280 



wbether with thuse cover boards left out there 

 would have been a readier escape of moisture 

 and thus not that wetness in the chaff. On the 

 whole, wintering was pretty good. My loss is 

 about IZ'A per cent while in 1918 it was 25 per 

 cent, also, after a severe winter; yet the sea- 

 son that followed was, with me, a record- 

 breaker as well as an eye-opener of what might 

 be achieved. It would seem that all the au- 

 spices for the coming season are good. 



2. Here is another feature: Last year, of 

 my 79 colonies, 1 gave 17 the Dtmaree method. 

 Neither then nor the year before did it work 

 well with me. Both times I put aueen with 

 one of two poor frames of brood with founda- 

 tion under excluder (10 frames, and few 12 

 frames). Both seasons the bees did next to 

 nothing down stairs, aside from fooling with 

 that foundation. So, especially last year, 1 

 felt perplexed, and had strong misgivings as 

 to what would result upon reducing, for win- 

 ter, the Uemareed to one story. There seemed 

 to be bees enough, but they seemed to all re- 

 side up stairs. So I had to fabricate living 

 conditions below, with what little brood there 

 was, and frames of honey. Now I find that 

 things come out O- K. Out of the 17 all but 

 two are O. K., with brood and queen; also 

 eggs. Such two dead are about in the same 

 proportion as the loss as a whole. Yet I have 

 my mind made up that I do not like such out- 

 come of the Demaree, so I will do the Dema- 

 reeing later, and then will try to the utmost 

 not to use foundation below. I ask, then, how 

 I had best make up the lower story with 

 the queen under the excluder? 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



Answers. — 1. The moist chaff in the trays 

 indicates that the bees would have been in 

 very damp condition if you did not use those 

 trays» over the combs, as you did. A tight- 

 fitting cover would have kept all that moisture 

 in the brood-chamber. I would say that those 

 bees were packed properly. The wonder is 

 that you lost 12^2 per cent. We call this a big 

 loss, with packing similar to yours. Regard- 

 ing what you call the cover board, if it is 

 what is commonly called a honey board, it 

 would be better to leave it out entirely till the 

 chaff tray is removed in spring. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



2. The Demaree plan is to put the brood 

 above, leaving the queen with only one or 

 two brood-combs below, with a queen excluder 

 between. If that is the method you followed, 

 the failure was probably due to a failure in the 

 crop. With a strong colony, a comb of brood 

 with the queen and the balance in foundation 

 would be as good a plan as we could suggest, 

 unless you have combs of worker cells already 

 Imilt, which would be still be better. 



August 



How Many Eggs? 



What is the maximum number of eggs that a 

 queen will average per day for 21 days? 



MISSISSIPPI. 



Answer. — I'm not sure I can answer that. I 

 think the number is greater than it was j(l 

 years ago, and I suspect it will be still greater 

 50 years from now. Of course there is a 

 great difference in queens, but as the maxi- 

 mum is desired we are supposed to take the 

 best. 



It may not be out of the way to estimate that 

 such a queen under favorable circumstances 

 will occupy IG Langstroth frames during 21 

 days, figuring that the eggs will fill three- 

 fourths of the inside measurement of the 

 frame. Putting it in round numbers, it would 

 not be far out of the way to say that the eggs 

 would occupy 100 square inches, or 200 square 

 inches when counting both sides of the comb. 

 In 16 frames there would be 3,200 square 

 inches. There are 28 13-15 worker-cells to the 

 square inch, nearly 29. Call it 29 for con- 

 venience in figuring, and 3,200 times 29 will 

 give us 93,800 cells filled by the queen in 21 

 days, or an average of 4,419 per day. 



I do not vouch for the correctness of this 

 answer, and if anyone protests it I am not 

 ready to spill any blood in its defense. But 



please remember that this is figuring on ut- 

 most possibilities, and it is possible that no 

 queen has actually achieved the figures given. 



Increase 



V. hen may be the time of the year to in- 

 crease bees to the best advantage?. 



I have 40 colonies now and wish to increase 

 to 150 as soon as possible. WISCONSIN. 



Answer. — The best time to increase your 

 colonies is during the honey crop. By making 

 artificial divisions, keeping all colonies breed- 

 ing, buying queens and supplying the colonies 

 with comb foundation in full sheets, you 

 might, in a very good season, succeed in mak- 

 ing the amount of increase that you mention. 

 But to be safe it is better not to try to more 

 than double your colonies in any one season. 

 This is the advice of all teachers in beekeeping. 

 Get good books and post yourself. You will 

 find it profitable. 



Book Review 



"Productive Small Fruit Culture," 

 by F. C. Sears, is the latest addition 

 to the Lippincott series of farm man- 

 uals. Beekeeping and fruit growing 

 is a combination which has proved 

 ideal for many of our readers. This 

 volume treats strawberries, raspber- 

 ries, blackberries, currants, goose- 

 berries and grapes with full directions 

 for their culture. The author is Pro- 

 fessor of Pomology in the Massachu- 

 setts Agricultural College and a well- 

 known authority on fruit growing. 

 The book contains 368 pages, well il- 

 lustrated, and sells at $2.50. It may 

 be obtained from the J. B. Lippincott 

 Co., of Philadelphia, or at this office. 



HONEY 



WANTED 



We remit the same day goods are received 



C. H. W. WEBER & CO., Cincinnatti, Ohio 



HONEY I 



:»: Send us a sample of your honey if extracted, state how put up and your price. We X 

 X are also buyers of comb, can use unlimited quantities if quality and price are right. X 



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