140 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 



IRREGULAR LAYING OF EGGS 



The queens need to lay an immense 

 number of eggs during the breeding 

 season previous to the honey crop. In 

 order that the laying be continuous, 

 it is necessary that it should be regu- 

 lar, with as little skipping of cells as 

 possible. 



The photo which we give is good of 

 larvae in the cells. But the regularity 

 of the laying, in this case, is far 

 from satisfactory. Whether this 

 queen was too old, or perhaps too 

 young and not yet accustomed to reg- 

 ular actions, or whether she is, in 

 fact, an inferior layer without method, 

 it is quite probable that such a queen 

 would fall very far short of the maxi- 

 mum laying of a good breeder. 



THREE WEEKS OF BEE CONVEN- 

 TIONS 



By C. P. Dadant 



Lynchburg, Va., is among the hills, 

 at the south foot of the Blue Ridge 

 Mountains. I reached it on Sunday 

 morning, January 16, invited by my 

 old friend, Dra'per, to his home, a 

 short distance in the country. 



This is the same Draper who caused 

 the Root people to manufacture for 

 sale what is called by them the "Jum- 

 bo" hive, which is simply a modifica- 

 tion of the hive adopted by us, with 

 frames of the same depth as the 

 Quinby and the same length as the 

 Langstroth frame. Draper, who is 4 

 or S years younger than I am, and 

 has been a beekeeper since childhood, 

 visited us as early as 1874, when he 

 was only 18 years old. Our acquaint- 

 ance was maintained and he thought 

 we had a good method of beekeeping. 

 So in the nineties he urged upon the 

 Roots the adoption of our style of 

 frames, for they had also recognized 



that the large hive was a progress. 

 The "Jumbo" hive was also called the 

 "Draper barn" for that reason. It is 

 almost identical with the "Modified 

 Dadant," having the narrow spacing 

 of 13-^, however, instead of the l/'j 

 inches from center to center of 

 frames, which we prefer. We have 

 often given the reasons we have for 

 this preference. And by the way, 

 how many of our readers know that 

 the preference of the manufacturers 

 for the shallow frames was caused by 

 the greater facility of obtaining nar- 

 row lumber ? "'Stock boards" ten 

 inches wide, were a standard size, and 

 tlie Langstroth hives could be made of 

 that lumber, while it took 13-inch 

 lumber to make Quinby size hives. 

 Had it not been for that difficulty, I 

 do not hesitate in saying that the 

 deeper frames would have been 

 adopted long ago. 



Draper was at the station, waiting 

 for me, but we had not met for some 

 30 years and each of us was looking 

 for the young man of 30 years ago. 

 Tempus fugit ! So we hesitated in rec- 

 ognizing each other. 



The Draper home is on the ape.x of 

 a hill, on a IS-acre triangular farm, 

 with the railroad on one side and a 

 creek forming the other two sides. It 

 is in full view of the Blue Ridge and 

 surely a healthy place, though rather 

 difficult of access in winter. But we 

 got there from the little station of 

 Leftwich, in spite of 6 inches of snow, 

 with the help of a very nice neighbor 

 beekeeper whom he had invited for 

 dinner, and who volunteered to carry 

 my suit case, saying that he "reck- 

 oned he could tote it along" and did, 

 with hearty good nature. I spent a 

 very pleasant day with Mr. Draper, 

 his wife who is still young looking, 



msf. 





lirood sliowing int-gul.-ir l.iying of a qiu-cn. 



and his two daughters. He has what 

 appears to me a splendid location for 

 bees, on the sheltered side of the hill, 

 with thousands of the tulip trees and 

 sourwood, be'sides suiruic and fall 

 flowers, in close proximity. He has 

 been there only one year and does not 

 yet know just how the location will 

 turn out. His home was originally at 

 Alton, 111. 



The following morning we went 

 back to Lynchburg, for the bee meet- 

 ing, which 'had been arranged with a 

 great deal of zeal by Prof. W. J. 

 Schoene, State Entomologist, who 

 lives at Blacks'burg, and Mr. Brandt, 

 of Lawyers. Professor Schoene had 

 cautiously warned me that we might 

 find only half a dozen beekeepers at 

 this meeting, for, he said, "the Vir- 

 ginia beekeepers are lukewarm." He 

 was as pleasantly surprised as I was 

 when we faced a crowd of some 35 

 or 40 honey producers, crowding the 

 room of the Chamber of Commerce. 

 They wanted to exchange thoughts 

 and e.xpeiriences. We had a splendid 

 meeting, and I have since heard that 

 they propose to stay together perma- 

 nently. 



Their honey plants are quite num- 

 erous: maple, willow, dandelion, tulip 

 tree, sourwood, clover, both white 

 ■and sweet, holly, laurel, basswood, 

 etc. besides a lot of fall blossoms, such 

 as goldenrod, asters, etc., which 

 should put Virginia in the front rank 

 of honey-producing States. There 

 are still too many "gums" or box 

 hives. I was told that in 1920 the bees 

 secured pollen on the first of January. 

 But this year they had more snow 

 than any other place that I visited. 



As I had an appointment for the 

 next day, at Clemson College, S. C, 

 I left that same evening for Calhoun, 

 which is their railroad station. At 

 8:50 the ne.xt morning, I found an- 

 other smiling face at the station. 

 Prof. A. F. Conradi, Chief Entomolo- 

 gist. Clemson College is also in the 

 shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, 

 but close to the Georgia State line. 



This college is an extensive insti- 

 tution, comprising some 20 or 30 

 buildings. There is no oity near it, 

 but it has adjoining it a village of 

 some 300 people, with the usual coun- 

 try stores and a bank. Professor Con- 

 radi has with him Mr. E. S. Prevost, 

 of the U. S. Extension in Beekeeping, 

 a young and active man, who works 

 in conjunction with their department; 

 Mr. H. S. McConncll, a research 

 worker in entomology; J. A. Berley, 

 quarantine entomologist, and D. M. 

 Anderson, extension entomologist. 

 Much of their entomological vork has 

 to do with the boll-weevil that in- 

 fests the cotton. 



The meeting at Clemson College 

 was attended mainly by students. But 

 the following day, at Seneca, we had 

 a meeting composed of a number of 

 practical beekeepers, though some of 

 them were box-hive beekeepers. Mr. 

 Geo. Briggs, the County Agent, had 

 called them together. One of the 

 men present, R. L. Boggs, was a 35- 

 year subscriber of the American Bee 



