wired combs, I 

 think I might truthfully say thou- 

 sands, and observe the results of the 

 many different methods of wiring. In 

 inspection work we meet with ail 

 kinds of wiring; besides, we buy a 

 good many bees in the spring. And 

 then we have our own, where we 

 changed the method of wiring as wi^ 

 gained experience. 



We have found frames strung 

 loosely with two wires placed near 

 the middle of the frame. Some with 

 three wires, the upper one perhaps 

 2 inches below the top bar, and so on 

 down, about 2 inches apart. Others 

 with 4 wires, starting I'/i inches be- 

 low the top bar, while still others 

 with 3 and 4 wires, starting from 

 three-fourths to an inch below the 

 top bar, those below being placed 

 about \'/i inches apart. I have just 

 measured a factory-made frame and 

 find the upper hole for wiring three- 

 fourths of an inch below the top bar, 

 while the next is 2 inches below the 

 first; the third one three-fourths be- 

 low the second; the fourth the same 

 distance below the third. There 

 seems to be no fast rule for wiring, 

 and everyone does it as seems good 

 in his own eyes. I believe, however, 

 most factories bore the holes so the 

 wires will come about an equal dis- 

 tance apart. 



We make our own frames and place 



the wires where we like them, and 

 by so doing have learned where 

 they are most likely to prevent the 

 sagging of the combs and the build- 

 ing of drone-cells. 



There are conditions where ordinary 

 wiring will not prevent sagging and 

 an overheated hive is one of them. 

 I had. years ago, a comb built from 

 Van Deusen's flat bottom foundation, 

 the wires about 1 inch apart and run- 

 ning up and down instead of the 

 modern horizontal way, that became 

 so soft from heat that it slipped 

 through the wires and all went to the 

 bottom of the hive; yet I was e.xam- 

 ining a comb a year ago built on this 

 kind of foundation and wired in this 

 way that had been in use 40 years 

 and without a particle of sag in it; 

 the cells near the top bar as sound 

 and perfect as those near the bottom. 

 Mr. Poppleton, who kept bees so suc- 

 cessfully for many years in Florida, 

 used a comb about one foot square, 

 and coated the upper part of the 

 frame of foundation with melted wax 

 to prevent sagging instead of wiring; 

 yet I noticed that many of those 

 combs had settled down badly. Years 

 ago I had a foundation mill made by 

 Mrs. Dunham, and I made my own 

 foundation. Four sheets for Lang- 

 stroth frames would weigh a pound. 

 I thought combs built on this founda- 

 tion surely would not sag, it was so 

 heavy; but It did, and badly, without 

 wiring. Most extensive beekeepers 

 have adopted the horizontal wiring 

 of frames as the simplest way to 

 prevent the sagging of combs and the 

 consequent building of drone-comb, 

 and how far from the top bar and how 

 far apart these wires shall be is a 

 question of much importance. I find 

 where but two wires are used near 

 the middle of the frame, sagging is 

 as bad as where no wire is used. 

 Where three, or even four, wires are 

 used and the upper one two inches 

 below the top bar, we are almost 

 sure to find a streak of drone-comb 

 an inch or an inch and a half wide 

 above it. If the upper wire is placed 

 one and one-half inches below the 

 top bar I still find some sagging of 

 the comb above it and more or less 

 drone-comb. If the upper wire is 

 three-fourths to one inch below the 

 top bar and the next one below not 

 more than one and a half inches be- 

 low the first, it is rare, indeed, that 

 we find any sagging or drone-comb 

 built below the top bar. 



We now use but three wires, and 

 by placing them well up to the top 

 bar we have practically no trouble. 

 If I were using four wires I would 

 place the upper one three-fourth of 

 an inch below the top bar, the next 

 one inch below the first; the third 

 one and one-fourth inches below 

 the second, and the fourth one and 

 one-half inches below the third. This 

 would leave the lower three inches 

 of foundation without wire support, 

 but I have never known this lower 

 part to stretch, whether wired or 

 without wire. We have our founda- 

 tion built out quite largely in supers; 

 that may make some difference, but 

 a new comb weighing six or seven 

 pounds is a pretty severe test. 



Workers or Loafers 



A Bee's Daily Trips 



By Arthur C. Miller 



THE editorial in the September 

 American Bee Journal on the 

 "Daily Field Trips of a Worker" 

 was of particular interest to me, as 

 the results secured by the Holstein 

 beekeeper so closely corroborated ob- 

 servations on the same subject made 

 by me about 1905 and reported in the 

 American Beekeeper. Shortly after. 

 Dr. Burton N. Gates, then a student 

 at Clark University, Worcester, Mass., 

 to prove or disprove my findings, un- 

 dertook similar observations there. 

 The work was directly in charge of 

 Dr. Kuhlmann. His observations 

 showed from 4 to 8 trips a day, an av- 

 erage of 6. Mine had been the same. 

 In both cases the bees were working 

 on natural sources in the fields. When 

 working on artificial food, either syr- 

 up or diluted honey, the results are 

 abnormal, the bees showing a feverish 

 haste and activity. 



As to the time the bees remain in 

 the hive between trips I found quite a 

 variation, sometimes but a short time 

 elapsing between trips, but usually 

 quite a long time. The field bee often 

 went into a cell, sometimes one con- 

 taining an egg and sometimes empty, 

 and would lie there inert for often a 

 half hour or more. While thus "rest- 

 ing' the bee was very quite, the pulsa- 

 tions of the abdomen often ceasing 

 for a long time and then resumed very 

 slowly, when such a bee "awoke" 

 she would back hastily out of the 

 cell, rub her forelegs over her head 

 for all the world like a sleepy small 

 boy rubbing his eyes, and then she 

 would wander on, sometimes hasten 

 over the combs and sometimes out 

 to the fields, or else go aimlessly 

 about the hive. 



While the bee was in a cell with 

 an egg she never touched the latter 

 in any way. And by the way, it is 

 not generally known that bees often, 

 if not usually, in a heavy flow, put 

 freshly gathered nectar m cells con- 

 taining eggs, later removing it, and 

 it in nowise interferes with the 

 hatching of the eggs. 



These observations were made in 

 my glass hives where the cells are 

 parallel to the plane of the glass, so 

 that cells next to the glass have one 

 side of glass, and all that goes on 

 within them is readily seen. 



Providence, R. I. 



New Man at Minnesota University 



Mr. G. C. Matthews, of Filer, Idaho, 

 on September 1, commenced his new 

 duties as Assistant Professor of Bee 

 Culture at the University Farm, tak- 

 ing the place vacated by L. V. France, 

 who on July 1 began his new duties 

 as Research Assistant in Entomology 

 at the University Farm, his problems 

 being to work out the responses of 

 bees at different periods. 



Mr. Matthews has been in the bee 

 business for fifteen years on an ex- 

 tensive scale. Aside from being a 

 beekeeper he is a public school 

 teacher. He was educated in the 

 Western Illinois Normal and the Uni- 



