304 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



September 



ful colonies. The strongest one was 

 facing south. But it is impossible to 

 establish any conclusion from this, 

 the colonies being in more or less 

 favored locations. 



3. Position of the combs in regard 

 to the entrance. 



Combs 'below entrance 80 



Combs with entrance in middle 10 



Combs with entrance below 10 



In most cases the position of the 

 combs was a matter of chance, out- 

 side of the bees' choice. No deduc- 

 tion can be drawn from this. 



4. Exposure to air and weather. 

 It is difficult to establish a compari- 

 son in this. The most powerful colo- 

 nies were the mosit exposed, having 

 ample space and openings, but it 

 seemed as if their harvest suffered 

 from too great exposure, requiring 

 more consumption to keep up the 

 warmth of the brood-nest. Colo- 

 nies that were exposed to drafts and 

 rain, in the flues of chimneys, were 

 in very good shape. Probably in a 

 more rigorous climate ithey would 

 have suflfered more. The top of 

 their combs was woven together, 

 black and dry, perhaps from occa- 

 sional sun rays striking them. This 

 created a felt-like condition of the 

 top of the combs which made an ap- 

 preciable shelter. 



5. Direction of the combs as re- 

 gards the entrance: 



Away from the entrance 90 



Crosswise of it 10 



As the bees have evidently the 

 choice as to the direction of their 

 combs, it is clear that they prefer 

 that the passages between the combs 

 face the emtrance. However, I found 

 one colony in a wide-open wall with 

 the rear combs crosswise of the 

 opening, while the front combs were 



built the oold way. (In Europe, 

 combs built crosswise of the entrance 

 are called "warm combs" while 

 those built at right angles to it are 

 "cold combs."' — Editor). This ap- 

 peared to me raither incongruous. 

 But my liking of the honeybee does 

 not cause me to accept it as the mar- 

 velous insect, with infallible fore- 

 sight, celebrated by Maeterlinck. 

 Perhaps one cannot be both a poet 

 and a professional beekeeper, even 

 if one can be either. This colony was 

 weak. 



The strongest colony I found was, 

 as I said, in a large window embras- 

 ure, open at the lower end, with a 

 hole about the size of a man's head, 

 but hermetically closed otherwise. 

 The swarm of bees must have 

 weighed 18 to 22 pounds. An excess 

 of air appears to be an element of 

 stimulation for breeding, in quantity, 

 but of course noit in precocity. 



6. The size of the bees appears to 

 me to have little if any influence 

 upon their yielding qualities. The 

 advantage, if any, appears to be in 

 favor of the smaller size. On the two 

 sides of a flue, between the flue and 

 the chimney mantel, I found two 

 colonies that had to travel through 

 a wall about 2 feet in thickness for 

 their ingress and egiess, along a 

 wooden beam. But on the fireside 

 face they could freely communicate 

 with each other. One of those colo- 

 nies was composed of common black 

 bees, while the other was a race of 

 smaller bees, such as the African 

 Punics, which are rare in this part of 

 the world. The latter were the more 

 active and had a greater quantity of 

 honey. They are also more aggres- 

 sive. The percentage was as fol- 

 lows : 



Common black bees 



92 



Storage tanks at I'cttit plain. 



Hybrids or Italian bees 6 



Small blacks or Punics 2 



7. Size of combs. 

 Height of Horizontal No. of 



Combs Length Colonies 



4 inches 16 inches 20 



4 inches 24 inches 6 



6 inches 8 inches 6 



6 inches 16 inches 10 



7 inches 16 inches 8 



11 inches 17 inches 10 



20 inches 12 inches 16 



32 inches 12 nches 12 



32 inches 28 inches 1 



48 inches 12 inches 10 



80 inches 6 inches 1 



In this case, also, we cannot decide 

 the choice of the bees as to the pre- 

 ferred sizes, since the walls of the 

 cavity limit them. I found as large 

 crops in hives whose combs were 

 only 4 inches high by 16 to 24 inches 

 in width as in hives the combs of 

 which were 4 feet in length. How- 

 ever, the very largest amount of 

 honey was found in a colony whose 

 combs were approximately 11x17 

 inches. This is the size of the combs 

 which I use in my apiaries, the Da- 

 dant-Blatt hives. It rather pleased 

 me to find it thus in a natural state. 



Although foulbrood is in existence 

 in my country, I did noit discover a 

 single case of it in the colonies which 

 I thus handled. It induces me to be- 

 lieve that foulbrood is not so readily 

 transmitted by robbing as we are apt 

 to think. 



As to the quantity of honey secured 

 from these different colonies, it 

 would be useless to report it, as they 

 were found and handled at varrous 

 dates, from April to October; the 

 amount of stores necessarily differing 

 at different dates, and in different lo- 

 cations. But I have verified the 

 legendary nature of the prodigious 

 stories reported at times by our coun- 

 try folks. I remember reading the 

 report of a wonderful colony of bees 

 located under the arch of a viaduct, 

 the weight of whose honey was en- 

 dangering the safety of the stone 

 structure. The popular belief, in im- 

 mense stores of honey, is due to the 

 idea of some people that a colony of 

 bees, left to its own devices, contin- 

 ues to increase its stores from year to 

 year. So if a countryman estimates 

 that a swarm of bees has inhabited a 

 cavity for 10, SO or 100 years without 

 anything having ever been taken 

 from it, he will multiply its probable 

 annual harvest by 10, SO or 100, as the 

 case may be, and e.xpect to find it 

 all stored away. Hence the stories of 

 barrels of honey taken out of old 

 buildings by stone masons repairing 

 the walls. 



Facts always contradict these phe- 

 nomenal yields. From some old cha- 

 teaux walls, out of church attics, I 

 have removed bees that were report- 

 ed as having been there from imme- 

 morial times and the largest amount 

 I secured in any one case was 121 

 pounds. So our colonies in domes- 

 ticity, hived in well-managed apiaries, 

 sheltered from the weather and the 

 rats, are evidently more productive. 



Florida Rucher, Mervilla, France. 



